Akuol Leon Garang Deng: The Demise and Departure of a Great Writer and SPLM Political Activist!

 

By DENGDIT Ayok
Thursday, September 19, 2024,
Juba – South Sudan

Since the beginning of last month [August 2024] until now [September 2024], we have been receiving death news every now and then. Bad news has been coming to us from every direction. We hear every day about the departure of loved ones.

Although death is a given reality, nevertheless, our desire to continue living in the years of our strength makes us not accept death when it strikes our loved ones, because the Creator Himself, made us and placed within us the instinct of clinging to life and wishing to remain alive in a mortal world.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

This noble biblical verse confirms that the Creator has placed eternity in the heart of man, or human being — that is — He has placed in our hearts the desire to long for eternal life and living without seeing death, and longing for what is eternal and the feeling of immortality and deathlessness, that is the peculiarity of God Himself, who created us in His image — that is — in His nature, which is athanasia itself.

In the past few days, on Sunday, September 15, 2024, to be precise, the social and cultural arenas, press fraternity and political activist circles, were shocked by the news of the demise of one of strong and active women, Ustaza Akuol Leon Garang Deng, also known as “Kola” and “General Kola” and also by the name of “Linda”.

It was in the evening of Saturday, September 14, 2024, when I called my colleague, the Editor-in-Chief of Al-Watan Arabic daily newspaper, Ustaz Michael Rial Christopher, to greet him and ask for a time to meet him as soon as possible, but he told me that he was traveling on morrow (Sunday, September 15, 2024). He then informed me that our colleague and sister Akuol Leon Garang was seroiusly ill, and that he had visited her in the hospital, adding that she was in a very critical condition.

The call ended and I hung up, and while I was pondering what he had told me, I then called him back after feeling that something was unusual and asked him again about Akuol’s condition, and he assured me that Ustaza Akuol Leon was fine, but that she had seriously fallen ill.

I informed my brother Chan Deel Dut, who is related to the late Akuol Leon, for Akuol’s husband, Advocate Yom Yom Yuot, a lawyer by profession, is Chan Deel’s cousin. He asked me where Akuol was, and I told him that she was at Promise Hospital, as Michael Christopher had told me. Promise Hospital is located behind Juba Teaching Hospital to the south, close to the Mobil fuel station roundabout.

We got into the car and headed to Promise Hospital at 11:00 pm and found her admitted in VIP room No. 5. She was lying in bed, and she was covered, and in her hand was a drip of a medical drug, and she was asleep. We spoke to her second mother (Man Nyriow) to inquire about her condition and her medical condition history.

She informed us that she had been sick for three weeks. She then reassured us that she did not suffer from any kidney disease or any infection in any of the vital organs in the rib cage: lungs, liver, stomach, etc. Some of her family members were present near her: her two daughters (Agol and Nyibol), her brother Akuei, and her cousins: Akon and Arek Aldo Ajou.

We then headed back home to return the next day, but we became busy in the morning and daytime with our daily engagements and commitments, which forced us to reschedule our visit to her on Sunday evening after she was referred to Gudele Public Hospital. However, in the evening we were shocked by the painful and sorrowful news of her passing on at Gudele Hospital that same evening.

One had hoped to find her in a situation that would allow me to talk to her, but she passed away before one had such a chance. It was so sad!

Although death is a natural ordeal that cannot be escaped, life is too, a natural right that must be enjoyed to the fullest. I was greatly saddened by her demise, which I consider having happened too soon. Born on September 19, 1985, and passing away on September 15, 2024, she was only 39 years old. The cord of her precious life was cut short.

I came to know our beloved sister Akuol Leon Garang in 2007, in Khartoum through the activities of the SPLM and student bodies, and I worked with her a lot in presenting various social and cultural programs as Co-MC. And I vividly remember that we were MCs in the occasion of the engagement of the current Vice President, Hussein Abdel-Baqi Akol, to Dr. Rita Albino, a daughter of the well-known politician, Albino Akol Akol, in Alfitehab suburb of Umdurman in 2009.

Akuol was also a prolific writer for our previous Arabic newspaper of Al-Masier, thirteen years ago. When Al-Masier Arabic daily was shut down and this newspaper (Al-Mawqif) was established, she continued to write for it, before shifting to Al-Watan Arabic daily newspaper.

She was an active member of the SPLM and SPLM activist, and was she characterized by her staunch loyalty to the SPLM party until the moments of her departure. She was courageous in her defense of the SPLM party and its government. For the past three years or so, she was actively involved in online political activities, especially on the Clubhouse platform, the forum where we interacted and discussed and debated many political issues before I decided to stop political activism in opposition to the ruling authority.

She was always following our platforms, and she used to organize her platforms to respond to us with her SPLM comrades and colleagues: Ustaz Wilson David Woon, the journalist at Al-Watan Arabic daily newspaper, Khamis Lual Tong Kuot, and Manon Jok Aleu, the Chairman of the SPLM Chapter in the USA, Ustaz Atileo Abu Yasmin and Ustaz Thuc Angok, and many other SPLM members at home and abroad.

The late Akuol Leon was so active that I would sometimes withdraw from the discussion platforms at 2: 00 A.M to sleep and get ready for work in the morning in Cairo, and she would still continue the political discussions until morning. On Thursdays, one had sometimes stayed up late until morning, and I had always noticed that she spent countless nights in online political activism that gained great popular momentum. And I had always wondered as to when she goes to bed.

Amidst all these things: her writings for newspapers over years, also on social media, and being actively engaged in political activism in which she repulsed the political criticisms directed at her party, the SPLM, Ustaza Akuol Leon Garang was a woman, a housewife, a mother, a caregiver to her children and a manager of her own house. She was many things at once. She was a journalist, a media professional and a political activist. She was also an activist for women and children’s rights and was a member of many social initiatives related to women’s rights, political and humanitarian initiatives.

The late Akuol Leon Garang Deng was also distinguished by politeness and civility of respecting her political opponents despite her differences with them. She had always respected me even though I was a sharp critic of her party and a strong political opponent. I also shared with her particular political opinions and stances regarding the fight against tribal sentiments, hate speech campaigns, and online genocidal calls, spearhead by SSOMA-II opposition groups under the leadership of Gen. Thomas Cirilo, that are active online, although we were not politically members of the same political organization. I was a UCC leader, while she was a staunch SPLM supporter and pro-government activist.

As politically active as Akuol Leon was, she was also socially active on her Facebook page, sharing funny jokes to her followers, and a dash of humor to cheer people up and ease their worries. Her passing on is a great loss to her family, the social and political milieu, and the nation as a whole.

May her precious soul peacefully rest in the land with our ancestors and forebears until the resurrection day when the dead shall be brought back to life and the restoration of creation.