Thuri History, by Uchalla Jitho Yamun

This is a recorded narrative in the Thuri language, about 27 minutes in duration, in which the speaker expresses his understanding of the history of the Thuri ethnic group. The speaker states that the Thuri people are believed to have settled where they are today having migrated having migrated Southward along the Nile. They migrated to a place believed to be the current Upper Nile region of South Sudan from Ethiopia while following river Nile. While in Upper Nile, they lived together with Shilluk (Colo) and Anyuak, whose languages are akin to Thuri. Then they left for Nyamlel, Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan. They were forced to migrate, again following the river due to conflict. Thuri are known for their patience and utter lack of appetite for violence. While in Nyamlel, they lived with Dinkas who eventually pushed them away and displaced them further South and South West in Amudho, Marialbai, and Achaano and lived peacefully with Dinkas and Arabs in those respective places. In Achaano, they however misbehaved. They raped Arab women and girls. This angered their hosts who convened an emergency meeting. In that meeting, Arabs resolved to expel and scatter the Thuri people from amongst them in Achaano. Instead of conflict, they chose prayer. Seven strong religious leaders known as feki (Muslim religious leader who heals) were tasked to fast and pray for seven days. On the seventh day, the rock they were praying and writing upon became as soft as a paper. When it became soft, they then cut it into four pieces with a knife and buried one piece and threw other three pieces away in different directions while chanting incantations of curses in the name of Thuri. It is because of this that Thuri people are now scattered in different places under different leaderships. Some in Abul, while others are in Achaano, Marialbai, Umoora, Awoda, Aroyo, Aweil, Wau, Kuru, and Raga among others. Besides this prayer, other factors are also to blame. These included relocation by the kawaja (the colonial government) and subsequent liberation wars. It is worth noting that Abul was not originally Thuriland. But they were relocated there by the kawaja by force. The Wau-Raga road, which was constructed by a slave trader known as Zubeir through labour and wars, became important for colonialists. But travel over this road was interrupted occasionally by elephants, which were notoriously blocking the road. To keep the road opened, the kawaja asked and discovered that it is the Thuri people who are courageous enough to fight, kill and scare and/or displace elephants from the road. They then relocated Thuri by force from their original locations to Abul, along the Wau-Raga road, to keep away the elephants and to keep the road opened to guarantee their free and regular movement in 1927. This was after Zubeir fought and displaced Zande (Majaga) from there. Abul as it is known is a name of one of the Zande’s chiefs. Thuri are very hospital people. Although Abul is their place, they are not the only ones living there. But they are living there with other tribes peacefully. Secondly, liberation wars also scattered Thuri in different directions/places. Some returned but some never even long after those conflicts were brought to conclusion through dialogues and peace accords. War is bad but it is also good. Bad because it displaces people, destroys lives, property, livelihoods and infrastructures but it is also good because it provided some of our children with education and opportunity to resettle abroad. He concludes his narration with votes of thanks to Angelo Ugwaag and Bert for rejuvenating the interest to keep Thuri language and culture alive and appeals to Thuri people to come back and develop their land like John Akuar, who came back from America and built a school in Abul and like other Thuri people from America who also bought and sent uniforms and are also paying for school teachers’ salaries. [NB. The flow of the narrative is not always clear.]