By Jino Wilson
Budi County of Eastern Equatoria State is in shock to witness a dry tree that had fallen nine years ago, mysteriously standing back to its original position.
Located in a farmland at Malala Valley, Hadumakuc Boma, Central Payam, uplands of Budi, the tree had fallen and dried up. Women chopped off its parts for firewood before unfolding of the mystery.
The news of the mystery circulating virally throughout Didinga land has attracted a large flock of pilgrimage as far as Hilanya, Mahiria, Lotukei, and Hibongorok to witness what happened.
Until now, the tree still standing, unshaken and dry, with patches and axe marks all over the trunk, a clear testament of brutality inflicted by women in need of firewood.
No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper visited the site to ascertain the truth of what had shaken the whole Didinga land.
Rose Narot, who owns the piece of land where the incident occurred and also the maiden person to land axe on the log, now lives with worry.
“I was the first person who started chopping the trunk of the tree for firewood this year before the mystery happened,” Narot said.
Mother of three, Narot had survived on the dry wood for domestic fuel, in her kitchen. She chopped the top parts of the fallen tree and parked at her mark-shit, constructed in the garden.
Narot narrates in bewilderment, the mystery, she has witnessed with her children, of a dry, decomposing tree trunk rising back to vertical position, after years of laying on the ground and battered for firewood.
“It was I who started chopping the trunk for firewood. This log is in my garden. When this log rose back to its original tree position, it got my kids alone in this small hut,” she said.
That day, she said, there were dense columns of clouds, hovering the entire sky of the mountainous area, following heavy rains at around 6 o’clock. However, the mystery unfolded shortly after the clouds were partially open up.
“My children found after the sky was partially cleared of clouds that this tree was standing back to its original position,” she intimated.
Searching for explanations on the phenomenon, Narot remains stunned of the mystery.
“See that log, it is me and my children who used to chop it for firewood and it has gone back to stand like that. Over the years, we even cut the head and kept it for firewood but the whole part is now raised up alone. This is something unusual in Didinga that we have never experienced in the rest of our lives.” Narot lamented.
Narot’s scares drive her to contemplate on whether to quit cultivating in the garden or not.
“I don’t know whether the log doesn’t want me to continue farming in this garden or if there is something else it wants to tell to the entire Didinga people,” Narot wondered.
However, the woman, who also doubts her survival till next year, vows to seek alternative land for cultivation.
“If she I live until next year, I will no longer cultivate in the same piece of land where such a tree is standing,” she noted.
Lokiru Joseph and two young men, inspecting the risen tree trunk (Photo by Jino Wilson)
Lokiru Joseph, (in picture above) one of the community leaders attributes the unusual phenomena to revelation of future occurrences.
“Maybe a severe famine, animal or human disease, an all-out war or a deadly pestilence may befall the Didinga land,” he observed.
Others, talking in whispers believe that the gods of the forests are annoyed and have sent this as an early warning for the people stop cutting of trees and vacate the degraded land to rejuvenate.
According to elders, Didinga land was a forested escape with thick and tall trees, which fell under indiscriminate cutting, from 1992 until 2016.
Didinga upland was endowed with huge natural forests that spanned from mountains Lotholia and Lotukei from the east to Hibongorok in the northwest. Hamuju, Tunya, Mochorodi, Ithayo, Lokodongole, Ithahai Hilib and Tarari, among other very thick and dense forests that have been destroyed in quest of obtaining farmlands.
In this period, a huge potential was lost; wild animals, birds, bees, soil fertility, water, timber, rare insects and natural beauty.
Chief of Hadumakuc boma in Central payam of Budi County, Joseph Kabaka, who reported the mystery, noted that it required immediate attention of elders to demystify the manifestation.
“If our ancestors who died long time ago can rise back to life, then we can celebrate it but with this tree which had long fallen and dried down for many years standing back to the original position, it is something that gives a serious warning to Didinga land, Kabaka said.
Citing a massive depletion of forests of Didinga mountains from 1992 to 2015, for farmland, Kabaka contents impending disaster.
Calling the tree “Lokoyac” in Didinga dialect, Kabaka said it signals an early warning of things yet to unfold in the land and beyond.
Kabaka’s revelation shakes the entire Didinga land, as a tree of that nature which once fell and stayed down for many years mysteriously stands back to its original position. Many people are frightened.
However, mysteries are not rare in Didinga land and the tree, as Lahak and Madit forests have survived the cunning hands of humans through self-defense mechanism. As the only surviving forests in Didinga land, they are able to repel intruders.
Hunters and loggers, who venture into these forests, always end up confused and lose direction for hours till they abandon their mission.
Some of the intruders, involuntarily throw out their logging equipment, while others reported being beaten up by invisible forces. Those who go hunting into the mystery forests, sometimes end up turning their weapons against each other instead of targeting wild animal.
The Didinga and surrounding communities, have a knack at detecting unforeseen calamities by reading from the intestine of slaughtered animal.
In November 2013 during a cross-border peace conference at Lotukei, elders deciphered calamity from the west, which unfolded in Juba, only a month after.