Ager Gum (1941–1996) was a military leader and song composer from Sudan. She was an army general of the

Sudan People's Liberation Army The South Sudan People's Defence Forces (SSPDF), formerly the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), is the military force of South Sudan. The SPLA was founded as a guerrilla movement against the government of Sudan in 1983 and was a key parti ...

group, now the official army of the country of

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

. She was known to be an active member of the infamous female SPLA battalion "''Katifa banat''" that fought during the

Sudanese Civil war The term Sudanese Civil War refers to at least three separate conflicts in Sudan in Northeast Africa: *First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972) *Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005) *Sudanese civil war (2023–present) It could also refer to other ...

against the Khartoum government.

Biography

Ager Gum was born in Dinkaland in the Sudan in 1941 at time when North and South Sudan were still one country. She was born in Nyang in present-day South Sudan to a mother from the Yibel tribe. After three failed marriages by the age of twenty-seven, Ager Gum left her

Dinka The Dinka people () are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Mangalla-Bor to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile (two out of three provinces that were formerly part of southern ...

community to start a new life in the urban town of

Rumbek Rumbek () is the capital of Lakes State in the Bahr el Ghazal region of South Sudan. Location Rumbek is approximately by road northwest of Juba, the capital and largest city in the country. Its coordinates are and its elevation is abov ...

, the capital of Lakes State, central South Sudan, and the former capital of the country. While she was in

, she started composing songs about unsuccessful marriages in her community. The themes of her compositions were mainly directed toward men, who she said "want sex rather than real relationships". She joined the South Sudanese liberation movement against the north in 1968 and rose to become a general with the Sudan People's Liberation Army after going to war alongside men.

References

{{reflist South Sudanese military personnel South Sudanese musicians South Sudanese women 1941 births 1996 deaths People from Lakes (state)