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C.A. Willis and the “Cult of Deng: “A Falsification of the Ethnographic Record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Douglas H. Johnson
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Extract

The ethnographic record of Africa, on which anthropologists and historicans rely, is drawn from accounts of widely varying quality written by observers of varying ability. It is frequently distorted, and while we often suspect distortion in specific accounts, we are not always able to pinpoint how that distortion occurred or on what sources it was based. For this reason any use of the ethnographic record must include some form of source criticism if the modern researcher is to have any hope of assessing the quality of the ethnography, or even of discovering just what the record records.

“We knew that truth is to be had,” wrote Collingwood, “not by swallowing what our authorities tell us, but by criticizing it,” and modern anthropologists apply this principle in their theoretical reassessments of the classic ethnographies of their predecessors. Many reinterpretations of the works of such anthropologists as Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard have drawn on other sources in the ethnographic record to make their criticisms. But in general anthropologists have found it easier to confine themselves to examining intellectual influences on scholarly works by tracing the genealogy of academic theories, than to investigate what shaped the thoughts and observations of non-academics. The works of soldiers and administrators, for instance, have not always been analyzed as rigorously as the works they are used to criticize. An essential element of source criticism is therefore often missing.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 12 , 1985 , pp. 131 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1985

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References

NOTES

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10. “Report of Mr. J.M. Ewart, Indian Police, on the Organisation of Public Security Intelligence in the Sudan, 8 June 1926,” Southern Records Office, Juba [SRO] UNP 36.A.1.

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19. Willis to the Civil Secretary, 27.12,27 and 16.01.28, NRO Civsec 5/2/11.

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23. R.W. 19.04.28, Minute sheet, NRO Civsec 36/2/4.

24. Civil Secretary to Governor Upper Nile Province, 28.04.28, NRO Civsec 36/2/4 and SRO UNP 66.E.2. Smith, E., The Golden Stool (London, 1927)Google Scholar gave an account of Asante resistance to the seizure of their Golden Stool, and of the impact of colonial rule on Asante social and moral life.

25. Willis to Civil Secretary, 21.05.28, NRO Civsec 36/2/4.

26. Cullen, Assistant District Commissioner, Northern District, to Governor, Upper Nile Province, 30.04,28, SRO UNP 66.E.4.

27. Willis, , “Cult of Deng,” 204–07.Google Scholar See below.

28. Johnson, , “Colonial Policy and Prophets,” 8, 10–11Google Scholar; idem., “History and Prophecy,” 430-33.

29. J.W.G. Wyld to Governor, Upper Nile Province, 26.04.28, SRO UNP 66.E.4.

30. C.A. Willis to Assistant District Commissioner, Duk and Bor, 14.05.28, SRO UNP 66.E.4.

31. Coriat to Governor Upper Nile Province, 02.05.28, SRO UNP 66.E.4.

32. C.A. Willis to Mr. P. Coriat, 15.05.28, SRO UNP 66.E.4.

33. Percy Coriat to Governor, Upper Nile Province, 21.05.28, SRO UNP 66.E.4.

34. J.M. Lee to Governor, Upper Nile Province, 18.05.28, SRO UNP 66.E.4.

35. Willis to Civil Secretary, 21.05.28, NRO Civsec 1/3/7.

36. C.A. Willis to Mr. P. Coriat, 15.05.28, SRO UNP 66.E.4.

37. Willis, , “Cult of Deng,” 195.Google Scholar

38. Ibid., 196.

39. Ibid., 197.

40. Ibid., 198.

41. Ibid., 199.

42. Ibid., 199-200.

43. Ibid., 200-01.

44. Ibid., 202.

45. Ibid., 200.

46. Ibid., 202-03.

47. Ibid., 205-07.

48. Ibid., 203.

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50. Lienhardt, Divinity and Experience, chs. 2 and 3.

51. Ibid., 97-103.

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53. K.C.P. Struvé, “Handing over Notes July-Aug ]926, UNP,” SAD 212/9; Governor, Upper Nile Province to Civil Secretary, 06.08.27, NRO Civsec 57/2/8.

54. J. Beavan, “Notes on Northern District [1930],” NRO Civsec 57/2/8.

55. Personal communication, John Winder (A/DC Western Nuer 1936-37, DC Zeraf 1938-42, Deputy Governor UNP 1948-51, Governor UNP 1953-55) and J.G.S. MacPhail (DC Northern District UNP 1933-39).

