Death of a rainmaker: When drought means murder in South Sudan

Torit, South Sudan – Solomon Oture was connected the run.

As a rainmaker, his occupation was to summon rainfall – the lifeblood of his tiny farming assemblage – done supplication and ritual.

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But aft consecutive years of drought, Oture’s narration with his autochthonal colony of Lohobohobo – a distant clump of huts connected the occidental broadside of South Sudan’s Lopit mountains – began to fray. Frustrated assemblage leaders came demanding an mentation for his failures.

As choler rose, Oture, successful his aboriginal 50s, feared for his safety. He fled, taking refuge astatine the location of his brother’s widow successful different village, a four-hour locomotion away.

But his flight was short-lived.

Weeks later, successful aboriginal October 2024, a radical of young men from Lohobohobo arrived and made it wide Oture had nary prime but to instrumentality with them.

The pursuing morning, Oture was brought to look the assemblage successful the colony square, a ungraded clearing encircled by a rough-hewn woody fence. When elders arrived to question him, the ruling procreation of fighting-aged men – known arsenic the Monyomiji – intervened. They announced that a determination had already been made.

According to 1 witness, Oture did not defy and moved calmly arsenic helium was led distant from the square, retired of the village, and down the upland to a freshly dug spread successful the earth.

When helium reached its edge, Oture climbed down into the pit and was buried alive.

The colony quadrate successful Lohobohobo, wherever Solomon Oture was brought earlier being buried live [Adlai Coleman/Al-Jazeera]

Rainmakers targeted

In South Sudan, wherever the clime situation is ravaging livelihoods, massive floods and scorching droughts person uprooted families and fuelled one of the world’s worst hunger crises.

Amid the mounting desperation, radical privation answers and, occasionally, idiosyncratic to blame. In immoderate farming villages, agelong babelike connected seasonal rains, these tensions person enactment rainmakers astatine risk.

Oture’s sidesplitting was archetypal reported by section media and aboriginal confirmed to Al Jazeera by household members, authorities officials successful the authorities capital, Torit, and residents of the colony wherever helium lived.

He is not the lone rainmaker to person met a convulsive death.

At slightest 5 others person been buried live successful the Lopit mountains implicit the past 4 decades, according to assemblage leaders and section media reports, including 1 antheral successful a neighbouring colony whose 2021 sidesplitting was confirmed to Al Jazeera by a household member. More are said to person been buried successful adjacent areas, arsenic good arsenic burned alive, beaten to death, oregon chased into exile. The existent toll is not known.

When killings occur, assemblage members are reluctant to talk out.

The reporting for this communicative acceptable retired to uncover what happened to Oture and why. In Lohobohobo, astir a twelvemonth aft Oture’s death, his sidesplitting is simply a taboo subject, and details of what happened are hard to obtain. Residents of the colony wherever helium lived astir of his beingness and was yet killed were often acrophobic to sermon the events surrounding his death. Community members became visibly uncomfortable erstwhile Al Jazeera asked astir rainmakers, and among those who were consenting to speak, fearfulness was palpable.

Those interviewed successful Lohobohobo, Torit, and Juba, the nation’s capital, did not place the alleged perpetrators by sanction but said they were members of the Monyomiji, who are liable for enforcing customary laws and protecting the village.

According to Matthew Oromo, a erstwhile authorities authoritative who investigated the incident, arsenic good arsenic respective others with cognition of Oture’s death, the Monyomiji had warned villagers not to talk publically astir the death. Those who defied this bid risked being formed arsenic traitors and exiled, helium said.

The relationship of what happened to Oture stems from interviews with radical who witnessed the events starring up to his killing, oregon who interviewed witnesses to the sidesplitting itself. Residents of Lohobohobo interviewed for this communicative person not been named to support their identities.

Regional experts cautioned against broaching the taxable of Oture’s sidesplitting with the alleged perpetrators, arsenic it could provoke backlash against individuals suspected of speaking publically astir the incident.

Matthew Oromo, erstwhile main head of Imehejek, successful Torit. Oromo tried to analyse the decease of Oture during his tenure [Joseph Falzetta/Al-Jazeera]

Perilous work

Lohobohobo is simply a tiny colony of respective 100 households located successful South Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria state, which borders Uganda to the southbound and Kenya to the southeast. Nestled wrong the Lopit mountains, the colony is simply a verdant maze of stone-lined paths winding betwixt thatch-roofed huts and tiny gardens. Despite the small they have, residents person visitors with warmth, generously sharing their meals of locally harvested sorghum, meat, and chaotic greens.

In a portion babelike connected rain-fed agriculture, rainmakers person agelong been revered figures.

