The Origin of the Name “DERGEL” and the Controversial Confusion with the Aliab Dinka’s Maduany Dance
By Manyang Chapa II, Awerial, South Sudan
Sunday, 25 May 2025 (PW) — On April 8, 2024, I shared an article here on my Facebook timeline titled “Dergel: How the Name Came About.” I wrote it to respond to a controversial debate among the Mundari intellectuals in regard to the Aliab Dinka’s intention. The debate at the time was centered on the name Dergel; what it means, where it comes from, and why it is mistaken or confused with the Aliab Dinka’s Maduany dance.
I would like to write this article again to bring clarity and truth of this matter, and to correct the controversial confusion among those who may not know or who didn’t know the original meanings of these cultural names and traditions and who are misled by the conspirators crew, the experts of conspiracy with the agenda of satisfying their ignorance.
What Is Dergel?
To answer this question, I had to be fair and sincere once and for all. The name Dergel as I once explained clearly and clarified properly is extracted from the Gel tributary of the Nile River, that runs through the Nyangwara land of Rokon at Tapari, Moru land of Ke’di’ba and the Mundari lands of Tali and Tindilo. Gel in or to the Dinka is another name for a River. In the context of the Dinka Aliab’s and across the Dinka (Jieng) world, Gel is a river. It is also called “Teer” in the Mundari-Bari spoken dialect.
The name Dergel is meant by the Aliab Dinka to refer to the western section of the Mundari Community. It is not the name of a traditional dance. Many people, both from within the Mundari and outside, have mistaken and confused the name Dergel (noun) with Muduany (verb), the traditional dance of the Aliab Dinka. This confusion has caused the distortion of both the Mundari and Dinka Aliab’s cultural heritage.
To understand the name Dergel, one must first look at the language definition of this noun, the phonetical coining of an affix joined to a prefix that form it or form to it.
The Origin of the Name
- Dergel comes from the Dinka Aliab’s phonetically joined two affix and prefix words: A). “Der,” a short form affix derived from name Mundari. B). “Gel,” a Dinka word for river, referring to a tributary of the Nile, added as a prefix to join or coin the two together to form the name Dergel.
The Aliab Dinka, who bordered the Mundari in the West, Southwest and South, invented the name Dergel to mean “Mundari of the Gel River.” These are the Mundari people, or one of the Mundari sections living along or around the highlands and lowlands of Gel.
To the Aliab, Dergel simply means “the Mundari people who occupy or who are occupying the highlands and lowlands ares around the Gel River.” The Dinka (Jieng) language and the Mundari-Bari spoken dialect call rivers by different names; Gel in Dinka and Teer in Mundari. But all got the same meaning or definition.
- Dergel (noun) as the Western Mundari section who occupied or lived along and around the Gel River.
The Aliab Dinka referred to the Western Mundari section, as Dergel, because their areas, from the Golo of Mijiki, Lokwen of Jabor, Asun of Mokido (Mendele), Agorthith of Dari-Na-Arre and Duony of Mandie are located along the Gel River. These areas used for grazing and as dwelling places during summer are divided by the Gel River. The Mundari people who lived in those areas became known to the Aliab as Dergel.
Related Names: Derkur and Ciir
In a similar way, the Aliab Dinka referred to the Mundari who lived around the Tindilo hill “Derkur,” meaning; “Mundari of the Kur (hill or mountain).” In Dinka, Kur means hill, stone, or mountain. In the Mundari-Bari dialect, mountain is Meree. The Mundari themselves call this group or section “Meriya,” meaning Mundari who live “around a mountain.” Meriya to the Mundari and Derkur to the Aliab are between the Central Mundari and the Western Mundari. They occupied places such as, Seto, Peri, Rejaf, Mundari Bura and Gora respectively.
- Another example is the Ciir section of the Mundari (called Siira in the Mundari-Bari spoken dialect), who live along both sides of the Nile River. The Aliab Dinka call the Nile Ciir; a term different from the Kiir used by other Dinka groups like Rek and Padang.
