Deng Nhial Chioh

Deng Nhial Chioh is an anthropologist and heritage professional who has worked in cultural organizations in Sudan and South Sudan since 2001. He specializes in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, heritage education and the role of heritage in psycho-social support and trauma healing. He was born in 1967 in Fangak, Jonglei State. In 1987, during the second Sudanese civil war, Deng was displaced to Khartoum. He founded Maale Cultural Group in 2001, which operated in Sudan until 2006 and was later registered in South Sudan as the Maale Heritage Development Foundation and for which Deng is the Director. In 2006, Deng relocated to Juba, where he was appointed Senior Inspector for Culture in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. Currently, Deng is Deputy Director at the Ministry of Culture, Museums and National Heritage as well as a national facilitator for the UNESCO 2003 Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Focal Point for the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. Deng is a speaker and consultant with UNESCO and in 2019 contributed to an expert meeting on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Emergencies at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Deng facilitated the Story Circles on the thom (Nuer: guitar) as well as Nuer songs and dances.