Part II of Aweil History and author notes

The Dinka and Lou people of Greater Aweil have long tradition of acknowledging women’s contributions both in social and political arena. They largely do this by naming their families, clans after their great grandmothers as can best be demonstrated by numerous names like “Pan Adut, Pan Achol etc” as is commonly seen in Aweil area today. However, the Dinka and Lou of the Greater Aweil did not have much history related to women. Exceptions are only witnessed in isolated cases as in that of Awedit Dengdit who rivalled with her brother Autiak Akot in their attempt to take over the chieftainship of Gumjuer in 1907. Other than that, no major undertaking by a woman is in known records as far as the author of this article is concerned.

Our remote history has it that in 1884; one year before the fall of Khartoum to al Mahdyyia in 1885, Dengdit (Chak-Chak) was said to have met with Mohammed Ahamed Bin Abdullah (known as Mahadi) just before launching his final assault on Khartoum. The aim of that meeting as per historians was that, Mahdi wanted military support from Dengdit’s armed forces to help him capture Khartoum, the then Capital of Turko-Egyptian Administration 1821-1885. During the meeting between Dengdit (Chak-Chak) and al Mahadi near El Saffaha on the border between Aweil and South Kordofan, Dengdit was said to have given his daughter Awet Dengdit (Not to be confused with her half sister who bears similar name: Awetdit) to al Mahadi as “gift” and sign of friendship. Mahadi willingly accepted the girl (gift) and renamed her “Magbula” which literally means “an accepted gift”. Mohammed Ahamed Bin Abdullah (al Mahadi) was already an old man and was not willing to take Aweildit (Magbula) as his wife. He (al Mahadi) therefore decided to give Awetdit to his son Abdurrahman al Mahadi. With Awetdit (Magbula) and Abdurrahman al Mahadi gave birth to Sadeik, the father of Sadiq al Mahadi (the two times Sudanese prime Minster from 1966-1967 and 1986-1989. Therefore, Sadiq Sadiek Abdurrahman al Mahadi is a grandson of Awet Dengdit or Magbula Chak-Chak as she is preferably called by Arabs. In the present day OmdurmanNationalMuseum, the real name of Syda Magbula Al-Mahadi is correctly written as Awet Dengdit to confirm the claim.

There is yet another family lineage of Awetdit that could still be traced today amongst al Massieryyia al Hommer (the larger clans of Bagara), and the power behind Marahilien who indiscriminately killed and maim our men, and enslaved thousands of our women and children. The Mother of Babo Nimiir the paramount Chief of al Massieryyia al Hommer is a daughter of granddaughter of Awetdit. However, as recently as late 1980s, the Massieryyia begun denying the claim that their paramount Chief was a descendents of Awedit. But this denial will not reverse the historical truth as far as Massieryyia linkage to Awedit is concerned. Arabs brothers are unfortunately known to be good at distorting facts but that will hardly happen in this case. As a matter of factual evidence, the Commander of the Mahadyyia who later took over the al Mahadi State after the death of al Mahadi in June 1885 had his daughter married to Awedit’s son. From the perspective of remote historical sources, Massieryyia will not deny the fact that Khaliffa Abdullah al Tahishi’s daughter was widely known to have been married to one of Awetdit’s son, the brother of Syed Sadiek Abdurrahman Al Mahadi.

The Author Notes. 

            The above details are the traces of history. The author does not in any way want to claim the blood connection between the people of Aweil (represented by Parek Clan) the direct blood of Awetdit and Arab in the north. The author here is trying to show how interconnect our histories are and to establish the level of contact Aweil people had, for generations, made with the Mahadyyia, as well as with the Turks, the Egyptians, and the British. Sudan was by no means free from foreign interventions – even if such connections are not traceable, it could still be obvious that, the Arab on entering the Blad el Sudan did not remain isolated but had tried to blend themselves with indigenous African people whom they found in Sudan, largely through intermarriages. Dharar Saleh al Dharar (The renowned Sudanese Historian, of Lebanese origin) in his book “The Modern History of Sudan 2nd edition 1968” clearly outlined these interconnections between the Mahadi’s family and that of the Dinka of Northern Bhar El Gazal, specifically the area that later on came to be geographically and politically known as Aweil. Zubier Pasha Monsour, the famous Ja’ali slave trader during 1870-1889 was said to have worked and made alliance with Dengdit when the former founded Dim al Zubier near Raja for collection of slaves before sending them to Egypt via North Sudan. He was also known to have married to or given another “gift” in form of a girl by Dengdit (Chak-Chak) but I do not have any concrete evidence to confirm this. During the abolition of Slave trade by Great Britain in 1873, it was said that some of Dengdit’s family members complained to the Anti-slavery missions (or groups) stationed in Aweil area, which were led by a British 1st Lt. Robert Monroe to back Awedit back from “slavery”. But when this claim was investigated, it was proven by the Abdurrahman al Mahadi that, Awetdit was not a slave but a legally married wife of Mahadi. This piece of information is well-documented and in many records. Long after the abolition of slavery, British realized that slavery was still being practice in full scale in Northern Bahr el gazal. This forced the British government to send a team of Anti-slavery groups to the region in the 1890s with an aim of stopping slavery. 1st Lt. Robert Monroe settled at Nyamellel from June 7, 1892 to 14th May 1893, to investigate the traces of slavery in areas around Nyamelell particularly from East and west of Mangok-Dengdit and to as far as 17 Miles East of Raja in Western Bhar El Gazal.

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Compiled By:

Ateny Wek Ateny, London England.

atenywekdit@madingaweil.com