Tribute to Chief Kuer-Malou Manyok Duot, former Court President of ‘Wangulei Court Centre’, Twic East County

Tribute to Chief Kuer-Malou Manyok Duot

By Atem Garang D. Dekuek, Juba, South Sudan

The death of former Court President of ‘Wangulei Court Centre’ chief Kuer-Malou Manyok Duot, is a great lost. It is sad and regrettable. My condolences to his family, Ayual community and Twic people wherever they are. May almighty God rest his soul in eternal peace.

With the death and by this bitter departure of head-chief Kuer-Malou Manyok Duot, a bright page of generation of giant and towering chiefs is nearing closure. Nearly four decades ago, (1983) I was transferred from Malakal Town Council as an executive officer, of local government, to what was known by then as (Kongor People’s Rural Council) in (Jonglei province); which was composed of today’s Twic East and Duk counties of (Jonglei state). My administrative tasks, together with that of my colleagues, were mainly based and centered on collegial harmonized work with chiefs and local leaders of the area. During my tenure in the area, I was closely engaged and daily collaborating with chiefs in administration of the district’s affairs. I gained a lot from their accumulated wisdom and philosophy of how their communities are managed and administered; similar to what I had learned, earlier, from Eastern Nuer in 1980-81. Late chief Kuer-Malou was among those philosophers whom I learned from them.

When late chief Kuer- Malou was the court president of Wanglei Court Centre, (as today’s Wanglei Payam was known) in 1984; his contemporaries court presidents of the other courts in the district were: late chief Cornelio Duot Bior was heading Kongor Court Centre; late chief Geu Warbek Ayuel was the principal chief of Paliau Court Centre; late chief Manyok Mading Majok was the presiding chief of Maar Court Centre; late chief Leek-Monykueer Deng Malual was the arch-chief of Duk Payuel Court Centre; late chief Manyok Monykuer Mabur was heading Duk Padiet Court Centre; late chief Jok Nhial Jok was the leading chief of Panyang Court Centre, while chief Awai Ajang Awai was heading Wernyol Court Centre and continues to head today’s Lith Payam. All those court presidents, together with their (baany ke lööng, baany ke riel and sub-chiefs) were the real administers and pillars of peace, stability, justice, and peaceful coexistence in the area.

All the chiefs I have mentioned, accidentally, were not only giant, towering and impressive in their physique statures, but they were great and effective leaders of their time and society, they were successful public administrators, professional jurists and magistrates; experts in conflict resolution; peace builders as well as peace keepers, and tranquillity maintainers. They were custodians and sustainers of local customs and traditions on which the maintenance of social equilibrium of the society was based. They were upholders of peaceful coexistence among the various communities that they were leading in the area as well as with the neighbouring communities of other districts.

There is a lot to shed light on, about the role played by chiefs in maintaining peace and stability among their various communities. Chief Kuer-Malou was one of them, who was an exemplary of good leader, a peace lover, hard working leader, constantly pursuing attainment of sustainable smooth relationships based on brotherhood among people of the area to ensure their unity and prosperity.

Following armed uprising in Bor town, in May 1983, the force of Battalion 104/105 left to Ethiopia where they were regrouped and reorganized. Late that year (1983), the leadership of the newly reorganized forces of Bn. 104/105 dubbed as (SPLA), sent to (Kongor People’s Rual Council and Bor People’s Rural Council, both combined together, were, administratively, known as “ Bor People’s Area Council”), a team of SPLA political commissars, under the command of late commander Chagai Atem Biar, with mission: recruitment of young men and to be sent to Ethiopia to join and participate in building and strengthening  new force under establishment for liberation of the marginalized people of the Sudan. 
We, as the local authority in the area at the time, advised the SPLA team to go back, and that the message was well received and would be diligently  communicated on.

Consequently, we effectively and confidentially disseminated the message through the chiefs and community opinion leaders. In early 1984, thousands of volunteering young men were mobilized, abandoned their cattle camps, and flocked to (Court Centres), from where they marched to military training centres in Ethiopia; after which, hundreds of them never returned home to bid an eternal farewell to their parents or relatives, they perished in battle fields far away from their homeland.

The mobilisation and recruitment of the youth, was purely propagated and supervised by chiefs and the elders. The recruitment of young men was not the end of important and pivotal role played by chiefs in making the liberation war sustainable. Another challenging task was the organization and  securing sustainable and effective logistics for feeding thousands of SPLA soldiers, providing porters to transport military equipment from village to the next and beyond -as far as sending porters to Akobo area to bring ammunitions to Panyagoor-, feeding and accommodating recruits from Equatoria and Bahr al Ghazal regions, who were on their way to Ethiopia and transiting through the area, as it was the only safe route in 1984-7. In 1987-8 thousand of school-aged children were rounded up and sent to Ethiopia for (schooling)! Those unaccompanied minors were later christened as the (Red Army). Late chief Kuer-Malou was among the mobilisers.

Late chief Kuer-Malou and his counterparts in other court centres in the then Kongor People’s Rural Council, and other South Sudanese chiefs, had immensely, contributed in establishing, building and sustaining, a mighty guerrilla force and a liberation army known as the SPLA, that led liberation war, which ended in achieving our independence through a referendum in 2011.
Without full commitment by chiefs of the calibre of late Kuer-Malou and other traditional leaders in South Sudan, to support the liberation war, we couldn’t have obtained our freedom and independence.

Late in 1984, the newly graduated military trainees, were militarily equipped and dispatched to various directions including (Bor People,s Area Council) to create war zones and conduct military operations. The arrival of the SPLA forces into the area, constituted the beginning of the SPLA/M era of administration of complex affairs of the local communities. The SPLA political commissars shouldered the responsibilities of day-to-day administration of the local societies.

The SPLA/M newly introduced administration, was seriously flawed and bordering disorder, chaos, and anarchy. The first victim of such arbitrary system was the authority of the chiefs and protocols governing chiefdoms. The most painful experience, faced by local leaders such as late chief Kuer-Malou and the other traditional leaders in the area , was the attitude, method and approach used by the new administrators. Chiefs for the first time in their lives and memory, were subjected to maltreatment and degradation of their official and social status. Our professional based advice was rejected, as we were considered lacking SPLA/M political reorientation, and we were dubbed (bourgeois) equating saboteurs and (potential highjackers of the SPLM/A leadership).

In spite of all that, late chief Kuer-Malou and his counterparts in the other court centres in the area, continued, throughout the period of liberation war, to replenish the files and ranks of the SPLA with new recruits, however, those recruits, at that point, were not volunteers, they were forcefully conscripted and sent to training centres; from there they were deployed to various war fronts far away from home and many of them got killed in action.

What the traditional leaders received from the (SPLA) local commanders, was shocking and unjustified. Though, some sort of order was later on re-established, however, it remained volatile and characterized by erratic rules, even beyond the CPA. The worse of it, is that the SPLA never apologized to the traditional leaders, the mobilizers of manpower and resources that kept the SPLA ticking for 22 years, well fed, always assisted in mobility, and continuously the chiefs kept replenishing files and ranks of the SPLA with new recruits.

Chief Kuer-Malou, had successfully accomplished his national task. Without the role played by the chiefs, SPLA would have remained a tinny hotel-dwellers-organization owned by elites. However, history of this country, one day will acknowledge the noble role of the chiefs in independence of South Sudan and the injustice they had endured.

Farewell humble, inspiring, peace lover and great chief Kuer-Malou Manyok Duot Mayen. May God rest your soul in eternal peace. Amen.

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