BOR GATWECH KUANY
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. The nine Ngok Dinka chiefdoms of Abyei Special Administrative Area (ASAA) on Thursday held a one-day event in Abyei Town to revive their cultural values.
The event was organized by the area’s ministry of culture, youth, and sport with support from the communities under the theme “Abyei Cultural Values Recovery.” Local officials said their culture denounces violence among the nine chiefdoms and their neighbors, but that current attitudes unfortunately encourage violence.
Abyei Paramount Chief Bulabek Deng Kuol described the cultural event as pivotal in sensitizing the youth against embracing and practicing negative foreign cultures, which he says are harmful.
“Abyei’s indigenous culture was eroded during successive wars when Sudan was still one, and the youth dispersed to different parts of the world and came back with foreign ways of living. This created a very big gap with our traditional values and cultures because the young people acquired cultures different from our ancestral cultures,” he explained. ” So, who will pass these cultural values to the young generation? That is why all the nine chiefdoms of Dinka Ngok in Abyei organized their cultural styles, because we have had three generations since the war broke out in Sudan. The event was organized to educate the young people on how to pass the same values to future generations.”
“The current generation will pass on the dancing styles, customs, and way of living of the society which they learned from the older generations through messages and songs,” Chief Deng added.
Meanwhile, Victor Bol Dau, the Director General in the Abyei Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, said they organized the event with financial support from the community to preserve the area’s cultural heritage.
“This event was not funded by the Abyei area government nor NGOs, rather it is a community initiative because they felt their cultures are being replaced by unwanted foreign cultures,” he clarified. “That is why the community thought of rescuing these uncultured youth who are involved too much in violence and indulging in the unwanted drugs. That is why elders of Ngok revisited their values and decided to let the youth desist from wrongdoing.”
“It is now surprising that the youth do not respect their elders and fight with neighbors frequently, and these things are not allowed in our culture,” Bol added.
He said the cultural show was important to change the minds of young people so that they have a better future in which they will embrace education and development. He added that the reduction of the amount of cattle required for bride wealth and to get married has also reduced over time and that this has made the youth lazy.
“Marriages were expensive back in the day and a man needed to pay not less than 120 head of cattle to marry someone’s daughter, so fathers used to encourage their sons to work hard, However, these days one can marry a woman for between 20 and 40 cows and this has made the youth lazy, and they are even involved in cattle raiding.”
Source: Radio Tamazuj
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