Mary Boyoi

Casualties of war…

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 10:28:00 -0800

The first estimate was 150 orphans earlier this week. I believe that figure will grow. These two babies lost their parents during the attacks on Pibor county. They themselves were both shot in the head, but managed to survive.

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Lekuangle burnt down

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 08:20:00 -0800

I have been among 12 which were nominated by elders and MPs from both murle and low Nuer to be peace makers. Now things are not going well between Lou Nuer and Murle. The Lou Nuer just captured Lekuangole payam and burnt it down. Lekuangole is one of the big payam of Pibor. Again the Murle men instead of defending their women and children they are going to Lou Nuer land to revenge while Lou Nuer still in Murle land. This war between them taget women and children not themselves.A I am calling for all of human right to fight for women and children right.

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Asowat - Mary Boyoi

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:02:13 -0700

This is my latest album. Give it a listen and if you like it do me a favour and buy from BandCamp.

&lt;a href="http://boyoi.bandcamp.com/album/asowat"&amp;gt;Asowat by Mary Boyoi&lt;/a&gt;

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‪Mr. President‬‏

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 01:11:00 -0700

via youtube.com

This is a video for my song "Mr. President", hope you enjoy.

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Let's Get Together

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 10:05:00 -0700

Join Mary Boyoi, Emmanuel Laso, JKP and Sister J for a night of music and dancing in Juba on the 23rd of April from 8 p.m. Regular entry is 30 SDG and VIP is 50 SDG.

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Nairobi Show - Mary Boyoi & Sister J

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:49:00 -0700

Come to our show on Saturday the 9th at Charter Hall in Nairobi, Kenya. Check out our event page on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=104527509632362 for more information. Hope to see you there!

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Celebrate Freedom Show - Juba, Sudan Feb 12th @ Home & Away

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:18:00 -0800

Join John Kudusay, Mary Boyoi and Emmanuel Lasso to celebrate the peaceful result of the Referendum on Saturday, February 12th at Home & Away. Come and enjoy the music: reggae, ragga tone, R&B and much more from your favorite Sudanese musicians.

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Let Us Go - Official Video

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:53:00 -0800

via youtube.com

This is my new video for "Let us Go". I hope you all enjoy!!

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BBC News - Sudanese singer Mary Boyoi campaigns for secession

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 09:21:00 -0800

via Mary Boyoi campaigns for secession

I did an interview with the BBC the other day and its already online. They were quick. I am happy they played my song! Click on the link above to check out the video and interview.

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Touring Addis Ababa & Bentui

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 01:24:00 -0800

via facebook.com

Follow the links to see a selection of photos from visits to Ethiopia and Unity state taken this past November.

Ethiopia was very exciting to visit. I was invited by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and joined Nyapal and Emmanuel Kembe in Addis Ababa. We spent six days visiting the city and making performances. The people were very welcoming and extremely hospitable. I hope I get a chance to visit once again.

Shortly after returning from Ethiopia, I was extremely honored to be invited by the Vice President of Southern Sudan to Unity State. The Vice President, the Governor, and several other high level ministers were touring Unity state to encourage people to register for the Referendum. I love the place and love the people and really enjoyed my time there. They even gave me a new names one for Nuer: Nyanang and one for Dinka: Nyankol. I like those names and may use them somehow in the future.

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Sudan 365: A beat for peace

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:22:00 -0700

via robrooker.com

I appear at 2:35. I am very happy to have been able to be a part of this endeavor. Go see http://www.sudan365.org/ for more information on what they are doing.

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Let Us Go - The Video! Live Performance

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:33:17 -0700

via youtube.com

This is from a performance I did over the weekend for Sudanese Youth for Seperation at KICC in Nairobi, Kenya. Hope you all enjoy. More to come soon!

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Let Us Go!

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 10:36:26 -0700

I would like to share with you a rough copy of my new song "Let us Go!"

I truly hope you enjoy. Feel free to comment and give me feedback, I would really be interested to hear what people have to say.

