By: Kimo Ajing Aba (John-Kimo S. Ajing)
The entire Collo (Shilluk) in the United States of America has yearly marked the 1st week of the month of July as the week of their annual meetings and cultural dances. This July, the 8 to the 9th put Collo, in this country, into a crossroad of thinking as to how development and peace can be implemented and carried out by the Collo themselves in their own land and territories. To capture the occasion, I set off for Kansas City, Missouri, the city and state chosen for this year event. There, on the verge of hottest Collo furious debates on the best ways to enhance the development and peace in the Collo land (Phodhi Collo) after peace, I came to meet Mama/ Joy Nyamum Ajang. She had just arrived from Canada to pay a two-week visit to her daughter, Sarah Samuel Oweti, who is married to Hilary; a Southern Sudanese from the Pajulo ethnicity in Equatroia in South Sudan.
Courtesy photos of two Collo elders and Collo elder women at the Conference, Kansas City, MO
Meeting her was unprecedented to me, for since childhood I kept thinking over a matter, which my parents had bitterly debated while I was plying with mud and catching frogs beside them. With a childish thinking, I could not relate up the facts and issues of their debate, however, I digested the main theme as to be a mysterious burial in the village.
In later days, and after I have become a grown up man, some relatives helped me understand better what had really happened in the village but no certain answers or clear convictions were provided and I kept wondering more that issue.
Today, in Kansas City MO, I came face to face with Mama/ Joy Nyamum and I decided to see her in her residence (her daughter's house). I introduced myself to her and released to her my intention and plan, "The 29-year--old painful subject about her husband's sudden death or disappearance". The history clicked back into her mind. With blur eyes, she confessed: "I am searching for him".
This is a passion of a desperate woman yearning for the hidden truth about her beloved husband buried without any final say as to whether he was really dead or not. The grave, which lied in Dolieb Hill, might well contain the remains of Mr. Samuel Oweti or it might not. The accident in Moscow could turn to be a source of sorcery or accident, but the body or remains largely remained unseen, untouched, unexamined but lay to the ground on an assumption without a clear-cut elucidation and clarification. Such a loophole supports the belief that the deceased may still be alive or can just be an unfound person.
Even though Collo culture and norms rarely permits further deliberations over the deceased after his/her death, it is of paramount importance succumbing to the pain, search and candor of who have survivors. Henceforth, I felt personally obliged to share her story with the entire Sudanese public and the Collo community in particular. Ultimately, the feedbacks, modern science and technology, in addition to critical thinking from our readers and viewers may help in finding glimpse of the truth, here or there, to suffice quest.
Finally, this interview or article is not necessarily, in direct contradiction with the good wisdom and will of the elders at the time of the incident or burial, rather than a mean of hammering out new venues for comprehending the truth.
Here are the questions I have posed to Mama/ Joy NyaAmum Ajang and her answers thereof, in reply to them...
******
*******Mama/ Joy Nyamum Ajangdid, widow of Late Samuel Oweti
Q.1: Can you introduce yourself to your community:
A. My name is Joy Nyamum Ajang. I came from Ogod Pathwor (Wig Kaal) in Collo Land. My descendency (kwar) is called Kwar Mung.
Q. 2: How and when did you go to school?
A. I started my elementary school at Dolieb Hill (Kallatwog) in 1961 to 1964. Our Headmaster, by that time was, Usataz/ Amum Nyikeir. Than because of the war (Anyaya 1), the school was closed and I decided to come to Khartoum to continue my education. Hence, I joined the Evangelical School in Khartoum North (Bahari) in 1967. Then I was accepted in Juba girls in 1969.
Q.3: Whom among your colleagues you can still remember now?
A. I can recall Mary Adiang, NyaRaath Achol, and Late: Suzan Nyabwong Oyai. Ahead of us was also Nyapaj Joel.
Q.4: How did you come to know Mr. Samuel Oweti Ajangdid?
A. the Evangelical School in Khartoum Bahari (North) used to be a boarding school. With few Collo (Shilluk) girls in town there, the Students at the University of Khartoum frequented us with their visits during the weekends and from there I came into contact with Samuel Oweti, gradually, I became attractive to him and we get married in August of 1971.
Q. 5: Can you introduce your husband Samuel Oweti Ajangdid?
A: yes! His name is Samuel Oweti Ajangdid. He came from Palo in Collo land. His Descendency (Kwar) is Kwar Reth.
Q.6: During your marriage to him, what kind of husband you can describe to our public readers?
