Traditional Leaders Profiles
Paramount Chief Dennis Daramallo Kundi, Paramount
Chief of the Bari, Juba, Central Equatoria
‘I am going to struggle
(for a woman). This is the way.’
Paramount Chief Dennis Daramallo Kundi is a highly
recognizable and occasionally controversial figure
in Juba, his portly frame riding around on a Senke
motorbike, periodically issuing threats to evict international
organisations from the Bari land on which they stand.
As the Juba based chief present on the tour, his concerns
and contacts extend far beyond the Bari tribe, and
Daramallo sees himself as a spokesman for all the
chiefs – he is a strong believer in the need
for proper facilities for chiefs visiting Juba.
He is suspicious of me, however, and accuses me of
being a spy from Khartoum, categorically refusing
to share any details of his life or chieftaincy, other
than to say he was born in 1947, which he notes is
the same year the Juba conference, which determined
the post-colonial future of north and south Sudan,
took place.
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Throughout the trip, Chief Daramallo is an exuberant figure,
never at a loss for My only insights gleaned from his comments
during the trip’s events and incidents, it is clear
Daramallo is awed by a lot of what he has seen.
‘I have really been impressed by the system of Botswana,
it is really traditional,’ he says. words, except, unfortunately
for me, in the case of this interview.
Commenting on the high ranking female chief from Botswana,
Kgosi Mosadi Seboko, Daramallo is effusive. ‘We have
seen ourselves. I am going to struggle (for a woman). This
is the way. [She is] stronger than a man, even. But there
must be some confusion, even for the women.’
Chief Daramallo has a clear vision for the future of traditional
authority in Southern Sudan. ‘[There should be] one
chief to represent on Local Government Board. One chief to
talk about tradition, not about politics, for the local assembly.
[If we have] chiefs’ representative in state assembly
[this] will cause political fighting. [We need] chiefs’
uniforms with badges. It is a social life that we all share
together in a common interest.’ Reflecting on the various
musical performances witnessed in Ghana, he says, ‘these
drums we have. But we lost our [meaning] because of the war.’
Suspicious but determined: Daramallo’s vision of the
future is straightforward. ‘There is another war ahead
of us: poverty. The war of gun is finished. Hunger makes people
say anything. Our hunger [now] is for development.’
