The British had for a while held a suspicion that the Agar division of the Dinka tribe were only biding their time before taking on the government forces, but had no knowledge of when or where it could happen. This particular tribe had a long history of belligerence, having fought not only the Egyptians, French, and Mahdists, but also just about anyone else who came along. Finally, early in 1902 the Agar Dinka rose in rebellion, shattering the uneasy peace. The Agar Dinka’s spiritual leader, Myang Mathiang, was a magician, and owned a very powerful fetish root known as mongorok, which gave him magical powers over his opponents. Ownership of the fetish had made him rich, powerful and feared, and he was keen to take on the new invaders to show his prowess.


A northern Sudanese trader by the name of Muhammed Ahmad, who had ambitions of carving out a small empire for himself in the area, was used to spy on the movements of the British. When Ahmad reported that Scott-Barbour had left Shambe, and was on trek to Rumbek with only a small escort, Mathiang decided to act. To implement his plan, Mathiang had a rebuka (shelter) built at the ford on the Bahr-el-Naam (Ostrich) river, which was on the Shambe - Rumbek route and where Mathiang knew the party would have to cross the river. When Scott-Barbour arrived at the ford, early on 10 January, he stopped at the shelter to rest his party. A number of apparently friendly groups of Agar began arriving in the camp, chatting with the troops and generally loafing around. This was not an unusual scene at any camp in the Sudan, as the people are generally curious by nature, especially in this instance as many of them had not seen a camel before. Mathiang, along with his brothers Mabur and Diar, brought him a bowl of milk and while he was drinking it one of Mathiang’s brothers snatched away the officers rifle, and the others speared him to death. This attack was a signal for the remainder of the Agar to fall on the rest of the party, slaughtering them with their wide bladed spears. Out of the whole party, only four soldiers managed to escape and raise the alarm. The rebellion had begun.With only a few hundred soldiers led by a very small number of young British officers in the area, the incident exposed the fragility of the government control. If all the Dinka tribes rose, there would be no possibility of holding the district. The Nuer Dinka, while continually encouraging Mathiang’s Agar Dinka to resist the government, remained sitting on the fence, along with many other tribes in the area, to see what developed as usual. The British had to act, and act swiftly.


News of the murders reached acting commandant of the district, Miralai W. H. Hunter Bey, at Wau on 18 January. Hunter immediately sent a request for re-enforcement’s to Khartoum, and left for the Bahr-el-Naam the next day, with Bimbashi H. E. Haymes and 16 men. Hunter sent orders to other troops in the area to join him on the march. Some 400 other Dinka joined him in the hope of looting cattle. Hunter was informed that the hostile Agar Dinka were waiting for him in large numbers on the Shambe road, and spoiling for a fight. Hunter however pressed on regardless. He started out at 3.30 a.m. on the 31st, with the 400 friendlies trailing behind. When dawn finally broke Hunter was astonished to find he was now leading some 2,000 friendlies!


Nothing appeals more to a Dinka’s heart than the thought of looting cattle, even if they were from another branch of the same tribe. Hunter, although believing that if only a small section of the ‘friendly’ Dinka could raise this many men, it was possible that the main force of the enemy could well number several thousand. However, he still pressed on. But his friendlies would go nowhere near the few small parties of Agar that they did see, as they preferred looting without fighting where possible. After pushing through miles of dense jungle, while expecting an ambush at any minute, Hunter arrived at the scene of the murder at 11.30 a.m. on 1 February. On searching the scene Hunter found a skull which was identified as being Scott-Barbour’s by the gold fillings in the teeth. He also found the officers coat, which had been pierced by many spears. Hunter’s retribution was swift. For the next five days he visited all the nearby Agar villages, destroying any in which loot from the convoy was found. On 12 February, after a 28 mile night march, he made a surprise attack on an Agar Dinka zeriba, killing six tribesmen, and capturing many cattle and sheep. On the 22nd, Bimbashi Armstrong joined him, bringing 23 men of the Xth Sudanese, further reinforcing the 36 who had arrived a week earlier. Hunter then turned his attention to the other Agar villages which were implicated in the murders, and burned them also. Two Sheikhs who were involved both with the attack on Scott-Barbour, and in the earlier murder of a Sudanese soldier, were captured and summarily shot.


On the night of the 25th, the Agar made a night attack on Hunter’s bivouac, in an effort to try to recover some of the confiscated cattle, but were heard by the picket who raised the alarm. The main attack was beaten off, but a party of about 20 broke into a corner of the square, killing one friendly and wounding 15 more. The friendlies immediately bolted, while the Agar released the cattle to add to the chaos. Fortunately it was a clear moonlit night, and the discipline of the trained Xth Sudanese soon drove the attackers out of the camp, and the cattle were all recovered. During the attack Haymes received a spear wound to the hand, but this did not prevent him administering to the injured friendlies, some of whom had quite severe spear wounds.


By early March, after provisioning Tonj and Shambe, his force had marched somewhere in the region of 550 miles, and cut a 10 mile wide swathe of destruction through the Agar Dinka country. Hunter now decided that it was time to return to Wau and his other duties. Reginald Wingate, the Governor-General, did not, however consider Hunter’s actions to be sufficient punishment, even though about 40 Agar had been killed, dozens of villages burned and large quantities of cattle and grain taken. Wingate felt that a far more severe example was required to show what could be expected if any tribe decided to rebel against the authority of the government. One can perhaps understand that due to the government’s very precarious hold on the Bahr-el-Ghazal Province, and with so many other tribes more or less sitting on the fence, what today would be possibly seen as an over-reaction was, in Wingate’s eyes back in 1902, a totally justifiable way of trying to ensure future peace in the province.


The Shambe Field Force, comprising of two Maxim guns and 100 men of the Xth Sudanese Regiment, commanded by Kaimakam Stack, was dispatched to complete the punishment. By this time, however, the majority of the rebels had fled out of harm’s way, leaving Stack to burn empty villages and seize whatever cattle, grain and dura that he could. By the end of April all major opposition was effectively at an end, although during the many minor skirmishes, in the region of sixty Agar Dinka, including both Mathiang’s brothers, were killed. Mathiang remained a fugitive trying to keep the embers of rebellion aglow. Meanwhile, the renegade trader Muhammed Ahmad had been arrested and hanged for his part in the affair.


Rumbek was attacked by Mathiang in June 1902, but was beaten off after very fierce hand to hand fighting. In July he was finally caught in an ambush by a government patrol, 24 of his men were killed, and he was mortally wounded. With Mathiang’s death, his magic also died, and the rebellion quickly fizzled out. The tribe made their submission to the government, and having little else of value left, paid their heavy fine in spears!


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