Agwagas July 12, 1972 - 10A Tierlul

Recording #10A

Place of Recording: Tierlul

Date of Recording: July 12, 1972

Performance:

Informant: Paul Abulla

Date of Transcript: July 31, 1972; Direct conversation

1 000 Agwaga.

Information: This town attacked a certain village, but name is not mentioned. Mentions the names of those killed. Mentions the name of Ochong Oleri, the chief of the village that was defeated. This song from the Sudan side. Most likely that village was against the Anyanya. Mentions the names of those who were strong and those they killed.

Text: You people, it would be better for you to unite with Arabs and attack us.

2 019 Agwaga.

Information: This song is against Adong. On the Sudan side. These people went with the Anyanya and attacked Odong and defeated them the fourth time. The Anyanya were defeated the first three times. With more guns, they were successful in defeating the village. The songs boast because they have many guns. Not because of their strength. This song most likely is from Ajwara.

Text: I don’t believe in anybody, I believe in myself in fighting. We are very strong and burned the houses of Otallo (a part of Odong)

3 036 Obero.

Information: One of the two will at times go to the king and tell the king not to give the person asking, something. So, the singer is talking about one person saying, it is better to kill this one who is talking against him.

Text: What am I going to say, I don’t have enough money to marry? Begging the king to give him demoui. When I sleep, I worry about my poorness. He then mentions the names of the people he knows. If you give me something, I will not be worried again about my poorness. If you don’t give me, I won’t leave you but will continue to ask for something.

4 084 Agwaga.

Text: Mentions the names of those in the fighting. A village Adongol, three years ago, were boasting that if they found 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 Anyanya, they would kill them. The Anyanya then attacked the village and killed many men and captured the ladies and killed them. Sudan side. Spoke of the strangeness of the king. This village also attacked a village called dumbing (Donbang?) We must beg the king to give us something.

5 117 Dancing song.

Information: From Tiernam. (a love song) A certain girl from this village (probably the girlfriend of the composer) married someone of another village. (biel) girl is given to somebody, whether she likes it or not, until her boyfriend gets money, enough to buy demoui.)

Text: He is saying, did I not tell you to stay in this village. Some people are very rich, having 5 or 10 wives, they have taken this girl. So, he is saying, when I am rich in the future, I will come and take you Don’t talk of building houses, who will compete with me. Very high part. Would have sung like this each time. Part at the end indicates happiness. If you stay with the rich man, it will give to you poorness because you will not be happy.

6 145 Marching Song. Anyanya.

Information: Mixed with Arab words. From the Sudan. Words are difficult to get because of Arab words.

7 175 Agwaga.

Information: Perhaps from the Sudan.

Text: I’m telling you about my poorness. Begging the King. Mentions the names of the people, saying we must fight.

8 205 Dancing Song.

Text: Certain girl living in another village. When I got to that village, I was greeted by her. I was coming from a far place. Song from Ajwara. Asks the king to give him something. Mentions the name of those living with the king. The body guards. Mentions the names of the beautiful girls. I’m’ crying because, of my girlfriend. She is now away from me. If I had money I would have her with me. Why don’t you come back to your own village? The people are fighting with each other, even killing each other, for that girl. Also mentions the names of his friends.

9 330 Agwaga.

Information: From Tedo. They have captured a certain fellow; He is begging them not to kill him.

Text: Some people are talking about us, Don’t they know where we are? Let them come to us. Leave me, leave me.

10 346 Agwaga.

Information: From Tedo. This song is against Ojallo.

Text: Mentioning the names of those they killed from the other side. Saying, that those who were boasting, when we went to them, they ran away.

11 377 Agwaga.

Information: Sung by woman. Talking about a king. (In the area of this song kings will give demoui to the people that they see to be poor so that they may marry) Sometimes this happens around here as well. With the king once you are given demoui, he will not require you to give a daughter if one is the result of the marriage a chief will require that the recipient of the demoui give up a daughter to the chief, not to be taking as a bride, but rather when she is married to someone else, that demoui will be given back to the chief. The chief only needs the demoui. The foreigners used to kill those of the royal family. My name is Dorgi, Possibly the name of the one who wrote the song.

Text: Asking the king to give cow or cows to the people. The king will come to the people carrying demoui to be given to somebody. Asking the king to give something to them saying that the king is like his father who used to give things to his people when he was alive. Mentions the names who were very strong in the fighting. I’m going to beg the king to give me something, to let me be rich.

ANUAK Project: FIELD NOTES – July 12, 1972

Retyped: June 7, 2019

1:10 Leave for Tierlul.

1:15 Arrive at Tierlul and stop at our favorite tree. No one there this time and Paul therefore goes from place to place and soon one or two come.

1:45 Begin recording, going into a house (Paul’s house) to do the work because of the sound of the grain grinder motor. The first fellow is a young exuberant fellow who uses motions to make points in his singing. Olok Ajem from Tedo. He sings much softer for the tape than when he was singing before the serious work began. We must be careful of too careful responses which alter the natural way of normal response. On the whole however, this is not or doesn’t seem to be a problem. The people sing in quite an uninhibited way especially after getting used to the idea.

1:55 Orieu Omot also from Tedo sings

2:10 Gora Odola from the Sudan village of Ajwara.

Orieu Omot returns to sing several more times. These fellows appear to be between 20 and 25.

2:40 Thorgi Olok an older lady sings an old song. An apparent pattern is that the lower part which is like a chant is to be sung by those who are singing with. The higher part is the part of the leader.

Tape 1: Side 2

2:50 Sung by a young girl, Ojicli.

Sung by girls who have taken part before. Awiti Ojulo from Tedo and Awili Akway from akobo (Sudan). They sing in a variety of ways a variety of songs from love songs to lullabies. Others add their voices in several cases.

3:20 Alam Omot from Tera and Kwot Ojulo and Ocan Obang from Nyikwo village sing a variety of songs in several styles. Alam Omot has sung several times before.

We exhaust our battery supply and so have to wait for replacement before Ocan Obang can sing (Nyikwo) but we finally have replacement by about 5:20 and he sings several songs.

5:45 We finally end a hard-working session having filled two tapes. Much patience has been needed today because the songs have been somewhat short from a variety of sources with some delay between, some looking around for the next singer, and always the need to play back the entire performance for the benefit of the singer. This of course doubles the working time and doubles the use of the batteries through which I am going at a great pace. The feeling I am getting now is that we have quite well exhausted the music contributions of Tierlul. We are hearing the same songs again (which is good for comparison purposes) but the people are getting a little weary of the idea and are lacking to a degree in the freshness that I would like. It seems to be time to move on.