Edmonton Sudanese celebrate independent homeland
Several hundred Edmonton South Sudanese cheered for a newborn country Saturday, believing prosperity and peace are finally possible for the land they fled.
In Edmonton, little girls in yellow dresses, boys with suits and running shoes, and women in bright robes and taffeta head dresses all stood at attention to sing the South Sudan anthem shortly after noon Saturday at the University of Alberta’s Van Vliet centre.
Cheers, and the Canadian anthem, followed.
“I didn’t sleep last night” said Hellen Oywak, 37. She’s exhausted but smiling — they’ve been celebrating since Friday night and will party some more tonight.
She came with her five-year-old son, Noah, and was dressed in a pink dress, the colour is a symbol of women’s rights in Sudan, she explains.
“It’s a bright future for Sudan ... It’s spectacular.”
Men also dressed in army tilley hats, embroidered shirts with green and orange, whistle and yelled “ South Sudan! This is the South! Gone, man! Division!”
The celebration here echoes frenzied celebrations in Juba, the new capital of South Sudan. Crowds went wild when the clock struck midnight and South Sudan celebrated its long awaited day of independence.
Cars filled the streets with horns blaring, and passengers waved their new flag out car windows. Fireworks filled the sky.
“We have struggled for so many years and this is our day — you cannot imagine how good it feels,” university student Andrew Nuer told an Agence France-Presse reporter. Nuer came back from Cairo to celebrate. He stood beside a flashing clock, which read “free at last.”
“We pray to God in the future to help us make this a prosperous and peaceful country, and to show the world that we can do it,” Nuer added.
Hours earlier, world leaders including UN chief Ban Ki-moon had flown into Juba for Saturday’s official celebrations.
“Fifty years fighting for independence and if this is freedom, then this is great,” said Daniel Bol, banging his tin drum.
With files from Agence France-Presse
