Apr
3
Editors Note: A special thank you to Gordon Obat for contributing this detailed piece of Chollo history. Obat’s original response was regarding a post on the Chollo Kings.
BY Gordon Obat
My basic response to the article of the Luo migration was pointedly to stress that when the Luo migrated to East Africa, they did not go through different routes They all left from one tribe, the Anuak of South-western Ethiopia.
In my comments on the article, I have to give some reasons or background about what might have prompted the migration from the Luo land of the Bahr el Ghazal. In my view, the migration was not caused by the swallowing of beads or the lost of a spear that was supposedly gone with the elephant . These stories are not credible because they are repeated by other tribes such as the Murle who have a story about the beads being swallowed . The real reason for Nyikango to leave Bahr el Ghazal with his supporters ( people ) is the power struggle that had ensued after the death of their father King Okwa who was King of all the Luo tribes . Before his death , he had willed that his son Nyikango will take over after him . But after his death , his sons had divided into pro-Nyikango and pro-Dimo . Dimo being his eldest son . As a result , Nyikango decided to leave them and go elsewhere with his supporters ( people ) . He took the Kiir Paluko river , present day Jur river better known as the Bahr el Ghazal river and went through it with cows and sheep and goats and hens moving on dry land parallel to the people in the river . They were using canoes , ambatch and floated heavy carriers that could carry heavy loads such as grain and so on . It took them years and may be months to navigate through the Bahr el Ghazal route passing through the Nuer tribe . At last the group led by Nyikango entered the Nile at the confluence of the two rivers in Lake No . From there the marshes began to fade and dry land became apparent . At this point , Nyikango began to disembark and try to search for a suitable place to start his resettlement. He went first northwards and as the hills were getting nearer he returned backwards and came on the Nile .Here he established his first settlement at Papwojo also known as Aciethigwok . The first group of the Chollo settled there , but as arrivals were still coming , Nyikango went on establishing villages along the Nile until he covered 400 kilometres of Chollo settlements in Nyikango’s lifetime . So Nyikango built his own Kingdom in his life time . However, in the process of building his nation , he found that there were people in that land . A brown type of people with silken hair . They were called the Funj . They are probably an Ethiopian tribe of the Oromo group who must have come to be in that place through the Baro river , now known as the Sobat river and known in Luo as the Atulpii in both Chollo and Anuak . As Nyikango was coming with his people , the Funj were fleeing northwards and at Padit near Malakal , about 120 kilometres from the first Nyikango village at Papwojo , the Funj grouped . Led by their King , they engaged the Chollo and were utterly defeated . Nyikango was magnanimous and he allowed them to leave with their belongings cattle , goats , sheep and all the paraphernalia . They came all the way walking along the Nile and crossed the Nile at Jebellein when they saw birds standing in the middle of the Nile .Thinking this must be shallow place and crossed the White Nile . From there , the Funj took the valley on the side of the hill and continued walking and came upon a new river , that was the Blue Nile where they settled . And in fifty years they founded the Funj Sultanate with the help of the Chollo .
In comparison with the Funj , the Chollo were only clever in one thing : fighting, but they were uncouth compared to Funj who had silver and knows how to weave clothes and how to build a suitable huts and live in large villages each house with enclosures . Some of the Funj preferred to stay and became Chollo . And Chollo from then knew how to weave clothes and build circular large villages with individual enclosures . That means the Funj have added a great asset to the Chollo culture which the Chollo had developed to their advantage . Up to this day the stool of Nyikango at Akorwa was the previous stool of the Funj King and the Funj drums are still kept . There is a lot of secrecy about the Nyikango traditions . For example you can go to his shrine and address him and he will response to you in his own way . Those Chollo who had chosen to migrate to other tribes kept the Nyikango tradition and periodically consulted him . Even when the SPLA was fighting the Arabs in Khartoum , they frequently consulted Nyikango and the death rate amongst them was negligible when Nyikango’s name is invoked in battle .
