Gatdoah

Gatdoah

by | Oct 7, 2018 | 0 comments

Gatdoah

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An old woman and her son lived together in their small grass thatched house. They had a hen and three sacks of maize grains which they usually fed on. Sometimes they could go to bed having spent the whole day without eating anything. At some point in time, this became a routine.

One day the son was moving in the village when he saw a rat being hit to death. He asked, “Why are you killing the rat?”
The people replied, “The rat has eaten our maize grains.” The son told them he would give them some of his maize grains. The people were happy and so the rat was freed. So the son went home and set about dividing the few grains he and his mother had and gave out some to the men from the village, as promised.

The two of them continued with the usual way when some days later he met with a cat being beaten to death and he asked again, “Why are beating that cat to death?”
“The cat has eaten our hen”.
The son told the men, “I am going to compensate your loss with a hen, so you let the cat go.” They did exactly that and they continued with their usual way of surviving with the mother, they planted and their crops grew and now they had enough to eat.

Reflections:

1.) What can we learn from the way the son intervenes and the solution he brings?

2.) Does he loose anything by stepping in to help the animals who are being beaten?

3.) Have you experienced stepping in to help when you think someone is being treated wrongly?

 

Storytelling Session Details

Storyteller: Nyayang Ruach
Language: Nuer
Community: Nuer (living in UNMISS PoC)
Story Researcher: Nyechuol Ruai
Place: Juba PoC
Date: 2015

From the Story Researcher:
This teaches us of patience and how to value lives of others around us. I picked that story because when I looked at it I thought of the society we are in now. Where someone has done a simple mistake it’s taken as a heavy issue where it leads to loss of lives. The boy in the story saw grains and a hen couldn’t lead to a loss of lives and he had to solve it.

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The Story of the Young Man and the Skull

by Na'eesh Mabadh Team | Na'eesh Mabadh Radio Programme

Nyechuol

Nyechuol

by | Oct 7, 2018

Nyechuol

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Nyechuol was the only girl among her brothers. She was so loved by her family that she was favoured above the rest of the house. A cannibal who was barren heard about her and said, “I will get her,” because she admired her and she wanted her to be her daughter.

The cannibal practiced witchcraft so that she could take her. The following morning, the old woman (the cannibal) came to the home. The parents and siblings were not around. She found Nyechuol playing in the compound of their home. She said “My young daughter, I am someone who needs water, can you give me water?”

The little girl said, “We do not have water.”

“Can you get for me some water from the river?” The old lady asked.

Can you get for me some water from the river?

While Nyechuol was going to fetch water, the old lady followed her and told her, “Should I take you or should I eat you?”
Nyechuol answered, “Just take me.”

So she took Nyechuol to her home, then cooked for her dry meat and mixed it with ghee. After Nyechuol had eaten, she hid her on the rooftop and told her that that is where she would be staying.

The next morning, the cannibal went hunting. It was normal that when she came back from hunting, she would sing and Nyechuol would then sing after her.

Months later, Nyechuol grew fat. Every cannibal around was admiring her, and would ask her for her hand in marriage. But the cannibal woman told them that she would not get married to a cannibal, but to her fellow Nuer.

As you have been seeing me here, I am a barren woman; I know Nyechuol’s real parents

After some years, Nyechuol was a fully grown-up adult and her cannibal mother decided to relocate to Nyechuol’s former village and move there with their cattle.

Over there, Nyechuol participated in traditional dances which were conducted in the evenings until the small hours of the morning. Even her own brothers admired her because they could not recognize her since she had turned into a fully grown-up woman. Her cannibal mother told Nyechuol’s real father to brew some alcohol, and also the rest of the neighbouring villagers, since they would have a gathering.

The following morning, they gathered and the cannibal said, “As you have been seeing me here, I am a barren woman; I know Nyechuol’s real parents.” She pointed at Nyechuol’s father and when he was about to stand, he fainted. The mother
and siblings also all fainted.

The old lady took three fat cows and slaughtered them, and Nyechuol was re-united with her family.

