By Santino Manut and Sergios Pons
Southern Sudanese, like any other traditional and conservative African society, remain closely attached to their long held and cherished ways of life. Today, the people of Southern Sudan stand out amongst Africa’s most prominent groups as a people easily identified by their traditional cultural practices.
In Southern Sudan, literacy levels continue conspiring with poverty to rob innocent Southern Sudanese of an opportunity to access media content.
However, despite the myriad challenges facing the flow of information in the once war-torn region, local people have not given up in their struggle to access information.
Residents here contend that despite the confidence enjoyed by the popular Gurtong website, literacy levels remain a puzzle.
For this reason, locals admit that the few existing media outlets, especially the print media, have not been able to live up to their expectations when it comes to delivery of the much needed information.
Professor Mohamed Alamin, a man proud to associate himself with the rich Southern Sudanese culture, heads Juba University’s college of Art, Music and Drama. He urges the local media to play a pivotal role in safeguarding and promoting Southern Sudanese culture.
He said, “local newspapers give extensive coverage to sports and give little coverage about the culture of the people of Southern Sudan.” Alamin singled out Southern Sudanese culture as unique in the world.
He advised that only conservation of this culture would define their wealth in cultural heritage for the future of Southern Sudanese.
The University don called on guardians to provide parental guidance to their children on matters of societal and cultural values.
Lam Tungwar, chairperson of the Southern Sudan Artist Association (SSAA) joins the raging cultural debate. He accuses local media of paying more attention to politics than cultural issues. He calls for balanced coverage of all societal issues that affect local communities.
However, Veronica Lucy Gordon, a veteran Broadcaster from Southern Sudan Radio, defended the media against these accusations. She said South Sudan Radio covers over 20 languages now in Southern Sudan.
The government, she said, has established several community radio stations across Southern Sudan. Other community radio stations licensed to operate in various parts of the region include Magwi, Torit, Yambio, all FM stations.
She urged local communities to utilize the opportunity available for establishment of community radio stations as an avenue for conserving their diverse cultures.
Mabior Philip, a journalist working with the Citizen newspaper admitted that culture had not received the much needed attention it deserved in the media.
According to him, Southern Sudanese should not complain about the neglect of culture but rather they need to pay attention to in-depth coverage of every aspect of life by all media outlets.
Conceding that Southern media remained infant, Mabior observed that numerous challenges continue to face the media. The challenges include inaccessibility of some areas by the media and the cost of production.
During 21 years of civil war, a good number of Southern Sudanese fled the country. Perhaps the devastating two decade war is the main culprit in the degradation of Southern Sudanese cultural values.