Birth of a nation

The title of the NYT video caught my attention because of the nature of the activity indicated by it.

Can a nation be literally "built" from grounds up? 

The "nation" in question here is South Sudan, which, in 2011 seceded from North Sudan and has since been inducted into the hall of nations as the globe's 191st country. 

The contents of the video suggest yet another activity, that of rearing, because a caption describes South Sudan as the world's "newest" country, thereby creating the image of a newborn in my mind. I'm thinking maybe the dominantly white folks (sounded like a bunch of Americans and Europeans to me) who sit around tables inside rooms that look like they've been hijacked from a P.S. in New York City, are discussing the challenges of raising South Sudan properly. What if the "baby" grows up to be an unruly "adult" and create regional mayhem.

(The white folks, by the way, are United Nations officials).

There is a moment toward the end of the video, when a UN representative apprises the group of an infringement by the nascent nation: It is said that the president of South Sudan has just received a call from Barak Obama because the South Sudanese army had tried to invade its Northern counterpart. Obama, we assume, has scolded the South Sudanese for violating the terms of agreement.

As I watched the video, I was impressed by contrasting attitudes of the UN officials discussing, very bureaucratically, the building of South Sudan, and of the Sudanese locals who walk on foot, explaining to the South Sudanese citizens the meaning of the nation and what citizenship rights, rituals and responsibilities are to be shouldered by them.

The South Sudanese are also asked about their feelings.

While the seemingly wealthier and more educated, and thus English-speaking, Sudanese are shown to celebrate abstract values like patriotism and the symbolical richness of the flag (a guy wraps the flag around his portly body), the poorer speak of food, land and livelihood. The latter can't be done without, while patriotism is of secondary significance.

I was touched by the woman who, upon being asked, how she "feels" about coming back to her "homeland" (after remaining in exile), says that in the undivided Sudan she had land, cattle and a house, but in the "new" nation she has nothing. So much for patriotism and belonging in the abstract!

I am reminded of the wholly abstract concept of the nation as propounded by sociologist Benedict Anderson in his 1991 book Imagined Communities. Anderson had contended that a nation transcends being merely a geographical and physical entity; it is imagined into being by those who live in it.

The million dollar question is whether the war-torn, poor and psychically-ravaged-by years of civil war- citizens of this newly birthed nation will have the mental luxury to exert their imaginations thus.

Or, will South Sudan, whose capital city has tentatively been chosen--Juba--effloresce into a full-fledged nation in the imagination of its residents?