Talk:Akobo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following text was added to the very bottom of the article. Because it has no sources, but may be reliable information, it was not deleted.
- Akobo is also the name of a village a few miles inside the Sudan border. It was a minor adminitractive centre while Sudan was a British colonial possession. The local British District Commissioner in the location planted an unusual avenue of trees in the 1930's. This included 176 pairs of Neem trees. These were brought as seedlings from India, where the District Commissioner (named Morris) had served prior to joining the Sudan colonial administration.
- The Avenue is unusual as the trees are evenly spaced and run North South - as can be seen by anyone flying in a small plane into the tiny airstrip (still used by aid agencies and the UN). The trees line the path from the D.C's house into the village, allowing the officer to walk in the shade.
- After walking this path it becomes apparent that the trees are spaced precisely 10 yards apart. This makes the avenue 1760 yards in length (exactly one statute mile). The DC created a means to indicate not only direction (North - South) but also a practical indication of one mile.
- The Neem trees bark contains antiseptic qualities, which results in the twigs being used as toothbrushes by the local population. Aid workers have said that you can always tell the children from Akobo, as they always have better teeth than children from other villages. Nuer Children from this village are often named "Morree" after the DC, Morris.
- In the long running civil war Akobo has been used as a staging post for the break away faction of the SPLA, under Riak Machar. As a result it has been heavily bombed by the government in the North.
I moved it here without further edits. -- llywrch 17:52, 18 April 2007 (UTC)