Let's Go by Mary Boyoi Listen on Posterous

Here are the lyrics:

When this war started
South Sudan was so young
North look at us as children
They didn't even bother to listen
to what we have to say
When we grown up a few years ago
We saw Unity not attractive
That is why we say let us go

Let us go, go, go, go
We will make it
Leave us a..a...a...alone
We will make it
(x2)

Oh my God come and help
South Sudan akoon dahla (to become country)
Horia ma balgo saakid (freedom you can not get free)
balgo fi dam gabil kide kan dafick (through the blood which was poured before)
achan kide taal sowit, sowit, sowit (that is why you should vote vote vote)

Let us go, go, go, go
We will make it
Leave us a..a...a...alone
We will make it
(x2)

Can you hear you the trumpet calling?
Everyone march on
steadfastly determination closer to the mount top
it is not time to guess and wonder... ah hah
you vote your voice you need your future ... ah hah
Put an end to sorrow that have clouded our lives now
Sudan my home I give my vote my help to be much stronger
I can see referendum coming ah hah
My vote my voice and I will give it ah hah

Let us go, go, go, go
We will make it
Leave us a..a...a...alone
We will make it
(x2)

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South Sudan Separation Rally - Saturday 10th, KICC Nairobi Kenya

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 02:40:52 -0700

South Sudan youth to stage mass procession in favor of separation

July 8, 2010 (JUBA) – Youth of Southern Sudan from various political parties and civil society organizations have announced to stage a mass procession on Friday, calling for separation of the region from the rest of Sudan.

Southern SudanYouth for Separation in collaboration with the SPLM Youth League will organize the event. In statement he issued on Southern Sudan TV on Thursday, the chairperson of the SPLM Youth League, Akol Paul Kordit, said the procession for separation will be carried out simultaneously in all the ten Southern Sudan states on Friday.

Akol who came back from Kenya and Uganda campaigning for separation, said the procession will also be carried out by Southern Sudanese youth in foreign countries, adding that those in Kenya or Uganda will campaign for separation on Saturday.

The ruling party’s youth leader and member of the SPLM Political Bureau, said 9th of every month is dedicated to the mass procession for separation until the conduct of the referendum.

via sudantribune.com

I have been invited by members of the SPLM Youth League in Kenya to perform at a rally being held in Nairobi this Saturday. I am looking forward to join and participate in efforts to start civil discussion about the coming referendum.

If anyone is in Kenya, come and see the activities. It is open to all, not only Sudanese. The event is supposed to begin in the morning from 8 and go on until 12 noon.

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Referendum Live Video

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 06:39:45 -0700

via youtube.com

This is one of the videos we got from the show I attended two weeks ago.

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Wet De Video Shots

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 06:32:50 -0700

We took these the other day during a video shoot. I am very happy with how they came out.

See the full gallery on Posterous

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A performance, an album and lots of shiny things

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 02:17:00 -0700

Last night (19/6/2010) I was invited to participate in the launching of "How Long?" a new book & album that was a collaboration between Coozos Clan & Evans Maendeh in an effort to highlight the plight of refugees.

See the full gallery on Posterous

I used the oppurtunity to introduce a few songs from my second album "Aswot". Just a taste. I decided to post one of the new songs here along with some photos from the show and the artwork for the new album. I truly hope you will enjoy.

09_Wet_de-New-MP3.mp3 Listen on Posterous

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Murle Leaders Arrested in Juba

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 02:01:00 -0700

Last night I talked with my mother. She called me from Juba and informed me that my uncle, William Boren, and four other leaders from the Murle community were arrested at their place of businesses and homes by Military Intelligence.

I was very shocked to hear this news and extremely concerned for the reason of their arrest. At this point my family has not heard from my Uncle and no one is clear as to why they were arrested. Some of the rumors from the Murle community say they have been detained because of the issue of George Athor and his rebellion.

For myself I cannot believe this to be true. My Uncle applied to run as an MP with SPLM. He was nominated and then that nomination was canceled. He accepted that. He did not attempt to run as an Independent or with another party. He stayed true to his commitment with SPLM. He has been a strong SPLM/A supporter since the late 80's. He was one of the first Murle to join the movement.

The other men arrested also have been high ranking SPLA commanders and long time SPLM members.

I know they all went to Pibor to vote. The day they were going to vote they found that their names had already been used to cast the ballot. So they left Pibor and returned to Juba. They did not involve themselves in any "rebellion".

Yesterday, Kalanchi Nyalang returned to Juba from Pibor. He was one of the Murle youth that was working as an SPLM agent during this election. He was responsible for having many youth arrested and others beaten by claiming they were agents for Arabs or the other parties. I fear that Kalanchi is still making trouble and that SPLA is still listening to him. It seems more than coincidental that the day he arrived these people were arrested.