A couple of months later, Nyechuol walked down the aisle and the cannibal woman was greatly rewarded with cows and other gifts. Then later, she brought her cows and gave them to Nyechuol’s brother Jakok. Then Jakok married a wife for the cannibal woman. They stayed in harmony and peacefully with each other.

Reflections:

1)  In this quote, “she would not get married to a cannibal but to her fellow Nuer,” who does the cannibal represent? What does that tell us about the way we have been taught to perceive people from other communities?
2.) The old lady in this story is immediately identified as being a woman who seems to not fit into cultural norms. She is labelled as ‘barren’, a ‘cannibal’, a ‘witch’; yet she is also the owner of cows which enable Jakok to marry a wife for her. The old lady is therefore both stigmatised and advantaged; powerless and powerful. What does this demonstrate about issues of identity and gender for women in South Sudan? What do we see about society’s expectations of what a woman should/can be?
3.) Think about how this story may contribute towards both peace and conflict in South Sudan.

 

Storyteller: Nyadoal

Storytelling Session Details

Storyteller: Nyadoal
Language: Nuer
Community: Nuer (originally from Rubkhona, living in the UNMISS PoC at the time of project)
Story Researcher: Nyechuol Ruai
Place: Juba PoC
Date: 2015

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The Story of the Young Man and the Skull

by Na'eesh Mabadh Team | Na'eesh Mabadh Radio Programme

A Wife Demands the Death of her Mother-in-Law

A Wife Demands the Death of her Mother-in-Law

by | Oct 7, 2018

A Wife Demands the Death of her Mother-in-Law

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A couple had been in a courtship for years and one day the guy told his girlfriend that they should get married. She agreed, but she gave him a condition: “Unless you kill your mother, you cannot marry me.”

Unless you kill your mother, you cannot marry me!

The young man took his spear and went back home to kill his mother. But before he entered the house where his mother was with his siblings, he peeped through the window and he saw his mother was eating. Then his baby brother defecated; the mother wiped her son clean and she continued eating. After a while the same baby boy vomited and again she wiped him, then after she continued eating without washing her hands. The son was emotionally touched while he was peeping from outside. Then he entered the house and asked his mother, “So, this is how you have been nurturing us?”
His mother answered, “Yes.”
Again the son asked her, “This is how exactly you have been nurturing me?”
“Yes, my son,” the mother said.
“Mother, when I was coming home I had my spear and I wanted to kill you
because I have a girlfriend whom I want to marry. She told me that I should
first kill you so that I can marry her, but I was emotionally touched when I
saw you wiping my baby brother after he defecated and vomited, and you
didn’t wash your hands and you just continued eating.”
The young man decided to shift his mother and siblings to a different village and made for them a new home. Then he came back and he paid a full dowry and married his girlfriend telling her, “I have killed my mother as you asked me to”.

After some months, the new wife got pregnant. While in her seventh month of pregnancy, the husband told her, “We are going to construct our two houses and you will be the one carrying all the building materials like grass used for thatching the house, but also you have to do the domestic work.”

She replied, “I can’t do all this work alone because I am pregnant. Maybe I will get one of my sisters at home to help me.” But the husband insisted, reminding her, “You asked me to kill my mother who could have been of help to you, and so you should do the work.”

This became a routine even during her second, third, and fourth pregnancies, and she complained to her husband, “Whenever you know I am pregnant, that is when we demolish the houses and construct the new ones!”

I can’t do all this work alone because I am pregnant. Maybe I will get one of my sisters at home to help me

The husband asked his wife, “Do you love your mother?”
“Yes,” she said.

“Then why did you ask me to kill my mother? Because she would have helped you during all this time, but instead it seems you wanted to be alone.”

He decided to bring his mother and siblings back and when the wife saw her mother-in-law coming from a distance she ran to hug her.

The following morning the wife brewed alcohol and they called a gathering of all the in-laws, and the entire community was present. The husband stood up in front of the gathering and told them, “My people, I called you here because years back my wife asked me to kill my mother so that I could marry her. I faked my mother’s death so I married my wife, but whenever she becomes pregnant I tell her to re-construct our houses.”

