Acknowledgements (2021)

Thank you to the Anuak community in the area of Saint Paul, Minnesota, who welcomed me into their meetings, who encouraged me with enthusiasm to share what I had gathered 50 years ago. Thank you to the unnamed man of dignity who played the Anuak Thom so skillfully and who appears on the cover of this book. Due to my oversight, he remains unnamed, but deeply appreciated. Thank you to Omot Ochan, Obang Metho, Apee Ochudho, Opiew Jobi, Martha Ongelli, Gilo Gora, Didumo Alemo, Opara Achimo, and Omot Ojulu for interviews in person and by phone. Thank you to Jill Anderson for going ahead and between to arrange meetings and conferences and provide new information and new contacts.

Thank you to my son, Robert, who reintroduced me to the Anuak community in Saint Paul. Thank you to my son, Andy, who arranged to have my long dormant reel-to-reel tapes expertly transferred to compact discs by Randy Bradley of Columbia, South Carolina, making further steps of website and book possible.

Thank you to Mark Henderson, the University of Northwestern–St. Paul website coordinator, photographer, and computer technician, who enthusiastically came alongside to provide technical support through the difficult steps of transferring sound and sight. Mark not only helped with the website, but was a catalyst in encouraging me to go further and publish the revised thesis. Thank you to Greg Rosauer, Archivist at Northwestern, who saw a vision of what this could mean to the newly resettled Anuak people, and who yielded a masterly touch in making a thesis into a book.

Thank you to Alice Stock, who read my typed rewrite and made precise and thorough corrections on my misspellings and grammatical errors. Her enthusiasm for the project was a great impetus to keep going.