It was like a rumble of thunder and flashes of lightning when the “One peace, One people” concert kicked off at the Freedom Square in Yei, with plenty of sweat dripping down the foreheads of thousands of jubilant music lovers.

Tumultuous, yet robust and peaceful fans were cheering, chanting, singing, jumping and positively buzzing as a line-up of local artists including the Ana Taban Yei Chapter, Dr. Amplifier, Yei River Adungu for Peace and omnipresent veteran Emmanuel Kembe whipped the crowd into an unheard of, deafening frenzy.

“It is hard for me to describe how delighted I am, seeing such a multitude of fellow citizens, old friends and new ones and even old feuding groups coming together to shoulder a common destiny of peace,” shouted Nuella Kisok, also called MC Diamond, a resident of Yei town. “It is clear that the people of Yei love peace more than anything else…so nice, exciting, brilliant, excellent…all sorts of positive adjectives go for this concert.”

At the event, organized by the United Nations in South Sudan in cooperation with the Yei River government, grandmaster Kembe launched his latest, self-explanatory song “One Peace, One People”, which production was funded by the peacekeeping mission.

Other performing musicians joined the outpour of passionate preaching of positive messages of unity in diversity, forgiveness and reconciliation, the importance of avoiding ethnic division, embracing togetherness and love to make durable peace a reality.

In this spirit, Ms. Kisok urged all South Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries to come back home to rebuild their lives that have been torn apart by years of untold suffering due almost six years of conflict. “But for this to happen we need assurances that the signed peace deal (in September 2018) will not falter anymore.”

Her townmate Saliwa Siliman did not pause to wait for such guarantees but celebrated like there was no tomorrow.

“I am really very happy that we can come together and greet one another like this – this is unbelievable. I hope that I can now happily send my children to school without fear of being killed or tortured or being harassed by those in uniform,” she said in between intriguing dance moves.

Not even people with disabilities were to be stopped from joining their fellow Yei-dwelling partygoers.

“As a blind man, I have still heard the music and I have played and danced,” said local artist Alex Sebit, aka Dr. Amplifier, adding that he could hardly believe his ears.

Mr. Sebit thinks it is essential for the country’s elite to lead by example by being positive role models, but he reckons music might have an even more important role to play. “It can create positive changes by penetrating hard hearts with messages of peace and reconciliation.”

While hardly a stranger to a bit of rocking and rolling to catchy tunes, Victor Fasama, a representative of the UN peacekeeping mission, did remember to point out the essential nature of the peace-affirming slogans embedded in the rhythms on display, and urged attendees to take them to their hearts.

“There are three kinds of people in the world: people who watch things as they happen, those who watch accept things as they happen, and the ones who make better things happen. Be part of the third and last group for peace to prevail in this country,” he said, reiterating the steadfast support of the United Nations to make this happen.

Deputy governor Yusuto Baba was keen to stress the goodwill of the government, demonstrated by giving dissident groups who have not signed the peace agreement leeway to become signatories and add impetus and credibility to ongoing peace initiatives at the grassroots level.

Mawa Malembe, a leader of the Yei Adungu group from the main armed opposition group, is on the same wavelength. He used the festive occasion to send a message to the South Sudanese leaders.

“Instead of fighting one another, let our leaders dialogue on all matters pertaining to their disagreements. If brothers disagree, that should not be viewed as an end by itself but as an opportunity to make their issues heard. The challenge is that when parents fight, it is the children who take the heaviest brunt.”