My people, I called you here because years back my wife asked me to kill my mother so that I could marry her. I faked my mother’s death so I married my wife, but whenever she becomes pregnant I tell her to re-construct our houses.

Everyone was saddened by this story and afterwards they slaughtered three cows: one for the return of the mother, a second one for reunification of the family, and the third one for the faking of the mother’s death. They lived happily with their family; the wife took care of the whole family including the mother in-law, and even sometimes even bathed her.

Reflections:

1) Why does the wife ask her husband to kill his mother? 
2.) Have you ever been angry or jealous enough to wish death on someone? What did you do when you felt this way?
3) When a woman is pregnant is it fair to expect her to do all the work without assisting her?
4) Should the husband have spent so long preparing his revenge? Were his actions fair?

Storytelling Session Details

Storyteller: Nyadoal
Community: Nuer (originally from Rubkona, living in UNMISS PoC at time of project)
Story Researcher: Nyechuol Ruai
Place: Juba PoC
Date: 2015
 

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The Wife Demands the Death of her Mother-in-Law

by Na'eesh Mabadh Team | Na'eesh Mabadh Radio Programme

Enjoyed A Wife Demands the Death of her Mother-in-Law? Listen to the Na’eesh Mabadh adaptation of this folktale for radio.

Na’eesh Mabadh is a peacebuilding project inspired by South Sudanese folktales.
Learn more about this project on the Na’eesh Mabadh page.

 

Two Women against a Cannibal

Two Women against a Cannibal

by | Oct 7, 2018

Two Women against a Cannibal

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Once there were two women with disabilities who together were left enclosed in a grass thatched house. One was visually impaired and the other physically impaired. They were left with their food and their water and also could ease themselves inside.

A cannibal often came around the house searching for the door to enter, but couldn’t find the way in.

On one particular day he was tired and said to himself, “I have been moving around from village to village and I’ve never found a house which does not have a door!”  The women told the cannibal, “Let us construct a door and you start from outside and continue from inside.”

You are going to carry me and I will lead us on the way.

After they were done, the cannibal came inside the house and both women were so scared, but the cannibal just laughed at them and their fear. Then the physically disabled woman told the blind one, “You are going to carry me and I will lead us on the way.”
When they were moving the physically disabled woman saw another cannibal and told her “Sister, I am scared!” The blind woman asked her, “Should I throw you down?” and she said “No!”

They continued moving in a faulty movement and the cannibal laughed at them; he laughed so hard he lost his way and he disappeared. The women went into the bush and hid there until they were found and brought back home.

Reflections:

1) What does this story teach us about cooperation?

 

Storyteller: Nyadoal

Storytelling Session Details

Storyteller: Nyadoal
Language: Nuer
Community: Nuer (originally from Rubkona, living in UNMISS PoC at time of project)
Story Researcher: Nyechuol Ruai
Place: Juba PoC
Date: 2015

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A Story about a Cannibal Woman

A Story about a Cannibal Woman

by | Oct 7, 2018

A Story about a Cannibal Woman

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A pregnant cannibal woman and the husband were moving, when suddenly they were attacked. Her husband was killed and she ran for her life hiding herself nearby in the bush next to the village. The attackers were searching for her everywhere and a woman who had known her approached her and said, “You will not be killed my sister, I am going to protect you,” though the woman was not a cannibal herself.

The attackers were still looking for her and even came to where she was hiding, but the Samaritan woman told them, “My people, she just escaped and she is not here.”

 

My people, she just escaped and she is not here.

So luckily the attackers moved away and she was rescued. During night hours, she came back to the good Samaritan who rescued her and gave thanks to her, and also told her that she was pregnant with twins and promised her that when she gives birth, she would bring the twins to her.

Then she moved away. When she gave birth to the twins, she came back to her sister and brought the twins with her and she gave them to the Samaritan, and thereafter they made another promise to themselves that they would remain friends until death.

Storyteller Nyadoal

Storytelling Session Details

Storyteller: Nyadoal
Language: Nuer
Community: Nuer (originally from Rubkona, Unity State, living in UNMISS PoC at time of project)
Story Researcher: Nyechuol Ruai
Place: Juba PoC
Date: 2015

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