“THE BLACK bull is chasing the brown bull,” they cried. “The black bull is chasing the brown bull. And now the owners of the land are back.”
Clad in fauxleopardskin skirts and T-shirts calling for separation and a peaceful vote, a group of dancers from the Dinka tribe banged drums and sang as they marched to the gates of Dr John Garang's grave, the southern rebel leader who died in a helicopter crash in 2005.
“We’re the blacks,” said Mike Nyok, trying to dodge his way past two parallel lines of queues snaking around the stadium-sized mausoleum. “The browns are the Arabs. And finally we’ve got our land back.”
Despite queues forming before dawn, there was a carnival atmosphere at Garang’s mausoleum, with south Sudanese flags, identifiable by the yellow star of Bethlehem, pitched against many voters’ shoulders.
Kara Julius Andrew queued since 7am, but was told to come back after lunch. The queue was too long. “We have to choose separation,” he said. “You can see my colour. I am black, so I want my freedom. Since creation, the northerners have done nothing to develop the south.”
The south’s president, Salva Kiir, cast his vote at the mausoleum yesterday morning, recalling the struggle for independence as he did so. “Dr John and all those who died with him, I can assure you that they did not die in vain.”
Garang died just months after signing the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Treaty (CPA) between north and south Sudan, a landmark agreement that brought to an end 22 years of civil war and gave semi-autonomous status to the south. It also made way for this week’s vote on self determination for the south.
“This is the historical moment the people of south Sudan have been waiting for,” he said.
Almost four million of south Sudan’s 8.2 million people are registered to vote in the referendum, with voting continuing until Saturday.
Turnout is important, with the CPA stipulating that a 60 per cent quorum of registered voters is required in order for it to pass.
But south Sudan faces huge obstacles in establishing a functioning state if the referendum is passed as expected, with the US and international organisations working hard to make sure that it does not fall into failed status.
“The biggest challenge is the possibility of weak institutions,” said Joe Feedon, a former Irish Aid worker who now heads the United Nations development programme in south Sudan.
“Fifty per cent of those in the public sector have not been to primary school.
“About 3 per cent have been to third level and the state is not present in people’s lives.
“Even if you go to the remotest part of Donegal or Leitrim, you will be able to find a police station or a clinic or hospital that works. It might not work the way you want it, but the State is present.
“In south Sudan, there are just eight midwives for the entire region, one major prison and there are 50 police stations that we need,” he said. “We are building a state from scratch.”
Ethnic tensions are also a problem, with violence breaking our over the weekend in the states of Unity and Jonglei.
A splinter southern rebel group attacked the army of southern Sudan, the SPLA, on Friday and Saturday in oil-rich Unity state, with six rebels dying, according to an army spokesman.
In Jonglei state, where 1,500 people died in ethnic clashes last year, a similar clash led to the death of at least one person.
"There are big challenges here in terms of ethnicity," said Dan Eiffe, a former Irish Catholic priest who now runs a private newspaper, the Sudan Mirror.
“The chief of staff is a Nuer and his deputy is from Abyei”, a remote region in the north, “so all tribes are represented. But divisions deepen as politicians begin looking for support. They use their people to suit their own ends as they need a constituency.”
Building peace will be difficult, he says, “because people have only known violence”. If the referendum passes, south Sudan will declare itself independent in July.
Other outstanding issues include the future demarcation of the border between both regions and citizenship rights. In a TV interview, president of Sudan Omar al-Bashir said that southerners living in the north would not be allowed dual citizenship.