Issues Of Coronation, by Mary Agiw Kwot

At the center of this item is an audio recording (wav file) in Shilluk of a narrative by Mary Agiw Kwot, who gives her personal perspective on issues relating to the coronation of the Shilluk king. The audio recording is 6 and a half minutes in duration (390 seconds), and it is accompanied by a detailed time-aligned annotation, which includes the Shilluk orthography; English translation; phonological transcription; morpheme glosses; and comments. The Shilluk are a group of clans who joined together to form a country under Nyikango, son of Okwa in the year 1635. After him his son Daak son of Nyikango succeeded him; it was then decided that any person who must be king, should be a son of a king who was perfectly installed, and must be born during his father’s rule. The first part of Mary Agiw’s story relates to when she was a child. One day people woke up in the morning, and the village was quiet and the children asked their grandmother; why are people not taking? And the grandmother said, ‘’Keep quiet, for the land has disappeared.’’ (meaning the king has died) and that was when King Kur son of Papiti (1951-1974) died. Later on, she vividly saw the installation of King Ayang Anay Kur (1974-1992). And at last, when she was already married and had three children, she fully witnessed the installation of King Kwongo Daak in 1992; she saw the effigy of Nyikango and Daak son of Nyikango, and the fight between the effigy of Nyikango and the new king, in Arepijurri brook, which constitutes the border between Gar (north) and Lwak (south). She witnessed everything. (The effigy is brought from Akorwaa, which is in South Sudan, close to the border with Sudan.) This process is described in a documentary film ‘the King of the Nile’. The remarkable thing was that the rainy season had arrived, and the King was advised to suspend the installation, thereby allowing people to cultivate, just as his grandfather did. But the King refused. So the people did not cultivate that year. But it was reported that a man in Nyigir did cultivate, And the King sent for him, and asked him to pay cows for his disobedience. After the rainy season, people were called to build Pachodo (Fashoda). But there were no dura stalks for building the fences. And the King had to give the cows back to the man who had cultivated, as he was the only one who had stalks for sale. This item consists of a recorded Shilluk narrative (wav file), accompanied by annotations (in Praat TextGrid) and associated information: metadata, permissions and speaker questionnaire. The associated information is also summarized, in a spreadsheet. The TextGrid annotation includes Shilluk orthography, translation, and comments.