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UNISCI Discussion Papers, Nº 33 (Octubre / October 2013) ISSN 1696-2206Dinka songs follow a simple, narrative structure and rhetorical devices, such asmetonym and metaphor, are employed in a range of ways to elaborate actual and relationalmeanings. However, songs are not intended merely as public pronouncements; in offeringpoetic fragments of a narrative only, composers rely on their audience’s intimate knowledgeof people, contexts and local meanings to fill in the gaps and thus to engage in the imaginaryworld of the narrative.Thematically, all songs appear to incorporate combinations of a number of coreconventions:1. The first builds on rhetorical devices to anchor relationships and reaffirm clan and culturalidentities and senses of belonging. This includes the judicious naming of clan members orleaders and places, using ox names 44 or secondary denotations to describe their deeds orcharacter, thus ascribing meanings that are often understood only by clan or ethnic-territorialinsiders.2. Songs always call on finely envisioned allegorical references to nature and seasonality,securing their content to specific landscapes or territories, and thus elaborating sharedphysical and cultural senses of place.3. The concept of emplacement is further explored in the existential tension between theindividual and the collective, which is likewise expressed via multiple social and aestheticreferences to cattle and nature.4. Temporality and history are an equally recurrent theme, conveyed through theacknowledgement of bonds between people across generations (lineages, clan, or politicalleadership), thus revealing chains of reciprocal encounters that reinforce individual and groupidentities in the present.5. This relational dimension of songs is further enacted in performance, which ischaracteristically directed at multiple audiences, simultaneously offering a space for selfreflectionand intended for consumption by others, thus rendering the singer accountable toboth him/herself and to the collective.6. Significantly, songs are used as a vehicle for social and political regulation, which ismediated through a ‘poetics’ of antagonism and resolution. In Dinka society, songs are aculturally legitimate site for the frank public disclosure of a range of issues and experiences,often allowing for intense emotionalism and accommodating expressions otherwiseconsidered outrageous or offensive. However, according to Deng, the ultimate objective ofthis ‘fighting with song’ 45 is the reinstatement of unity and harmony, an allusive conceptlineage and good social relations. Similarly, Burton, in his research with the Atuot, notes that individuals aredefined as members of social groups by their words: ‘One aspect of the Atuot theory of society indicates that theindividual "brings" or "has a word," thereby declaring and defining a perception of, and participation in, a widerseries of social relations.’ Burton, John W.: “Figurative Language and the Definition of Experience: The Role ofOx-Songs in Atuot Social Theory”, Anthropological Linguistics, vol. 24, nº 3 (2008), p. 263.44 As pastoralists, who share a passionate attachment to, and identification with cattle, the poetic formulation ofsongs is stylized largely through detailed imagery of cattle. For example, personal ox are invoked as theembodiment of strength, conviction and solidarity, and thus referred to in order to praise oneself, one’s clan orlineage.45 Deng, op. cit. p. 79.66
UNISCI Discussion Papers, Nº 33 (Octubre / October 2013) ISSN 1696-2206encapsulated in the Dinka term cieng, which is loosely translated as ‘rule’, ‘custom’, or ‘toinhabit’, ‘to respect’; ‘to live together’. 46These core tenets are rehearsed in songs that were composed to relate traumaticexperiences of war; equally, they provide the temporal, spatial and cultural anchors that arecalled upon in songs that are composed and shared amongst the globally dispersed Dinkadiaspora today.5. Analysis of Truth-telling and Active Citizenship in Dinka SongsThe National Program for Healing, Peace and Reconciliation is guided by the following corevalues: i) Pluralism, ii) Inclusivity, iii) Peacemaking, iv) Social Justice, v) Forgiveness, vi)Healing, vii) Atonement, and viii) Sovereignty. 47 In this section, I will examine theinterpretation of these values in a selection of Dinka songs, focusing on two fundamentalconcerns in particular: The first deals with the role of songs in truth-telling and the disclosureof past violent abuses; the second reveals how songs frame procedures for nationalreconciliation and healing. Consideration will be given in both categories to how songs givevalidation to the restoration of identity and self-esteem through their elicitation of particularimages of the individual and society embedded in the rhetoric of resistance and emancipation.[It is significant to note that the following songs were somewhat randomly selected foranalysis from a large collection of recordings, most of which dealt with similar themes. Theyare therefore by no means exceptional in their content or rhetorical structure.]What is consistent in all of the following examples is that they are composed/performedfrom a deeply personal position and recount actual events experienced during the 2 nd civilwar. Additionally, they all contain within them both personal reflection and public counsel,thus supporting the notion of communicative reciprocity, transacted by their role as vehiclesof personal reflection of feelings, ideas and experiences, as well as public testimonial. Allsongs provide for some level of personal catharsis, made evident in both their deployment ofaffective language and in their candid descriptions of personal and group suffering. While thesongs may have been individually composed and are intended for solo performance, some ofthem would be sung collectively. All would be performed in contexts that are defined bymutually understood communicative structures and boundaries, and are thus entirely exclusiveof external intervention with regard to production, circulation and reception. In this regard,they stand in contrast to a formalized court hearing, which is directed through strict roles andhierarchies; their rhetorical convention correspondingly making possible a mutuallyunderstood framework for frank and open disclosure of experiences, feelings and events.While the songs uniformly reveal the personal and collective fragility of South Sudan,they are also highly pragmatic, recommending mechanisms by which to deal with challengesin an inclusive, peaceful and effective manner.46 Ibid. op. cit. p. 14; Lienhardt, Godfrey (1961): Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka, Oxford,Oxford University Press.47 For further details, see ‘The Comprehensive Strategic Dimensions for Healing, Peace and Reconciliation forall South Sudanese.’ The Office of the Chairman of the Committee for National Healing, Peace andReconciliation for South Sudan, 2013, Juba67
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ISSN 1696-2206 Nº 33 Octubre /Octo
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Juan Emilio CheyreDirector, Center
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