Let us go back to the main subject of Luo migration which took only one route out of what is now the Sudan . The other group that took another route are the Jonam group. They took the Sue river routenear Wau and travelled as far as the Zande land near Tombura . The Zande had not arrived the area from the Lake Chad area by that time. According to Chollo tradition or history , the eldest son of Nyikango who was named Bworo refused to come with his father . He chose to stay in Bahr el Ghazal and took one of his father’s wives , the mother of Dak , Nyidway a Thuri woman . Currently the tribe is called Balanda Bor and Chollo believe these are the people of Bworo the son of Nyikango who had remained in Bahr el Ghazal and refuse to come with his father . This is the only group that deviated from the routes of the Luo migration . And all of the Luos in East Africa migrated from the Anuak of Gilo who had renamed his people as the Anywaa abandoning the Luo and Chollo names of the tribe . Nyikango kept the name Chollo and that name is still kept in Bahr el Ghazal by the Luo tribes of the Thuri and Bodho . They still refer to themselves as the Chollo . Meanwhile in Anuak language the word Luo has only come to denote whether the new born is clean without deformities . The question is : is that child Luo ? While in the Chollo , the word Luo had completely disappeared safe for some clans who still call themselves Kwari Luo : the descendants of Luo . Relevant research had shown that the Luo group that went to East Africa were led by the three sons of Olum the son of Dimo who rivalled Nyikango Over the Luo Kingship . Olum was a part of the Gilo group and he settled on the Sobat not far from Chollo Land . In the process , Dak the son of Nyikango went to him and persuaded him to come to the Chollo land because he had grown old and Gilo and the rest of the family had gone very far from him . ‘ Olum my cousin come and stay with us as the other members of our family had gone far’, then Olum responded positively and came to the Chollo land with his servants . He is in Pakang village where his shrine is kept together with his fighting gear . Pakang actually means waiting for some time ‘kangatini’ . That also means the idea of constant travel has become an obsession . Olum was a person of large and significant physique who would qualify as a giant at the present time and would eat a calf by himself at that time . This was common in the Okwa family as there were two giants who were brothersand their line goes back to the Okwa family at the close of the 19th century in the Panyikano area in Odong who were famous .One of these two giants would tear a lion or a leopard or a crocodile and they eat a whole bull of a cow by themselves after grilling it by dry cow dung which are gathered and made into a great heap of fire . The whole cow is buried under these ashes and after it is cooked after 24hrs , it is eaten . So Olum was a big sized man that was common with Nyikango family . However , these occurrences of oversized people had disappeared during our time . But had roamed the earth during the ancient times . What I am trying to say in all of this is that the migration to East Africa came only through the Anuak and it is said that some sons of Nyikango had gone with Gilo when he left the Collo land taking the Sobat route . It was a non-ending adventure of people seeking what can satisfy them .Later on in the 18th or 19th centuries a branch of the Anuak left the Anuak land in trying to follow the footsteps of the previous migrants . They almost got to the area when they became stuck in Lafon which is about 60 miles south of Juba . We say they are recent migrants because they still speak Anuak as their main language with a local accent . They are known by their neighbours as the Lokoro while they call themselves as the Parri . It is noteworthy that during the Luo migration , a family or a clan stayed together or when they arrive late they would ask about where their relatives or clanshad settled .