“Drought is the top scourge that tin afflict the mountainous portion of Southeastern [South] Sudan,” writes American societal theorist Mark Anspach successful the foreword of the 1992 publication Kings of Disaster, a survey of South Sudan’s rainmakers by the Dutch anthropologist Simon Simonse. “Since the rainmaker is thought to person the powerfulness to origin oregon forestall drought, helium is the astir important king.”

The rainmaker performs rituals astatine the commencement of the cultivation play and is compensated with livestock, crops, and labour. They are often addressed by the honorific “Sultan”.

Rainmakers are believed to walk down their powers by lineage, with a azygous rainmaker from a household serving astatine immoderate 1 time. The jurisdiction nether a rainmaker’s work is referred to by section leaders arsenic a “raindom” and typically spans respective villages. Multiple rainmakers tin stock a raindom.

Al Jazeera spoke to 2 rainmakers successful the portion wherever Oture lived, who are not being named to support their identities.

Both person held their positions for astatine slightest a decennary aft inheriting the roles from household members and, successful caller years, person withstood utmost adust spells successful their communities.

One described the rituals of rainmaking – gathering ineffable stones successful their hands, spitting connected them, and raising them towards the entity to invoke the rains. Sometimes they cod insects from the fields, spot them connected their altar, and chopped them with a ceremonial spear.

Nevertheless, the rainmaker said, “It is not me, but God who brings the rain.”

Although the rainmaker became evasive erstwhile asked astir tensions with the Monyomiji successful their village, during times of drought, they acknowledged that they could look scrutiny. “That’s the lone constituent erstwhile I tin beryllium scared,” they said.

“The Monyomiji tin summon maine and ask, ‘Why is determination nary rain, are you not working?’” they added. “They tin beryllium angry.”

Across South Sudan’s confederate Equatoria region, rainmaking has agelong been perilous work.

“The rainmaker is destined to carnivore the brunt of corporate resentment erstwhile times are bad,” writes Anspach successful Kings of Disaster. “The rainmaker’s occupation is not conscionable to marque rain, but to sorb the community’s pain.”

According to the book, rainmakers person been lynched arsenic acold backmost arsenic the 19th century. But with clime change, erratic rainfall patterns, and a fledgling authorities that struggles to task authorization extracurricular the capital, immoderate fearfulness these spiritual leaders look greater dangers than ever before.

“Of late, the rainmaking relation has go precise dangerous,” said Ranga Gworo, a South Sudanese researcher who began to survey unit against spiritual leaders aft a distant comparative was accused of casting a spell to forestall rainfall and forced to fly their village. “The taxable of rainfall is the astir delicate successful our assemblage due to the fact that of its transportation to livelihoods.”

The colony of Lohobohobo has grappled with the effects of clime alteration [Adlai Coleman/Al Jazeera]

Hunting to survive

One of the world’s astir vulnerable countries to clime change, South Sudan emerged from a bid of civilian wars successful 2018 mostly unequipped to negociate the devastating upwind patterns afflicting overmuch of East Africa.

Beginning successful 2019, 1 twelvemonth aft a bid accord brought the war’s main belligerents into a unity government, a bid of historic floods submerged thousands of kilometres of onshore and displaced millions from their homes. Meanwhile, erratic rainfall took its toll connected farming communities crossed the confederate Equatoria region, historically the country’s breadbasket.

Pietro*, a husbandman successful his precocious 20s, had spent astir of his beingness successful Lohobohobo until July 2022, erstwhile a devastating harvest nonaccomplishment forced him to permission location successful hunt of work.

“There was nary rain,” helium recalled, and his woman and 2 young children were going hungry.

Pietro and respective friends walked 70km (43 miles) to Torit, earlier borrowing wealth for transport to Juba, astir 140km (97 miles) away. There, helium recovered enactment arsenic a labourer, earning 40,000 South Sudanese pounds per week, astir $50 astatine the time.

“It was not enough,” helium said, recalling his wages. He yet returned to Lohobohobo past twelvemonth to effort his luck again astatine farming. “The concern has not changed much,” helium lamented.

By 2023, a increasing fig of radical began to permission their homes successful agrarian Eastern Equatoria for neighbouring cities and exile camps. Those near down successful villages similar Lohobohobo foraged for chaotic fruits and hunted animals to survive, recalled Zakaria Akaba, a section chief.

In November that year, a radical of United Nations-affiliated nutrient information experts warned of “emergency levels” of hunger successful the region encompassing Lohobohobo due to the fact that of “prolonged adust spells that led to harvest failure”. The UN’s World Food Programme scrambled to present exigency nutrient rations to forestall starvation arsenic thousands trekked for days to scope Juba.

“It was devastating,” said Akaba.

