The Pillars of Wisdom: Dinka

By John Dau

Dinka: Pillars of Wisdom is more than just a compilation of stories full of wisdom. These stories introduce morals in a lighthearted way that inspire wisdom in yourself. I have never read a more thought-provoking and inspirational piece. You will walk away from reading this book, constantly pondering self-improvement (Liz Bullock, editor).

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 20, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546247203

John Dau

John Bio John Dau has experienced challenges in his life that most people never imagine. Born in war-torn Sudan, Dau is one of 27,000 Lost Boys of Sudan, driven from their villages when the northern Arab government attacked the ethnic minority population of South Sudan in 1987. For the next five years, John Dau led groups of displaced boys across Sudan for hundreds of miles facing starvation, disease, and violence. While living in a Kenyan refugee camp from 1992-2001, John Dau attended school for the first time at the age of 17 and earned a prestigious Kenyan Certificate for Secondary Education. In 2001, Dau was selected to immigrate to the United States and settled in Syracuse, New York. Following his initial culture shock, John Dau took on two, sometimes three jobs, earned an associates degree and Bachelor degree at Syracuse University. Currently, John Dau is the President of both the John Dau Foundation (JDF) and the South Sudan Institute (SSI). He is an influential part of many efforts to bring hope and peace to the people of South Sudan, founding four non-profits and with help from American volunteers, John raised over $3,000,000 to build and operate the Duk Lost Boys Clinic in his home village of Duk Payuel. John Dau now speaks professionally throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. In 2006, John Dau was featured in the award-winning documentary film, "God Grew Tired of Us", and wrote his first book also entitled "God Grew Tired of Us": a Memoir, published by National Geographic in 2007 both of which are circulating in the West, South Korea and other places as well. As a human- rights activist for the people of South Sudan, John has lived a remarkable life of cultural adaptation in America. He has received many prestigious awards, including National Geographic Emerging Explorers Award and was a Volvo for Life finalist in the Quality of Life category, which carried a financial contribution from Volvo to the John Dau Foundation. John was also named alongside of DRC President Joseph Kabila, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader for 2008 and together with Former Secretary of State, Gen. Collin Powell, he received a Most Caring Award from the Caring Institute and received an Honorary Degree of Letters from Alma College along with 38 other awards. John Daus life provides the ultimate example of a profile in courage. He is a natural leader who exemplifies true resilience and perseverance under the most horrific of circumstances. Today, John Dau is a compelling motivational speaker whose life is defined by his uncompromised commitment to having a lasting impact on the future of his native country. "I think people refuse to try things because they fear failure," he observes. "There have been many impossible situations in my life, but I keep trying. My family in Sudan thought I was dead and I feared they were dead, but 20 years later we were reunited. You can't give up." More About John Dau . . . John Dau is an experienced social entrepreneur. He has founded four non-profit organizations. In 2003, he founded the Lost Boys Foundation of New York, which raised funding for books and medical expenses for Lost Boys living in the United States and was instrumental in founding the American Care for Sudan Foundation, which solicited funds to build and operate the Lost Boys Clinic in Southern Sudan. John Bul Dau speaks on a variety of topics at corporations, churches and colleges, including a commencement address to 10,000 people at the University of Minnesota's College of Arts and Sciences graduation, for top executives at a United Technologies Corporation conference. His mission is to create possibilities in life for those who are in dire circumstances within his home country and who need his support.

Book preview

2018 John Dau. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/19/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-4721-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-4720-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018907082

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

John Dau Foundation (JDF): www.johndaufoundation.org

South Sudan Nation Builders (SSNB): www.southsudannationbuilders.org

Nyarweng Emergency Fund Frontiers (NEFF): www.nyarwengemergencyfundfrontiers.org

If you want to be in touch with the author please contact him through this email address: [e-mail]

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Pillars of Wisdom is more than just a compilation of stories full of wisdom. These stories introduce morals in a light-hearted way that inspire wisdom in yourself. I have never read a more thought-provoking and inspirational piece. You will walk away from reading this book, constantly pondering self-improvement." -Liz Bullock, Editor

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 How Deng Climbed to the Top of the Highest, Steepest Tower

Chapter 2 How Hyena Tricked Eagle

Chapter 3 Choose and Choose Wisely

Chapter 4 Do Not Take Things Unlawfully! How Leopard’s House was Taken by Rabbit

Chapter 5 Be Appreciative for what you have: The Tortoise and his Magic Drum

Chapter 6 Why you must Listen

Chapter 7 A Lifetime Lesson for Ayuel’s Boys

Chapter 8 All that is bad may not be bad after All

Chapter 9 Be the Judge

Chapter 10 The Missing Goat

Chapter 11 Mind your Business

Chapter 12 Why Cat Prefers to live with Women

Chapter 13 How Hyena Learned to tell the Truth

Chapter 14 Fox’s Failed Plan to be a Lion

Chapter 15 How the Young Lion Changed the World

Chapter 16 Lie has Short ‘Legs’

Chapter 17 Brag but be Careful

Chapter 18 How Fox Tried to Fool Atok

Chapter 19 How the Mango Pit became a Blessing

Chapter 20 Deceitfulness Pays in Kind

Chapter 21 How Turtle Won over his Wife

Chapter 22 Why the Battle of the Camel and the Elephant Never takes Place

Chapter 23 Try Seven Times

Chapter 24 Hare screwed up Citizens of Paloong

Chapter 25 Unexpected Source of Wisdom

Chapter 26 How Hyena Missed a Chance at Heaven

Chapter 27 Why Bat Hangs Upside Down

Author’s Perspectives in Life

Dedication

Introduction

The lively stories in this book are classified according to the following Dinka pillars of wisdom: respect, empathy, honesty, fairness, sharing, listening, welcoming, brotherhood, friendship, love, perseverance, and other subliminal lessons.

