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Press release
A new state in Africa
A new state will soon see the light of day in Africa in the wake of a quasi unanimous democratic referendum after half a century of armed conflict: the
Republic of South Sudan.
It divides the Sudan, one of the biggest and richest African countries into two parts. It’s a big first in Africa where the Organization of African Unity advocates
utmost respect for the borders that are a legacy of colonization, which only fans ethnic strife. The conflict between the North and the South of the Sudan is generally described as a conflict
between the Arab North and the black, animist or Christian South. This over simple description misrepresents reality. The divide is rather between the Center and the periphery. In the Center a
Muslim (often in a radical way) and Arab-speaking Nubia is peopled with a majority of arabized Nubians, a minority of genuine Nubians and Arabs who wield more clout than their number should
allow. In the animist or Christian and English-speaking South, the three major ethnic groups are the Lwo, the Bari and the Zande.
The arabized Nubians like to think they are Arabs and power in Khartum is in the hands of a tiny and very nationalistic minority of Arabs. The new Republic of South
Sudan is therefore a multi-ethnic state whose creation the Khartum regime announced it would respect in spite of the absence of agreement for the moment on the delimitation of borders, the status
of the oil-rich Abyei region and the status of populations of each future state living on the other’s territory.
It’s a defeat for Arab imperialism and a victory for the peoples of South Sudan but also of Darfur who suffered a lot because of it. The Occitan Nation Party hails
the creation of the new republic and hopes it will be democratic and egalitarian domestically and have peaceful relations with its neighbors. It’s good news for Africa. Its peoples should get rid
of their puppet states to live in harmony with each other by creating federations or new states showing respect for the continent’s ethnic diversity.
July 7th, 2011
Occitan Nation Party
Jean-Pierre Hilaire
acting chairman
10 rue de Romas
F-47000 Agen (Occitania)
+33 6 76 47 32 12
joan.peire.alari@gmail.com
http://www.p-n-o.org