The people of South Sudan are being encouraged to use intermarriage as one way to curb tribalism and build up the new nation’s unity.
Lakes Deputy Director of HIV and Aids Commission Peter Gum told Good News Radio that cross-cultural marriages create blood ties that have the ability to reduce tribalism.
He said Arabs did not get along with the people of South Sudan because they did not allow their daughters to marry Southerners.
Mr. Gum alerted that Dinka high bride prices are impeding men of other tribes from marrying Dinka girls and build stronger ties between the different communities in South Sudan.
Mr. Gum said God could be another uniting factor in South Sudan leading believers to respect and love each other.
He also encouraged Southerners to establish forums that can promote interaction between different groups in South Sudan, including sports and youth associations that can bring people from different places and cultural backgrounds together.
The ongoing conflicts in different parts of South Sudan like Abyei, Upper Nile, Lakes and Western Equatoria States are raising deep concerns about the stability of the world’s newest nation to be come July 9.