In South Sudan, a prophet’s sacred stick helps fuel a violent struggle for political power

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — The story goes that a South Sudanese prophet wielded a sacred stick during a tribal war in 1878 and summoned a deadly bolt of lightning that struck rival warriors.

This stick is known as Ngundeng Bong’s dang, and it not only maintains its reputation as a magical and dangerous weapon, but also plays a role in the latest cycle of violence in the world’s youngest country.

Dengue has emerged as a controversial remnant of the spat between South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar, who took up the baton years ago. His followers believe Machar is a gap-toothed, left-handed man who will fulfill Ngundeng’s prophecy and become president.

While this situation keeps Machar’s struggle alive, it also makes him a target of his rivals. Kiir and Machar are from different ethnic groups. Kiir represents the country’s largest group, the Dinka, while Machar, like Ngundeng, represents the second-largest group, the Nuer.

In 2013, clashes broke out along ethnic lines when Kiir and Machar disagreed. Kiir claimed that Machar was planning a coup. Machar started a rebellion that later turned into a deadly civil war. an estimated 400,000 people were killed. Machar returns as Kiir’s deputy The 2018 peace agreement collapsed.

The conflicts have now increased so much that the authorities ordering the evacuation of civilians rebel-held towns This led to Machar being under house arrest and betrayal. Recently, a South Sudanese general was filmed urging government troops to take action. “Spare no life.”

Some rebels, including the militia known as the White Army, believe they are fighting to fulfill Ngundeng’s promises and eventually install Machar as president.

Spiritual motivations influence many fights

Douglas H. Johnson, the British-American historian who brought Dang back to South Sudan, likens the authority of the stick to the mace of the speaker of parliament, which is necessary for the progress of official business.

Machar is said to have kept the pendant as a religious object and used it to drum up political support, Johnson and others who spoke to The Associated Press said.

“Most of the conflicts are linked to spirituality,” said Mawal Marko, an independent researcher in Juba. “You see most of the people, especially the eastern Nuer, are fighting in the name of Ngundeng.”

South Sudanese mythology is full of cruelty, and the fight between Kiir and Machar is the latest example of the hatred that Ngundeng witnessed and later tried to stop: Dinka against Nuer, Nuer against Dinka.

Ngundeng’s prophecies were expressed in songs that even today some people play online, seeking explanations for the fate of their country. There may be disagreement about the true meaning of Ngundeng’s words.

“If we look at a prophecy in stages, there’s always room for doubt,” said Christopher Tounsel, a Sudanese historian who teaches at the University of Washington, speaking of Ngundeng’s prophecies.

“That’s the most powerful thing: what people think and feel. That’s what can be most powerful—not what it is, but what people perceive.”

How did the holy stick change hands?

Ngundeng, who died in 1906, is believed to have predicted his country’s independence. He predicted violence. And for South Sudan, he is said to have prophesied a messianic Nuer leader who lacked the facial markings of his tribe, was left-handed, gap-toothed, and consorted with a white woman. Machar is said to tick these boxes.

“We know he can have power,” Alex Miskin, of the Rift Valley Institute think tank, said of Ngundeng’s danger. “Can (Machar) transfer power to that rod? That’s something I don’t know.”

“Who has the baton and his story might scare some people a little bit from Machar,” Miskin said.

Dang is made from the root of the tamarind tree and decorated with copper wires. It is approximately 110 centimeters (three and a half feet) long. One end broke off during the 1878 war, which the Nuer won. Ngundeng would later say that the prolapse was broken; There is no record of him ever using it so successfully again.

Dang was inherited by Ngundeng’s son, who was shot dead while trying to use it against colonial troops. It is said that when he lifted the bat he cried and nothing happened.

The stick collected as a prize was assumed to be lost forever until it was discovered in the British town of Bournemouth by Johnson, a leading expert on South Sudan. He purchased the relic and tried to return it to South Sudan, which had no museum.

Machar, then the highest-ranking Nuer leader in a government on the verge of independence from Sudan, contracted dengue in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, in 2009. Under Machar’s supervision, a white ox was slaughtered in a ritual that was photographed holding the dang aloft.

Where is the danger today

Dang’s return was seen as a national event. Kiir welcomed his arrival with a statement warning that dengue should not be used to wage war.

Johnson said Machar kept the song in his home while serving as vice president and showed it to Nuer leaders who visited him. “In a way, he was using it as a cultural object, something that was more about the Nuer than South Sudan, and he was able to bring other people into his coalition,” he said.

Johnson recalled that the pendant looked ordinary when he first saw it on the umbrella stand. But if Machar has the stick, he said, it wouldn’t be surprising if Kiir was “concerned that this is out of the government’s control.”

The AP could not reach Machar for comment. Spokesman Puok Both Baluang said Machar’s release would be “synonymous with the release of peace”.

Despite being detained, Machar, 73, remains a formidable rival to Kiir, who has ruled the country without an electoral mandate for 15 years. Officials say the elections will be held in December. But a vote that does not include Machar on the ballot and returns Kiir as president would be seen as a disenfranchisement of the Nuer.

Their military rivalry began in the 1990s when Machar led a separatist outfit accused of betraying him during the long war of independence. In the midst of the split, forces loyal to Machar carried out a massacre targeting Dinka, angering Kiir and others.

Fights between southerners briefly undermined their fight for independence and sowed the seeds of lifelong mistrust between Machar and Kiir. Machar retained his influence because he had the loyalty of the Nuer warriors.

Kiir fired Machar as his deputy in September after Machar was accused of playing a remote role in an attack on a garrison of government troops. Machar regularly appears in the cage in criminal cases that he says are politically motivated. It is unclear whether Ngundeng’s dengue is still kept at home.

Archivist Peter Tako said the stick was “South Sudan’s heritage” even though it was not in the building that houses the national archives in Juba.

Tako said about the danger: “We heard it was about Riek Machar.” “I don’t even talk about it.”

He said the dengue was a sacred item “implanted” with the kind of political authority that left him feeling ill-equipped to discuss it.

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