My greatest fear now is that my Uncle is dead. I have lost so many family and friends during the war. My Uncle is now the only one I have. I don't want something bad to happen to him from his own comrades. He has always believed in SPLM/A and has never worked against them.

Please pray with me for the safety of these men (some of whom I don' t know the second name):

WIlliam Boren

Amme Ngare

Giroch

Lilcho

Golmiji

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Soothing Tunes Could Heal Southern Sudan

Sun, 09 May 2010 05:35:56 -0700

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Soothing Tunes Could Heal Southern Sudan

"...my dear singers or celebs,you need to take some time out from your songs about sex and hedonism...at our time we need you to shame or encourage our people. You are powerful in our society."

22 April 2010

By Isaiah Abraham

History has proved to mankind time and again that there is always an end to any problem including the intractable one. Northern Ireland war is one among wars that baffled developed and civilized world. That beautiful land became a wasteland, a playground for terrorists, a landscape of vandalized houses with a shattered economy. There seemed to be no end in sight. The conflict was known as “The Troubles”; that has lasted three decades and caused thousands of deaths. Irishman took the other Irishman using bombs and guns, simply because one was Catholic and the other Protestant.

By 1997 peace process was underway, but had stalled several times. In that year Bono’s (Paul David Hewson) legendary Irish rock band recorded “Please”. The band released a special EP with four faces pointedly on the cover; those of the main Irish political protagonists, Ian Paisley, Gerry Adams, John Hume and David Trimble.

On Good Friday 1998, a peace deal was finally signed. It was the turning point. Since then, Northern Ireland has been subject to a power sharing deal (sound familiar?). of course the trouble didn’t end overnight. There have been further outbreaks of terrorism and political bickering. But from that time, Northern Ireland never looked back, and has been on a gentle recovery path.

Did a rock band cause peace to break out there? Of course not, that would be a facile conclusion. But there can be no doubt that U2, with their heartfelt lyrics and gut wrenching singing, made their contributions. They had a big effect on their national audiences, the young and caused a sway in public opinion about the conflict. And by targeting political apparatchiks in their album covers, connects and posters, they caused a great deal of much needed embarrassment.

In our continent, we had South Africa rotten practice known as apartheid that last centuries. Artists took the challenge to say it deep into emotions. Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba, Lebo Mathosa, Brenda Fassie among others played their small part in that ‘war’. But Leleti Khumelo depicted by Mbongeni Ngema in those killings lyrics (Sarafina film) in the 1970s and Lucky Ermelo Dube at the dying days of apartheid on the ‘cat and the dog have forgiven each other’ lines played an important part in the struggle against apartheid; the songs started to get felt by the society, that go all the way for political class to relax some restrictions and eventually led to the release of Mr. Nelson Mandela from Robben Island.

Zimbabwean renowned artist Thomas Mapfumo, master of Chimurenga and Oliver Mtukudzi managed to break through when they descended swipes on the ruling party (ZANU-PF) and opposition of the Democratic Change. Joseph Mayanja (Jose Chameleon) a Kenyan successful artist living in Uganda had produced series of revolutionary social songs in that land. We can go on and on.

Back home in Southern Sudan, you know where are you when your country needs you? It is the job of the artist to record the pain of the land, and to cause social uplift. This country is at a cross roads during this period leading to Referendum and even immediately after that important vote; either we make hard decisions as a nation or we stare failed state status in the face. Nyanakol Mathiang at the end of the 1970s started to remind Southerners not to forget their roots while serving Arabs in the North, and her work wasn’t a waste.

Of all the artistic platforms, popular music can have the most dramatic and most touchy impact. It one place where tribes, race and anything else flees. It plays directly on the emotions and can send spirits soaring. It can build oneness and unity of purpose. It can affect millions of people.

It is not that we don’t know this. We have had some famous songs that have driven social and political movements. But during the SPLA war we could vividly remember someL the ‘Awalat Junub ma be kaaf yom chakal’, ‘rajil jaban ma mana, taban ma mana fi kulia bongo eya, akil ween fi kala ya jalab, bai aluel ee for bongo, faturna tumbak na’ and ‘Banat be kori rakal ween, paatu bongo eya, arfa keliny chi koop fi jubal ebongo eya’ among other emotional songs by Tiger, Zindia, Rhino, Bilfam, Tingili, Eagle, Mokshasha battalions. Artists in the persons of Emmanuel Jal, Gordon Kong, Emma Lasu, John Junub, Mary Boyoi, Emmanuel Kembe, Freedom boys, S.OB, J.K.P, etc have a national obligation to steer our nationhood into something important for our growth. They are gifted talents in our society to date.

