The Elements (Dinka Again)

Another Dinka man in company with a couple of regulars today. Majak was there regularly enough and the other younger, taller and handsomer man usually patronized daily. With this last there was a nodding acquaintance and occasional pleasantries. Today this developed to proper introduction. Man was named "Kur” – carefully spelt out. In Dinka kur was rock. It was not until hours later that the direct counterpart in English dawned. Of course, Rock…. There must have been many other than Rock Hudson who carried the name. Kur smiled sheepishly giving the information. Almost certainly he had never heard of the old Hollywood heartthrob. Kur was the best dresser at the café – this in the old formal sense of suit, shirt and tie and polished shoes. The unfamiliar third was keen on the new acquaintance. A sympathetic Australian writer was just what they needed in the Dinka community here; someone to convey the community to themselves, the man said. It took some time to untangle the matter. What the man was seeking was some means of overcoming the narrow tribalism of the South Sudanese and articulating the commonality that the nascent country needed for nation building. Ah well! Much to say on that topic. A fellow with a Balkan heritage tip-toed mighty carefully across that terrain. With the rush of conversation the proper introductions only came later. It was a simple enough name in itself, but what did Rin mean in the Dinka language? There was some particular kind of import as usual, right?... This elucidation took even longer than the one earlier concerning the tensions between tribalism and nation building. Rin was the name of something. It was the term for discreet objects. House, country, road, car…. It was especially difficult to drill down to bedrock. Once we moved onto fire, water, sky, moon and sun the man began to be understood. In some sense rin was a grammatical term. The equivalent in English might be…. Essential noun possibly. Wasn’t it proper noun? Rin suggested. Well, being a bit rusty on the schoolboy stuff (of which there was little back in the day)…. The chaps warned  Google Translate could play havoc with their language; it could not be trusted. Father so-and-so had baptized Rin. (The officiating divine's name was known to Rin.) But for that ceremony Rin’s father had insisted on one of their own Dinka names. It was not to be Peter, Paul or John. An especially strong statement made in this case. The name of names insisted upon in fact.