A visit to the Peace Village at Kuron

It has been nearly a year without any travel for me since Covid broke out and during that time I have hardly left Nimule.  This has left me with a great desire for a change and a rest.  Travel to Uganda needs a Covid certificate and a $50 Ugandan visa, so I prefer not to go there until I am able to take the deaf children back to school. 

Around five or six years ago I met a very remarkable retired bishop called Bishop Paride Taban for the first time.  Even though he is over eighty years old, it is not really true that he is retired.  Instead he has been working for peace in South Sudan by any means that he can find.  This includes arbitrating between rival army generals, the government and outside agencies.  His attempts sometimes involve talking to some very violent and murderous characters, so he is a very brave man. 

His pet project has been the establishment of a peace village in a very remote area of South Sudan called Holy Trinity Peace Village at Kuron, not far from the border with Ethiopia.  It is an area virtually untouched by outside influences.  He established a primary school and a clinic (which has saved many lives).  A secondary school is under construction.  There is a newly established vocational training college run by the St Martin de Porres brothers, two of whom live in the peace village.  The Bishop lobbied outside agencies for road construction, a bridge over a local river and an air strip so that Kuron is becoming more accessible than previously, although at the moment only privately chartered flights land there. 

Agriculture is being taught to the local tribe, the Toposa, for the first time.  Up until learning agricultural skills they totally lived off their cattle herds.  The Toposa are traditionally semi-nomadic, following their cattle from place to place, but with an upsurge in cattle raiding by other tribes, they are now sticking close to home.  Due to Bishop Paride’s motivation for peace-building, a lot of work is being done to help the Toposa to become a more peaceful tribe.  There is a whole department at the Peace Village devoted to this task.

Arrival at Kuron by light aircraft

The flight to Kuron takes a bit over one hour from Juba.  There is no real alternative as the roads in that direction are rough tracks through very remote areas and would have taken days.  Planes fly very low so that it is possible to see the ground all the time.  For most of the journey I stayed glued to the window.

It is very different from Nimule, where people have become pan-African in their dress, the women mostly wearing beautiful African print long dresses and head scarves or elaborately braided hair.  Men in Nimule wear shirts or t-shirts and trousers.  I have been given a Toposa name, Natabu, which means a shady place where people can gather.  It is a tradition here to rename people coming from outside in the Toposa language.

Toposa women

For my first week I simply relaxed.  It is very peaceful.  The compound nestles under a steep, rocky but wooded hill.  The area is far greener than Nimule, even though it is the dry season, but just as hot.  Birds sing day and night, which adds to the peaceful atmosphere.  I am woken by cocks crowing.  I sleep in a slightly more modern version of a traditional round hut, with a metal roof rather than thatch. 

The Toposa of the local area are pretty much untouched by all the wars and political problems that have beset most of the country.  They did not become refugees, but have stayed behind, continuing their normal lives throughout.  This makes it a far more stable area than many in the country.  People do not have the same dependency on outside aid, which makes a refreshing change.

The local catechist speaks to the villagers.

A few days ago, I went with the Kuron director, Father Henry, and the two St Martin de Porres brothers to an even more remote area to carry out baptisms.  It was wonderful.  We went after dark because it is almost impossible to get people together in the daytime, when they are out herding their cattle.  It was a long bumpy ride across dried out riverbeds; when it is the rainy season the road must be impassable.  We arrived to find a large bonfire lighting up the night.  We were greeted by a large crowd of excited villagers, with many children.  All still wear traditional tribal dress or, in the case of some children, nothing at all.  Many have multiple piercings and beaded necklaces. 

The catechist for the village we visited is completely illiterate but knows his teachings very well indeed, to the extent that when tested by the brothers prior to our visit, the candidates for baptism were far better informed than many Catholics in western countries.  He has also taught the people a large repertoire of hymns in the Toposa language.  We were greeted with beautiful singing as a result.  Around 160 people were baptized, ranging from five year olds upwards.  The team will come back to carry out infant baptisms but are concentrating on the older residents who need instruction first.

Children waiting for baptism by the light of a bonfire.

Many of the children had grossly distended bellies due to worms.  The place is far too far from the clinic, but Doctors without Borders recently visited the clinic at Kuron and have agreed to fund a mobile clinic, so hopefully this situation will soon change.

The general atmosphere of joy and excitement over the baptism visit was palpable.  It was a very happy occasion indeed.

Last week was final exam time for primary school leavers across South Sudan and the school in Kuron was no exception.  There were twenty exam candidates, only three of whom are girls, because of traditional gender values.  Hopefully, as the Toposa become more influenced from outside, they will allow their girls to attend school.  Girls here are usually married at puberty to much older men.  I feel very fortunate that we have a far more gender-balanced school in Nimule.  The school here is a boarding school as it caters for a very wide area.  Some pupils come from as much as 100 kilometres away.

For the past two days I have been teaching the teachers the same literacy method that I have taught the teachers at Cece Primary School, to enable them to improve their literacy teaching.  As literacy is not part of the South Sudan Curriculum, this will, I hope, be a good way to say thank you for my stay here to everybody working here.