The recording at the center of this item an ‘awad’: a long song of praise that includes the entire village. The composer praises the village men singing about their goodness, wealth, courage, charity, support for orphans, welcoming guests, etc. The wives are mentioned next to their husbands if they are good wives. And because Awad is too long, very few people can sing the entire song. But members of each clan must know the part that mentions them. People may skip some parts when they are singing the song; so it is important for every clan to know its part. In the big villages, one can’t speak of a single person’s awad, but of the place of a person in the awad. In the case of big villages, the awad is called by the name of the composer. Awad is sung on the first day of bul (drum dance). All men and women of the village participate on the first day. The occasion begins early (about 2 or 3 PM) by singing the Awad. People march in circles inside the village singing praises. In big villages as I mentioned, it takes more than an hour to finish the song. Awad is followed by Tha Bul, Kep and Atiling. Then the girls and women come to choose who will dance with whom, and the dance begins. This song is called by the name of Yolong; the war leader of Lul Otango, in praise of him, his friend and his wife. The composer is Ongur Ajaryal, from Lul Agwoc. This one is a complete awad. The composer made it separate so that people begin the march with it; nobody can join in late, because Yolong bany is an important person. Also when time is late and people want to end the march, they bring this awad again, so that it ends the march.
This item consists of a recorded Shilluk song (wav file), accompanied with annotation (in Praat TextGrid) and associated information: metadata, permissions and speaker questionnaire. The associated information is also summarized, in a spreadsheet. The TextGrid annotation includes Shilluk orthography, translation, and comments.