A. He was a good man, indeed, a nice father to his kids, always demonstrating a good leadership and diplomatic characteristics.
Q.7: How and when did he go to the school and finish his studies?
A.: First, he went to Obel School in Collo land. Then he joined Rumbek Secondary School and later the University of Khartoum, from which he graduated from the field of Economics in 1970.
Q.8: Among his best and close friends, whom can you still remember or name now?
A.: quite often, he reminded me of Yuannis Yor Akol, as his younger brother.
Q.9: Mr. Samuel Oweti had once, joined the Sudan's Foreign affairs Ministry. How did he end up as an under-secretary in the Sudan Embassy in Moscow, Russia?
A.: In the same year of his graduation from the university (1970), my husband applied to work for the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Khartoum. He got a portfolio and we lived in Khartoum (Al-Sahafa) for couple of months. In November of 1971, we left for China, and he worked in the Sudan Embassy in Beijing up to September 1973. We came back to Sudan and he got a dispatch for Chad.
Q.10: Did you accompany him to Chad, also?
A.: In fact, we could not make it to Chad because he refused to go there.
Q.11: Why did he refuse to work in Chad, for the Government of his country, Sudan?
A.: Well! While he was in China, his colleagues in Sudan got promotions and he was not promoted. Additionally, the post of Chad was going to make him work under somebody who was junior to him. Therefore, he refused to cope up with the instructions and preferred to stay and work in Khartoum.
Q.12: Who was the then foreign minister of the Sudan?
A.: I no longer remember his name.
Q.13: Can you elaborate on Oweti's work in Khartoum?
A.: While in Khartoum, Sarah was born in June 1974. Shortly, he got an assignment in Russia. In Moscow he became active diplomatically, quick, and capable of wining the hearts and minds of the young African diplomats in their respective embassies. As such, he became the Chairperson of these young diplomats in Moscow.
Q.14: How did your husband died?
A.: Before I enumerate on the facts of the assumed accident, let me indulge into another detrimental situation correlated to the accident itself. It happened in October of 1977, after a bidding- fare well night party to an African Tanzanian diplomat, he was driving back home and at an intersection where he decided to turn, a car in front of him suddenly stopped. At the same time, another car at the rear parked and stopped tightly to the tail of his car. He failed completely to advance back and fro. The acceleration became idle then six (6) men, three from the two cars, got out and attacked his car. These men tried forcefully and rigorously, to pull off the external handles or smash them, but to no avail; because Oweti had had locked it.
Q.15: The automobile Mr. Oweti was driving, was which Mark and Model?
A: the car was Mercedes Benz.
Q.16: At what time of the night did, the accident or attack occurred.
A.: The party was over around 11:30 PM that night and the distance between the venue of the party and our house was less than thirty minutes (00:30). Therefore, the incident happened between 12:00 Am and 12:30 Am.
Q.17: Were they able to get hold of him?
A.: No! The external handles of the car were ironically strong and Oweti resorted to the horn. In Moscow, in particularly, it is commonly regarded as a nuisance holding the horn of the car, or even pumping it. When Samuel hit the horn, a group coming from a nearby nightclub was alerted by the horn and approached the car. At that point, these six people dispersed and the police came over and asked Oweti to leave.
Q.18: I understand he was coming from a party the night of the accident, was he drunk.
A.: He was sober. Not drunk. However, he was very tired. I asked Oweti: "What are you going to do now?" He retreated the question to me. I told him tomorrow morning you must inform the embassy and report the matter to the Russian Foreign Relations. In addition, I told him we should move to Addis Ababa, since he was transferred to Ethiopia.
Q.19: What kind of answers did he give back, in response to your suggestions?
A.: At one point, he told me "nothing I can do". Notwithstanding, I kept asking him every two days or so, as to what he had done so far. Then he decided not to tell me any more details because he thought I was "too much afraid".
Q.20: Q.24: How did you hear about your husband's death?
A.: In January 8th 1978, he left the house for a meeting and failed to make it back home or even call. I waited for him all night long and realized that something wrong should have happened to him. I phoned one of his friends who visited him the same day and with whom they left together. That friend asked me to allow him call the house, for which he went for a meeting. He called back and said that Oweti left that house at 11:30 pm. I asked him weather he got drunk there. He told that Oweti drank juice only in that house.
I called the Sudanese ambassador and the Security attach? the same night. The Ambassador said there is nothing he is aware of. Then he asked me to wait until morning.
In the morning, I went to the Embassy and the Security Attach?, Mr. Al Fateh Irwa was the only person in there. He requested me to go back home that the Ambassador and all staff from the Embassy are on their way to my house.
