By Yien Kang Chal Pur
![Yien Kang Chal [Photo courtesy of author]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sudanspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/229133127_2905832353001054_6206829465804549375_n.jpg?ssl=1)
A man who regularly attended meetings of his Community stopped attending them. On one very cold night, one of the group’s leaders decided to come to visit him after a few weeks. He found the man alone, at home, sitting near a fireplace where there was a bright fire burning.
He welcomed the Leader with smiles. Then a great silence followed. In the fireplace, the two Men were only watching the dancing flames around the crackling logs. Within seconds after examining the woods that held the fire, the Leader removed one of them, which was glowing most brightly of all, with a pair of tongs. After that, he sat down again.
The host was fascinated by everything. Within a short period of time, the flame of the lone Member waned, and the fire soon went out. The light and heat that once dominated the room were no more than a piece of black and deadwood after a short period of time. Almost no words had been spoken since the greeting.
As the leader was preparing to leave, he picked up the detritus piece of wood and tossed it into the fire. Immediately, the burning coals around him rekindled the wood piece, feeding off the light & heat they produced. In response to the leader’s departure, the host said: I appreciate your visit and your lovely lessons. Next week, I will rejoin the group.”
According to this story, maintaining our unity is all our responsibility, and each one of us is important and has a role to play.
Getting back to our original topic, we should believe in unity for many reasons. However, I want to point out the disadvantage of being divided. First, life will never be easy without being united as a community; second, we won’t accomplish anything without being united; and third, we won’t meet our goals without unity; fourth, we will always have foes who wish to divide and exploit us. Etc.
We are indeed experiencing all these kinds of negative things that I mentioned here, they are impacting our unity. And though, it’s outrageous that our unity is lost because of a few challenges that we can control. As Nuer, let us begin working toward unity right now, or else we will lose our chance to integrate with other communities.
In addition to those wishing evil against Dr. Machar, Gen. Simon Gatwech Dual, Gen. Taban Deng, Hon. Tut Gatluak and other elders in Nuer society, I call forth immediate action. Nuer society has been served by those old men for a long time, and we should all thank them for their extraordinary service.
We should therefore be aware of our historical legacy and the future we are heading towards, as it has been written that “those who do not have elders should buy.” Thus, it is a great pleasure to have them alongside us. Their experience will be very valuable in the future and whatever they do now is for our benefit, regardless of whether it is wrong or right since we can all learn from their actions.
Note: I am not the author of the story that was narrated at the beginning of the article. It was brought by the author as an example for the Nuer society in their quest for unity.
Yien Kang Chal Pur is a concerned citizen of South Sudan and can be reached via: chalyienkang@gmail.com.
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