These values are universal and shared across societies. My Dinka people hold them so dearly and strictly that they form the foundation of each individual in South Sudan. Children learn these morals daily through action-packed and thought-provoking stories and proverbs such as the ones I have recorded in this book.

When my young sons and daughters watch cartoons on television in America, I sometimes smile to myself. When I was their age, I knew all about talking animals. I grew up in South Sudan listening to my relatives and friends sharing Dinka folklore in which animals spoke to humans and to each other. Who needed ‘Dora the Explorer’ or ‘Peppa the Pig?’ I had ‘Hyena,’ ‘Lion,’ and ‘Atok Bird.’

These stories have helped shape who I am: a proud member of the African people who are steeped, at a very early age, in the values of education, respect, integrity, accountability, hard work, and family ties. I know these animals, and these stories, intimately.

I invite your children, along with my own children, to read these tales and love them as I do. I want these bits of folklore to remind my children of their Dinka heritage—and to help them grow internally to develop good characteristics. In doing so, I have decided that these powerful messages should be shared with children all around the world.

I have found, in nearly a decade of living and traveling in America, that western education gives children some of the best formal schooling possible. However, after the afternoon bell rings, they’re not getting enough positive informal education. Many parents are so busy with jobs and house chores, and sometimes taking classes of their own, that they could use the help of these delightful stories to reinforce their values to their children. Furthermore, grandparents -– ever present storytellers in the Dinka world –- are absent in most American homes. Children have fewer opportunities to absorb crucial life lessons from these respected elders.

In my homeland, we told stories to help fill the young with wisdom acquired from the tribe. Lessons imparted by Turtle and Lion and all of the other animals rang true many years ago when I watched over my father’s cows in Duk Payuel, South Sudan. They rang true when I struggled to maintain my identity, my faith, and my hope as a Lost Boy of Sudan in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya – a struggle chronicled in the National Geographic book and documentary film God Grew Tired of Us. They ring true today, as I live and work as a U.S. citizen, husband, father, and foundation president in New York and Virginia.

Dinka folklore in South Sudan is a shared daily ritual. Most often I heard these stories at the end of the day. Father would put the cows and dog in our luak, or cattle hut, and then join us inside our home. Mother would secure the house to make sure the windows and doors had been shut against the mosquitoes outside. Then, my brothers and sisters and I would start an elaborate list to determine the order of storytelling for the evening. Okay, we’d say, Who will tell a story? We’d beg and tease each other to share new stories heard during the day, but each of us would try to make someone else tell the first one.

Sometimes, after we sorted out the correct order and worked through all of own stories, we’d beg Mother to give us one. Sometimes she would say she was too tired, but we knew if we begged her (and we always begged her), she would reward us with one of our favorite stories passed down from long, long ago. Father told stories too, always leaving us hungry for more encounters with Wily Hyena and Noble Lion.

Nobody ever told a story to put children to sleep. No, stories were too important for that. Father warned us not to tell stories during the daytime.

You could get lost, he said. We heard that same message from elders in the village. Like other young children, I took Father’s words literally: Stories could make you forget how to get home! Only as I grew older did I, and the other children, figure out the elders meant to trick us and make us think. We figured out, perhaps with an admonishment from older brothers and sisters, that if we told stories while we were supposed to be watching over our cattle and goats, we might lose track of our herds. If we paid too much attention to stories about Lion and Hyena, real-life versions of those animals might sneak into our pastures and carry off our livestock.

In our stories, animals talk to one another and to human beings. In fact, everything, even trees, can talk in a Dinka story. Today, the Dinka believe that some animals still talk to one another, such as hyenas to hyenas, and that people with special skills can communicate with animals, up to a point. A cow might remind a Dinka boy not to take all of its milk, for example, because the cow needs some left over for its calf. And everyone knows you cannot punish an animal without telling it what it did wrong.

Of course, the Dinka don’t literally carry on conversations with animals, but they still absorb much wisdom from God’s many creatures. In these stories, we know that Hyena is selfish, untrustworthy, lazy, greedy, and cowardly. These are qualities no Dinka would ever want to see in a child, so Hyena is a prominent figure giving warning in our stories. We know that Fox is cunning and clever, that Eagle is reliable and sometimes gullible, and that Lion is patient, noble, and strong – but not belligerent.

These stories are told here just as I remember them, with only two small concessions. The first is that every good Dinka tale should have a song in the middle of it. We Dinka love to make up songs and sing them, and if I were telling you the story of How Fox Tried to Fool Atok, I would work a song into the narrative.

The second has to do with language and our tribal name. Westerners know my people as the Dinka. That name arose from a miscommunication between some of my ancestors and the first British explorers who, many decades ago, visited what is the modern day Republic of South Sudan. We Dinka, however, refer to ourselves by a name virtually unknown in the West; Monyjang. The word translates into English as Men of All Men.

With a tribal name like that, and our rich folktales, it is obvious we are proud people. We keep our heritage and lessons alive, whether in South Sudan or in other parts of the world. Even today, when I do South Sudanese things, I do them under my Monyjang name, and I remember my heritage.