A Historic Day's End

A Historic Day’s End

After an immense day of voting in Juba, filled with people celebrating, the polling stations came to close. It was scheduled for 5pm, but with rules stipulating that all those in the queue should have the opportunity to cast their ballot, many centres were still inking voters’ fingers much later.

Many believed that vast numbers of people did not realise that they could vote throughout the entire week — the 9th of January had become so symbolic in the talk of freedom. Or perhaps people’s enthusiasm meant that the citizens of southern Sudan were so keen to participate on this first day that they would patiently pass their day queuing under the unforgiving Sudanese sun.

In any case, when the ballot boxes were closed with their numbered seals, the translucent plastic urns were full of folded slips bearing the stamp of the Southern Sudan Referendum Commission.

For us, it means a long night of editing & filing images, rehydrating & somehow digesting what we have witnessed this nation undertake today. This is history.

Celebrity Spotting in Juba

The media spot-light was on Juba, the soon-to-be capital of a new state if the banners announcing secession are to be believed. And with it came former presidents, high-profile, media-savvy campaigners and a film-star (who ended up with malaria).

A few journalist friends were embroiled with PR representatives, finding out if, and when, Jimmy Carter was visiting the polling stations as part of his role as electoral observer. If, and when, Mr. Clooney would be holding a press conference (NGO workers hanging around his hotel, hoping to get a tipsy snap with him).

The Colour of Southern Sudan

This was their day, and they celebrated.

The result of the referendum is already known. All anybody is talking about is secession. The act of voting is an act of independence. It was met with music, dance and smiles. And a lot of exhausted journalists.

South Sudan Votes

Some never believed that this day would come. But today it had arrived, and the citizens of southern Sudan met it en-masse, clutching their laminated voter registration cards. People had queued for hours, lines having formed since before sunrise on this historic day, the 9th January 2011, the day prescribed in the peace agreement of 2005 decreeing southern Sudan’s right to self-determination.

The voting process was laborious, taking up to seven minutes per voter. Protocol was followed; nobody wanted to risk arriving at this moment and giving anyone any cause to question its undertaking.

Voters showed their registration card, checked their name from a list and impressing a finger-print on the form, then receiving their ballot paper. Walking to the cardboard voting booths, a yellow curtain guarded their privacy (although nobody spoke of anything but secession), and then the slip was meticulously folded and cast in the plastic urns. Finally, their finger dipped in purple ink, they left.

In one voting station in Juba, elderly women ululated as they walked away from their cast ballot, the queues never failing to applaud these people whose lives had existed through decades of civil war.

The Final Walk

Many said they had waited their whole lives for this moment, the “final walk to freedom”. South Sudan has been embroiled by two civil wars since independence in 1956, with just over a decade of respite. It ended in 2005 with a peace agreement, which defined January 9th 2011 as the day of self-determination. Even until several weeks ago, many doubted that this day would actually arrive.

At the John Garang mausoleum in Juba, the future-capital’s main polling station, queues had already formed at sunrise, full of people ready to cast their ballot for secession. This was the day they had been waiting for.