Suffering Due To Conflict, by Asunta Atag

This is a recorded narrative in the Thuri language, just under 3 minutes in duration, in which the speaker tells the story of her life. The translation is as follows. "What I say here, is about the suffering that we went through during the conflict. And me, I became blind when I was young, I was still breastfeeding, I am sure; I was two years when I became blind. What happened to us is armed conflict. [editors: She is referencing the civil war between Sudan and the South that started in 1983.] When fleeing from the armed conflict, it is my mother who led me. And whenever she became tired, she then tied me on her back. At one point, my mother and I were surrounded by burning grass in which we were hiding. My father had already been killed in the conflict [editors: so he could not protect them]. We were surrounded by burning grass with my mother. It is because she is a Thuri woman, she knew the name of a Thuri god [editors: There are gods within the traditional Thuri belief system, and people can invoke their names in time of danger for help. Afterwards they are expected to approach a guardian of this god within the community to offer a sacrifice in compensation], and she was able to save our lives by invoking the name of this Thuri god; and by so doing, we safely escaped the fire. If not for this, I am sure, we would have burnt to death in the grass. Again, another suffering we went through, my father was killed when we were still young. So my mother fed us singlehandedly using termites from burnt anthills in the bush during the conflict. Again, cloth, what is called cloth, we didn’t have, not even for tying a child on the back. I was tied on the back using a rope made from the bark of a tree known as upod in Thuri language [editors: thon upod ‘the rope of the upod tree’]. During that time that is what was used for tying a child on the back. When you sleep at night, mosquitos are problematic to people. You need to light a fire and keep rubbing your child’s body with your hand constantly to protect them from mosquito bites. This is the small story I had, about our suffering. [editors: The narrator was ready to stop speaking, but she was encouraged to continue by the listeners.] There are some fruits from trees known in the Thuri language as jier anyieyi, which my mother used to collect from the bushes there, which I do not know until now. They are soaked in water for five days before they can be pounded and cooked as food. These are the things that Thuri children suffered from. And these sufferings that Thuri children underwent, are being experienced until now. Nothing has changed in the Thuri land. This is what I want to report to you all, you Thuri children who are there [editors: She is referring to Thuri people who have migrated abroad.]. [editors: The term children can be extended to refer to the members of a community or the inhabitants of a place. In this sense ‘children of the Thuri land’ means Thuri people in general, not just children.] And I am still suffering until now. I do not have the ability [editors: because she is blind] to go the bush to go and dig roots such as muodi and dhaamo [editors: these are not domesticated / cultivated plants; they are collected through foraging rather than from agriculture.] as my mother did, so that I can feed myself. What remains (that I am able to do) to feed myself now is to sell water at the market. And I have also given birth. I give birth and I feed them with earnings from selling water. This is my suffering, which I want to tell you, Thuri children. Some people will die of hunger, others, those that God will help will be saved. Thank you. My name is Asunta Atag." The recording and translation of this narrative took place with the financial support of the Leverhulme Trust, through the grant "Suprasegmentals in three West Nilotic languages" (RPG-20202-040) to Bert Remijsen (PI). Further details can be found in the metadata file, and the excel sheet. The item includes the following three components: a) the sound recording of the narrative in Thuri (wav format, 48kHz sampling frequency, bit depth of 16 bit); b) a summary and a translation of its contents (pdf format); and c) a metadata file that provides details re. the speaker and the recording (excel format). Later on, we hope to add a file with annotations that are time-aligned with the recording. The recording was made on the understanding that the recording can be made public, and can be disseminated. Moreover, the speaker asked to be acknowledged by name for their contribution.