This week I have been attending the 3rd
annual meeting of the Aguok community in Gogrial town. Aguok are the largest
territorial section of Dinka in the greater Gogrial area. What that means, basically is this: the Dinka
are a large ethnic group, and they divide themselves up according to
geographical distribution. So, in Gogrial East and West Counties everyone is
Dinka Rek, Dinka Rek is then further geographically divided – Aguok is one of
those divisions (Apuk, Kuac and Awan are the others). Aguok then divides up
further… into (I think) 12 subsections.
You might have seen this represented in an abstract diagram in an
anthropology textbook somewhere, but its quite simple really. People also
belong to a clan (dhieth), which is a non-territorially defined patrilineal
descent group. The clan I have been adopted in to, ‘Pagong’ is found across all
Dinka areas. Clan is an exogamous group, so you can’t marry someone in your
clan, but you can marry someone in your territorial section.
Anyway, this was a large meeting organized
by elected community leaders and Aguok people employed in the government
(mainly based in Juba). All chiefs and subchiefs, religious leaders, youth representatives,
diaspora etc were invited. It was pretty star studded, Chief Justice Chan Reec
Madut attended, so did the former Warrap Governor (and now presidential
advisor) H.E Tor Deng Mawein. I also met a woman who had come from the US to
attend the meeting and see her family. It was the first time she had been back
to Gogrial since leaving as a child. She was going to proceed to Khartoum to
see her parents for the first time in 14 years.
The broad aim was to bring Aguok people
together and decide what they can do to develop the community (there is a pot of cash behind this too – the
Constituency Development Fund from the central government which needs to be
allocated, so its not just chit-chat). It is also an opportunity to discuss
other issues too – like relationships between Aguok and their neighbors, which
can be strained. Critically, it was also a pretty good party and a general
celebration of being Aguok.
Four days of discussion pushed my
comprehension of the Dinka language to its limit and I can’t pretend to have
gotten all the details. But now at least I know enough to know when people are
talking about something I want to know about, and I am armed with a voice
recorder so I will be getting a lot of it translated. I find language one of
the hardest parts of research, any anthropologist that claims to be able to
understand everything from a fast and complicated discussion in a language as
difficult as Dinka after 8 months is either lying or fooling themselves.
Alongside the discussions there was plenty
of good entertainment. Including Dinka pop stars John Kudusay and Akut Kuei. I
have gotten really into their music from being here – which is lucky because
its played all the time. Look them up on YouTube. More ‘traditional’ music and
dancing also got everyone up from their seats regularly. Here are some photos.
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| attendees |
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| children dancing with image of Salva Kiir |
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| John Kudusay |
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| anthropologist |
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| cooking on an industrial scale |
wonderful pics
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