So the names Dergel, Derkur, and Ciir all come from natural landforms and describe where the particular Mundari people live, not how they dance or celebrate dancing.
The Confusion with the Maduany Dance
- However, people who do not know anything to do with the Maduany dance, who couldn’t or wouldn’t trace anything to do with it 100 years ago wake up from their sleep and started to give it unknown name or untraceable inference or reference. They confuse Dergel (a noun) with the Aliab Dinka’s Maduany dance. Some even went so far to call it Kubalo, but that is incorrect.
Let me be clear, Maduany is neither Dergel nor Kubalo.
I). Muduany is not a Mundari dance.
II). Muduany is not Dergel, has never been called Dergel or Kubalo by the Aliab Dinka or by the Mundari Dergel themselves or any of the Mundari sections.
III). These inference and labeling are foreign to both the Aliab Dinka and the Mundari Community, are added by the outsiders without proper knowledge of tradition or language of the Aliab Dinka. This is what I correctly termed as those who want to advertise their ignorance who unknowingly labeled it to achieve their conspiracy or distortion of history agenda.
What Is Muduany?
The real name of the dance being confused with Dergel or being falsely inferred to be Kubalo is Maduany or Atorok dance, also known as the Aliab dance (Leng-Atorok). It is a special traditional dance of the Aliab Dinka, that is separate from: the Twi East Dinka dance (Leng-e-Twic), the Atuot dance (Leng-Atuut) and Mundari several dances (the Diki, Gwelle, Tolo, and Loyumö).
The word Muduany comes from the Dinka word Duɛny or Duony, meaning “smashing” of oneself or a thing. It is a smashing style of dancing where the dancer jump up and down. That’s how the dance is defines. Dancers leap themselves up and down in a slow rhythmic pose. Though performed with energy and emotion, the motion of jumping either up or down is slow or calm.
The Types and Sessions of Maduany
- Awaak Maduany Dance.
After a victory, Leng-e-Maduany or Leng-Atorok is danced when a man has killed one of the dangerous wild animals, such as a lion, an elephant, or a leopard. When this happens, the man, whether a hunter or a rescuer informs his clan men and members of his family on what he he has done. A drum is beaten to announce the news across the Aliab. Messages are all sent to inform those who are in places about the place, time and day of the dance. This type of Muduany is called “Awaak.” It is danced for two days to honor the man’s courage and bravery and exactly where the animal was killed or in the man’s household. It is a celebration of victory, manhood, and art of skillful hunting. One of the examples of Awaak Maduany dance was the greatest Awaak Maduany dance at Jarweng (Pan-Luel), probably late 1920s or early 1930s, or immediately in between after the killing of the Cobra of Pan-Maan Bol, Akolic Majak and the Lion-King Ajengjong by the Luel subsection of the Roor-Apuuk section of the Aliab Dinka.
- Keeny Maduany Dance.
In the marriage ceremony known as Kɛɛny, it is an important and joyful time of dancing Muduany in the Aliab Dinka. Here, the young men who are the relatives or immediate clan youth of the groom escort the cows to the bride’s home. The number of the cows depends on the beauty of the girl, the nature of the marriage (especially when there is a competition), the status of the girl and her family. During this process, Muduany is danced with great joy for three weeks or even a full month. It continues until the groom’s family leaves all the cows with the bride’s relatives and waits for the agreed date of dowry negotiations. This form of Muduany brings families and clans together in celebration of the union and showcasing of the Aliab’s culture.
- The Atorok Festival, Maduany Dance.
Atorok Festival is a harvest festival of the ancient Aliab Dinka held between November and December. The four sections of the Aliab Dinka, Akuei, Roor-Apuuk, Belook, and Akeer would gather at the Atorok’s sacred ground called Kal-Anok (Anok Nyinger’s Hut). There, they sang, danced, and thanked their ancestors and the gods for a good harvest. The youth formed dance groups by age and clan, and girls chose the youths from whichever section or clan they danced dance with. The festival is held for seven consecutive days or sometimes may take a month and on annual basis. It has survived the test of time from the earliest 1910s to the late 2000s. Though Maduany dance did not originate from Atorok or in the Atorok’s festival, the festival itself served as a stage to showcase Maduany. Atorok Festival as I demonstrated was one of the greatest cultural events in the ancient Aliab world, it was a celebration of identity, prosperity, cultural art, heritage and civilization.
