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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
Market, or suq, in Yambio, with townspeople engaged in
bargaining
Courtesy Robert O. Collins
Cattle suq in Juba, capital of Al Istiwai State
Courtesy Robert O. Collins
In the early 1990s, drought caused a dramatic decline in
livestock raising in Sudan, following a period in the early 1980s
when livestock provided all or a large part of the livelihood of
more than 40 percent of the country's population. Livestock
raising was overwhelmingly in the traditional sector, and,
although initial steps had been taken to improve productivity and
develop market orientation, for the modern monetized economy the
sector represented largely a potential asset. In 1983 Sudan's
more than 50 million animals comprised the second largest
national herd in Africa, next in size to that of Ethiopia. An FAO
estimate in 1987 indicated that there were about 20.5 million
cattle, 19 million sheep, 14 million goats, and 3 million camels.
Other animals included 660,000 donkeys, 21,000 horses, a small
number of pigs (kept by such non-Muslim peoples as the Nuba) and
32,000 chickens. By 1991 these numbers had been reduced by
perhaps one-third by the drought of 1990-91; the August 1988
floods in the south, described as the worst in Sudan's history;
and the ravages of civil war in the south. Poultry was raised
mainly by farm families and villagers. A small modern sector
consisted of limited government commercial operations and a few
semicommercial private ventures.
Sudanese cattle are of two principal varieties: Baqqara and
Nilotic. The Baqqara and two subvarieties constituted about 80
percent of the country's total number of cattle. This breed was
found chiefly in the western savanna regions and in fewer,
although significant, numbers farther to the east from Aali an
Nil to Kassala in Ash Sharqi. The Nilotic, constituting
approximately 20 percent of all cattle, were common in the
eastern hill and plains areas of southeastern Al Istiwai, which
were free of the tsetse fly, and in those parts of the Bahr al
Ghazal and Aali an Nil lying outside the tsetse-fly zone. Because
of periodic rinderpest epidemics, the total number of cattle was
relatively small until about 1930, when it stood at an estimated
2 million. A vaccination program begun about that time and mass
inoculations during the succeeding decades resulted in a great
increase in numbers, which by 1970 had reached about 12 million.
In the vast areas used by pastoral herders (estimated to be 80
million to 100 million hectares), cattle husbandry was conducted
in an economic, cultural, and social context that had evolved
over generations. This included an emphasis on increasing herd
size as an investment for future family security. Small surpluses
(usually bulls) were available for subsistence use, exchange, or
sale for local consumption or export. Cattle were also used for
marriage payments and among the Nilotes for rituals. Numbers of
cattle also helped to establish or increase status and power in a
social system in which cattle were the measure of wealth.
Most Nilotic cattle were kept by transhumant groups. Migrations , related to the wet and dry seasons, usually did not
exceed 150 to 160 kilometers. The majority of the Baqqara strain
of cattle belonged to the Baqqara Arabs
(see Northern Arabized Communities
, ch. 2). The latter were largely nomadic, but since
at least the early 1900s had a settled base on which crop
cultivation was practiced. The farmers, their relatives, or their
agents moved the cattle over traditional migratory routes
northward during the rainy season and southward to the area of
the Bahr al Arab as the dry season progressed. Migrations in
either direction might amount to 400 kilometers. The expansion of
mechanized rainfed agriculture in the region used by the Baqqara,
continued government efforts to enlarge the cultivated area, and
pressures on the land from the growing population have gradually
reduced grazing areas. At the same time, traditional cultural
forces have brought about a steady increase in cattle numbers.
The result has been increasing overstocking and pasture depletion
until the outbreak of civil war in 1983 and the devastating
droughts of the 1980s and early 1990s decimated not only the
Nilotic herds but livestock throughout Sudan. Many families and
indeed whole ethnic groups who have traditionally survived on
their cattle, sheep, goats, or camels, lost all of their herds
and were forced to migrate to the Three Towns (Omdurman,
Khartoum, and Khartoum North) in search of sustenance.
Sheep were herded chiefly by transhumants in Darfur and
Kurdufan. Large numbers were found in the drier areas at greater
elevations than the usual cattle zone. Several breeds were
raised, but the predominant and preferred one was the so-called
desert sheep, which had both good weight and good milk yield.
Villagers in Al Awsat also raised large numbers of sheep, mostly
on a nonmigratory basis. Fodder was obtained from crop residues
on irrigated and rainfed farms and from vegetation along the
rivers and canals. Goats, of which there were three principal
breeds (desert, Nubian, and Nilotic), were found throughout the
country south of the northern desert areas. They were raised
mainly by sedentary families for milk and meat. Goat meat,
although less popular than mutton, formed part of the diet of
most families, particularly those having low incomes. Goat milk
was an important source of protein, and many families in urban
areas kept a few goats for their milk.
Camels were largely concentrated in the desert and subdesert
regions of northern Darfur, northern Kurdufan, and southern Ash
Sharqi. They were kept almost entirely by nomadic and seminomadic
peoples, for whom the animal represented the preferred mode of
transport. Camels were also important for milk and for meat.
Camel ownership and numbers were sources of prestige in nomadic
societies.
Data as of June 1991
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