The Chollo Kings
I have already written the names of the Chollo Kings starting with Nyikango wur Okwa to the present day King Kwongo wad Dak who is a direct descendant of Nyikango through a long line from 1-34 . So there is no question about Chollo Kings . However , what i alluded to in that comment of mine is the miscalculation by the first anthropologists regarding the time when the Luos set out to migrate and find new settlements . In my view that calculation about the timing was completely wrong as it is proven later when the Chollo came into contact with a people who knew how to write. It is from here that i began to think about how our history is distorted by over 100 years, while we began to move much earlier than that . To retell the story , it goes like this :- When King Ochollo , the son of Dak took over the Kingship after King Nyidoro crossed the river ( Akethi log nam ) in the high language of Fashoda meaning the King has died . Note that King Ochollo is the 5th King after Nyikango . During his rule of the Chollo , the Funj which the Chollo had dislodged from their land had gone and founded another kingdom in Sennar which took them 50 years to build . Fifty years after founding Sennar , they came to the Chollo and married a princess . As part of the dowry , they brought a diamond or a rare stone that lights ( shines ) at night . It is called marr where it is found in the Red Sea area and Egypt . The Chollo also called it Marr which they associated with supernatural powers . So the Marr took on a new meaning with the Chollo who assumed the power of Nyikango is embedded in the Marr . In the process of marrying the Chollo princess , the Funj asked King Ochollo. for assistance with fighting warriors as they were preparing a major battle against their neighbours . The Chollo King gave them thousands of men to go with them to the Funj Kingdom . These are the very people who helped the Funj to conquer all of Sudan to the extent that the Northern scholars are currently engaged in a controversy about whether the Funj were Chollo or vice-versa . In the present coronation of the Funj ,a Chollo must be present as required by their custom . Some scholars went as far as saying that the Chollo aspect of the Funj is the royalty . That the royal family of the Funj were of Chollo stock . These are the current controversies in the northern academia . What concerns us here is that during the course of the Funj campaign to subdue the Sudan , a battle was fought in Arbaji between the Funj and the Abdallab Arabs . The Abdallab were defeated , but they wrote that they were not defeated by the Funj , but by the Chollo . And the date of that writing is 1503 which coincides with the coming of the Arabs into Sudan . They are half-cast Arabs who came via Darfur from Mauritania and settled amongst the Christian Nubians along the Nile . They soon Arabized those Nubians and they forgot their language . The Funj occupied all of Sudan . The central and the northern parts of Sudan . I am therefore saying that , we have to reconsider the writings done by others about our history and calculate 50 years backwards from 1503 . This piece of information is available at the Sudanese records office in Khartoum .
The case of individual Kings and their achievements whether positive or negative is most interesting . In my comments i forgot one important aspect of the Chollo Kingdom which i failed to mention in my previous comment on the Chollo Kings . It is known that Kings are super humans and Nyikango himself to this day is believed to have dissolved into thin air ‘ Nyikango achot a yomo’, Nyikango has dissolved into air . The Chollo belief in this myth to this day . When coronation is about to be organized to throne a new King , a certain clan is responsible to go to Nyikango for consultation on the new King . One of them has to ply the Nilein Nyikango’s canoe perhaps for days on end until the canoe stops alone without responding to the current in the middle of the Nile then he marks the position and goes home for further consultations with members of his family . This clan has come to have that responsibility because when people looking for Nyikango came to their village asking about Nyikango . Their response was : ‘ He entered the Nile from there’. During that night ,Nyikango came to them at night and asked why did you reveal my place? you will always be looking for me . And the tradition continues to our day . The Kings that followed him disappeared in the same way the others had left and no one knew where they went until the time of King Ochollo , the son of Dak . It was said that Ochollo brought on the tradition of the King’s burial . At that time when King Ochollo was the effective King , there was a kind of drought and pestilence ( riak ) and things in the Kingdom were not good so it was about time to go and make way for a new King ..That village of Ditang was full of palms and the King had disappeared , but he was still in the palms and behold , a Chollo man came to the grave of his father and knelt down saying , father my wife has just given birth and she has nothing to eat , please help us . He went to the Nile and with the first spearing of the instrument into the river, he hit a Nile perch . A fish that may weigh 200-300 kilograms . When he brought out the fish , the King appeared to him and he knelt down . The King inquired , who is this person you have asked in the grave , and he answered . It is my father . You asked your father and he gave the Nile perch , what about me if i am the one you are asking . Now call all the Chollo . The calling cry was made ‘ akiw’ and all the Chollo came . The King then told them about how to handle the King when his time comes that he should be strangled by lady cousins and nephews at the slightest ailment . It was started with him .This practice has now extended to all chiefs and members of the royal family . The great grand son of a King is treated in the same way even if a chief is no more a chief ,he is given that treatment when he becomes ill . That tradition was started by King Ochollo the son of Dak . Amongst those people who disappeared was Olum the son of Dimo . He also went to the Nile . The Luo tradition says Nyikango was the son of Okwa , the son of Mool , the son of Omaro , the son of Kulo , the son of the brown cow which came from the depth of the Nile . As their rituals put them to have originated from the Nile , they are just fulfilling the practice of their forefathers .