56. Willis, , “Cult of Deng,” 204.Google Scholar

57. Lienhardt, , Divinity and Experience, 188–91.Google Scholar

58. Ibid., ch. 5.

59. In the final version Willis acknowledged Coriat's correct interpretation of Wan Dyor. He concluded that “the idea of being blessed must be a gloss from Arab influences” (Willis, , “Cult of Deng,” 207Google Scholar). He did not say by whom the gloss was applied, but from what we know of the correspondence it was likely to have been the Northern Sudanese ma'mur or the British District Commissioner.

60. C. Armine Willis, Governor, Upper Nile Province, 20.04.28, Nasir District archives, END 1.F.1.vol. I. Governor, Upper Nile Province to Civil Secretary, 18. 02.29, NRO UNP 1/44/329.

61. Warburg, Gabriel, The Sudan Under Wingate (London, 1971), 103–04.Google Scholar

62. Coriat was the source of this statement (Coriat to Governor, Upper Nile Province, 02.05.28, SRO UNP 66.E.4). It was based on his assumption that Ngundeng had Dinka relatives (Coriat, , “Gwek the Witch-Doctor and the Pyramid of Dengkur,” Sudan Notes and Records, 22 [1939], 221–22Google Scholar), but no further evidence was offered. On the whole Coriat was less well informed about the Lou than about the Gaawar prophets, with whom he was on more intimate and friendly terms. A good deal of his information about Guek and his family came from the Lou chiefs Lam Tutthiang and Gwet Thi, both of whom had a long history of antagonism to Ngundeng and his sons.

63. Willis, , “Cult of Deng,” 202Google Scholar; Evans-Pritchard, , Nuer Religion (Oxford, 1956), 100–04Google Scholar; Howell, P.P., “Some Observations on ‘Earthly Spirits’ Among the Nuer,” Man, 53 (1953), 85–88.Google Scholar

64. District Commissioner, Central District to Governor Upper Nile Province, 06.06.28, SRO UNP 66.E.4.

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66. The following account is based on interviews with two of Thijioak Dol's sons: Cuol Thijiok (Waat, 01.07.75) and Makieu Thjiok (Ayod, 28.03.76), with additional information from Bil Peat (Waat, 11.07.75). I have been unable to trace the source of Willis' version. It is not found in any of Coriat's surviving papers either in Britain or the Sudan.

67. “Précis of Information concerning Gwep [sic] of Dengkur, Jan. 1921,” NRO Dakhlia I 112/13/87. A. Blewitt, “Diary and Report of Expedition Against Nuer sheikh Denkur [sic],” Sudan Intelligence Report 94 (May [1902]), 9-12; Edward, Lord Gleichen, The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (2 vols.: London, 1905), 1:331.Google Scholar

68. Howell, P.P., A Manual of Nuer Law (London, 1954), 53, 65.Google Scholar

69. Evans-Pritchard, , Nuer Religion, 184-85, 216, 298.Google Scholar

70. Evans-Pritchard, , “The Nuer,” 65, 67.Google ScholarPubMed

71. Minute page, NRO Civsec 36/2/4.

72. Johnson, D.H., “Evans-Pritchard, the Nuer, and the Sudan Political Service,” African Affairs, 81 (1982), 231–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

73. Beidelman, , “Priests and Prophets,” 387, 392, 397–98Google Scholar, citing Willis, , “Cult of Deng,” 200–02.Google Scholar

74. The editorial board included the Civil Secretary (chairman) and the Director of Intelligence among others. In 1928 it also included Willis. The Civil Secretary, Director of Intelligence and the province Governors frequently handed on reports they received in their official business which they thought might be of general interest to a wider audience. In this case Willis' report was sent to Sudan Notes and Records on the initiative of another member of the editorial board, S. Hillelson, then assistant director of intelligence in the Civil Secretary's Office.

75. A.D. Home, for the Governor, Upper Nile Province to the Civil Secretary, 08.12.28, NRO Civsec 36/2/4.

76. E.g., Collins, Shadows in the Grass; Daly, British Administration; Hassan, “Mahdist Risings;” Beshir, Mohamed Omer, Revolution and Nationalism in the Sudan (London, 1974)Google Scholar; L.M.P., and Sanderson, N., Education, Religion and Politics in the Southern Sudan, 1899-1964 (London, 1981)Google Scholar; Warburg, Sudan Under Wingate.

77. Collingwood, , Idea of History, 260.Google Scholar

78. Ibid., 275.