Seed of South Sudan Read Free Page B

Sudanese Army (SA) descended on the village and killed indiscriminately.) She wanted to die rather than have the Army kill people as they did then.
    My grandmother said that I would not die in this war, even though she would die. I remember my grandmother told me this war was going to kill many people, and some would leave the country. She took care of me well there in the village and showed me how I could live alone without a parent’s support. She told me to stay happy no matter what bad situation I had.
    She told me Dinka men were the strongest, smartest, tallest—handsome and proud.
    â€œDo you know what Monyjang means?” A new word. It sounded like mon yang .
    â€œNo, Momdit.”
    â€œMonyjang is the only man of the men.”
    It was interesting for me to hear that name, and it made me proud to be Dinka. I believe cultures can help people to survive in difficult situations like what the Lost Boys and Lost Girls had in 15 years of journeying in South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya. South Sudan has been rich in traditional activities, and this kept the boys and girls alive. I believe South Sudan’s different tribes and traditional cultures keep the people together, and make their lives rich and exciting.
    I do know that some people see us as funny because the Dinka men cannot cook, according to our culture. Women are the only ones who know how to cook in Dinka culture. This is a guideline of Dinka culture that keeps men away from the kitchen. We had many rules in our community to inspire people to work hard, learn responsibility and respect people. These rules led us to work hard in America. We are responsible people, and we help our own people, friends, relatives, family and parents.
    Now, I do cook Dinka food for myself and for my fellow Lost Boys in Clarkston, Georgia. Our foods are usually rice with meat, chicken, and lots of vegetables. And I have a Dinka wife, and now a daughter, but I will not have two wives, as is the custom in my village. While I value much that is Dinka, I am changing a bit.
    An outsider is probably confused by all the tribal names in the South Sudan area. It is probably not unlike the differences in regions here in the United States. I understand that there are great rivalries among football teams from different states or areas, such as Georgia vs. Florida, or Auburn vs. Alabama. Or you could think of very popular Super Bowl opponents. However, instead of playing games against each other, young men of the tribes in South Sudan were trained as warriors, and many have long traditions of fierce fighting to protect their various areas in South Sudan.
    Something that is difficult to understand is the lengthy history of our culture. The Dinka and the tribes like them have been in existence since the time of the ancient Egyptians and before. There is a lot of focus on Egyptian culture, probably because of the exceptional pyramids, religious temples, and the pharaohs’ burial sites that have yielded gold, pottery, mummies and many other persistent reminders of a long-ago culture. The excitement has been great, especially since the discovery of untold treasures in Tutankhamen’s grave. But the sources of the Nile—the White Nile and Blue Nile, where many southern Sudan tribes live—were mostly unexplored by Europeans, the writers of much of the world’s history, until only recently, relatively speaking.

HISTORY OF SUDAN AND EGYPT
    Our knowledge of the history of the area of southern Sudan, including the Rumbek area that Majok comes from, is clouded by the absence of permanent structures and written records. Geography and tribal patterns of self-sufficiency kept the area isolated; yet cattle-keeping and other traditions are similar to those in Africa’s oldest civilizations, and indications are that trading with other areas developed over the years. Yet until 1841, the White Nile area, a dense swamp inundated by floods from May to December every year, was never