Bahr al Ghazal Youth Alliance

Executive Summary
Bahr El Ghazal Youth Alliance is a youth political organization set up by the sons & daughters of this region in 2005 when North-South peace negotiations were underway in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The youth of Bahr El Ghazal (Lakes, Western Bahr El Ghazal, and Northern Bahr El Ghazal states respectively) saw their strong and inevitable stance in the political spree of Southern Sudan and came up with this idea of forming this youth organization. Our stand as youth of this region is very important especially during the forthcoming Sudan referendum of 2011. This referendum is the first of its kind which southern Sudanese has vested their high hopes in. In this referendum Southern Sudanese will either remain in one united Sudan or independent Southern Sudan. It is through polls that Unity or Separation will be determined by the populace of Southern Sudan.
In 2011 Sudan referendum, nobody knows who will win the polls but we the youth of Bahr El Ghazal would like to declare our positions earlier so that we achieve what we have longed for. With these stipulations we have seen that it is of great important to mobilize and educate our people about what Southern Sudan needs in 2011. Southern Sudanese have gone under some perseverance such as culture shock, religious discrimination and prosecution.

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Many people have been denied religious and cultural rights which we think will not be the same case in 2011.
When fighting any war, you can make sure that the tool (s) or welfare used during that battle (regardless of being successful or not) should not be put astray and forgotten to be used during the next war. A man who is skillful in welfare could just shine his tools in anticipation of using them at any time if war is to break out again, either from his former foes or new ones.
We the Southern Sudanese youth do not need to be put astray after the previous war which had raged the country for the last two or more decades. We want to be greased and kept clean in anticipation of another war possibly in 2011 (referendum). Without these arrangements, our success would be uncertain and the lives that were claimed by war and induced famine might have died in vain.
We therefore voice our message of self determination and free democratic will of the people of Southern Sudan to the Government of Southern Sudan and our brothers who are in Diaspora in recognition to our national integrity and in remembrance to our fallen heroes.
These fallen heroes will only be rewarded when the goal and legitimacy to which we took up arms becomes successful. It is only through youth integrity that we shall achieve any political strategic achievement.

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Logo
This logo acts as a cultural symbol: For unity and solidarity of the people of Bahr al Ghazal Region. The people of Bahr al Ghazal consider this logo in cultural perspective as an EMBLEM that brings youth under one umbrella.
Introduction
The Bahr el Ghazal (Arabic: بحر الغزال) is both a river and a region of southwestern Sudan. The region consists of the states of North Bahr al Ghazal, West Bahr al Ghazal, Lakes, and Warab. It borders Central African Republic to the west. It is an area of swamps and ironstone plateaus inhabited mainly by the Dinka people, who make their living through subsistence farming and cattle herding. It was historically subject to raids by the Fur and Arab slave traders from the neighboring region of Darfur. The slave trade was suppressed in 1864 by the khedive of Egypt but soon re-emerged under powerful native merchants, who set themselves up as princes complete with armies. The most powerful of them, al-Zubayr, fought and defeated a joint Turkish/Egyptian force sent to Bahr el Ghazal in 1873. The khedive conceded defeat and made Bahr el Ghazal a nominal province of Egypt, with al-Zubayr as its governor. The region was later incorporated into Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and became the ninth province after being split from Equatoria in 1948, and later a province, and then state, under the Republic of Sudan. In 1996, the region was divided into the four current districts as part of an administrative reorganization of the country. During the condominium period of joint British-Egyptian rule, the area was administered by British district officers; because of annual flooding and difficult traveling conditions, the area became part of what was known colloquially in the British Sudan Service as “The Bog”, with British District Officers known as “Bog Barons” (Wyndham, 1937).
The region has been affected by civil war for many years. It was a scene of fighting in the First Sudanese Civil War. In 1982, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) was formed there by John Garang to fight the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. This was the beginning of what quickly became known as the Second Sudanese Civil War. The subsequent conflict lasted until 2003 and killed more than two million people. A substantial fraction of the population of the region is internally displaced or refugees in neighboring countries. See also North Bahr al Ghazal for further details of one part of the province severely affected by the conflict.
The region taking its name from the river. The name translates as “river of gazelles”.

