Powers Changed, Powers Lost
RUMBEK, Sudan, March 15 (Gurtong) – A reoccurring theme in the Forum
of Traditional Leaders from Lakes State held in Rumbek this week has been the
loss of powers experienced by chiefs over the past decades. The years of conflict
have had an impact, explained Chief Dut Malwal to Gurtong, as army officers
took over administration and judicial powers. A lack of movement and communication,
due to insecurity and poverty between the chiefs also had a detrimental effect.
During Wednesday afternoon much dialogue was had between the chiefs concerning
the effect the establishment of payam and county courts have had on their powers,
with these judiciaries taking over cases that would, traditionally, be dealt
with by the chiefs themselves.
The chiefs who separated into groups to identify the ways in which their powers
had been detracted also said that youth carrying guns and uncooperative police
also played an important role in changing the level of respect and power they
had over their communities.
Mabil Gurkek Baak who is the Court President of Amongpiny Payam in Rumbek Centre
County talked about his roles, past and present as a practitioner of customary
law. “I was a court president before the war, I traveled around a lot.
For example I was taken to Twic County and Aweil as far as Northern Bahr el
Ghazal to deal with conflicts between communities. The selection was done by
the regional government of the time, prominent chiefs from different communities
were selected and taken to solve problems in communities far away.
“The situation is different now, this practice has been abandoned. Now
the judiciary who focus on the culprit and maybe the victim is dominating the
situation, but they do not dig deep enough in the community for the reasons
for the problem. We are no longer dealing with murder cases. We should be. In
the traditional approach, we punish the killers but also look into the community
to dig out the root causes of the problem. Now, even theft cases are taken to
the judiciary.”
“See, if someone elopes for the sake of marriage and is his capable of
that marriage then he can marry – that is a sustainable solution to that
conflict. If he does this without the ability to marry then the fine is one
heifer and the girl is returned to her father. The fine for adultery is seven
cows. This was agreed in the Wandhalel meeting in Tonj during the 1970s. The
Dinka in Northern Bahr el Ghazal fined ten cows and here in Lakes we were fining
five. So we compromised in order to harmonise our laws. We agreed in consensus.
The imprisonment of women is not part of customary law in this area and in fact
it does not allow it. In our laws the woman is fined. There is a lot of confusion
in the judiciary system, that is why those women are in jail”.
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