Dwatuka, Gabriel

A Zande, born in Bandala, Tombora district about 1922, son of Wagi and Natamau, Gabriel Dwatuka was baptized at Mupoi in 1935. He entered the Minor Seminary in 1938 and passed to Gulu in 1945; in due time he was ordained a priest on December 19, 1953. During the 1955 disturbances, while in Maridi, he was cruelly beaten by soldiers; later he continued his priestly ministry at Rumbek and Maridi until 1965, when he escaped to Zaïre. After the Addis Ababa Accord in March 1972 he worked in Maridi. In 1976 he was appointed bishop of Rumbek and consecrated for the diocese on June 16, 1976. He resigned on July 17, 1982 and moved to Maridi where, at the death of Fr. Mario, he became a parish priest. He was also a representative of the Pontifical Missionary Works for the Sudan. He died in a Cairo hospital on February 18, 1990.

V. Dellagiacoma

This article, received in 2005, is reprinted with permission from Sudanese Catholic Clergy, © copyright 1997 by Fr. V. Dellagiacoma (Provincial Comboni House, Khartoum, Sudan).