No Time to Mourn is like a Liam Neeson flick!
Book Review : No Time to Mourn
Author : An Anthology by Sudanese Women
Edited by : Hilda J.Twongyeirwe and Elizabeth Ashamu Deng
Publisher : FEMRITE alongside Oxfam
Reviewer : Bridget Nakuya
{ January 2021 at 12:49pm, Kampala, Uganda}
Muyunga Abdul Razak is a Moslem friend of mine. I and Muyunga Abdul Razak happen to have gone to the same primary school in a little town called Kyazanga along Masaka-Mabarara road. Muyunga went on to be an Electrical Engineer while l went on to be a writer! Muyunga after his University studies at Makerere, got an important job in UNRA in Jinja and sometimes Iganga. Muyunga usually gets off days from his work and on his off days, he likes to come to visit his family in Makindye, Kampala. Whenever Muyunga is in town, Muyunga makes it an effort to give me a call. The most recent call ended up with us arranging to meet for a movie at acacia Mall, kamwokya, so after work, l rush back home, change into my black boots, and flare pants and skinny tops and denim yellow jackets, and blueberry socks and lavender rosy scented perfumes, and a big heart filled with love, he gets tickets for a 6:30pm movie.
Liam Neeson is the lead role, he plays a down to the ruts ex-marine/soldier who rescues a kid, who has recently lost his Mexican mother in an abrupt incident at the US/Mexico border between a drug cartel and the boy’s mother to which Liam Neeson is victim, remaining with a death wish of a dying woman, for him to keep her boy safe, more so to him to is other family in Chicago.
The movie is a sweeping tale of emotions of fear, loss, having to deal with it, the help that the gods send along the journey of running from country to country looking for a safe haven to call home, an all in all good movie, l’d say it was a good date(coughs), l mean good movie.
Why do l bring up this Liam Neeson flick? Because l have been reading No Time to Mourn, FEMRITE’s new anthology publication and l don’t think l have read a better African Book of creative non-fiction, Written for Women, By Women in a very long time!
No Time to Mourn-An Anthology by South Sudanese Women explores the various perspectives of South Sudanese Women, those living within Sudan and those living in the diaspora, those that experienced the perils of both the Anyanya War of Liberation, 1955-1972 and the SPLM War of Liberation, 1983-2005, those who were just children when war ravaged the nation of South Sudan, those with a strong back ground in academia and writing back grounds and a big number of those that Jane Ocaya-Irama of Oxfam in Uganda would refer to as the “nascent” South Sudanese female writers and because the narratives are driven by individuals experiences, we get a personal understanding of a war survivor’s outlook instead of a theoretical discussion of the subject.
The book has many underlying but all equally important to the magical pulling off the Liam Neeson cinematic feel, and lo and behold,
l speak of the poetic and writing devices engaged in No Time to Mourn-An anthology by South Sudanese Women/;- the faction factor, because the glaring truth in these stories by these women wouldn’t have been this healing to the heart if a hint of fiction, metaphor, some rhyme here and there, akop, asida, a little tad bit of nyama choma here and there, wasn’t engaged during the story writing
No Time to Mourn is a creative-no fiction masterpiece to be prized by all South Sudanese Women and all girls all over the world.
Besides the shores of the great blue waters of Lake Victoria, in June 2019, FEMRITE –Uganda Women Writers Association, and Oxfam collaborated to convene a week-long writing retreat for 18 South Sudanese women, mentors and mentees of a group of women met with sisterhood at the back of their minds, and with a shoulder to lean on, a handkerchief or tissue for the tears, during a short period of 6 days, Hilda J. Twongyeirwe, the current Executive Director of FEMRITE with her team of fierce facilitators including Ayak Chol Deng Alak, Lillian Aujo, Doreen Baingana, Harriet Anena, Mercy Ntangaare and Juliet Kushaba, supported by Oxfam’s brilliant Elizabeth Ashamu Deng, listened, held nurturing conversations, did writing drills, writing calls to South Sudanese women of all colors, and lo and behold, look at the gold these ladies churned out. It’s a book that softens, a book to fix us, a book to love, a book to any race that is ravaged and pillaged by war or racial conflict yet they keep on going, yet they keep writing, telling their stories, yet they keep painting, yet they keep singing, yet they keep being brave.
