Bounty of Beauty

The Bounty of Beauty explores the societal differences between the families of Mackuel, the cattle keeper, and Maluaac, the fisherman. When their sons, Nguac and Nguoi, both fell in love with an elegant Atuot girl, each proposing to marry her, a rare traditional marriage competition sparked a fierce rivalry and divided the community in two. Mackuel’s family, with their staggering wealth in cattle, won the race by arranging to marry a daughter from their rivals, Maluaac’s family.

Beyond his large family of 17 sons and daughters, Mackuel’s immense wealth in cattle was a symbol of great influence and fame. He arrogantly proclaimed that no one in the community had the power to challenge his son Nguac in marriage. Stubbornly, he declared, ‘A hatchling is no match for a calf,’ comparing himself to a calf and Maluaac to a hatchling. By this, Mackuel meant that fishermen held no social, economic, or political standing to win a marriage competition within the Atuot community or beyond.

Unfortunately, Mackuel’s extreme remarks became public, generating negative sentiment toward his family. Fearing the damage these sentiments might cause, Mackuel’s wife grew anxious and believed something must be done to change the public’s perception. She called a meeting with elders and her family members, proposing an extravagant dowry of 250 cows to be paid to Maluaac’s family for their daughter, Monica Ichut. She presented this as a way of retracting her husband’s harsh words during the intense competition between their sons, Nguac and Nguoi.

The elders from both families agreed to the marriage of Maluaac’s daughter Monica Ichut, and soon the community, once divided, witnessed a vibrant traditional wedding celebration.

Born on November 6, 1982, in Rumbek Centre County, South Sudan, Mark Ted grew up in Rumbek East during the South-North civil wars and conflicts. At the age of eight, he attended Baraliaap and Dhiaukuei Primary Schools from 1990 to 1998. After completing his primary education at Baraliaap Primary School, he enrolled in Rumbek Secondary School in 1999 and graduated with a high school certificate in 2002. Ted then attended the Institute of Development, Environment, and Agricultural Studies (IDEAS) in Rumbek Centre County, where he excelled and obtained a Diploma in Agricultural Studies.

As civil wars and conflicts between the then Southern and Northern Sudan persisted, Ted was compelled to go to Uganda for his A-Level education but ended up studying for a college diploma at the College of Business and Management Studies in Kampala from 2003 to 2006. He also studied at Motese International Business School in Kampala, Uganda. Mark then returned to South Sudan to work with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as a Database Manager and later as a State Finance Officer, a position he held for four years before moving on to work with international organizations.

Ted pursued a BBA (General Management) and an MBA (Supply Chain Management) from Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati, India, from 2012 to 2018. He then went on to earn an MA (Peace & Development Studies) from the University of Juba, South Sudan, from 2019 to 2021.

As a development worker, Ted’s passion for writing was inspired by the Dinka traditions of marriage competition involving the payment of dowry in cows. He postulated the need to reshape the community’s imbalance between the rich and the poor by discouraging marriage competitions and exorbitant payments of cows.

In his first novel “Bounty of Beauty” Ted depicted social, economic, and political differences between the rich and the poor within the Atuot community where Mackuel’s staggering wealth in cattle was the centre of utmost influence and fame. He made a core believe that no one in the entire village would challenge his son during his marriage. Intransigently, Mackuel, declared that a hatchling has no equal match with a calf. He said this meaning that Maluaac who was a fisherman do not have any social, economic, and political power to win any marriage competition in the community. So, he referred to Maluaac’s family as a hatchling and his family of cattle keepers as a calf. He saw that his son Nguac has no equal match with a son of a fisherman, Maluaac and that he may not except them to challenge his son’s marriage anywhere because of his staggering cattle wealth.

On the contrary, Mackuel’s wife rowed against the tide by advocating for her son Nguac to marry the daughter of a rivalling clan. She argued that charity was the greatest ideal of their people and should be used to eradicate poverty from the community. The elders agreed and opined that marrying Maluaac’s daughter would be a way to end the decades of hardship faced by Maluaac’s family.