Wildfires and Unrelenting Winds in Aweil

In most African villages, far from the reaches of local and global media and research, climate change has no name. But people know about the natural order of things. They have done so for centuries. They know about the seasons of the year and could detect, with immediate certainty, when anything out of the ordinary disturbs the serenity and benevolence of nature. With bare bodies, people can tell if it is too hot or cold in the present time in comparison to the times of yore.

If being omnipresently aware of the natural surrounding and sudden variations that happen in it constitutes climate change, then the climate has not been so unmerciful in the years gone by but now. People now know that when natural disasters – those that have never occurred – do occur, they have to find the right answers and the correct modes of response. They ask rhetorically hard questions and begin to seek some tangible answers in this regard.

In the South Sudanese constituency of Korok, an event that surprised the locals happened recently. A little bush fire in an open sudd area – known locally as 'The Toc' – was swallowed up by massive wind turbulence and spun around for hours before it was launched into a speedy conflagration, consuming people, houses, trees, livestock, crops, and anything that could catch fire in its wake. When it all subsided, over fifty people lay dead, incinerated beyond recognition. Many more sustained third-degree burns. The situation was a nightmare. Its eerie menace fed into the local traditions, mores, and mythologies, trying to explain away the horror that had befallen people for the first time.

People began to ask: what is it? Why have fires like these happened? How comes fires could leap over hundreds of meters of open grounds to set ablaze far places with unimaginable fierceness?  What has changed in our routine seasons of the year that winds and fires have become so ferocious and unpredictable?....and many more questions are still being asked. The answers are still to be communicated to these communities.

This, to the doubting Thomases in the climate change argument, shows that the conditions of the atmosphere are not the way they used to be. Even unschooled villagers have come to understand it.

To remember the victims of the combined ruthlessness of winds and fires in Korok, here is the lamentation in Dinka about the once known natural area that has now turned into a deadly monster, spitting hot and blowing faster than usual:

Kɔrɔk Acï Dëp

Karaŋda acï nyopwei

Ye Karaŋ Abɛɛl

Aye Karaŋ Aŋeŋ?

Aye ŋɔ̈ɔ̈i amääth

Alɛ̈ ke Kɔrɔŋdaan tööŋë

E wɛ̈t yic apɛidït

Ekëya

Ɣok aŋuɔt ɣothiëc

Yeŋö gɔp baai wei

Yeŋö nyop ye wei?

Ŋön ye yɔɔɔɔɔt

Ku wiiiiu

Gɔl Majöŋdaan Ayät

Ɣet Wunlaŋ?

Kɔrɔŋ ce reedic

Ka raan loi awanwan!

Yen kuc raan la rwanyrwany piiny!

Ku abak

Acë guöp la ŋäpëŋäp!

Yeŋö loi yeen?

Ye giir, ye mac?

Aye lueel alɛ̈ ke Wärajak

Yen abï giir ku mac.

Kujal kuc

Yeŋö ku e tonydaan thɛɛr

Ŋïc piu ruël

Ku giir yakthok?

Yeŋö cë rot waar ye ruöönë?

Cë wärdaandïït ë jiɛɛk

Yenhom wɛ̈l ɣook

Bï ya wär ë dot?

Tuɔnyda yeŋö?

Yeŋö pɛ̈l yïn këdhie

Yïnic pät ë piu ku rɛc?

Ca nhom määr Puurkulël?

Ku kuc mac liääp kek yom?

Ka cïn kë kwany ka gup!

Käla wiuëwiu

Käla wutëwut

Käla lökëlök!

Ka tuc kuapuɔl

Cë wut lil Wärdït

Maɣoo! Maɣeey!

Tiëŋkë tol nhom!

Tonydaan dïït Wärajak

War yïnhom tony thɛɛr.

Ɣok acï gup la däŋëdäŋ

Cɔl ɣook aben puöth liɛr

Ku kuëthku

Buk waak bɛn kiit

Ɣo nɔ̈ɔ̈k nhïïm...

"Tonydaan Wärajak

Ka cuk päl

...Raan aba yiik amook

Tuɔnyda waa...x 2"