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Becoming Christian: Personhood and Moral Cosmology in Acholi South

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Becoming Christian: Personhood and Moral Cosmology in Acholi South Becoming Christian: Personhood and Moral Cosmology in Acholi South Sudan Ryan Joseph O’Byrne Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Department of Anthropology, University College London (UCL) September, 2016 1 DECLARATION I, Ryan Joseph O’Byrne, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where material has been derived from other sources I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. Ryan Joseph O’Byrne, 21 September 2016 2 ABSTRACT This thesis examines contemporary entanglements between two cosmo-ontological systems within one African community. The first system is the indigenous cosmology of the Acholi community of Pajok, South Sudan; the other is the world religion of evangelical Protestantism. Christianity has been in the region around 100 years, and although the current religious field represents a significant shift from earlier compositions, the continuing effects of colonial and early missionary encounters have had significant impact. This thesis seeks to understand the cosmological transformations involved in all these encounters. This thesis provides the first in-depth account of South Sudanese Acholi – a group almost entirely absent from the ethnographic record. However, its largest contributions come through wider theoretical and ethnographic insights gained in attending to local Acholi cosmological, ontological, and experiential orientations. These contributions are: firstly, the connection of Melanesian ideas of agency and personhood to Africa, demonstrating not only the relational nature of Acholi personhood but an understanding of agency acknowledging nonhuman actors; secondly, a demonstration of the primarily relational nature of local personhood whereby Acholi and evangelical persons and relations are similarly structured; and thirdly, an argument that, in South Sudan, both systems are ultimately about how people organise the moral fabric of their society. This thesis comprises three parts. Part One provides a general overview of Pajok and the relevant literature. Part Two introduces the fundamental cosmologies of the two systems, highlighting similarities in issues of morality, personhood and relationality. Part Three provides ethnographic illustrations of morally ambiguous witchcraft-like experiences. The specifics of agency, morality, personhood and power involved highlight my conclusion that, although these systems are based upon different ideas about and orientations toward morality, each addresses complementary aspects of experience: Christianity speaks to moral issues of the global and the infinite while customary cosmologies speak about moral issues of the present and the local. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ......................................................................................................................................... 2 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................... 4 LIST OF FIGURES AND MAPS ................................................................................................................... 7 Figures ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Maps................................................................................................................................................ 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 9 PREFACE: BECOMING CHRISTIAN ......................................................................................................... 10 Becoming Christian in Acholi South Sudan ................................................................................... 10 Why Pajok? ................................................................................................................................... 16 Argument and contributions ......................................................................................................... 17 Outline and structure .................................................................................................................... 20 Notes on the Sudanese gunfight ................................................................................................... 22 PART 1: PAJOK, AN OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................. 24 CHAPTER ONE: AN INTRODUCTION TO PAJOK ..................................................................................... 25 The research site: Pajok Payam .................................................................................................... 25 A brief history of Pajok .................................................................................................................. 27 Christianity in Pajok ...................................................................................................................... 32 Epistemology, methodology, positionality ................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER TWO: AN ENTANGLEMENT WITH THE LITERATURE .............................................................. 49 Cosmologies in the writing ............................................................................................................ 49 The anthropology of Christianity .................................................................................................. 52 Persons and personhood .............................................................................................................. 59 African and Acholi ethnography ................................................................................................... 66 Witchcraft, sorcery and magic ...................................................................................................... 69 PART 2: CUSTOMARY AND CHRISTIAN COSMOLOGIES AND PERSONS ................................................ 72 CHAPTER THREE: ACHOLI LIVES, ACHOLI WORLDS ............................................................................... 73 Genesis: God within the Acholi world ........................................................................................... 73 Exodus: Migration, ethnogenesis and the cosmogony of Pajok ................................................... 74 The cosmos, according to the Acholi of Pajok .............................................................................. 77 Lived pragmatism in Acholi cosmology ......................................................................................... 86 Personhood, personal relationships and kinship .......................................................................... 93 4 Conclusion: The constitution of worlds and persons in Acholi South Sudan................................ 97 CHAPTER FOUR: ACHOLI POWERS, PERSONS, AND META-PERSONS ................................................... 99 Introduction: Jok, tipu and persons .............................................................................................. 99 Jok and the relational experience of extraordinary power ........................................................ 101 The guardian of the shrine .......................................................................................................... 105 Tipu and relational personhood .................................................................................................. 109 Conclusion: The relational basis of Acholi persons and meta-persons ...................................... 116 CHAPTER FIVE: CHRISTIAN COSMOLOGIES AND MORAL PERSONHOOD ........................................... 118 Introduction: Evangelical Christianity in Acholi South Sudan ..................................................... 118 At the funeral of a drowned youth ............................................................................................. 119 Salvation, damnation and the basis of faith at Africa Inland Church ......................................... 125 Christian persons and moral truths ............................................................................................ 131 Sin, forgiveness and lived pragmatism as an Acholi Christian .................................................... 133 Teaching to be Christian, learning to be a person: The centrality of exchange with God .......... 138 Conclusion: Christian metaphors for Divine relations ................................................................ 144 PART 3: DEMONS, WITCHCRAFT AND MORAL COSMOLOGIES .......................................................... 148 CHAPTER SIX: WITCHCRAFT, POISON AND MAGIC AMONG ACHOLI .................................................. 149 Introduction: Witchcraft as relational action ............................................................................. 149 Witchcraft? Sorcery? Magic? ...................................................................................................... 151 Witchcraft and magic among the Acholi of Pajok ....................................................................... 153 A stormy afternoon in Panto ...................................................................................................... 162
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