People transportation alleviation nutrient from a organisation by the World Food Programme successful South Sudan [File: Andreea Campeanu/Reuters]

Fraying narration amid adust spells

People who knew Oture described him arsenic sociable and hardworking, though erstwhile helium drank, his behaviour could go erratic, adjacent violent, they said.

In 2009, portion drunk, Oture threw a spear and impaled his wife, according to his eldest son, Owuor Solomon John, 19, who witnessed the onslaught arsenic a child. She died successful a infirmary days later. In the village, her sidesplitting was brushed speech arsenic a “domestic issue”, John said.

Oture inherited the relation of rainmaker from his uncle successful 2017, 7 years earlier his death. His volatility continued during his tenure, assemblage leaders successful the portion said, and successful the lead-up to his killing, accusations against him swirled.

As retribution for idiosyncratic slights against him, radical alleged, Oture performed malicious rituals to support the rainfall away. One antheral accused him of placing a curse by burying a baboon skull. Several others said Oture struck a kid truthful hard that helium drew blood.

As the drought worsened, Oture reportedly began to marque gratuitous demands successful instrumentality for his work. He would blasted those whom helium said had wronged him for the deficiency of rainfall and past request compensation, similar livestock, to hole the damage, according to respective assemblage members.

“The presumption of rainmaker has go similar a business,” said Ambose Oyet, a assemblage person from Imehejek, the portion that encompasses Lohobohobo. “He wanted radical to respect him similar God,” said Oromo, Imehejek’s erstwhile apical official.

While Al Jazeera was incapable to independently verify these accusations, the rumours illustrated Oture’s expanding alienation from his village.

By precocious 2024, Oture’s fraying narration with the assemblage collided with a 3rd consecutive adust spell. As crops failed and hunger loomed, tensions betwixt the rainmaker and the Monyomiji began to boil over.

The municipality of Imehejek, South Sudan [Adlai Coleman/Al Jazeera]

‘Beyond our power’

In Lohobohobo, similar different villages successful the Lopit mountains, each caller procreation of Monyomiji, which takes powerfulness each 10 to 15 years, promises to support the assemblage against each mode of threats.

If the colony is attacked, it is the Monyomiji who support it; erstwhile cattle are raided, they prosecute the culprits; and during outbreaks of disease, they transportation the sick to person attraction astatine distant wellness clinics. But possibly the gravest menace faced successful the drought-prone portion is hunger.

The Monyomiji combat hunger by regulating agriculture, according to Luka Asayai, the 38-year-old person of Lohobohobo’s Monyomiji. They determine which crops to grow, and when, and guarantee that able-bodied radical are not idle erstwhile they tin beryllium moving successful the fields. They besides fundraise to bargain nutrient aft mediocre harvests, and behaviour assemblage farming for aged radical and widows, Asayai said.

Oversight of rainmakers besides falls to the Monyomiji, who are liable for prompting, compensating, and holding these spiritual figures to account.

It was the Lohobohobo Monyomiji who buried Oture alive, alleged Oromo, the erstwhile authorities official, and Leone Oriho, the paramount main of Imehejek, among others, with cognition of the incident.

When asked astir the narration betwixt the Monyomiji and rainmakers successful general, Asayai acknowledged that sometimes adust spells “can make tension”, but offered nary specifics connected caller violence. He said during periods of drought, the community, done the rainmaker, “just goes and asks from God”.

In villages hours distant from immoderate constabulary post, the Monyomiji enforce customary laws, summoning rule-breakers to relationship for their crimes, and occasionally doling retired carnal punishment. “The authorities is precise far,” said Asayai. “They person their mode and we person ours.”

Lohobohobo is fundamentally retired of scope for authorities and instrumentality enforcement officials for agelong stretches of the year. The roadworthy from Torit is simply a rugged, unkempt ungraded way scarred by heavy potholes and jagged rocks. Throughout overmuch of the rainy season, it is each but impassable.

Police successful Torit accidental they are often incapable to travel up connected crimes successful distant villages, relying alternatively connected section chiefs to enactment arsenic extensions of authorities power. However, according to Oriho, the astir elder main successful the Lopit upland region, the Monyomiji are heavy equipped and unaccountable adjacent to their chiefs. “They person gone beyond our power,” helium said.

With the authorities incapable to halt them, section Monyomiji enactment arsenic judge, jury, and executioner for rainmakers, accidental authorities officials.

One 43-year-old rainmaker named Lodovico Hobon Angelo was buried live successful the neighbouring colony of Mura Lopit successful 2021. Like Oture, helium was killed during a terrible adust spell and was accused of abusing his presumption for idiosyncratic gain.

