South Sudan-1967: The Year the Chiefs were killed

The area of South Sudan designated as “Twic East” or “East Twic County” is today a matter of contention for many who currently live in South Sudan. It was the British who originally created the “Region’s Administration System” in order to manage the tribes of greater Bor one by one, on a case by case basis.  These regional systems of administration were used to elect judges or “Chiefs” from the tribes to handle community affairs. It was then up to these Chiefs to handle local tribal conflicts.

After Sudan’s independence from Britain in 1956, the newly minted centralized government of Khartoum introduced a districting system. The region that had been known as Greater Twic East became the domain of Paramount Chief Ajang Duot and was renamed, “Kongor District” which was actually the name of his own clan/family group. This system of districts was then consolidated further by President Gaafar Nimeiry who lumped the region together into three districts that would form a distinct state called “Jonglei”.
In recent years, much focus has been on what happened in Darfur and further incursions in South Sudan, but before any of these events, even before the first Bor Massacre, there was an atrocity of another kind that occurred in Jonglei State/East Twic County. A tragedy that most only remembered as “Run De Bany” or as it is literally translated, “The Year the Chiefs were killed”.

The event that this ominous title is in reference to began in 1967 when the Khartoum government of Northern Sudan decided to hold the chiefs of Twic County responsible for recent uprisings against their rule. The North decided to kill several members of Twic leadership in order to make an example out of them and hoping to spread fear among the people so they would be too terrified to resist in the future.
In reality their scare tactics worked against them however, because it was in the aftermath of this unprovoked massacre of the Twic Chief’s that a powerful resistance was born. These men were the brave martyrs that came before, and in total 17 chiefs were murdered in cold blood.

Their names were; Mading Majok, Akech Aweng Deng, Atem Kuol Atem, Kuol Dut Kuol, Manyok yai Dut, Arok Amou Arok, Mading Arok Anyieth, Anyieth Atem Ajiing, Garang Wenglou, Garang Wiei Guor, Dau Diing Aweer, Mabior Marier Kuir, Manyok Majok Ajak, Ajak Arok Ajak, Chol Adol Anyuat, Bul Kooch Atem, and Ajang Duot Bior. Many other chiefs from different Greater Bor counties where later killed in separate incidences.

It is regarding the last two names mentioned in that listing—Bul Kooch and Ajang Duot Bior—that we have one of the most harrowing stories in South Sudanese history. Ajang Duot Bior was a grand Chief in Twic County and Bul Kooch was an honorable subordinate Chief who answered directly to him. The year the Chiefs were killed—the year of 1967—was one of belligerent discord for the Khartoum government at home and abroad.

It was during that year that the Central Government based out of Northern Sudan decided to cut all relations with the United States due to American support for Israel during the Arab-Israel war of that same year. In early February of 1967, even while U.S. diplomats were leaving the country, Khartoum agents were coming down on the Greater Bor community of Twic East like a swarm of locusts.

And as Mary Akuol Atem the widow of one of the Chief’s that was massacred recalls, the hatred and fury of the Northern Sudanese was palpable. They drove straight to the heart of the community and demanded that the leaders be brought forward. There was no reason given for this ultimatum, just a clear desire to hunt down the leadership of the Twic community.

It was Ajang Duot Bior, a paramount chief of the region who was first targeted. Ajang Duot Bior was remembered by the north for his participation in the so called “Round Table” conference on March 16th, 1965, that had been convened to discuss resolutions between the North and the South.
When it had become clear that the North was not going to do anything to help the grievances of the Southerners and only sought to create an oppressive Islamic State, Ajang Duot Bior, along with many others, walked out of the talks. Vicious military commanders now had this great chief encircled and sought to get what they couldn’t do with their facades of political discourse with outright military domination.

It was Hasan Al Turabi who made the most offensive claim towards the south when he singlehandedly dismissed any significance of South Sudan as a viable entity when he stated, “the South has no culture, so this vacuum would necessarily be filled by Arab culture under an Islamic revival”. This “revival” would be waged at the expense of the Southerners whom the North intended to implement a kind of cultural genocide against before committing genocide outright.

Southern leaders clearly knew the Islamic Fascism that they were up against, and all of their suggestions were met with unrelenting belligerence by the North. Knowing that any further discussion with those who were unwilling to negotiate was pointless they walked out of the 1965 Round Table Conference and right into the real struggle for independence. A struggle these brave men continued when on that day in February 1967 several Chiefs of South Sudan were viciously cut down, simply for daring to resist their oppressors.
It was a bleak day in the village of Paliau in 1967 that one of the Chief’s widows recalls how Ajang Duot and Bul Kooch were hauled out from a Tukul Office with their arms tied behind their backs. She recalls Sudanese soldiers gleefully preparing a fire, their smiles on their faces telling her that the outcome could not be good. She remembers one of the Colonels Mohamed Al-Uhgela then approaching Ajang and screaming, “So you think that you know what’s best for the Sudan? You think you know what the future holds?”
Ajang for his part stood stoically stone faced while the Sudanese soldier screamed at him, Ajang never showing any fear. The soldier seemingly incensed by the resolute chief then grabbed him by the shoulders and growled, “Ajang! I’m talking to you!” He then pulled the Chief roughly by the arm and led him right in front of the now roaring bonfire as he told him sinisterly, “Ok, so you don’t want to talk to me? Well, now it’s in Allah’s hands. We will let him decide.”

The Colonel then pointed at the flames and ordered Bul Kooch Atem, “If you think you know so well what’s good for your people. Prove it! If you really believe that this land belongs to you and your people, walk into these flames! Let the fire bear witness to your conviction!” The Chief then amazed everyone who was watching by not saying a word, and without even flinching, as he stepped right into the flames.
He didn’t scream, didn’t say a word as the flames consumed him. The Colonel was almost speechless at the sight of this brave sacrifice and unsure what else to say looked to the other Chief standing before him and stammered, “Chief Ajang—what—what about you?”

Chief Ajang, then without hesitating–while his loved ones and followers who were just in were shot, but held back by the guns of Northern soldiers wailed and cried—he boldly walked into the flames of riffles, following in the footsteps, right after his subordinate chief, disappearing without so much as a sound. And as Chief Bul burned to death the whole village erupted into one, unified frenzied cry of despair, not only lamenting the demise of their chiefs, but also the systematic assassination of their own history at the hands of Khartoum.
After the deaths of Ajang, Bul and the other 17 Chiefs, their sacrifice was marked with a mass grave that can still be seen in Twic County. Twic East lies in Jonglei State which is South Sudan’s largest and most densely populated community. It borders Ethiopia in the East, Unity State in the North East, Upper Nile State in the North East, and Kenya in the South.

It was from here that many of the first resistance fighters that formed the first wave of the Anyanya movement came from. Jonglei has often been the staging ground of many resistance movements and as a result has faced the brunt of much of the violence. Whether it came in the form of incursions from the north or intertribal warfare, Jonglei has often been ground zero for much of Sudan’s conflicts.