Akuol said when the war started, she was young enough and most villages were burned down and destroyed. She only knew the time of re-constructions since she has grown up in the war. She did not or hardly remember what happened thus far. Of course, she was young and heard it from her family that North-South Civil war second phase started in 1983 until peace agreement stopped the war in 2005 in Naivasha, Kenya.
Akuol with Nyawut and Adeng Chuol Machar gathered family members together to celebrate the signing of CPA in 2005. They did not offertorily slaughtered one head of livestock for dinner meal celebrations, but only threw feast dinner for small size gatherings to commemorate the hardship and tribulations they had gone through.
Adeng Chuol Machar as she interrupted said, she was old enough when the North-South Sudan Civil War started. She subsequently asserted that many people died and perished during the North-South Sudan civil war, however Adeng went to riparian river Nile basin’s swampy areas known as ‘Tioc’ in Dinka language for short term hiding and protection from rampage enemies in the localities. There was also tribal conflict in that time in conjunction with North-South Civil war. She did not make it to East Africa, but struggled and hid in the swampy areas before Nuer tribe insurgency massacre in 1991 defection from South Sudan SPLM/A rebel, decided to block the physical infrastructural roads to ‘tioc’ or swampy and instructed them to take as much safer paths for riparian river Nile basin short-term hiding.
In swampy area, Adeng and her family used top of water lilyknown as ‘goor’ in Dinka language plus the fishes for daily meals consumption. Thus far, she did not get any support from the NGOs since she was not categorized as refugee, but internally displaced returnees. Adeng and her family are in the different category as those who migrated to East Africa like Kenya, Uganda and of course, hid in the side of Equatorial areas as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Of course, there were a lot of frequent problems to which people had faced when they were staying in their localities and those problems are cattle raiding and rustling, lack of running water on the ground for livestock, pandemic diseases, and mosquitoes bit if they are not host in the sleeping and staying barns and it is the same problem for people too if they do not have mosquito-nets for outdoor sleeping since there was not any proper shelters. Mosquitoes could also get into the shelters too and most people said it is worth having mosquito-nets instead, although you have shelters such tents and hut-like house that had been built.
Copying Mechanism:
• Nothing to do, but leave them as they raided cattle since there is no hand-guns
• Used pumps to water livestock or take them to swampy area not to die of drought
• Get veterinary medicines to treat livestock as they got sick.
• Put livestock into barns so that they can’t get mosquitoes’ bit
Opinion rating scale from community:
• Get help or support from the community to stop problems facing livestock
• They got supports as well from local forces or authorities
• If problems continue or get severe , Akuol with her participants can get help from the local forces or authorities to stop the problems
From internationals/ UNMIS:
• Akuol with her participants said they did not get supports when some of these problems faced livestock e.g cattle rustlings etc. since UNMIS came for solely purpose to monitor and oversight of 2005 CPA protocols for South Sudan referendum and secession
• NGOs only can host the victimal family members and used their facilities to accommodate them.
Questions and Short-Answers (Q&A):
1.) How have things changed in the livestock sector since the signing of the CPA ?
Nyawut, Adeng and Akuol said nothing has changed since then cattle rustlers are still stealing cattle from the community (ies).
2.) a) Reflecting back on the time of the war, overall do you think were your most important assets (e.g. the qualities of your community and society, your environment, your possessions, your relationships, your skills etc) that helped people survive and remain strong enough to cope with all the challenges you faced because of the war? (Discuss and probe, using check list if necessary)
Adeng, Akuol and Nyawut said as they reflected on the war that they have nothing to say and only to appreciate that they are alive until this time period.
b) Now almost 7 years after the CPA are these assets still available?
Akuol and Adeng said that all the assets they possessed before the Civil war are no longer available. Only happy that there is a peace and still getting tremendous supports from the NGOs.
c)Are there new assets that have become available since the signing of the CPA?
Akuol with the participants said that they are glad that they got new assets after the CPA. Akuol asserted that they have few livestock although she has lost her husband in the war.
d)Do you have any ideas on how these assets can be protected for the future?
Any assets they possessed thus far have their own enemy/or ies. Akuol with her participants said there is nothing they can do to stop them from being stolen.
e)So these were the assets and coping mechanisms that helped you during the conflict. But of course they were not perfect. Do you recognize any opportunities for improving your strategies or consequences that could have been avoided? With the benefit of hindsight, what could you or your community have done differently?
Akuol with her participants asserted that they have no new strategies, or what they can do differently. They are happy with the ‘coping mechanisms’, they have had used.
3.) Cattle play an important role in the culture of the Dinka (cieng monyjiang) – especially in the area of marriage. How has this cultural role changed since the war?
Akuol with her participants said nothing has changed in the Dinka culture or ‘cieng de mony jieng’. Cattle still play important role in the lives of ‘mony-jieng’ although war, has destroyed everything.
