Gabriel Ayuen Deng is a dedicated and
courageous man who has decided to shoulder the many
responsibilities of camp secretary at Lologo way station, which
shelters some 3,500 Bor Dinka who are waiting for IOM’s
return assistance to take them back to their ancestral homeland in
the region of Bor, an 18 hour boat trip down the White Nile.

As camp secretary, Gabriel is the main local
interlocutor between his community, the IOM and other agencies
operating in Lologo. When I first met Gabriel at the crack of dawn,
he was already going from tent to tent to make sure families knew
they had to go to the IOM centre to get their pre-departure medical
screening. He is also the person who patiently listens to the many
questions his community members have, who seek answers from IOM
staff and informs those displaced with him accordingly.

“I sometimes worry because I have no
salary but it helps my people and gives me
dignity.” 

Gabriel believes he must be in his forties.
His weathered face sports deep tribal scarification on his
forehead, which were inflicted with a razor blade when he was a
child. “This practice is bad and I was happy when it was
banned in 1986.”

Gabriel’s life story is in many ways
emblematic of the tens of thousands of Dinkas who fled Bor in 1992
to escape fighting with the Nuer tribe, who according to him, was
supported militarily by the Sudanese government.

“A great number of people were killed
and the Nuer looted our property, stole our cattle and took many of
our women. In October 1992, we started to walk. It was the rainy
season and things were very difficult. Many more people died of
illnesses and I lost one of my sisters when she gave birth to a
stillborn child.”

According to Gabriel, the fleeing Dinkas split
into two large groups: one headed towards Eastern Equatoria, the
other trekked towards Mundri in Western Equatoria.

“We walked for more than two months to
reach Mundri and some of us decided to go further west towards
Maridi, which took us another month.”

He says life in Maridi was initially tough
because the Dinkas had lost most of their cattle, which provides
them with their staple food, milk. Slowly, they settled and planted
the land, selling vegetables and grain, raising and selling goats
and slowly built up their cattle ranches.

Life went on, at times more tense because of
disputes over land and grazing rights between the local Moro and
Zandi communities. Until news came in of the January 2005
peace agreement under which Bor and the neighbouring town of Juba
were going to be handed over the new government of Southern
Sudan. 

“This is what we had been waiting for.
Going back to our land has always been the most important thing for
us” says Gabriel with a smile, his first. 

But Gabriel’s face quickly turns sombre
as he recalls how he and some 12,500 Dinkas left Maridi on 16
September 2005.

“Relations with the Moro and Zandi
people had become increasingly tense. Dinka leaders sat down and
decided we didn’t want to fight. So we gathered our
cattle and started to walk towards Juba with the intention of
travelling north along the White Nile back to Bor.”

But the trek was fraught with incidents as
marauding armed gangs ambushed the returning Dinkas to steal their
cattle. According to Gabriel, fourteen people in his group were
killed between mid September and 30 November, when they finally
made it to Juba.

“When we crossed the Nile on a big
bridge with our cattle, we were welcomed by the governor. But the
young men decided to go ahead with the animals to get to Bor as
soon as possible. I decided to stay behind with the weaker members
of the group.”

Asked what he expects for the future, Gabriel
pauses. “I’m worried because my two wives and eight
children are in Nimule, near the Ugandan border and I need them to
be with me. Then, we need cows grazing on a rich pasture so we
never go hungry again. I will build a Luak, a traditional cattle
shed to start cattle rising. But most important of all, we need to
put our hearts in the peace agreement so we can all have a good
place to live, plenty of food and send our children to
school.”

And yes, Gabriel will remain in Lologo until
the last of his people has boarded the IOM ferry. Then will he
leave “with a pure heart.”