As the ever brilliant author of Another Nigger Dead, Taban lo Liyong, University of Juba, says in his brilliant introduction to the book, (a must read this introduction, good gods of heaven, you could feel his enthusiasm and happiness over the birth of this book flying off the page in the beautiful introduction titled South Sudanese Literature Raised on African Writing Pickaback!, there is something in here for every contemporary African Writer), he says something happens when you meticulously read this book and for me, No Time to Mourn-An Anthology by South Sudanese Women has clearly deepened my understanding of the experiences of South Sudanese Women, I feel l want to be more kind to fellow women, to refugees, to my neighbors who may be different from me in color, or country or nationality, or ethnicity, to be more kind to people just because they are people like me. Identity, homesickness, culture shock, female liberation, Tribal warfare, famine and hunger, Battling with the fear of the dark unknown, are some of the underlying themes reviewed in No Time to Mourn-An Anthology by South Sudanese Women.
The book is divided into 7 parts; -
To Be Woman, When the bullet was shot, Country is Running, When Nowhere Has Felt Like Home, Conflict of Identity, The Peace We Yearn For, and lastly, My Sister’s Keeper.
The first part of the book,
To Be Woman, identifies the pillaging absurdity of absent fathers in the 21st century, poems like Black fathers by Chudier Pelpel, or The Phone Call by Theresa Nyalony Gatwang draw a picture of the fear, loneliness of an absent father, makes you believe we need to do better as a continent, as South Sudanese men, as black men, as African men, as men, for the greater benefit of our children and our women which are but essential to the positive growth of the world.
The book oozes with the special need an African child has to their mother, to their usually missing baba, unexpected pregnancies, stories of point blank infidelity, a common norm in African homes. Lydia Minagano Kape shows us how women are being chocked down by the bride’s price! The first part ends with another beautiful short story of a conflicted young girl who wants to be a doctor, Nyamal lived with her parents on the outskirts of Nasir town in South Sudan, and in the middle of dreaming of being a doctor and between having her mother go to deliver her baby in the hospital in Nasir Town, roaring airplanes hovered in the sky until the villagers were awash with fear. In this short story, Chol Tut Gatkek tells the heart breaking story of having to run away from your sick pregnant mother because war is raging and you have to run, only leaving her with a promise of I will come back for you. The pregnant mother dies as their hut is burnt down by the men of war, Nyamal moves into Lietshure refugee camp in Ethiopia and more trouble ensues, trouble of being forced to leave school to go into marriage, trouble of cruel aunties and aggressive violent uncles, yet Nyamal conquers all, defiantly and still dreams of being a doctor one
day.
The second part of No Time to Mourn-An Anthology by South Sudanese Women, When the bullet was shot, includes A War Child’s Alphabet by Suzan Voga Duffee.
It shows a voice of South Sudan calling unto their dead mothers, they want to commune with their old spirit, they want to lighten up this journey of South Sudan. The second part ends with an agonizing account of the challenges suffered by South Sudanese under the dominant northern Arab’s rule. Abai Hellen Mayom at the climax of the short story It Was Taboo, makes a remark that l too with all my Ugandanness believe in;-
“We as South Sudanese, shall always remember the day we received our independence. I know for sure, that whatever happens, l will certainly continue to celebrate the 9th of July, until the silence of death.”
The third part, Country is Running, starts off with a long soliloquy, Birth water, by the ever charming Australia based Sudanese creative Bigoa Chuol questioning fathers that sleep with guns in their hands But will never hold their children…The third parts ends with Grace Wenepai Enosa’s short story Battling with fear of the unknown.
“In war, any place becomes home for as long as it is safe and any home that is not, is abandoned” Nyibol Ajang Adier explains in her short story Will my children cook and spice their little food in salsal tins? What Happened to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)? She wonders. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed to mark the end of the two decade civil war in Sudan. It was signed in 2005 by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and the Government of Sudan. Signing took place in Naivasha, Kenya. Celebrations were at Nyao Stadium in Nairobi.
Some stories like The Unending Journey by Charity Naume Naigupai are not a new thing to the reader’swriter’s club members, FEMRITE, Uganda, who got the chance of hearing snippets of the story in its formative stages/editing stages. Speaking for the reader’s writers club, FEMRITE, Uganda, I think the story improved into a jewel since we last read and critiqued it, and just like meeting an old friend for a Liam Neeson flick, finding this story here, sitting here in this masterpiece of a book was a total delight. With that, l hope l have hooted enough why any Ugandan writer or lover of stories should immediately get their hands on a copy of No Time to Mourn.
Abul Oyay’s Acrylic paint Untitled 4 art piece on page 116 of the book takes center stage as the cover photo for the anthology in question. Given its lingering splash of colors, the three women holding each other, l see a message of hope, hope through sisters coming together, telling their stores with no shame, holding each other’s arms, sharing a shoulder to lean on, l see hope flooding South Sudan through this mantel piece of an
The fourth part, When Nowhere Has Felt Like Home, tells of those South Sudanese living in the Diaspora, far from home, it tells a story of those displaced in Norway, in Australia, in Uganda, in Kenya, away from where their umbilicalcords are buried.