At my house, the embassy staff the seated me on a chair and the Educational Attach?, Late/ Mohammed Ali Bakriba, asked for our passports, in preparation for a departure to Sudan. No body could clearly tell me where my husband is or what have happened to him. I broke into tears.
Mr. Mohamed Ali then took my both hands and said, "We found Samuel death in a car accident". I cried out for wanting to see his body, a nurse injected me with a medicine, and immediately I felt asleep until 4:00 PM, when I woke up unconscious. The staff told me that I am going to Sudan.
In the airport in Moscow, They had already shipped the coffin. The only belongings they handed to me were Oweti's CombWedding Ring. His clothes and shoes were no there! I wondered! I had the first sight of the coffin in Sudan.
Q.21: Now you flew to Sudan accompanied with the coffin.
A.: yes! The Vice-ambassador went to Sudan with us, then to Collo territory of Dolieb Hill (Kal-LaTuog). At Dolieb Hill (Kal-LaTuog), the vice-ambassador reported the existence of a harmful powder sprayed over the body that could not permit the opening of the coffin box for a final respect.
Q.22: At the burial ground in Dolieb Hill, who attended the burial rite?
A. All Malakal town came out in grieve. The schools were closed for three days and people went to Dolieb Hill with the coffin. Among those present, Commissioner of Upper Nile, Mr. Phillip Obang, Benjamin Akol Ngou, Late/Othown Dak, Kwong Dak (now reth), Nyaweigh Aketh., Yuannis Yor, and late/ Arop Yor Ayiek and a lot more names I can not quietly recall now.
Q.23: In Moscow, did your husband contributed in any activities against communism?
A.: He was not with communism and at the same time, he was not against them. He was just doing his job as a professional diplomat.
Q.25: After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, what efforts you made to find out some glimpse of the truth about Samuel Oweti' tragic death?
A.: Firstly, in two weeks, after the burial in Dolieb Hill, I traveled back to Moscow to get the certificate of death from the Russian authorities and to bring Tina home. There I talked to Mr. El Fateh Irwa, the Security attach?' in the Embassy and repeatedly requested him to give me clues for how the accident had happened. I wanted to see the place where the car collided and who were the first to come and rescue Oweti. I wanted to get his shoes and clothes back. Mr. Irwa would tell me:" Madam, you are right but where is the proof".
Upon my insistence, Mr. Al Fateh Irwa finally agreed to take me to the scene where the supposedly accident had taken place. I saw the car. It was in complete devastation. The entire front seat, dashboard and the steering wheel were in the far back of the rear seats. To my surprise, there was no blood, red spots or any trace of blood on the car. I asked Irwa: Why there is no blood at all in the car, if this was a car accident?" Al Fateh could talk no more......
Secondly and Lately, I have consulted some circles, via a website designed to collect information on those kidnapped, assassinated, or disappeared in Russia during the cold war. I talked to three Russians; one get back to me saying that it is not easy because of the amount of time that has elapsed. The other person I did not hear from him, while the third one is embarking on his search and contacts.
Q.26: The modern advancement in technology science have made many people turn increasingly, to the Generic Evidence (DNA) to establish proof on long-standing unsolved matters. To clearly identify the remains in Dolieb Hill, and link it to Samuel Oweti, and to exonerate yourself from years of uncertainty and grieve, would you consider the application of DNA Test on the remains in Dolieb Hill, in the foreseeable future, as a mean of casting some final hopes to the mystery death of your husband?
A.: Yes, I agree with that provided Samuel Oweti's family is consulted.
Q.27: Finally, when addressing the Pachodo Community annual Conference, held in Kansas City, Missouri, from July 8th - 9th of 2007, I saw you as an energetic, courageous, capable, strong, and enthusiastic woman. How did all these charismatic characteristics conform to your personality despite the pain and grieve you have had suffered since the lost of or the disappearance of your husband?
A.: When troubles come, it gives strength. During the seven years, I had spent with Samuel Oweti; I learned courage and ways of solving problems diplomatically. He always let me speak my mind. Love has always been my faith. My mother died a year prior to my husband's accident. I said to myself, why these are happening to me God. But God has given me courage and strength to face challenges. Therefore, I took my kids to best schools to let them grow up and not feel the gap of absence of their father. My faith kept telling me that one day he would come. I have a little bite of clue as to why this happened to him.
Thanks you Mama/ Joy Nyamum Ajang
Kimo Ajing Aba (John-Kimo S. Ajing)
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