The Chol Muong We Will Never Know

By Deng Kiir Akok

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

In memory of chief Jubek, Mobil roundabout's another victim after CE & Juba market

By Deng Kiir Akok,

I was a bit late to arrive at London Cafeteria in Atlabara, Tumbura road where a friend of mine invited me for lunch last Thursday Jul 20, 2017.

On my way to cafeteria, I received almost five telephone calls from him asking for my current location while coming. I told him I was at Mobil roundabout.

As though I had invited the problem, one bus passenger that was sitting next to me nodded his head, feeling sorry with the name I used to call the roundabout.

" What? Come again! Why don't people ask for the name of the place if they are not familiar with before locating themselves to others," said the passenger in a loud voice. Then he looked around trying to see his sympathizers.

In 2011, the then Central Equatoria state demolished the part of the Juba Market with the intention to turn it into a Square.

The part of the market that was demolished was then fenced off from the neighboring buildings, including Juba main prison in the south-east, Juba northern sector police in the east, Ivory bank in the north and Jubadit store in the west.

People were trying it very hard to figure out what exactly would the state do for the demolished part of the market.

A rumor didn't take patience and it had that this place, once the demolishing is over, would be surveyed and redistributed to their former owners. So shockingly, it was signposted Jubek Square overnight.

The square was named after Jubek, a British colonial period Bari paramount chief with his base at Kondokoro Island. Also the current capital of South Sudan, Juba derived its name from him.

It was time for Jubek state to put something to honor their fallen hero. He was to be remembered in this particular place thought other places with such name are coming soon.

In 2015, the president of the republic of South Sudan, Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit, had issued a decree creating twenty-eight states from ten states. This was the first time for South Sudanese to give names that are not of geographical or political background to their States.

Most of the former ten States' name didn't make comeback in which the former Central Equatoria State was one of them.

The move marked the end of the British colonialists' and Khartoum's meaningless and war mongering names for the southern Sudanese residential areas such as Atlabara, Rujal Mafi in Juba, Jubek State and Kor-Sahud in Kuacjok, Gogrial State.

However, the northern Sudanese and British colonialists in particular seem to have been defeated in pronouncing southern Sudanese names for people and places.

But they never gave up calling these names. Thus, their poor pronunciations led to the creation of different names apart from the existing ones as the like of Gakrial that becomes Gogrial.

The same thing happened to the present day Wau which was called Wath. Toc becomes Tonj, Mading Ayuel to Awiel, and other towns that share the same grievances and didn't appear in this list.

No name that got correct pronunciation from the colonialists. Thus, every name for the people of southern Sudan or the place was getting wrong in the mouth of northern Sudanese and British colonial masters.

As the time went, the correct southern Sudanese names were gradually forgotten and completely gone.

Since the current thirty-two states are maximizing freedom within their territories, the governor of Jubek State, Augustino Jadallah Wani renamed Mobil roundabout 'Jubek roundabout in May 18, 2017.

The renaming ranked Mobil in third position in the list of places that saw a drastic change of their original names into chief Jubek's name after the former Central Equatoria State and part of the Juba market.

Mobil is an American oil company that operates petrol stations in many countries including South Sudan. It had in the past a petrol station at this roads join lying between All Saints Cathedral church and Juba teaching hospital before selling it to Patronas, then to foi and finally to the Nile Petroleum Corporation.

The majority of Dinkas assumes that the place was called Mabil, a Dinka word for a male cow with dark brown color covering large part of its body with some white colour. Instead, it was just a coincident that brings their bull's colour Mabil near to Mobil.

Although the statue of chief Jubek at the roundabout is now looking good with a cowboy hat, hoe, bow and arrows, still it would miss many generations without calling it Jubek roundabout.

The council should have learned from the experience of the former Meridian Hotel at Suk al-Arabi in Khartoum which was renamed Regency. No one never calls this accommodation industry with its newly acquired name.

If at all the city council wanted to have a good number of places named after chief Jubek, they should have looked for nameless places. Streets are good examples.

To conclude this piece of writing, I hold no bad intention against the State's will but just putting suggestions so as to help it avoid clashes of names like the current confusion in the former Mobil roundabout.

Another thing for the city council to have done was to put a signpost bearing the new name for the roundabout such that it directs whoever pass that  place.

Also, I would have welcomed the council's decision if it had built Schools apart from Jubek Model Secondary school in Gudele, public libraries, museums, and then name them after Jubek.

In doing so, all the people living in the capital Juba regardless of their nationalities would never miss to mention this Bari infamous name  in their everyday lives.

