By Deng Mayik Atem
I am impressed that so many of you actively participate in the community association’s leadership election. As one of the Twic Mayardit community members, I am particularly impressed that we have strong candidates, General Dium Cyerdit and Angelo Ngot Mayar, standing for office and that they share a call for peace, unity, development, and, of course, reconciliation in and for our region. Who does not share those goals?
As a child, I loved listening to the stories told by the grownups. To this day, I remember some of those tales. One of my favorites was about two villages, ALEKBILL and AJAKKUEI. The villages were just far apart enough that the people did not feel as one and just close enough so that the men from each town could raid the other and take their cows, chickens, grain, and even their cooking pots.
One day, a wise Benybith decided to teach the people of the two villages a lesson. He sent one of his disciples to ALEKBILL to tell them that he had killed an elephant and invited them for a meal in honor of the Joks/Yath (Totem). He had the disciple add, “If you have anything to add to the stew that our teacher has made, please feel free to bring it so that it will be the best treat we can have.”
The Benybith sent another of his disciples to the other village, AJAKKUEI, with the same message.
Of course, neither disciple had told either village that both villages were invited. So, when they arrived at the site for the meal bearing their offerings to add to the stew, both groups were surprised, angered, and even frightened to find their enemy had also been invited.
Perhaps they would have started fighting or possibly run off, but that pot of stew was steaming away and smelled so wonderful. Everybody sat down and waited to be fed. Before dishing out the stew, the Benybith tasted it, and he said, “This stew is very good, but it could be better.” He went over to the people from the first village and took the things they had brought to add to the pot and put them in.
Tasting the stew again, the Benybith said the same thing and went to the people from the second village, took their offerings, and added them to the pot as well.
Again tasting the stew, he announced, “This is perfect,ct,” and gestured for his students to feed everyone. Everyone loved their meal. Everyone commented about how good it had been. Then Benybith said, “Perfection comes from working together.”
That is a good story because it reminds us that if we work together, we can make the tastiest stew and the best community. We must not allow our community to be fragmented.
These are challenging times in our homeland. The need for economic development is crucial. The need for infrastructure is imperative. We need a plan that, like the Benybith’s stew, will bring us together and allow us to produce a stew fit for all our people. Working together towards such a plan must be a shared goal. Whoever is elected, all sides must come together and share in making our community prosperous. Like the people of ALEKBILL and AJAKKUEI, let us work together to make the best pot of stew, the perfect pot for us all.
Deng Mayik Atem Son of Twic Mayardit in USA