King Bwoch Alal who is the seventh King has ruled Chollo during the time of plenty when the harvest after harvest was plenty . He left the South and made his village in the Northern part , it was called Paroro. But Bwoch Alal became mad and killed all of his sons , however his daughter Abudhok managed to hide her two brothers Akaji and Dhekoth by dressing them like girls .It was during his time when it was said that Nyikango had returned .He is said to have become furious and said what Nyikango are you talking about , i am the incarnation of Nyikango . When he died , there was no male heir and his daughter Abudhok became King and returned to the South carrying the name of Paroro for the new village . To this day you cannot sing the songs of Nyikango in the village of Bwoch Alal at his shrine or you will die there immediately . Another tradition that King Bwoch Alal left to the Chollo is the tradition of drought when it hits the Chollo at the time when the grain is about to be ripe . At that point the grain would only need another single rain or else the whole harvest will become a big loss as it would be useless . At this point the Chollo go to the King in Fashoda to conduct the ceremony in the village of Bwoch Alal . The King would then lead the Chollo and go to his village and the people will dance to the sound of his songs and after that the King would enter the shrine and take the spear of Bwoch Alal and lead the Chollo to the Nile where the King dips the tip of that spear into the Nile . Because if he dips the spear whole into the Nile, there would be floods . On the return journey back we return with the rain . After his daughter Abudhok became King , she moved to the South and still hiding the two brothers and disguising them as girls . However , a young boy of about 13-14 chanced to witness the two boys while they were being bathed . He told the elders about the fact that King Abudhok was hiding two boys in the house disguised as girls . To make sure about the boy’s allegations the elders made a plan to beat the boy while running away and he would intrude into the place where the boys were being bathed seeking mercy . It was done and the King Abudhok cursed the clan of that boy . She gave them the two boys and Akaji was made King , but within days Akaji was killed by the Anuak whose borders with the Chollo were still close during that time . The younger brother of Akaji , Dhekoth was enthroned . It was during the rule of Dhekoth as King that the full supernatural powers of Nyikango reasserted itself on the new king . On crossing the Nile to fight with the Anuak , he told the Chollo that ‘untill you see my spear red hot , then you cross the Nile’ and after saying his address the spear became red hot which Chollo like to say it vomits fire . Then he ordered the Nile to become shallow and it became and the fighters crossed it knee deep to the other side . King Dhekoth also went to conquer the Nuba mountains . He led the Chollo there and the Nubas fled to the mountains , but when Dhekoth shook the hills it shaked and the Nubas came running down . The Chollo are known for their hard headedness and their complaints about being brought this far where there were no women . The complaints reached Dhekoth and called them and said ‘ I had wanted you to multiply by being on the west and east banks of the Nile and here in this part , but since you are complaining , let us go back home . The conquest was abandoned and the Chollo returned home . Another episode in the rule of King Dhekoth was that he threw the diamond or rare stone or marr into the Nile at Warajwok, his village . His powers were attributed to the Marr the diamond which was not true and i believe that was why he threw it away . At that time also he decreed the extermination of the clan of Millo also known as Ojullo , the half brother of Nyikango himself . The Kwajullo clan fled to the Nuer and Dinka country and after some time , some Chollo man came to abudhok the former Queen with his daughter carrying two twins in a type of carrier known as dyeny . He told Abudhok who had abdicated for her brothers , that this is my daughter and the two twins are the Kwajullo . Queen Abudhok rushed to the court of Dhekoth and told him someone has brought our cousins . And the king said where are they ,bring them here . He then sent someone to the Nile to bring dry water lilies . The twins were brought before the King and the dry lilies were brought from the Nile . The king crushed the dry lilies in his palm and said ‘ go and multiply ‘scattering the crushed lilies . Now the Kwajullo clan is the second to the Kwareth clan in largeness . Thanks to Dhekoth .