The fourth part starts off with a torrent of incessant poems by kaka, a Melbourne, Australia based poet and creative writer, the poems describe the telephone dad, the family abroad, and ends with a heart breaking short story by Monic Animbue War times are war Times, a story set in Yambio, 1990, when the war between the SPLM and the Khartoum establishments reached Yambio.
The fifth part of No Time to Mourn, Conflict of Identity, shines with interesting commentary on what it means to be South Sudanese in an immensely tribalistic society that is South Sudan. Sudan has over 64 states, in the short story Jenge; Grace Aben Kuol depicts core issues of conflict of identity, through a little girl’s journey of fighting against conflict against Identity. Aluel is a short, chubby, Dinka girl from Equatoria state, her father is Dinka, and her mother is from the Bari tribe in Equatoria, the story is weaved around the concept of Ethnicity complexities that beg to be dissected. Growing up, Aluel has learned that some Dinka and Bari do not like each other; the reader is left with a feeling of goose bumps and raised hairs when Aluel’s aunties, Doky and Olivia throw ugly statements like “Arian Jenge sakit”- just a naked Dinka. (The Dinka refer to themselves as Jieng, but people from Equatoria call them Jenge)
Just like all the poems and short stories in this book are laced with and splashed with hope, Jenge ends well, Aluel’s Dinka father stands up for her short, chubby, Dinka girl, when she goes sobbing to him when her aunties try to malice her innocent mind calling her a naked Dinka!
The sixth part of the book, The Peace We Yearn For, is a loud call for human nature, a call to acknowledge the likeness in our differences, a call for peace, a call for love at last. ‘‘In Juba, thirst can kill and thirst can get you killed.” Suzan Thomas Perembata narrates in the short story, The Heat in Juba: A new beginning, she, with maturity and a sense of poise, takes us back to 9th January 2005, Nyayo stadium, Nairobi, Kenya, when the long awaited Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed. All is not glory after the Peace Agreement though, ex soldiers still terrorize the working man of Juba, faeces and flies are what welcome returnees to Juba, massive hints of war still linger in the minds of those who have eagerly fought and waited, for all the bloodshed to end in Sudan. This part is filled with an urgent cry for peace, even a single drop of peace. Through poems like Unity is Strength, Quench the thirst, fix me, we see Hellena Rial Isaac Nyariel and Lucy Kiden Lulu hooting their horns to call for acknowledgment of all the differences between the Dinka, Neur, Acholi, Bari, and etc so as to be guided towards our hidden and long forgotten likeness, even with our very evident differences, a call to look at each other and love instead of question, brutalize, or hate each other, an intentional encouragement to spread peace and love, make love not war, zereda imayee furani aremeoo-Peace has come for us today.
The last part, seventh part, My Sister’s Keeper is where l want to pick two things to end my review of No Time to Mourn-An Anthology by South Sudanese Women, and that is the poem titled South Sudanese Woman by the charming Ugandan based South Sudanese writer Juan Evalyn Mule, the second and last thing being an excerpt at the climax of Julia Akur Magot’s short story My Sister’s
South Sudanese Woman
Juan Evalyn Mule
[
South Sudanese woman,
You are a warrior,
Let nobody push you aside.
Let nobody deceive you.
You are the brave defender of your future,
Stand up and pen your legacy,
What others can do, you too can do.
Do not listen to distracting voices.
Do not slumber,
Step into light and fight your fears
Fight until your fears fear you.
You are,
The resilient rock of South Sudan.
]
…
An excerpt from the short story My Sister’s Keeper by Julia Akur Magot;-
“I want to walk with women the day when they will learn that there is no shame in their stories, that past wounds do not define them and that what happened to them was no fault of theirs. That will truly be our day of victory.
I will be my sister’s keeper. Will you?”
…
It is truly remarkable what this group of South Sudanese women writers in a retreat along the shores of Lake Victoria cooked up for us through sharing their experiences in written form, light verse, prose, creative non-fiction, and photographic form. It is beautiful to watch these ladies forge a trail out of pain and trauma through opening themselves up and being curious to tell their stories, a huge thanks to FEMRITE and Oxfam for providing them with the opportunity.
References:
Oxfam is committed to supporting durable solutions to the situation of refugees, the organization has worked to ensure that refugees have a place and voice in national peace processes, and they support refugee-led peace building initiatives within camps and settlements.
To purchase the book,
Contact:
FEMRITE
Plot 147 Kira Road
P.O.Box 705 Kampala
Tel: +256 772-743-943
Email: info.femrite@gmail.com
Twitter: @ugwomenswriters
The Liam Neeson film l refer to in the book is called Marksman.