- Maduany dance and Traditional Wrestling.
Another type of Maduany dance is danced at a traditional wrestling. The relationship between Aliab’s Maduany dance and the Aliab Traditional Wrestling (Yuet or Ayang-e-Mayomraap) isn’t limited only to songs, but also rooted in how the two arts were joined by tradition to forming one complimentary civilization to itself. This is the narrative that those who are confusing Muduany dance for Dergel should know. Muduany’s connection with wrestling is what made it easy for the neighbours of the Aliab Dinka like the Mundari, especially the Dergel section to adopt and imitate both Maduany dance and the traditional Aliab Dinka’s wrestling of Mayom-Raap.
Last but not the least, beyond the 1930s, a decade after the Aliab Dinka have just recovered from the British-Aliab War of 1919, Atorok Festival was celebrated annually. Alongside the Atorok’s Festival, there was Mayom-Raap’s wrestling in Pap. Mayom-Raap wrestling was the earliest recorded wrestling in Aliab cultural history and in the history of wrestling as traditional sport. It is from Mayom-Raap, in my opinion, that the Aliab traditional wrestling was born, before spreading in the 1950s to areas like Tali. The name “Mayom-Raap,” in the context of the Aliab’s old men or women is the actual synonym of wrestling itself.
There is no record of either Muduany or wrestling among the Mundari and within the Mundari Community before 1950s or 1960s. If Muduany dance has Mundari historical origin, it would have had a meaning in the Mundari-Bari spoken dialect. Secondly, the Mundari dancers of Maduany and wrestlers in the 1950s and 1960s mustn’t have sang, Maduany and wrestling songs in the Aliab Dinka’s dialect.
In 1960s, the first Mundari wrestling champion; the great and undefeatable Majaka Lo-Morur of the Dari-Na-Arre (Mapilari), whose wrestling prowess, capabilities and strength surpassed all wrestlers of his time in Mundari and Aliab lands and who was taken as far as Khartoum to wrestle with Nubians by then government sang all his wrestling and Muduany songs in Aliab Dinka’s dialect.
Another remarkable Mundari champion and now the head-chief of the Mokido B. Court or the Regional Court President of the Mokido; Morkulang-Acieng Buse was a wrestling champion of the Mundari to have had participated or wrestled at the great Mayom-Raap wrestling ground; too sang his wrestling and Muduany songs in Aliab Dinka’s dialect. This is a strong evidence that both Muduany dance and the traditional wrestling were borrowed and imitated from the Aliab Dinka by the Mundari (especially Dergel) in the 1950s and 1960s, spreading further in the 1970s and most of all in the 1990s and 2000s.
In conclusion, the confusion of calling Muduany as Dergel or Kubalo is wrong and disrespectful, since mine isn’t history but clarification to both the Aliab Dinka’s and Mundari tradition. Those who spread these terms cannot explain their meaning, and that alone should aware or inform them that, they are wrong. To the subject matter:
- Dergel (noun) means “Mundari of the Gel River.”
- Derkur (noun) means “Mundari of the Hill (Tindilo).”
Therefore, Muduany is the Aliab Dinka’s traditional Atorok dance, a “smashing of oneself or a thing.” It is also a slow jumping up and down kind of a dance. Muduany is danced during the harvest Atorok festival (Leng-Atorok), Kɛɛny marriage ceremonies, Awääk celebrations, and finally during or at the Mayom-Raap wrestling competitions. I hope, everyone who has been confused by the distortion of our culture and history may take it from here against the conspirators. We all must protect the truth of our culture, heritage, tradition and civilization, because we are the custodians of our very culture.
The author is a civil rights activist, cultural critic and opinion writer. He can be reach through; manyangchapadit@gmail.com. Disclaimer: © opinions expressed above are the author’s and do not represent those of any person, community, or organization.
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