I said in my comments that one king had wanted the kingship to be exclusive to his family or rather to his sons by attempting to eliminate other princes. Dikworo was popular with his mother’s name so he was also known as Nyadway . He tried many times to get rid of other princes prompting them to flee to the neighbouring tribes . he was replaced at his death by his son Mugo whose village was Pabo . King Mugo was left-handed and he is reputed never to miss any who would attempt to assassinate him .So he is said to have killed many princes and when he was replaced by Waak , his half brother King Waak decreed that no left-handed person would be King in Fashoda again . It remained a law to this day . Waak was replaced by Dyelguth Nyatho(mother) . He had killed many people and when the Chollo became fed up with him . They grilled a person who had died of something, either a snake-bite or a heart attack . after grilling that person they called the King to come and taste the animal .The King at first refused , but later on relented and came .when the animal was uncovered, it was a human being and the people told him ‘ you have been killing people , now eat him ‘, he ran away and he was killed like an animal . It is worth-noting that after killing King Waak , his half-brother Dyelguth had decreed that Waak should not be buried in the Chollo land . He was carried to aciethigwok in tungo . He was taken there , but along the way before they they could reach Aciethigwok a prince in Bukieny told them to bury him there in Bukieny , near Malakal . The next prince who was preferred by the Chollo was Kudit who was a maternal cousin to Dyelguth for he called him back from exile in the Nuba mountains when he assumed power . Kudit was not interested in kingship because of the inherent problems that comes with the kingship . Nevertheless , the Chollo decided to lift the whole hut with him inside to Fashoda . That is why he is known as Kudit Atingdoro . There was nothing significant during his rule , but when his son took over after him ,Yor Nyakwachi (mother) . He was vindictive and made sure that that branch which tried to eliminate other families had to be eliminated . He took an army and went to the village where the son of Dyelguth was resident in Warajwok , he was found in the village and killed . After that there was no rivalry for kingship except amongst his sons . He ruled the Chollo land for 40 years . From then on the country was ruled by his family which later on divided into three branches and rotates the kingship of the Chollo between them .
Some episodes in the Chollo history deals with some strange behaviour by some kings such as King Dikworo the 11th king . He had been friends with someone in their village when he was a prince . That man used to tell him, how can you be king with that big head . Your head is like a cliff on the river and so on . Then Dikworo became king and all the friends and relations went to Fashoda to congratulate him , but that friend failed to come . After some time, the king summoned him to Fashoda . He came . The King gave him a cow and told him that when that cow becomes pregnant let me know . The cow was taken and when it became pregnant he came to inform the King . The King told him to bring all of his children and wife to fashoda . They were all killed by the order of the King. Can someone help me to find some reason ? Another king who did a light -hearted thing is yor wad Akoch 1882-1892 . When he was a prince he had a farm that was adjacent to a common’s man’s farm . The common man’s wife brings the food to them in the field and when the food delays , the common man knows the best acacia and the gums to soothe their hunger . And when the prince becomes tired , the common man helps out . Then Yor Akoch became king of the Chollo . The common man did not go to congratulate him in Fashoda , instead he finished the farm of the King , harvested it and then decided to take the grain to Fashoda .When he arrived there the King was told about his presence and the king called for him .Now in the room with the king , the king asked him about the field and the sweet gums and wild fruits and so on . He told the common man that ‘ you Chollo you will not extricate from difficulties , we here have nothing to do but look into cases’.
Another episode in the Chollo kings saga is the one between King Ajang wad Nyidhok and King Kwichkun Wad Kwathker .When Ajang was still a prince , he went out on a raid and brought cows and after dividing the cows he gave some to the king , but some people went and told the king that Ajang kept the best colours for himself . The king went and confiscated Ajang’s cows .Ajang complained to the Turks who were the colonial masters and the Turks got rid of King Kwathker by killing him or exiling him . No one knows . Being a prince who is entitled to the position of King , Ajang became King of the Chollo after Kwathker about 1875 . During that period , the Turkish governor of Fashoda summoned him there . He went to town to meet with the governor and waited for the governor to call him in . When it became two o’clock in the afternoon , the governor came out of his office trying to go home , but King Ajang came immediately and killed him . Then the Chollo killed all the Turks in town and their soldiers and ransacked the town . This particular incident is not included in the Sudanese history . It was excluded by the British . Upon learning about the incident in Khartoum , the Turkish authorities immediately dispatched a punitive expedition led by col. Kwichkon the son of King Kwathker who had gone to the North after his father was betrayed by by Ajang to the Turks . He came to the Chollo land at the head of an army and reached Fashoda ( the Turks had also given the name Fashoda to their provincial HQS like the Chollo seat of the king ) . He found Ajang had fled and was on his way to the Nuba Mountains . Col. Kwichkon caught up with him in the Village of Wilnyang in Panyikango in South Chollo land . They had a confrontation , King Ajang said to Kwichkon ‘you came after me ‘,then Kwichkon answered ‘ where is my father’ and Ajang retorted , ‘when you are asking about your father where are those kings that had ruled before him ‘? Then Ajang added , ‘your flame shall not be alight in Fashoda again ‘ and Kwichkon replied ‘and so is yours also’. He arrested King Ajang and tied him behind the horse and took him to the administrative capital of Fashoda 100 miles away where he was crucified and died .
