The finals of the Miss Malaika 2010 beauty pageant were held a few weeks ago in Juba. Rows upon rows of plastic chairs at Nyakuron Cultural Center were filled with an enthusiastic crowd as “the beauty that is New Sudan” (as the MC put it) was on display. A special part of the evening was a speech that Madame Rebecca Garang—the widow of the late southern war hero and leader John Garang—delivered to a rapt audience. The respect that Ms. Garang commands in Southern Sudan is remarkable, not because it is surprising, but because it is palpable when she walks through a room or prepares to address a crowd. The speech she gave on the evening of December 4 gave me chills and I wanted to share it here because I think it reflects the significance of this historical moment in Southern Sudan. In this speech to her people made just over one month before they are set to vote in an independence referendum, Ms. Garang artfully moved though the topics of racism, oppression, tribalism, feminism, the impact of war, and desire.
Here is the transcribed speech in its entirety:
South Sudan oyay/ South Sudan oyay/ SPLM oyay/ Miss Malaika oyay South Sudan artists oyay/ South Sudan musicians oyay.
A minute of silence for our fallen heroes, before we say anything. Please forgive me for that but we need to do that so that our people know that they did not die in vain. Thank you please be seated.
We need to remember always our fallen heroes. Their spirit. Their soul. So we should not forget about them. I’m really very happy tonight for my children who have invited me to come and stay with you tonight. To be here I feel beautiful already.
And you know, somebody like me feels this is what we have been missing. For many years, 50 years, our children have been missing what is happening tonight.
I feel happy to see Southern Sudan rejoicing. I feel great and secure about what is happening here. It looks like the night, the evening when Dr. John was invited to Khartoum, when he went to Khartoum, it is just like that evening, so it is very powerful, very beautiful, and let me assure you that it will continue always like this.
To the organizers, the sponsors, I’m really happy and I pray for you, so that God can give you in abundance to support events like this in Southern Sudan. You know when you see your daughters and sons walk on the stage, on catwalk, somebody, a mother like me, would ask herself, ‘really did I give birth do a daughter like that?’
And especially when you see her in the magazine, these are the things that we have been denied for many years, for our mothers to see the beauty in the country called Sudan.
So tonight I’m really happy to be standing in front of you to tell you that the beauty of Southern Sudan, we have already seen from the Mundari girls, I was almost dancing with them there. You see they don’t need to go to gym to shake something out, they are already slim, so you see how Southern Sudan can make very beautiful women no matter what they are wearing and you see our men how disciplined they are and they are almost naked, and they’re really handsome. But they really are very disciplined because our culture teaches such things in us. The culture teaches such things in us.
In others places you bring somebody out like that we will be in crisis but thank God that Southern Sudan is very powerful and such things have to be exposed, so that our children really know what is outside there. The world has to know as well Southern Sudan. They know the Southern Sudan of war, Southern Sudan of emergency relief food, Southern Sudan of diseases, but this is what we are fighting from all the corners so that our children our free from the diseases.
I’m really very happy tonight these girls who are going to walk here, I hope somebody will not snatch them tonight. Please let them walk here peacefully, let them continue and I think they are going to be celebrities and I wanted to tell them, whoever is chosen, we are all beautiful
I think the person who will be chosen tonight will need our support. We will need to support her and all those other people who are not supported are also celebrities and you know the wonders that tonight will do in your CV. Don’t throw it away. Don’t throw away tonight and say that because I’m not been selected, I’m nobody, no, it will go down in your CV: Miss Malaika Number 5 2010, it will go down in your CV. What I need is the spirit of unity. The spirit of now.
I always put them like this: I would say, understanding, respect, and love. Three goes together and if you have these three, tribalism will not find a room to come out.
You will be the champion where? The champion in Jonglei, in Warrap, in Lakes state, in Unity state, they are all our children from Southern Sudan.
So please…[brief remarks in Arabic]when I was dancing w/ Mundari people I feel I’m from the Mundari [tribe], if the Dinka are dancing I feel I’m Dinka, if the Bari are dancing I’m Bari. I feel not only from Southern Sudan, but I stand tall as an African woman.
Don’t let anybody bring you down to the level of tribes. You must always stand up, you always stand up as an African woman and the lowest that you could come, the lowest that you could come is Southern Sudan, not being an Acholi or a Zande. Don’t let anybody bring you down to that level [of tribes]. You ought to stand tall as an African woman, an African girl. When I go to South Africa, as an African woman, and especially in Kenya, I’m a Luo, I’m a Kalengin, you see when I don’t speak their language they are shy so tonight I don’t want to miss this opportunity. I don’t want to close the doors of what you came for. It is not my night, I am here ,I was given a mic to come and say that this Miss Malaika 2010 is open. God bless you.
