South Sudan is a case study of how poor leadership can cumulatively dash the hopes of a people who craved a prosperous and dynamic country after decades of subjugation. With the leadership of a gallant and determined leader, Dr John Garang, who never lived to see the fruits of his struggle, the mostly Christian and traditionalist south fought to free themselves from, among others, Shari’a law and exploitation to finally secede.
A comprehensive peace agreement signed in Kenya by Dr Garang and Sudan’s First Vice-President Ali Osman Taha in 2005 paved the way for independence. The death of Dr Garang in July of that year — the month he became Vice-President — in a plane crash as he returned home from Uganda made him the biblical Moses, who never saw Canaan.