When Kwichkon took over after Ajang , the country was going through hard times and girls spent their prime time without marriage as the country was going through what would be like a serious depression . Upon taking charge , he organized a campaign by going to each of what is comparable to provinces and a day drum dance, which is only organized for the initiated , is staged. In any day drum , speeches are made urging the young men are to be peaceful during the dance . Here Kwichkon told the public that anybody who is not married to marry and the dowry to be paid later when the social situation improves . People married and the country prospered and women gave births . At this point , King Kwichkon made an agreement with the Turks preventing the sale of the Chollo as slaves and gave them this line of dots on the forehead to be their mark . As this was done ,the zaribas (enclosures ) were closed down in the Chollo land and slave merchants had to leave. Anybody found anywhere with these dots in the forehead must immediatelyto be returned to the Chollo land .That was how slavery was stopped in the Chollo land . In 1881 the Mahdist revolution started and the Mahdi fled to Jebel Qadir when the Turks were preparing a big reinforcement for him in the Gezira Abba where he defeated the Turks at the beginning . The Turkish colonial powers sent a message to the Turkish governor of Fashoda telling him that they know the Mahdi’s place is close to you , however do not go to him . But the Turkish governor ignored these instructions and called King Kwichkon to tell him to prepare 2000 young warriors to go to the Mahdi and the small number of soldiers with him . They grouped and went . However , along the way an Arab woman saw them and rushed to the Mahdi saying the Shilluks are coming . The Mahdi then sent scouts to shadow the Shilluks in the bush . And when night came , the group led by King Kwichkon found a large sandy clearing and stopped to spend the night . After preparing their food , the warriors lied down to sleep . In the dead of the night the Ansar attacked them and killed them including the King and the Turkish governor . That was the end of King Kwichkon ,the son of Kwathker .
The Chollo then came to realize where the power was and princes had to travel to where the Mahdi is , seeking favour to be made king . Yor the son of Akoch was chosen to be the new king after he was Islamized and re-named Omer . He came to the Chollo land with a large followers of Chollo moslems . The Chollo were many in the North during that time . The Turkish tax that time was for every village to donate a person whatever , small child , boy , girl , woman etc.. the men ended up in the Egyptian army and the women were sold off . It was not each year but after a period of three-four years .You can imagine how many of our people were taken over a 500 miles distance of settlement and the Turks had ruled Sudan for 60 years. Let us go back to Yor, he arrived the Chollo land with his entourage of moslems . some days passed and King Yor was making Islamic prayers. Then the Padiwad elders ( of a clan who are charged with choosing the King ) told Yor either to be with Nyikango or be with Islam and leave the Chollo alone .The King abandoned Islam and chose to be with Nyikango . In 1891 the Mahdist Sudan was hit by a serious famine and the Chollo King send grain to Omdurman on two occasions .Meanwhile ,complaints continued to be sent by his enemies that he was not a moslem . That he had abandoned Islam . The Khalifa in Omdurman send for him to come and renew his pledge of allegiance to the Mahdi .He refused to come and an expeditionary force was sent to him under an Emir . The force was defeated by the Chollo and its leader and soldiers killed . Then the Mahdist sent to the Chollo a much larger army which fought the Chollo all the way to Tungo where King Yor had fled .After seeing the situation getting worse ,he went and gave up himself to the Mahdists from whence he was beheaded . End
About the Author: Gordon Obat was educated in Comboni Catholic schools and attended Cairo University, Khartoum branch, graduating with a BA in history. Obat was employed by the Sudan News Agency (SUNA) in 1978 and went to England for a masters degree in Communications Policy Studies at the City University and got my MA in 1987. obat returned to Sudan as a BBC correspondent from 1988-1993
