Traditional Leaders Profiles
Paramount Chief Philip Manytong Awin Manytong of
Dolip Hill, Upper Nile, Representative of the King of the
Shilluk
‘If I do not know this
man he is my enemy. Now I know him.’
Paramount Chief Philip Manytong Awin Manytong trained as
a doctor’s medical assistant in Juba, during the Addis
Ababa agreement, from 1972 – 1974. Chief Manytong fondly
recalls those years, long before his skills were called upon
to treat those injured in the Second Civil War. ‘Juba
was different,’ he says simply.
During the war, Chief Manytong worked as a general medical
assistant in Renk, Malakal and Kodol, as well as in other
locations across Upper Nile. He recalls treating people on
both sides, despite his sympathies in the conflict. ‘The
people in your town are still your people [even if they are
fighting on the other side].’ But some of them were
your enemies? ‘Well, yes. It was good anyway. I was
a quiet supporter of the movement.’
Chief Manytong went on to work as a counsellor to the Shilluk
king, working in the king’s dispensary. ‘The Shilluk
Kingdom has 15 payams, so there is a lot of ground to be covered,’
he says. And what is it like working for the king? ‘An
honour. The king is like a priest. The king is a man of peace.
The Shilluk do not fight. Some call [us] cowards. But we still
have enemies!’
‘If I do not know this man he is my enemy. Now I know
him. All the conflicts between the people are because we don’t
know each other…we consider Isaac’s [Ruot Lam
War Kur, Paramount Chief of the Lou Nuer] people the worst
kind of people. It is the people of Isaac who are causing
all these problems. Now I know Isaac, I can talk to him and
say look here, how do we solve this?’
His eyesight now failing, Chief Manytong hopes that more
educated young Sudanese begin to see their future in rural
areas. ‘The reason why things are happening is that
they [the Ghanaians and South Africans] are led by educated
people who have served under the government. In South Sudan,
the educated man cannot talk about going to the village and
a very small tukul. We have to advise or tell our people [to
accept this].’
Customary law’s future depends on it, in Manytong’s
view. ‘[We do things like] sharing the blood of the
killed by eating meat together. This is important in community
relations. About the customary laws, there is nothing difficult
about them. [But they are irrelevant] if there is no development.’
