Qualla: Tonj https://qualla.com/tonj en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:29 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/k/3/tonj-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Tonj https://qualla.com/tonj Tonj: Introduction https://qualla.com/tonj/ Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Tonj goes by many names: Kalkuel, Genanyuon, Jurkatac, Madiera, Genngeu, Tonjdit. Each tongue that has passed through here - Dinka, Bongo, Luo, Arabic, English - has left a name behind, which is one way to know that a place has been inhabited for a very long time. Tonj is one of the oldest towns in South Sudan, a Warrap State crossroads where the Dinka Muonyjang drafted the customary laws now used across Dinka communities, where the British built the first colonial school in South Sudan in 1944, and where a South Korean priest named John Lee Tae-seok spent his life building a hospital and teaching brass band music to orphans. With a population of 17,340 as of 2010, Tonj is not large. It is, however, dense with history.

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Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/k/3/tonj-wp/s9k3-tonj-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tonj: Smoked Meat and Princes School https://qualla.com/tonj/ Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. During World War II, Tonj served as a source of strength for the British Empire in Africa - not through soldiers, particularly, but through food. The Jur River (Luo River) chiefs contributed smoked meat for Allied forces fighting in North Africa, and thousands of cattle were driv...

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Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/k/3/tonj-wp/s9k3-tonj-smoked-meat-and-princes-school.mp3 0:06 2 full Tonj: Wanhalel and the Dinka Legal Tradition https://qualla.com/tonj/ Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. At Wanhalel, in Tonj South, Dinka elders drafted the customary laws now known as Ganuun Wanhalel - the framework of rules that governs marriage, compensation, inheritance, and dispute resolution across Dinka communities throughout South Sudan. This matters. South Sudanese law is ...

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Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/k/3/tonj-wp/s9k3-tonj-wanhalel-and-the-dinka-legal-tradition.mp3 0:06 3 full Tonj: Father John and the First Brass Band https://qualla.com/tonj/ Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. John Lee Tae-seok arrived in Tonj as a South Korean Catholic priest in the late 1990s and spent the next decade transforming what he could touch. He worked at the leper colony there, running a small medical mission. He founded the Don Bosco Hospital. He started a school. And he f...

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Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/k/3/tonj-wp/s9k3-tonj-father-john-and-the-first-brass-band.mp3 0:06 4 full Tonj: Children Who Surprised Everyone https://qualla.com/tonj/ Photo credit Ernst Ulz, CC BY-SA 3.0. Tonj's relationship with education has continued to produce surprises. Tito Yak Kuol topped both the Kenyan primary and secondary leaving examinations and became the first South Sudanese student accepted to Harvard College. Emmanuel Malou Deng placed fifth in all of South Sudan i...

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Image: Ernst Ulz | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/9/k/3/tonj-wp/s9k3-tonj-children-who-surprised-everyone.mp3 0:06 5 full