Chol Muong Akot was born to Pakuacdiem clan in the present Awan Pajok County of Awan Mourkuau in Gogrial State. He was famous in Awan and beyond for his blessed appetite and wise sayings.
Some senior people in Awan who have firsthand information about the community say Chol Muong was not the only one with a legendary appetite. But there were others with better appetite in the neighboring communities. However, those were not heard because they knew only how to eat to death compare to Chol Muong who was also born with wisdom.
Chol Muong was respectfully called by his first and bull names as Chol Gitbeek because of his outstanding personality. Any living person whilst lived in Awan during Chol Muong’s days called him by these names.
Still, his in-laws felt it was not respectful enough to call him with his first and bull names. And to void this, they call him Mony Anyang-the husband of Anyang; for Anyang was his wife’s name.
Gitbeek is a compounding of two Dinka words: Git refers to stripe and beek is for Saddle-billed stork. The word Gitbeek literally means stripe like a saddle-billed stork.
The Dinka people have belief surrounding this bird apart from its beautiful colors that makes it special for them. That if a saddle-billed stork cries, then there would go to be a human catastrophe. Its cries forecast a doom ahead of mankind. According to this belief, it’s not a cry itself that brings the human suffering, but it’s God that alerts his children when the tragedy is imminent.
Thus, a man of least importance wouldn't bother to choose Gitbeek as his bull name. Instead, he would pick his bull name from the other remaining bull names. This is because it will not match his status in the community, and it may create a loophole in the community’s bull naming tradition.
In addition, the community members, especially the elders, would not give recognition to his newly gained manhood name. Also, he would be regarded as one with hardheaded who doesn't abide by the community bull naming criteria where those with high esteem personalities get the rare bull names and vice versa.
Nhialic agueer abiik (ten miithke)- the God is grinding flour (for his children), and per this Dinka saying, Chol Muong was born on the shore of Yanyyom, a small lake in Awan Pajok County which was his great source of food. The almighty God didn't stop from there and said being near to Yanyyom was enough for him; still, he gave him wisdom.
His wise sayings, which have been used in everyday life of his community and beyond include the one he said while on a visit to a neighboring village to get some slow roasted crushed sesame to eat. Although eating from the neighboring village was a shame, he had not any other option to avoid it since his village did not grow such crops.
On his arrival at the neighboring village, he concluded his long walk at the shadow of Kuruit - a thatching block made from the cut sesame plant stems tied onto wooden poles and left for drying. It was just some few steps away from one house in the neighboring village.
His receivers, however, approached him in the shadow and gave him a warm welcome. They then asked him to come with them into the hut where he supposed to take rest.
To his receivers’ surprise, Chol Muong refused to leave the shadow for the hut, and said: “a person sits in the shadow of what one came for.” As his host heard this, they quickly understood what their guest meant.
In their response, one of them said this: “We are not simple to be lost in the saying. We had now known what you had come for.” During the exchange of words between them, his receivers convinced him and led him into the hut. Good enough, his receivers had information about his usual habit of burying what he wanted to say in his great sayings.
Chol Muong’s other popular wise sayings include the followings:
1. The watching does not kill. If it kills, it would have killed him (Chol Muong) when he was watching one of drums at Atuet in Awiel East State.
2. Accepting someone’s call to share a little food is a pulling of one’s leg.
3. One should send a young person who will add his or her own word in your message and so many other sayings which are not mentioned here.
Now, our story has just begun. For those people who post other people’s photos on social media and claim them to be belong to Chol Muong are misguiding the South Sudanese people in his right photos. They intentionally had been doing this for almost the age of social media. The author of this piece took the above photo from those photos and have you seen has nothing to do with him. In reality, they belong to other well-fed men.
Last January, this author was in Awan, and had showed to a certain an old man, those photos being circulated on social media in the name of Chol Muong to confirm whether they were truly his. The photo of a stranger you see above is one of them the author showed the old man which he dismissed.
“If I could correctly remember, by any mistake, no camera had seen Chol Muong,” said the old man. The elders told me he was a busy man and had got no time to waste standing in front of the camera and wait for seconds for capturing. To be frank, those who claim to have got Chol Muong’s photos are lying to themselves.”
He then belched noisily and paused for a long while to allow the air to flow uninterrupted. “Abi Nhialic wa teek ok-okeek,” said the old man after the belching had ceased. And for their lies, he continued, may the god of our forefathers, let them lose their appetites whenever they want to post a post about our man.”
After a little while, he then departed without saying goodbye to me, and was heading towards his house. Hmm, it upset the old man.
Nowadays, to get Chol Muong’s right photos has remained a mystery to South Sudanese social media users.Those posters wish to have his photos and his never getting old sayings altogether, every time they want to make their post about him. When they did not secure his photos, they post photos of other men of an African origin, citing he was such a fat man.
As a result, these posts, though ignored by the Awan Muorkuau community, has impacted negatively on the real physical appearance of its great man.
In my observation on those individuals’ photos which the posters post about Chol Muong, one can conclude that they were not physically fit based on their appearance in those photos. I suggested that they could not make a living out of hunting and fishing as supplements to their way of life with which Chol Muong was known for.
The author of this piece is closely watching these posters’ activities on social media and wonders if their intention was to tarnish the once physical appearance of Chol Muong or the image of the community. They have got no shy at all. Not even a ten-year-old from Awan can agree that the above photo is of Chol Muong’s leave alone the grown ups.
Whilst on the watch out of their posts they post round the clock, this author has seen with his own eyes some of those photos were almost missing some important human parts. If you have ever came across these photos and had a careful look at them, some of those men were nearly without heads or necks, unlike Chol Muong.
In conclusion, my message to those who used to post photos that have nothing to do with Chol Muong should immediately cease this activity. It’s not any photo of someone with a big belly you come across is Chol Muong’s.
It’s not up to them to guess how he looked in the photo nor the matter of making assumptions on someone’s photo. Imagine if someone, somewhere posts your photo, and made it public with a hundred words supporting it was yours, will you be happy? Surely not. The same thing applies to his people and the community at large.
Even if we have good knowledge of his healthy appetite, that one alone doesn't justify that he was overweight. Please don’t try it NEXT time to post someone’s photo in Chol Muong’s name.
Fatness is not a motto for Awan Muorkuau; and if at all there’s a need for the community to advocate for something, then it would prefer to advocate for fitness.
God blesses South Sudan