4.) Cattle also play a role in causing conflict within families and between sections (wut).
a) What can be done to reduce such conflict?
Per cattle rustling conflict, Akuol, Nyawut, and Adeng said there is nothing that can be done to reduce lessen these problems of cattle stealing. Also people in either community are not stopping communities keeping livestock.
b) Would you ever consider not keeping cattle because of their vulnerability to insecurity? What economic activity would you undertake in its place?
Akuol insisted that cattle keeping can not be stopped since it is engrained in Dinka culture, although livestock’s insecurity persisted. There are other activities that can be undertaken, however cattle keeping can not be stopped whatsoever. Even though you are businessmen, or business-women stop-keeping cattle or livestock is impossible since this is engrained in ‘Cieng de mony jieng’s culture.
5.) What should be done to reduce the insecurity that leads to cattle being stolen?
a) Action by the local population:
Akuol with her participants said there is nothing that can be done to lessen this insecurity related to livestock. These cattle rustlers appear to practice, or fuel this insecurity since they do not have properties to depend or support themselves; only stealing of other people’s livestock is their business to sustain lives.
b) Action by government:
Government can not deal away with these domestic problems since these cattle rustlers are criminals and only law enforcement’s problems.
c) Action by international agencies/ UNMIS:
NGOs or UNMIS do not have roles in this livestock’s problem and only works with humanitarians’ problems. In some serious cases people lost lives, are more likely to intervene when this issue lost lives of people along with their properties. E.g In 2009 of Wernyol Town in Lith payam case, NGOs sent their workers to assess the severity of problems so that they can provide relief aide.
All other observations & comments that could be useful to deepen our understanding of protection issues and help inform the plans and actions of communities, authorities, INGOs, donors, UN
Chol Akol Chol said as such:
NGOs according to Chol Akol Chol said that they are performing their project well. Only things he can’t say anything much as an insider since he is a small enterprise person. CARE for example, provides medication, but has to increase their performance. CARE has to do more than what they are currently doing. On one hand, CARE is doing a perfect job and Chol Akol has no doubt. He is happy with what CARE and other NGOs in the area are doing.
Is there anything you can say to NGOs so that they improve their performance and plans in the community? Chol Akol responded that he is already aware and happy with NGOs’ plans and actions in the community. He urged them to continue with what they are doing thus far. Lutheran World Federation (LWF), for example, in the Twic East County is building more schools in the areas and without them, illiteracy would still be affecting communities since government is not doing anything in eradication of illiteracy per Millennium Goal Development (MGD) So far, Luthern World Federations (LWF) as one of the NGOs in the area, which provide education and school feeding plans for them as they go.
On the inside of protection do you think NGOS is doing something to protect the community (ies)? Protection is so broad and it is a loaded social terminolgy since protection has multiple definitions. According to Chol Akol Chol, said that NGOs and government are both contributed to the betterment of the community in any way. CARE international organization has to improve their performance in providing medication to the community with better treatment. It seems as if they are doing their jobs in the side of healthcare medications and treatments, but they lack better treatments from the ‘highest order’. Save the Children organization ought to improve projects they are currently doing.
According to Chol Akol reiterated that the Save the Childrenorganization should better test the local people they trained before they send them out to the communities so that they can see them put what they have learned into practice. Each workshop training block as they graduate, should put what they learned into practices within Save the Children before they go to the real world workforce.
Focus Group Discussion (FGD) #1
As I spoke to Akon, Adau, Akech and Yar, on the problems they faced due to keeping of cattle. They said that we can not give up cattle, although the insecurity due to raiding is skyrocketing. Keeping cattle is engrained in the ‘Dinka culture and ways of life’ since then and this problem of cattle raiding is not holistic new domestic threats. “In 1991, Nuer tribe insurgency invaded Twic East County and swiped out and raided and killed thousandof thousands of people in the Twic East County and yet we hadstruggled in overtime to overcome that 1991 Nuer ethnic group massacre and cattle raiding-wave in conjunction with the North-South civil war”, said Akon Atem Lueth.
However, “giving up cattle to cattle rustlers since they cause problems or crisis is not at all a solution”, Adau Aguer Bior asserted. She recommended that we better think of other way to resolve this problem. Akech Garang Aguer added that cattle raiding have been ongoing and giving up livestock to the hands of cattle’s criminals is not ‘the way forward’ solutions, but we ought to dis-arm the cattle rustlers first and not the civilians as government did.
We currently live on this community and adapt money economy, where people live on money. Cattle economy, where everyone own number of cattle stockades has been practiced in the Dinka community for decades and centuries back. For example, “Milk of cows is a penicillin or antibiotics to the people of Dinka community here in the Twic East County and if people get sick, they can get well or recover when they are given doses of few cups of milk”, said Akech Garang Aguer
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