MIX July 12, 1972 - 11B Tierlul

Recording #11B

Place of Recording: Tierlul

Date of Recording: July 12, 1972

Performance: Bung from Openo

Informant: Paul Abulla

Date of Transcript: August 2, 1972; Direct conversation

1 000 Dancing Song.

Information: People dancing in line for this one. Not in single. For young group. They killed elephant and are proud because of that.

Text: There are no people like us. Had taken an oath before they went out to kill the animal. Would not eat something. Mentions the names of the people in that group, saying that they came back with health. Nothing happened to them. All the people are not equal. Some promise to do something but they do not fulfill their promise. The people in another village, they ask that what have you done. They told them that they had killed elephant.

2 035 Dancing song.

Information: Singer: Bung from Openo

Text: Mentions the names of those who were very strong. Also saying that some people are telling each other that we have no strong people among us here. Still mentioning the names of the people, also some people are liars, trying to confuse the people. We are fed up with them. We must pick up the sticks and go and fight with the bad men. Now when people are drinking beer, all are boasting. I will fight and will not run away. But during the war they will not fight and they will run away and leave us. Even though they will boast when they are drunk.

3 087 Dancing song.

Information: Dancing in line. They killed an animal. Now boasting of that animal which they killed.

Text: We killed this animal. Our names were heard in Gore and Asmara. They killed elephant.

4 124 Dancing Song.

Information: This song belongs to the Jo Burra. The bodyguards.

Text: Mentions the names of those in the bodyguard. Some people used to go to the chief saying don’t give this boy demoui or cow, he is not a good man. Continues to mention the names of the people.

5 165 Agwaga.

Information: Against the Nuers.

Text: When we went to their village, we found only women. We asked where are your husbands. They used to boast, but now we have arrived and they are not here. Mentions the names of those they killed among those they fought and also those who fought.

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 contri8butions 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.