HOSIAH DANGAYE CHALMA - BLIND BARD OF THE UDUK PEOPLE
Hosiah Dangaye Chalma is originally from Bee village (south of Kurmuk), Sudan, but has spent the better part of his life living as a refugee.
He was born with vision, but he lost his sight following an illness that struck him when he was ten years old. His community knows him as a very determined and self-sufficient person who refuses to be led around or offered any physical assistance. Once he knows the way to and from a location he goes by himself. His friends say that can do nearly everything that a person with vision can do. He farms, builds musical instruments, and recognizes people by their voice or handshake.
Hosiah is a member of the Uduk community, who have been living in a near perpetual state of flight for nearly thirty years. In 1985, SPLA came to the villages south of Kurmuk where Hosiah lived. After some of the men from these villages in the Uduk community joined the SPLA, the Sudan government then declared war on the entire Uduk community and burned down their villlages. Most people fled the villages at night, but Hosiah was left by himself with one of his dogs and found the rest of his people in another area. From there, they continued traveling at night until they reached Ethiopia - where they stayed as refugees for about three years.
When the war broke out in Ethiopia, the Uduk community returned back to Sudan and stayed on the Sudan side of the border near Pagak. Then they moved to Nasir, and finally back to to Ethiopia a second time, where they spent eighteen years.
All during this time Hosiah was moving with the people and writing songs about the communities movements and wanderings. His harp is named "Darge bamba" which means “without a home or homeless”
The instrument he plays is called a deng denge his native Uduk. The deng denge he plays is similar in construction to other harp and lyre-like instruments in East Africa such as the krar in Ethiopia or the nyatiti in Kenya. However it is differentiated by it's strummed, rather than plucked playing style.
By 1996-1997, Hosiah had become a best-known musician in the Uduk tribe. He writes songs about current events based on conversations he has with people. Once he hears a conversation about any topic, he can write a song about it.
One of his famous songs likens the Uduk people to birds who are constantly flying from one place to another. “Uduk people are just like birds who come for food and make noise.”
I met him in the Doro Refugee Camp in Maban County, South Sudan in June 2013. I was especially interested in his playing style. Whereas most traditional harps in East Africa are played by plucking individual strings, Hosiah uses a plectrum and strums the strings in hard syncopated motions not dissimilar to what one would find in Western folk or rock music. He then forms chords by selectively muting two or more strings using the fingers on his right hand.
The song he performs here tells of the terror faced by his community as they try to flee the antonov bomber planes attacking them overhead.
(Translation and background information was graciously provided by Peter Manjyal)
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