It contains the following elements of which each has a unique symbolic representation on the logo.
§ The two gazelles
§ Shield separating the two gazelles
§ Two spears on each gazelle
§ Drum in the middle of the shield
§ Shinning light above the drum
§ Three white strips indicate River of Bahr al Ghazal
§ Stance (beam)

Introduction and definition of some terms
1. The two gazelles act as a symbol of Greater Bahr al Ghazal. Bahr al Ghazal is an Arabic which has its own literal meaning. Bahr means River and Ghazal means gazelle. This compound Arabic words would be translated literally into English to mean “Gazelles’ River”
2. Shield. This shield symbolizes warfare of the people of Bahr al Ghazal. There can never be a territory without its own protection authority. Our cultural heritage, traditional believes are being protected by that shield.
3. The two spears indicate that all the youth of Bahr al Ghazal has an obligation to protect culture, religion and traditional believes against any external threat. It also indicates that shields, clubs and spears are the only tools and ultimate means that can protect our political and social will in this society.
4. Drum. This drum shows that all people of Bahr al Ghazal dance to the beat of one drum during any commemoration or cultural day at any season of the year. It also acts as a cultural heritage to the people of Bahr al Ghazal
5. The shinning light means vision and legacy of the Southern Sudanese who fought the war (both alive and the dead)
6. River. The Bahr or River of the people of Bahr al Ghazal being symbolized by the three strips in the bottom of the shield.
7. Stance is a symbolic indication of our cultural heritage which means that “the culture that God has given us should not be changed by anything else unless by God who created it”

OBJECTIVES
We the youth of Bahr al Ghazal do pronounce our position to stand with presidency, government of southern Sudan and to make sure that forthcoming general elections of 2008 are won by SPLM in all levels of the government. This will not be possible when our own people and government are not with us to pave this way to freedom. In simple terms, we want our government to stand with us in every peace initiative which will make 2011 our jovial year (where every citizen of Southern Sudan will say ‘bye to Arabs rulers’). This is an ultimate responsibility for which us youth should be prepared for.
· To make 2011 a year of history by Southern Sudanese whose president is H.E Salva Kiir
· To mobilize and educate people about the visions of SPLM as a political party whose candidate must be a son of southern Sudan and have been a participant in the last civil war.
OUR VISION
We the Youth of Bahr al Ghazal envision a nation where Sharia Law will not govern the common people. Southern Sudanese who fought the war need a symbol that will remain in history (to make 2011 a year of History by winning the polls for separation).
· We envision a new African nation where president Kiir will be a leader.
· We also envision a society where all the citizens speak with one voice and with solidarity, regardless of culture, religion and race. This vision of solidarity will mould southern Sudan history from its previous state into a transformed state where every citizen will enjoy freedom and other rights.

Mission statement
People of Southern Sudan have been marginalized for so long and have been denied right to self-determination by many governments whose headquarters were based in Khartoum. These governments denied us our right for the fact that we southern Sudanese may not give them any chance to get access to our natural resources that are vested in the south here. With this reason, we took up arms and rebelled in 1983 so that our rights are heard all over the world. Some nations who did not understand themselves with us during the years of struggle have known our aims of fighting the northern in 2005 when peace was signed in Kenya by SPLM and NCP of Al Bashir.
· To transform our current lifestyle into a modern life standard
· To mobilize the common people into common goal and through one destiny as people of southern Sudan

STRATEGIC PLAN (S)
The previous north-south war has devastated both human and infrastructural development which need to be replenished with new ones. Bahr al Ghazal Youth Alliance assumes this responsibility to sensitize the entire southern Sudan about the forthcoming primary elections and more importantly, that referendum of 2011 where southerners will decide on the country status. With this expected channel of plan, youth will have to commit themselves in planning how the common people will work towards achieving peace and harmony for the benefit of the people of southern Sudan and other marginalized regions of Sudan.