South Sudan First Pilot

South Sudan First Pilot

By Ater Yuot R. Amogpai

Pilot Mading Riak in a Police Uniform Wau  1992

In 1936, the South Sudanese first Pilot Mading Riak was born in Eastern Lakes State, in a village called Aher. He is number four (4) of seven (7) siblings from Apaak clan of Yirol West. Mading Riak and his youngest brother Yuot Riak were the only siblings sent to school by their father Riak Amojpei. He started his Primary School in Aher and Akot villages respectively where he was baptized by name Mathew, but he rarely used this name. He finished his Intermediate School in Loka by 1953 and in 1954 he joined Rumbek Secondary School. In 1959 he left for Ethiopia through Nasir town in Upper Nile State now Latjur State. In Ethiopia he was trained as an airplane and a jet fighter pilot by Ethiopian Air Force where Americans were his tutors. This course made him not only the first South Sudanese to fly an airplane but the first South Sudanese to fly a jet fighter too.

In 1964 Pilot Mading Riak returned to Khartoum on the invitation of Hassan Abbas, the Sudanese minister of defense. Instead to fly a jet fighter, Mading Riak was given a job at el Gazera scheme in the middle of Sudan to fly agricultural aircraft used for crop duster spray. However, he left the job and immediately returned to Ethiopia but he continued his journey to Congo.

In 1963, South Sudan Liberation Movement known as Anya-nay was formed under Commandership of Joseph Lagu. However, the movement was in lack of weapons that they decided to join the Congolese army as mercenaries in their fight against the Simba (lion) rebels. In order to acquire weapons for the Anya-nya rebels, Mathew Mading Riak and some other young Southern Sudanese men decided to join the Belgium Congo army as mercenaries. Prime Minister Moise Tshombe of Congo appointed Mathew Mading Riak as a Captain in the Congolese army.

In 1965, Mading Riak met with other young South Sudanese men who also came through Congo, Kenya and Uganda seeking refuge in Tanzania. They were living in a refugee camp called Mungulani a few kilometers away from Dar es Salaam the Capital City of Tanzanian. Mading was a person when you first meet him you immediately like him. Mading Riak was popular, lovely and funny among South Sudanese who were living in the camp. He used to say to his South Sudanese friends that he is going to America to fly jets.

During their staying in the camp and in one day, they were asked to see a man who was responsible of refugees ‘affairs in Tanzanian. Fifteen (15) of South Sudanese young men were asked to meet this man. Mading Riak was the representative and their ring leader. Mading was suspicious and said, you know what the Sudanese Minister of Foreign Affairs was here two days last week. May be he has made a deal with the government of Tanzania to have us returned to Khartoum. Other Southern Sudanese in schools in this country have been brought back to Dar es Salaam.

Mading Riak and the rest of South Sudanese young men were standing before the man. The man asked “Why are you in Tanzania? What is wrong with Sudan?” Mading Riak stepped forward and answered, Sir, you know there is war going on in Sudan and that the Christians and Africans from Southern Sudan are being persecuted by the Muslims and Arabs from Northern Sudan. The defending case for fifteen (15) South Sudanese asylum seekers did not went well. The case was rejected by the man who was responsible for refugees’ affairs. He refuted that Muslims are peace-loving people and they are here in this country and they never fight with anyone how come they are different in Sudan?

After the meeting with man responsible of refugee’s affairs, Mading and other South Sudanese were ordered to leave Tanzania immediately without delay. The South Sudanese young men left Tanzania for Uganda, Kenya and Congo. Some of them were lucky to find their way to Europe through Christian missionaries and Mathew Mading Riak went to USA through Zambia.

In USA, after completing a preparatory course at Lincoln University (1965-66), Mathew Mading Riak was offered a place to study history at the Ohio State University in 1967. He worked as a flight instructor for a private aviation company in California until 1973. It was reported that during Vietnam War (1955-1975) in which America did involve in 1965, Pilot Mathew Mading Riak participated in this war as a jet fighter pilot. His plane was shut down and he went missing for 14 days but he was found alive with minor wounds on his leg and returned to America. However, this information need further investigation and confirmation.

In 1973, Pilot Mading Riak returned to the Sudan hoping to join Sudan Airways, but instead he took up instructor assignment with East African Airways in Soroti, Uganda. He finally returned to Sudan in 1974 and joined the High Executive Council (HEC)’s general secretariat as a pilot for the HEC until the dawn of the kokora in June 1983. One upon a time, the HEC Pilot Mading Riak did a very funny thing, without knowledge of the HEC’ general secretariat and Juba airport authority.

He informed his village people to clear a running way for landing and indeed he landed and made a history for the first time a plane landed in Alukluak. It was widely assumed that he was missing and that his plane crashed somewhere in the Southern Sudan bushes.

Pilot Mading Riak was a cattle reputed man, he used to enjoy stay at cattle camp in Juba and that he was the cattle camp-leader for one of the cattle camps around Juba. He used to move with his cattle camp throughout the year from season to season from Nyaieng (Juba Na’ Bari) northern Bari to Jebel Dinka South West of Juba. He was as well one of the founders of Thongpiny area, unfortunately his land disappeared in mess.

In the distribution of the regional government’s assets, the plane was allotted to Upper Nile State, but as a citizen of Yirol, Pilot Mading Riak went to Bahr el Ghazal. In 1986, on the request of Mathew Obur, the president of the Southern Council in Khartoum, Pilot Mading Riak was appointed as a police officer. He had a police officer’s training course and was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel to the council.

Mathew Obur had planned to procure a plane for his administration, but Mading Riak continued and progressed in the police force to the rank of brigadier in 1992. When he was purged by the National Islamic Front (NIF)’s regime, Mading decided to join the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, SPLA in 1997. In the movement he volunteered as a teacher at Mapuordit School.

Mading Riak married to seven (7) wives, he married his first wife in 1973 and the last one was in 1991. He was blessed with children and grandchildren. He died and laid in rest in his village Aluakluak, Yirol West in July 2001.

References

1.      Akuemchol A. Jebel Dinka’ in Juba is not a new name, available at southsudan.wordpress.com, accessed March 6, 2019

2.      Kuyuk A, (2015). South Sudan the Notable Firsts, pp. (367-368). Author House, UK   

3.      Jacob A, (2005). The Story of a Lost Sudanese Boys of Sixties, Paulins Publication, Kenya