Sudanese Women Must Take Their Place in Peace Process

Interview taken from The East African
Monday, January 20, 2003

AWUT DENG, peace mobiliser for the Nairobi-based New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC), has made it her lifework to promote the rights of people in southern Sudan in general and women in particular. In the 20 years or so of her work, Deng has been instrumental in facilitating peace deals and conferences nationally and internationally, starting up women's organisations, and representing the interests of women and south Sudanese in such high-level negotiations as the Machakos Protocol, signed in July by the Sudan government and the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army. For her efforts, she last year received the InterAction Humanitarian Award, presented to her by US First Lady Laura Bush. CATHY MAJTENYI spoke to Deng about her work, Sudanese politics, and what it's like to be a woman in southern Sudan.


How has your past shaped who you are today and the work that you're doing?

My husband was minister for legal affairs and vice president for the Southern Region. He opposed the introduction of Sharia law for two reasons: Sudan is not an Arab state and it cannot be ruled by Sharia laws. He also opposed the proposal to split the south into three regions.
In January 1983, he was detained. Then I started having problems. Security [agents] would come to search my house. Sometimes, I would be asked to report to the security office twice a day, where I would be questioned. [They would ask]: What is your husband doing? What papers do you have? After a year, he was released, and he joined the SPLA. In December 1984, we came to Nairobi to open the SRRA [Sudan Relief Rehabilitation Association] office here.

There were other Sudanese women in Nairobi who were facing similar problems. There was a need for us to see how we could develop ourselves. Our main objective was to work for unity among southern Sudanese women in this country [Kenya]. We founded the Sudanese Women's Association in Nairobi (SWAN) in 1993. When we were strong enough and our membership numbers increased, we founded the Sudanese Women's Voice for Peace in 1994 to deal specifically with peace issues.

We were very disturbed when the south was fighting itself when the SPLA split in 1991. It was painful for us as mothers: why should our children kill one another? We tried to work closely with the SPLA factions, split along Nuer-Dinka ethnic lines, to see how this could end, how they could address it peacefully.

In 1997, the New Sudan Council of Churches intervened. They recommended that there be a bigger conference [called the Wunlit conference, which eventually led to the Wunlit Peace Agreement] to address these issues. I went in to mobilise the women and the community for that conference. I was also the liaison between NSCC and the community in Sudan. That conference was held from February 27 to March 8, 1999 and brought together 800 delegates from the two communities. Women, youth, elders, traditional leaders, chiefs, spiritual leaders, and the church were all represented. The agreement was signed on March 8.

Can you give me examples of situations where you used your skills to bring the community together?

A: When we had this split in SPLA, tension was high among the male Sudanese. When the Pope was to visit Kenya, we invited There was a time when there were functions when the pope was coming to this country [Kenya]. The tension was still high among our men; I was the one organising [these functions] with one of my colleagues. We invited everybody from all the factions and brought them to Uhuru Park. We all sat in the same place because Sudan was given one space. That was the first time many of them were greeting each other in a long time.

I went to a particular community where [men] said they cannot sit with women. My argument was, OK, you cannot sit with a woman; I am a woman. How are you going to sit with me? I said, the problem is not facing men alone, but all of us are affected. We are your mothers and wives. We need to sit together to sort out this problem together as citizens, not as male or female. So, it was accepted and the women came. They sat together in one place, and they participated. I think from that time, They have never again asked the women not to come to a meeting.

Sometimes, I do a lot of lobbying before conferences and meetings. I want to know, who are the women participating? Who are the women who are going to speak? Would it be a good idea to suggest names? If a woman lived far away, I would just request, please, can you find a way of bringing that woman to participate? I also participated in the law review workshop for New Sudan [south Sudan]. Women had never been invited to participate, either to review the law or to make the law. We tried our level best to make a meaningful contribution.

What are some of the special qualities that you and other women possess that enable you to do peace work?

This is a male-dominated society. You have to be very tactful when approaching such a society. If you push your idea hard, it will meet with resistance because you are a woman. We have to be patient and listen a lot.

I'm not saying that women can't create wars, but they lean more towards peaceful solutions and co-existence. They have a heart of forgiveness. My main approach is to facilitate a person to talk, to ask questions, to know what we have, and tell me what the solution is.

What is it like to be a woman in southern Sudan?

The war is bad, but there is one advantage: it has opened women's eyes because they have found themselves in situations they were not in before. The women used to remain at home, were not career-oriented and were not struggling for anything. But the war has changed all that. Three-quarters of our women are widows. They have to find ways of coping with their new situation. They have to look after the children, the extended family. They have become the sole providers for their families.

They work hard to keep their families together. They endure difficult situations, such as mothers losing their kids to slavery, mothers who have lost their only son but refuse to take revenge. Still, they work for peace and reconciliation within the community. You see that strength, and anger sometimes. They speak angrily when they see things are not being done well. They participate a lot despite sometimes not being called to do so. They have that tune of peaceful co-existence. Some women are soldiers. They fight, and their mothers take care of the children.
How do you relate to women from northern Sudan?

To be honest, it's not easy. When we meet, we scream and shout at each other for the first two days. Then on the third day, we say, this is enough. We make them understand that the government and the successive governments of the north have been very oppressive towards the people of the south. They have been killing our children and taking our children to war.

We've actually been working together on many issues. We respect our political differences. There's a need to work together for peace in Sudan because we need a peaceful country... We have had several conferences with them, and there were several points that we have agreed upon. There is cooperation now and there's an ongoing process in which we meet every year. We have been bringing the Sudan embassy and the SPLA together in our meetings. We went to Boston together to make presentations on Sudan.

What are some of the points that you have agreed upon?

They understand that the south has the right to exercise self-determination because of the historical oppression. The other thing is that the government of Sudan has no right to bomb children, civilians, and civil institutions. We also agreed that women really don't have a place in Sudan. There must be a policy that accommodates the role of women in the public arena.

What are some of the things that need to take place for a just and lasting peace in Sudan?

I think any peace process should be inclusive. Women should not be sidelined; they should be a part of the process. Sudanese need to be educated on their rights. We also feel that people should not be deprived of education and health facilities. There needs to be respect for the culture and languages of the people.

Mostly, I look at the right of self-determination for the people of the south and other areas. African leaders need to play a more active role in resolving the conflict in Sudan. We also need international guarantees that the right of self-determination will be given high priority.