BY PENTECOSTE C. ERUM
This week, an online Lopit Intellectual Forum was awash with discussions around the payams in the Lopit area. It seems probable to me, after reading and analyzing some of the conversations that little has been written about Lopa/Lafo County together with the payams, especially Obunge Payam, which was a hot topic of discussion that came with it in 2004.
It is said that written sources are largely more reliable than oral ones because they are more or less permanent and unchangeable. Information passed from one person to another orally tends to change considerably because of the subjectivity of the listener and the limitations and unreliability of human memory.
That said, the public needs to be educated about Obunge Payam (then Imehejek South Payam) in Lopa/Lafon County.
It is to be noted that what became known today as Obunge Payam dates back to the days of the struggle. During that time, Elia Chuba was the payam head chief (sometimes administrator) who signed/approved every document relating to especially the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) activities within the payam.
Anyone traveling out of or to this area had to meet and shake hands with him and get sorted out there in Ibonni where he was administering from. Throughout the movement days from 1983 to 2005, leave alone the Anya Nya period, Ibonni village, just like Imehejek, was a military action-packed area.
I can recall several commanders who visited Chief Elia Chuba in Ibonni. The likes of William Nyuon, Oyai Deng, Isaac Mamur, Pieng Deng, James Hoth, Francis Atada, and Inyasio Aburi, not also forgetting Dr. John Garang who visited the area in 1989 and slept a night with heavy artilleries at Obunge in Ibonni village.
Such high-level movements or visits resulted of course in the growth and development of the area.
Humanitarian aid drops, deliveries, and other logistics were the order of the day in this Lopit area. So much so that roads had to be cleared and maintained, boreholes drilled by NGOs for clean water, an airstrip in Imehejek, Ibonni, and another in Ohuthok were cleared and reinforced for relief drops. Ibonni Parish was also established by the Catholic Diocese of Torit in 1992. Bush schools and one big health center in Ohuthok were opened. Ibonni Cooperative Society was built in 1997, to boost business activities.
Such progress led to the belief and confidence amongst the Lopit community to start mulling over a new county out of Torit. In 2000, the Lopit and Pari communities wrote a joint request for a county carved out of Torit County and it was approved. This writer believes that this county was approved based on splitting up the Lopit and Pari areas into seven or eight payams.
What however took many by surprise was that when the records at the national and state archives were well along reviewed in 2007, Imehejek South Payam (Ibonni Payam) was missing. What became noticeable were five payams namely;
- Imehejek Payam changed from Lopit Central Payam.
- Arilo Payam changed from Lopit North Payam.
- Ongiro Payam changed from Lopit West Payam.
- Ohuthok Payam changed from Lopit South Payam.
- Burgilo Payam, changed from Lafon Payam.
Where was Chief Elia’s Payam? Could Imehejek South/Ibonni Payam have been the one changed to Ohuthok Payam or was it maliciously omitted from the records? In point of fact, in the Ohuthok Conference of December 2005 to January 2006, a question surrounding existing payams in the Lopit area popped up and Imehejek South Payam, headquartered at Ibonni, was mentioned with Elia being Payam Head Chief/Administrator. Notwithstanding, this payam name was still absent from Eastern Equatoria state records. At a particular point, Chief Elia Chuba was elevated to Lopa County’s paramount chief.
In the gubernatorial campaigns for the 2010 elections, Hon. Nartisio Oluke teamed up with Louis Lobong in campaigns that led to an overwhelming victory over the main competitor, Aloysius Emor Ojethuk in April 2010. Lobong became the fourth governor of Eastern Equatoria State and appointed Oluke his deputy.
A few months into his tenure, Lobong green-lighted the enlisting of Imehejek South Payam in the state’s records in 2010. After consultations on whether to keep the name or change were done by local leaders in early 2011, it was successfully concluded that the name be changed to Obunge Payam. In 2011, the Council of Ministers resolutions No 37/2011 dated 26/05/2011 had Obunge Payam.
However, when Governor Lobong sacked his deputy, Hon. Nartisio Oluke in 2012, he continued to keep faith with his power base in the Lopit area and in 2013 named Nartisio’s rival, Hon. Hassan Urbano, as Minister of Physical Infrastructure. It is believed that Hon. Urbano who hailed from Idali, a Western Lopit area of Ongiro Payam, used to good advantage of his position to advance the interest of his people. This was revealed in a radio announcement in 2013 when Bule was added to the Western Lopit area and Hejuhiteng Payams were mentioned, bringing the total number of payams in the Lopit area to 6 while those in the Pari area to 2 namely; Burgilo and Facithi payams. The announcement stated that establishment letters would be issued.
Of course, whether the change of Obunge Payam’s name to Hejuhiteng was the work of Hon. Hassan, this was difficult to tell. However, this change of name from Obunge to Hejuhiteng Payam was received with mixed feelings because the name of the payam was already agreed-upon especially if looked through the lens of its historicity, a location where Dr. John slept in 1989.
Up until today, the preference of Obunge as payam name to Hejuhiteng is still high in the southern Lopit area of Omiaha.
Pentecoste C. Erum is a columnist and author of the book, OMIAHA Kingdom Unsung, available on Lulu Press Inc. He can be reached via: oipentecoste@gmail.com.
The views expressed in ‘opinion’ articles published by Radio Tamazuj are solely those of the writer. The veracity of any claims made is the responsibility of the author, not Radio Tamazuj.