Oyet, a autochthonal of Mura Lopit, said section Monyomiji had attempted to hide Hobon a decennary earlier his death, but that helium intervened to halt them. Hobon is 1 of astatine slightest fractional a twelve rainmakers killed successful the Lopit mountains successful the past 4 decades, with much killed crossed Eastern Equatoria state.

Still, constabulary say, nary 1 has ever been arrested for immoderate of these crimes. “It is our culture,” said Oriho. “The Monyomiji prevents the authorities from intervening successful our culture.”

Several assemblage leaders said rainmakers are buried, successful part, to debar idiosyncratic culpability for the crime. “The assemblage takes the full work by burying the idiosyncratic alive,” said 1 assemblage member, who requested anonymity owed to fearfulness of reprisal for speaking astir Oture’s murder. “And the authorities volition say, ‘How tin we apprehension the full community?’”

Leone Oriho, Paramount Chief of Imehejek, successful Torit [Adlai Coleman/Al Jazeera]

Warnings

Oromo, who was main head of Imehejek until June, was successful Torit successful precocious 2024 erstwhile helium heard astir Oture’s sidesplitting from Oriho. The authorities politician dispatched Oromo to investigate.

A week later, helium arrived successful the village, but the Monyomiji refused to talk with him. “They were suspicious of me,” Oromo said. Some residents spoke with him successful private, expressing regret astir the killing, but helium was incapable to place a culprit.

Stonewalled, Oromo returned to Torit. But helium visited Lohobohobo again successful June arsenic portion of a wider circuit of the villages nether his administration. He spoke to the assemblage astir the realities of clime alteration “as a planetary issue” and the value of the regularisation of law, telling the Monyomiji “not to repetition what had happened [to Oture]”, and offering a vague informing that if they did, “the authorities volition instrumentality a superior step”.

Though radical successful the colony whitethorn person been aggravated with Oture, it is unclear however overmuch fashionable enactment determination was for his killing.

The assemblage was warned not to study Oture’s execution to the police, aggregate radical told Al Jazeera.

Oromo said erstwhile helium archetypal visited Lohobohobo, immoderate expressed regret, apologised for what the Monyomiji had done, and said they had been warned to support quiet. Other acknowledgements of Oture’s death, similar unfastened mourning oregon holding a funeral, were banned, helium said.

Oyet said anyone who held a ceremonial would beryllium seen arsenic “rebelling against the community”.

In Lohobohobo, immoderate residents reshaped the details of Oture’s death, portion others sidestepped notation of him entirely.

One idiosyncratic initially said Oture had killed himself, earlier conceding that helium was buried live erstwhile asked astir section media reports.

Another resident, erstwhile asked astir the punishment of rainmakers successful Lohobohobo, said a rainmaker had precocious been “chased away” from the village, ne'er to return. When asked for the rainmaker’s name, the man, visibly uncomfortable, leaned successful and whispered, “Solomon”.

A constrictive way wrong the colony of Lohobohobo [Adlai Coleman/Al Jazeera]

‘Great pain’

Oture’s son, John, had been surviving overseas for a decennary earlier helium arrived successful Juba successful August 2024. When helium was 8 years old, Oture sent him to unrecorded successful the Kakuma exile camp, successful bluish Kenya, distant from the warfare unfolding successful South Sudan. The 2 had spoken connected the telephone lone a fistful of times since.

In November, John received a telephone from his relative informing him of his father’s death. He hung up the telephone angrily. Despite the analyzable narration John had with his father, the quality “caused maine large pain”, helium said.

Nevertheless, helium was circumspect erstwhile asked astir the Monyomiji. “I don’t person immoderate issues with them,” helium said. “They had a occupation with my father, not with me.”

He pondered the anticipation of visiting Lohobohobo 1 time and smiled arsenic helium searched for his grandmother’s hut successful the pictures of the village.

John said helium hoped that mob justness would not beryllium inflicted connected a rainmaker again and that “this communicative volition promote generations to travel not to bash the aforesaid thing”.

Meanwhile, this year’s cultivation play has been lone marginally better. Late rains caused wide harvest failures during the archetypal planting season, which typically begins successful March. By July, erstwhile the rains began successful earnest, farmers had spent months planting and replanting crops that would not grow.

Pietro, the farmer, whitethorn again permission his household to hunt for work. “Because the concern is inactive bad, I whitethorn spell backmost [to Juba],” helium said. “We plant, and it fails.”

Climate conditions are apt to get worse. By 2060, the hottest period successful the portion is projected to summation by much than 7 degrees Celsius (12.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

“People are discouraged, and they are going distant from here,” said Oromo. “There is nary anticipation for the rain.”

*Name has been changed to support the interviewee’s identity