The ethnographic archive and the poetics of history: Revisiting Godfrey Lienhardt’s archive

ABSTRACT

This article develops an approach for working with vernacular texts in ethnographic archives. It examines Dinka song texts collected in (South) Sudan by the anthropologist Godfrey Lienhardt (between 1947 and 1951), now archived at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. Songs were central to developing Lienhardt’s ethnographic analysis; they are also an exciting and unique record of popular and artistic expression at the time of his research. The songs he transcribed offer perspectives on life under colonial rule that are often occluded in the documentary and ethnographic record (including Lienhardt’s own writing). In this article, I examine a selection of songs, showing that to be understood today they must be seen as both a product of Lienhardt’s data collecting practices and works of art in their own right. It is possible to usefully recontextualize these songs by triangulating between Lienhardt’s published work, his unpublished field notes and other academic studies in South Sudanese history and anthropology. Importantly, these songs must be treated as verbal arts – and read with an appreciation of their aesthetic and stylistic qualities. Their meaning and significance is not always straightforward, in fact they are often deliberately opaque. Any interpretation must embrace these ‘difficult’ aspects.

KEYWORDS:

• Archives
• history of anthropology
• oral literature
• South Sudan

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the participants of the conference, The Ethnographic Archive: history, anthropology and the Sudan Archive, Durham, at Durham University, 26–28 September 2016, who helped shape an early version of this article. I have benefitted greatly from Sharon Hutchinson’s comments on this paper and she steered me towards the productive relationship between song, truth and lies. David Pratten gave constructive feedback on a later version of this paper and encouraged me to complete it for publication. Two anonymous reviews gave comments that greatly enriched the final version. Ahmed Al-Shahi (friend of Godfrey Leinhardt and literary executor of his estate) granted me permission to consult Lienhardt’s papers at the Pitt Rivers Museum before they had been fully accession. Jok Madut Jok, Mawan Muortat and Deng de Kuek generously shared their impressions of Gol Mayen’s song with me. I’d additionally like to thank everyone in South Sudan who contributed both to my understandings of Dinka poetic arts and to my knowledge about the experience of colonialism in Warrap and Lakes States.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For a full catalogue see https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/manuscripts/lienhardtpapers.html The photographs are available online at http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/southernsudan/search/photographer/lienhardt/index.html.

2 After meeting Lienhardt, T. R. H. Owen, the Governor of Bahr-el-Ghazal, wrote that although he liked Lienhardt personally, he wasn’t convinced of the ‘practical use’ of anthropology to the administration. Sudan Archive Durham (SAD) 647/1/1-2. Letters dated July 1948–December 1949.

3 For example, a version of the story of Tuic migration told to Lienhardt by Benjamin Lang Juk (an important chief from Tuic in Warrap State) can be found in his archive. Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) Godfrey Lienhardt Papers Box 4, file 1 ‘Notes in order 2’. It is discussed in Divinity and Experience at page 185.

4 Dinka Songs from South Sudan collection http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Dinka-songs-from-South-Sudan (last accessed 14/08/2020).

5 Peter and Godfrey Lienhardt, Paul Baxter and Malcome Ruel were all taught Leavis. Evans-Pritchard is reported to have said ‘who is this man, Leavis? Who people seem to bounce like tennis balls against a wall into social anthropology?’ (Interview of Malcome Ruel, Clare College Alumni, uploaded Wednesday, April 28, 2010. https://vimeo.com/11291094) (Last accessed 14/08/2020).

6 PRM Godfrey Lienhardt Papers, Box 2, file 1 ‘Fieldnotes and diary beginning 1947’ entry on 8/9 December 1947’.

7 PRM Godfrey Lienhardt Papers, Box 2, file 1 ‘Fieldnotes and diary beginning 1947’ entry on 16 December 1947’.

8 The children’s texts are in PRM Godfrey Lienhardt Papers, Box 3 files 10 and 13. The court case is in PRM Godfrey Lienhardt Papers, Box 9, file 10.

9 PRM Godfrey Lienhardt Papers, Box 1, file 9.

10 In September 2020, I shared the text of this song with several Dinka speakers, who recognised the quality of the song and confirmed that even almost 100 years after its composition, the imagery, word plays and hidden messages are still recognizable and enjoyable. It still ‘reads’ as a very good and entertaining song. Personal communication with Mawan Muortat, Jok Madut Jok and Deng de Kuek (by electronic mail, 25–29 Sept 2020).

11 In Jur River District (of which Gogrial was part) dances were discussed and spears banned at the Annual Chief meetings in 1944 and 1945. SAD 767/9/56-87.

12 PRM Godfrey Lienhardt Papers, Box 3, file 14. Field diary entry on 13 July 1950.

13 PRM Godfrey Lienhardt Papers, Box 3, 14. Field diary entry on 15 July 1950.

14 PRM Godfrey Lienhardt Papers, Box 4, file 8 ‘Dinka Songs’. Lienhardt does not date the song, but it is transcribed alongside another song dated 1949 and seems to be from the same field trip.

15 PRM Godfrey Lienhardt Papers, Box 4, file 8 ‘Dinka Songs’. Song numbered ‘13’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was carried out during a PhD studentship, funded by the AHRC, at Durham University. Research in South Sudan received additional support from the Martin Lynn Travel Award (Royal Historical Society) and the British Institute in Eastern Africa.