By Moyiga Korokoto Nduru *
Aug. 28, 2006

'

Last week I embarked on a trip I initially didn't want to make. I had to travel to Lesotho at a short notice. My ticket handlers said I could fly out of Johannesburg but would not be able to return as scheduled. I'll have to spend two extra days in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho.

I had wanted to call off the trip if a colleague at work had not tipped me about a mutual friend of ours taking a group of journalists over to Maseru by road. Lesotho is completely surrounded by South Africa. And its economy is tied to that of its giant neighbour - South Africa.

It's a six-hour drive from Johannesburg to Maseru. Fourteen Southern African heads of state and government were holding their annual summit in this freezing, snowing mountain kingdom of 1.8 million people who wrap blanket over their body at daytime - even in the street and office - to ward off the cruel winter.

I had gone to Maseru to cover the summit for my news agency.

In the bus, my friend introduced me to the members of the team who come from across southern Africa. Immediately the discussion shifted to John Garang, the late leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A). Many of the journalists in the bus had covered or interviewed Garang when he was alive. His untimely death in a helicopter crash last year, while returning from neighbouring Uganda, had shocked them.

During our discussion, we unearthed some wild conspiracy theories about Garang's death.

In Maseru, too, other colleagues from around southern Africa I had not seen for years asked about Garang's death. Some expressed concern about the future of South Sudan without the imposing figure of the former rebel leader.

Garang was larger than life in Africa. I didn't know that he still occupies a huge space in the minds of Africans, a year after his death.

I was particularly touched by Lereko Phatela, a colleague I had known for more than ten years. I stumbled upon him after checking in a hotel run by his niece in Maseru. He immediately began chatting about Garang.

Phatela is fanatically a pro-monarchist. In the past, whenever I referred to him as coming from Lesotho, he would immediately correct me saying, 'I am from the Kingdom of Lesotho'.

Phatela scoffs at the official version of Garang's death that it was caused by the pilot's error. He doesn't seem to be alone in rejecting the official version of the investigation. To him, anyone who insists that Garang was not murdered must be charged of treason.

Perhaps the most emotional revelation was by Japhet Sanga, a Tanzanian journalist. Returning home at evening that fateful day, his six-year-old daughter came running towards him shouting 'amekufa, amekufa'. Which means 'he's dead, he's dead' in Swahili, referring to Garang. The little girl watched the news of Garang's death on the TV.

In this column, I'm grateful to Phetela, Sanga and John Chola, a Zambian journalist, for sharing their memories of Garang.

Lereko Phatela, Editor, Radio Lesotho:

''John Garang was my brother; an African hero. He inspired us for fighting for the oppressed black people of Sudan.

Garang was a man of the people who wanted to transform Africa and make it a place where we would be respected and live in dignity. He towered above the petty nonsense of religion and race.

I have never met him before. But I like his policies.

When I heard of his death I was shocked. His death is suspicious. I believe there was a human hand in it. How can a big man like Garang die in a presidential helicopter? Africa needs an explanation.''

Japhet Sanga, This Day newspaper, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania:

"When I heard the news of Garang's death I thought there was a foul play. I thought there was a human hand in it. It's hard to believe that one can die in a presidential helicopter piloted and serviced by the best brains in Uganda. One must have a second thought about Garang's death.

I met Garang in Nairobi in 1999. I found him to be rational, intelligent, focused and had Africa at heart. He was a man who believed that Africa's resources should be used to improve the appalling conditions of our people on the continent. He was not an idiot fighting aimlessly in the bush like the LRA (the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda).

I remember coming home from work at evening, when my six-year-old girl came running towards me shouting 'amekufa, amekufa' - that 'he's dead, he's dead' in Swahili. My little girl watched the news of Garang's death on the TV.

When he died, I thought it was the end of the struggle of the people of Southern Sudan. I sympathise with their struggle. It's a religious-orchestrated conflict. The north should not be allowed to impose sharia on the south.

Garang's death is a loss to Africa. He wanted Africa to stand on its feet, have a common voice and goal.

He was one person who wanted to transform Africa's landscape.

But the Garangs and the Martin Luthers were living in a different world and different century. Few Africans understood them.

Madam Rebecca Garang should stand up to the challenge and play her role to liberate her people from the shackles of oppression.''

John Chola, Choice FM, Lusaka, Zambia:

I heard the news of Garang's death when I was in a class with colleagues from other Southern African countries. I share the name John with Garang and a friend of mine in Uganda called me and told me about the death of Garang. Another friend at Reuters in Johannesburg also called me. It was to be the topic of the day in the class at the Southern African Media Trust. It was not only discussed the whole day, but also the whole week, the whole month and up to now nobody knows the cause of Garang's death.

What I knew about him was that he stood for peace in Sudan.

And the results of his absence are now very clear in Sudan. The ruling Islamists in Khartoum are able to put away the United Nations and the African Union seems to be of no relevance in the troubled western region of Darfur.

It's very sad. I think another investigation should be instituted to probe Garang's death.''

This article appeared in the Citizen newspaper August 22, 2006

*The writer is a South Sudanese journalist based in South Africa's commercial hub of Johannesburg. He can be reached by e-mail at moyiganduru2006@yahoo.co.uk