Dinka people - from liberators to MTN

By Deng Kiir Akok

It was on Friday, March 10, 2017 night when I was thinking of what would be the fate of the Dinka travellers on Juba - Nimule and Yei roads this time after the national prayers.

In the minds of South Sudanese people, the Friday national prayers were meant to change and prepare the hearts of the country's politicians to be ready for the involvement in the long awaited national dialogue which was due to start this month.

Another hope for the prayers was to forgive one another.  Some of us were praying to the almighty God asking if He could change the minds of the Equatoria's roads terrorists to abandon their evil nicknaming and killing of Dinka people.

The MTN's slogan, "Everywhere You Go," had been used by the killers along Juba - Nimule and Yei roads to categorically kill Dinka and leave non-Dinka bus passengers since the war broke out in 2013, between the forces loyal to President Salva Kiir and his former Vice President and rebel leader Dr. Riek Machar.

During the liberation era, the Dinka people from their areas in two regions of Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile, joined the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) in thousands. And that material support was much appreciated by other southern's ethnic groups who had also taken part in the struggles.

Because the majority of those minority tribesmen and women with the exception of Nuer were able to made it to school. That scare opportunity at the time enabled them to enjoy military administrative positions among mostly cattle keeping experienced SPLA Dinka soldiers.

In fact, it's not too late for these small tribes and the Equatoria's roads terrorists in particular, to honour the services the Dinka people did for this nation by providing thousands of fighters in the two bitter south - north civil wars that gave the South Sudanese people, a separate state from Sudan in 2011.

Instead of giving Dinka people a credibility, the roads killers nicknamed them to be MTN. Not only that, they also hate them to death and kill them to make their hatred toward Dinka people a reality.

They search the travelling buses for the forbidden goods as their term to refer to Dinka people. When a Dinka is found in a bus, is mocked at for a short time and then ruthlessly kill.

Believe me or not, if those victims of Equatoria's roads would make their way back to life right now and asked whether they wanted to travel on the same roads, they would 'strongly disagree' with the question.

The reason why they would not choose to avoid these roads is very clear and no one would need more explanations for that. This is because of inhuman they had encountered and eternally took their dear lives.

Those roads killers with stone faces stationed somewhere in the outskirts of Equatoria's towns as they look for members of the Dinka tribe.

The fact that the Dinka people are found everywhere in South Sudan and especially on Equatoria's land, prompts the haters to match the matter with that of MTN's famous slogan.

What does this imply in the African tradition for Dinka's haters? No grounds that would deny they are bewitching the community.

But they lack knowledge that the Dinka being the largest tribe in South Sudan was a gift from God and no son of man could alter the creation as I always say. I also wrote on this matter in my previous articles.

Reducing their number by killing some of its members on roads would not finish them, but rather would put them on high alert for the threat poses by those hired assassins.

"You will kill them (Dinka people) till you get tired as the Arab did," wrote one writer on Paanluel Wel blog in reaction to the killing of Pope Ajiith Akuei, a former SPLA officer and Professor at University of Juba, last year on the Juba - Nimule road.

Of course, killing Dinka people on their ways from Juba to Nimule, Yei and other towns of the region that are not mentioned here, will not finish them anyway, but it would make the entire Dinka tribe develop a recurring hatred toward the people of Equatoria region.

One would be surprised and left mouth open if he/she hears that some of the non-educated Dinka people in the remote villages, deep in Greater Bahr el Ghazal are not aware up to the current time that they are called Dinka, but what they know is that they belong to Jieng.

So far, they don't know Nimule, Yei and Kaya where their beloved sons and daughters are killed around the clock.

To be frank, they heard of Juba and Malakal in South Sudan, Khartoum in Sudan, and Bilpam, Panyiido and Bongo SPLA military bases in Ethiopia for training during the southern Sudanese insurgency against the Khartoum government.

For one to make sense of  the current problem facing the Dinka community in the region, those Equatoria's roads terrorists might have fed up with the tribe's dominance of tea places, lodges, hotels, restaurants, churches, mosques, schools and market places of non-Dinka towns. Leave alone their present in the national government and the army in big numbers, which had already driven some of the Equatorians mad.

Those roads terrorists, intentionally refused to recognize the fact that the then country's southern tribes, including the Dinka whom they called MTN this day, had fought the north for one common interest before and after the independence of Sudan in 1956.

Last but not the least, it's time now for South Sudanese people to unite and forget their past grievances.