Artist Simon Kero on ‘Bambe ma keymo, moyo ge ruo sakit’ has played an important social role to farmers and idle/loiters. You got to work in order to eat, he alluded. Mary Boyoi on ‘Referendum’ album made an impact on those who won’t have known the necessity of referendum to the people of Southern Sudan. John Junub (on Bright Star Music) with series of songs on CPA and peace, has done us proud. He hasn’t not only say something about our today but remind us about yesterday through what Bright Star Campaign did to liberate us.

The same is true with Mr. Lasu with his irresistible voice and composure. I challenge politicians to read Mr. Lasu writings (messages). The young man has spoken! That was at the beginning; but am seeing the artists stopping singing on the same but turn to follow mad western artists (rock music), those who sing (write or say) nothing only to kick the air with their nude girls doing the dirty kicking. Who mesmerizes himself with an illusion that, by exposing that anatomy the world will come crumbling on his knees in acknowledgment?

Unfortunately we have an ‘Egytian’ or a young lady whom we might mistakenly think she is a sister (on her voice) to Ms Laila Mourad (Egyptian song bird). She needs to stop boring us with love songs and start to say something about her home village around Amadi. She is not alone, there many hosts of new artists doing similar unproductive production to our society. We don’t need love overtures now. Time for these ‘advances’ are yet ahead after 2011. There is time for everything as the Good Book has clearly put it. People don’t need flashes that only serve no purpose in difficult life.

This country needs pressure from all possible quarters if we are going to complete the rebirth. We need pressure from those with talent to write lyrics and produce the tunes that will resonate with the multitudes. We need songs that expose corruption, laziness, cattle rustling; songs that mock our awful politicians and their awful politics; songs that lament our lost values; songs that plead for the poor and record their suffering; songs that educate the ignorant and teach them how to be discerning when choosing those leaders. We need songs that will drive those who systematically think they members of our society but run ahead of others to get rich through ill gotten wealth; they spoiling our names abroad, and among our sister neighboring countries.

So my dear singers or celebs you need to take some time out from your songs about sex and hedonism. There is a bigger game to play. You need to do more than attend funerals and celebrations to sing songs that only suit the class or audiences. Everyone knows that singers sing everything but at our time we need you to shame or encourage our people. You are powerful in our society. You have large followers and hence critical that you seize this opportunity to do the best to teach them about everything that builds, heals, uplifts people lives. Look beyond stretch limos and vapid lyrics. Artist must rise above ethnic divides and political walls. Art is the great unifier of the world, use it to transform this divided land called Southern Sudan, the very place from which you sprang.

Isaiah Abraham lives in Juba; he’s on Isaiah_abraham@yahoo.co.uk

via gurtong.net

Isaiah, Thank you for reminding us we are working on it even the freedom songs for freedom day this is the time we have to forgive and forget what happen in election in order to make sure we are getting referendum done.

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Pete Muller Photography » Election tension

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:49:13 -0700

...Mary’s meeting concludes and as we move to the door, our massive neighbor follows quickly behind. As we exchange parting pleasantries with the researchers, the man moves out the door ahead of us. I seem him turn and light a cigarette in the path ahead. He looks directly at Mary and I become sure that reason for his presence is not part of any paranoid delusion. As we walk across a dimly lit parking lot, he intersects our path and we meet in the middle.

He approaches Mary in a manner inconsistent with his imminent message. He shakes her hand and begins speaking softly in Arabic. “You should not be talking so much,” he says. “It is my job to know exactly who you are and what you’re doing.” Mary, who is not a particularly small woman, is dwarfed by his body. He waves a finger in her face and I realize that his hand is easily the size of her head; his biceps as large as her thighs. Her usually assertive manner is gone and she looks up at him with sheepish eyes. “You must be extremely careful,” the man adds. I swallow hard and keep distance from what is clearly meant to be a private conversation. The man does not look in my direction.

While it goes against what I often believe, I sometimes wonder why she does not simply withdrawal from this nasty political world and continue with her successful music career. She can continue to address political issues in her music, an approach that yields far less hostility. I think it’s all too easy to encourage reformers from the relative safety of the sidelines. Fighting for change is important, but I’ll be damned if it’s not scary.

via petemullerphotography.com

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