Ushering in a new ruling age set among the Pari Thursday, 17 March 2011 18:22 Features At a public square, lines of dancers in gaily colored outfits specially made for the event step to the rhythm of the drums.
For three days, the Pari clan in Eastern Equatoria State in South Sudan celebrates the emergence of a new governing age set that will lead and conduct the affairs of their community. The attire of the dancers couldn't be more symbolic of the values in Pari culture. "The head gear of ostrich feather symbolizes peace, the straw hat represents protection, and the club proscribes envy," Pari traditional ruler Philip Ukalla Lidu explains. "The spear signifies defence and the leopard skin represents bravery of the ruling age set during their tenure." The established pattern of age set ascendancy to political authority and its trappings in Pari allows a 15-year tenure. Thus every 15 years a new age set of men between 38 and 45 ascend to power. "Succession is from age set to age set, and with each new succession comes new rules and policies," Celso, a native of Pari, points out. Already, the new age set were promising better governance and announcing new rules for the Pari community. The community would now have to observe January and February as "amnesty months." The new age set was also introducing dowry for any man who violates a women with mental disorders. "During the months of January and February, no punishments will be meted on any offender. These would be months of atonement and supplication for a good harvest in the New Year," Celso said. "Anyone who has sexual relations with a mentally challenged woman would pay a full dowry of 15 cows." In the last six years, though, the traditional pattern of succession has twice been disrupted. An age set that came into power in November 2005 was overthrown by another in November 2010. Against the backdrop of a food crisis in the area, the usurpers mounted the coup based on claims that the Chief of the Rain and the Chief of the Birds in the deposed age set had consistently failed to secure a good harvest for the community. In Pari traditional belief, the Rain and Bird chiefs are supposed to watch over the farming season, controlling the forces and elements to ensure a bountiful crop. The Rain chief ensures enough rain for the crops to grow, and the Bird chief keeps the farmland birds from eating the crops. The Chief of Birds is forbidden to eat any food other than meat, and to drink milk. It is believed that if he ate vegetables or fish, the birds would raid the crop fields and there would be no good harvest. If there is good harvest without interruption by birds and the Chief of Rain is able to make enough rain, the ruling age set will govern for the next 15 years. The Pari community lives side by side with the Lopit, Latuho, Bari, Lokoya, Toposa, Murle and Dinka ethnic groups in Eastern Equatoria State. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "JFD info" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/jfdinfo?hl=en.
