Homage to a Sudanese Visionary Leader

A Homage to Dr. John Garang

By

Ezekiel Pajibo

We are assembled in these historic halls today, August 6, 2005    to pay homage to an historic African Figure, Dr. John Garang, the former First Vice President of  Sudan, the former President of South Sudan and the former Chairman of the Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLA/M).

Dr.Garang was born in 1945 and died in 2005, 60 years later.  He was a Pan African hero, a Sudanese nationalist, a liberator, a distinguished and successful leader of the people of Sudan in the struggle to establish peace, justice, self-determination and the emancipation of the people of Sudan and by extension the people of Africa.

Dr. Garang’s vision for a united, peaceful, democratic and just Sudan is a vision shared by not only the millions of people of Sudan and especially South Sudan, but African people throughout the continent and especially here in Liberia.  That is why we are assembled in this great hall at the University of Liberia in Monrovia. 

We have come to mourn the passing of a visionary leader, a true African warrior and gallant fighter, indeed we have come to pay homage to a fallen soldier in the African people struggle for self-determination and emancipation.  We have also assembled here to take the baton from this great son of Sudan, to keep the embers of the struggle alive  and to let all and sundry know that the cause for which Dr. Garang lived and died will live on for now for ever and ever.  It will live on in the work of our young people, who know only too well that justice, freedom and democracy is not given on a silver platter but is won through struggle and once achieved is sustained through vigilance and persistence.

Our fallen hero, go in peace and rest forever in the knowledge that in Sudan, in Liberia and indeed in Africa you have sown the seeds of a more just and equitable world in fertile soil and they will germinate, blossom and grow. 

While we mourn the passing of this legendary hero of the African people struggle, we are as well celebrating his life and his times.

Go in peace dear Comrade, go in peace our beloved leader, go in peace our great intellectual, go in peace our true and great warrior, Go in peace Dr. John Garang.