LAUGHTER, tears and song abounded at Woodridge’s St Paul’s Church last Sunday as members of Brisbane and Toowoomba’s Catholic Sudanese communities celebrated the birth of the world’s newest nation – South Sudan.
One of Brisbane’s Catholic Sudanese community leaders Gabriel Ukuno said that, for many, the celebrations started the previous day with the declaration of the Republic of South Sudan’s independence.
The declaration, around noon (EST), was beamed live by satellite TV to thousands gathered at the Yeronga State School hall in Brisbane’s west.
Mr Ukuno also spoke of an olive tree planting ceremony at St Paul’s to symbolise hope for a peaceful future for the new nation.
The tree-planting came in response to a plea to churches around the world by bishops of the new nation.
Woodridge parish priest Fr Dave Batey said he had been “energised” by the spirit of celebration during the Mass of Thanksgiving which started at 2pm.
Woodridge’s two Sudanese choirs – the African Catholics Logan Choir and the St Bakhita Sudanese Choir – combined to celebrate the occasion with song.
Fr Batey said other African communities – Burundi, Rwandan and Congolese – had joined in the celebration.
“It was a great day … just wonderful,” he said.
“The choirs’ singing was magnificent as was the playing of the musical instruments.
“There was a feeling of great joy and hope.
“All were talking about the significance of having their own country at last.”
Mr Ukuno said people were “crying tears of joy” on the day of the announcement of independence.
The planting of the olive tree near the statue of Our Lady behind St Paul’s Church was “a symbol of peace, freedom and hope”, he said.
“The big issue is how we can keep these dreams alive as the trees grow while our young people start their lives in Australia,” he said.
Prayers for a peaceful process to South Sudanese independence were held throughout the world in a campaign, 101 Days of Prayer for a Peaceful Referendum, earlier this year.
South Sudan’s achievement of independence on July 9 followed a January 9 referendum which saw nearly 99 per cent of voters in the predominantly Christian and animist south choose to secede from the rest of mainly Islamic Sudan to the north.
Two million people lost their lives during the long Sudanese civil war (1983-2005) between the north and the south.
The creation of the Rep-ublic of South Sudan last weekend, the climax of a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of war, was reported to have gone remarkably smoothly.
However, areas of conflict still remain.
With only 160km of paved roads, oil-rich South Sudan has an adult illiteracy rate of 85 per cent, and about half of its 8 million people live on less than $1 a day, according to the United Nations.
