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SOUTH SUDAN: Changing of the Guard

Skye Wheeler

TORIT, South Sudan, Jan 20 2010 (IPS) - An old rite is long overdue in Paul Yugusak Tombe’s home village, in Central Equatoria State, south Sudan.

Because of Sudan’s long and painful north-south war that scattered much of the population, Tombe’s age set that won power in a 1974 contest with their elders still rules. But they should have given up control many years ago.

"We are making arrangements now. The change must take place," Tombe, also a member of Central Equatoria’s parliament, said. His age set has been in power about 10 years too long, albeit tumultuous ones.

Before the war in the tradition of handing over power, the ruling age set of men and the set below would go into the forest together, hunt and then fight fiercely over the dead animal.

Today it is more likely that a purchased bull, instead of a hunted animal, will be torn apart by the two sides in the heated tug of war, Tombe said. But the symbolism, and the genuine tensions that underlie this, and other similar battle or mock battle traditions among the tribes located east of the River Nile, remain the same.

"It is not an easy thing," cultural expert Lias Ohisa Affwonni said about the handover. "It is a struggle."

The younger men usually would win this battle; the elders would admit defeat and hand over control of all aspects of village life including its protection. (The upcoming set ranges in age from about 18 to about 45 years old, usually the eldest here are about the same age as the youngest of the ruling set.) This passionate cycle of societal renewal in Tombe’s section of the Olubu tribe is meant to take place about every 25 years.

But because of the war it has not taken place for a decade longer than it should have. But also because of the war the monyomiji are changing. And the upcoming leaders are men grown up in war and still affected by the trauma of it.

Monyomiji (which is used interchangeably to refer to the governance structure, the men in charge, and also the youth) is an effective structure of governance, its proponents say. It provides a clear path for societal change with each passage of control, usually about every 22 to 25 years. However, changeovers can occur more frequently in some groups.

The system has also been lauded as especially democratic. The men in the ruling age set govern together in a highly organised system that gives each member a role, in most cases won by merit.

Chiefs or "kings" – traditionally the community’s rainmaker, usually have a hereditary role, but more recently government-appointed headmen have also joined the monyomiji. Chiefs are usually changed in the handover of power, Tombe said, unless they are especially talented.

Anthropologist and development worker Simone Simons believes that the monyomiji structure is being under-utilised by development workers and south Sudan’s new government, formed in 2005 after a north-south peace deal ended more than 20 years of war.

There is more to the monyomiji system than just tradition. Tombe’s generation introduced and implemented new concepts to his home area, including cooperatives and self-help projects for education and health services.

The same capacity for high levels of organisation also proved an asset during the north-south war when the monyomiji joined the southern rebel movement, effectively defending their home areas from infiltration from northern forces even as other areas fell.

"It is easier to do things through the monyomiji. They are organised, with different functions," Simons said.

And their success in war is not surprising as Affwonni believes the monyomiji system was created hundreds of years ago as part of a war effort against the fearful Toposa tribe.

Organised and renewed with fresh blood, the monyomiji rule meant the villages did better in battle, and in protecting the integrity of the village in a wider sense; ensuring internal cohesion and the maintenance of spiritual practices.

While the leadership enjoy privileges they are also held strictly accountable, sometimes with their lives. In many tribes, rainmakers who failed to bring rain were killed, sometimes burned alive. This practice is now being changed.

"They have reason (rationality) now. They don’t do that to the rainmaker," monyomiji member Joko Jacqueline, one of a new generation of women who have been partly allowed into the system said.

She believes that ensuing generations will force change further, and women will be initiated into the monyomiji alongside men.

But how long that will take, is not certain. The monyomiji, like the rest of Sudan, are still coming to terms with the consequences of the country’s civil war.

Tension between the ruling generation and the one below it has always existed. But now leaders say their youth are especially antagonistic, and many believe it is a result of war trauma. They also believe that many of the youngsters have become heavy drinkers because of this.

And now the ruling age set no longer has the same amount of control over often-armed youth that it once did.

But even within some tribes’ ruling age sets there are problems, and several monyomiji admitted that their age sets are less close, less organised than previous generations of rulers.

Traditionally, the older or more accomplished men tend to form the head – the decision making part of the government – the youth are more likely to form warrior groups. But the war has even changed this.

"From the head, many of these people were killed in the war, the younger are now in (majority) and they want to do things by force, they can be insubordinate," Father Kamilo Afore, a priest and monyomiji member said. He celebrated his age set’s coming of age in neighboring Uganda, at the height of the war that fragmented his village. "They (the youth) have grown in war," he added.

It is, in theory, peacetime but cattle raiding has worsened between monyomiji-practising tribes and other groups. It has kept entire areas insecure and has hindered development.

"Unity often depends on hostility to outsiders. This is definitely a weakness," Simons said.

Monyomiji accept that violence is a serious problem in their home areas.

The monyomiji IPS spoke to say that the government has not been able to provide security they need in order to lay down the thousands of small arms acquired during the war.

"They could do it at any time," Affwonni said. But any group that did so in a generally insecure environment would make itself highly vulnerable, he added.

Some monyomiji told IPS that even government interventions, when they come, are sometimes biased and heavy-handed and can worsen relations between tribes or fail to provide justice.

"(Also) they get in the way of the monyomiji getting involved with their coercive kind of rules," Martin Napali, a monyomiji, said. "If we are belittled then we will just do what we want."

The government has equally high expectations of the monyomiji, who they believe not only allow raiding to continue but are the perpetrators.

"Are monyomiji still peacemakers or have they left peacemaking to the government?" Toby Atare a Eastern Equatoria State Peace Commission member asked. "The monyomiji are meant to promote the law and order in villages but all we see is a lot of lawlessness."

"(The monyomiji) are saying this is the work of the government and the government is saying this is your work," he added.

Eastern Equatoria State Governor Aleision Ojetuk went even further at a recent conference to try and bridge the widening gap between the monyomiji and the government in the state capital Torit. He cited cases where the monyomiji had stopped policemen he had sent from doing their work in villages, getting in the way of justice, which is meant to be a main function of the monyomiji.

"Your norms are being eroded and so a kind of ‘who cares’ attitude is settling in … if we are in competition, the gap between us will widen," Ojetuk said, adding that the government simply does not have enough resources to maintain security in a state chock-full with guns.

But the monyomiji’s challenges go beyond a rough and tumble relationship with the new government. Urbanisation is also eroding the old system of life.

"At the moment the attitude of the monyomiji is not as it used to be. Most try to migrate to towns, leaving the land without cultivation," Tombe said. The youth that stay behind are in some cases especially hostile to the ruling generation.

A new Local Government Act that gives traditional authority official standing in the government could smooth the way between the government and the monyomiji Affwonni said. He added that fitting the monyomiji into the structures dictated by the law will take patience and flexibility on both the monyomiji and the government.