Gurtong Simply Mean Peace; Not, “REVENGE THE WAR.”
4 min readBy ACHIEK JOK RIAAK
Moreover, in Dinka, gur=close/end; guur=revenge; tong=war. Therefore, Gurtong means close/end the war. The news-site was established on the eve of the CPA, when the war was coming to an amicable end…From the Management.
Thanks Mr. J. Nguen for your critical thinking of diverting “Gurtong” vision into another meaning. Gurtong is an Anyuak (Anuak) word for peace chosen by anthropologist white-man who stayed in Anyuak homeland for long times.
Mr. Ngung, many South Sudanese who did not know the meaning of Gurtong will defiantly come to learn it either on websites or on social Medias, that GURTONG is an Anyuak word for PEACE, if they were not aware of word “Gurtong” before. You, [J. Nguen,] had derives majority attention into this [Gurtong] point, thanks you.
In my own understanding, “Gurtong” is an Anyuak word founded by Whiteman called Kwacakworo, alias Dr Perner, the Swiss anthropologist. Kwacakworo chosen Gurtong because he then understands that, the two words were taking pace.
‘Gur’ means ‘to grind’ or ‘to blunt’ and ‘tong’ means ‘spear’. ‘Gurtong’ therefore means ‘to blunt the spear’ or simply ‘blunt the spear’ by grinding the sharp edges of the spear against something hard until it is blunt. The words and the phrase have their origins in most Nilotic languages: Acholi, Jieng, Nath, Chollo, Pari and Anyuak, read more on Gurtong website.
GURTONG MISSON: A peaceful, prosperous and democratic South Sudan in celebration of values of its cultural diversity.’
So now, Mr. Nguen, I am referring you back to any native of Anyuak to describe a meaning of Gurtong in English, and for more information, Mrs. Angelina Teny, the wife of former Vice President turned rebel is a board member of Gurtong. She can explain more about mission and meaning of Gurtong in her own language too.
Meanwhile, Gurtong’s log has more information, “The logo is a symbolic union and solidarity of the peoples of South Sudan, represented by the Rhino, the Shield and the Shoebill. The Spear underlining the logo is the symbolic rejection of conflict among them and a call for peace and unity, see more on the website as well to know more about South Sudan’s greater region logos. “Gurtong Trust Peace and Media project” target is for peace to “bringing South Sudanese Together” as it motto written.
In Gurtong Management you can found people of difference backgrounds including foreign countries and in fields of reporting, all reporters come from difference ethnicity. So be in touch to anyone you know and he will tell you the meaning and mission of Gurtong Trust.
I want to assure you that, the word “Gurtong,” was not chosen from Dinka word as I explained above. It was a Whiteman initiatives and not a Dinka idea. Yes, we can understand Gurtong meaning in our own language as peace. it has no connection with 1991 massacre as you said.
BOR MASSACRE
Anything that preaches peace has no connection to 1991 Bor massacre that you claimed to be in connected with formation of Gurtong trust peace and media project.
The world [west countries] has no problems; it’s your ideologies together with spirituals believing which put your communities into terrible conditions annually. See clearly after South Sudan’s people achieved Compressive Peace Agreement (CPA) nine years ago, Bor was hosted hundred-of-thousands of Nuer civilians.
But after, Peter Gatdet, defected and joined Riek’s rebellion in December last year, those civilians also defected and joined the movement. But as of now they are suffering in jangles without clear reasons of why they defects from their own government.
The massive defection was cited by spiritual leaders, who simply won innocent citizens interest by then. We urges you to reversed your statement and analyze causes of current crisis first before any attack sir.
In a community where traditional spirits has more powers, that community always failed to achieves stability. This crisis was caused by power sackers and spiritual factions of Riek Machar.
In 2009, Nuer youths launched several attack on Dinka communities in Duk county but none of Dinka community organized any single revenge attack on Nuer villages.
Any Nuer who talked about “Bor Massacre” has no good vision of this country. If Bor Dinka was mush concerned with Bor massacre then Dr. John Garang’s son would have not joined Riek Machar rebellion because he’s from Bor tribe.
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