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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Sudan
Index
In the 1990s, most of Sudan's diverse non-Muslim peoples
lived in southern Sudan, but a number of small groups resided in
the hilly areas south of the Blue Nile on or near the border with
Ethiopia. Another cluster of peoples commonly called the Nuba,
but socially and culturally diverse, lived in the Nuba Mountains
of southern Kurdufan State.
Nilotes
Nilote is a common name for many of the peoples living on or
near the Bahr al Jabal and its tributaries. The term refers to
people speaking languages of one section of the Nilotic subbranch
of the Eastern Sudanic branch of Nilo-Saharan and sharing a myth
of common origin. They are marked by physical similarity and many
common cultural features. Many had a long tradition of
cattlekeeping, including some for whom cattle were no longer of
practical importance. Because of their adaptation to different
climates and their encounters, peaceful and otherwise, with other
peoples, there was also some diversity among the Nilotes.
Despite the civil war and famine, the Nilotes still
constituted more than three-fifths of the population of southern
Sudan in 1990. One group--the Dinka--made up roughly two-thirds
of the total category, 40 percent or more of the population of
the area and more than 10 percent of Sudan's population. The
Dinka were widely distributed over the northern portion of the
southern region, particularly in Aali an Nil and Bahr al Ghazal.
The next largest group, only one-fourth to one-third the size of
the Dinka, were the Nuer. The Shilluk, the third largest group,
had only about one-fourth as many people as the Nuer, and the
remaining Nilotic groups were much smaller.
A Shilluk, member of a leading southern ethnic group,
prepares to launch his canoe.
Courtesy Robert O. Collins
The larger and more dispersed the group, however, the more
internally varied it had become. The Dinka and Nuer, for example,
did not develop a centralized government encompassing all or any
large part of their groups. The Dinka are considered to have as
many as twenty-five tribal groups. The Nuer have nine or ten
separately named groups.
Armed conflict between and within ethnic groups continued
well into the twentieth century. Sections of the Dinka fought
sections of the Nuer and each other. Other southern groups also
expanded and contracted in the search for cattle and pasturage.
The Nuer absorbed some of the Dinka, and some present-day
sections of the Nuer have significant Dinka components.
Relations among various southern groups were affected in the
nineteenth century by the intrusion of Ottomans, Arabs, and
eventually the British. Some ethnic groups made their
accommodation with the intruders and others did not, in effect
pitting one southern ethnic group against another in the context
of foreign rule. For example, some sections of the Dinka were
more accommodating to British rule than were the Nuer. These
Dinka treated the resisting Nuer as hostile, and hostility
developed between the two groups as result of their differing
relationships to the British. The granting of Sudanese
independence in 1956, and the adoption of certain aspects of
Islamic law or the sharia, by the central government in 1983
greatly influenced the nature of relations among these groups in
modern times.
The next largest group of Nilotes, the Shilluk (self-named
Collo), were not dispersed like the Dinka and the Nuer, but
settled mainly in a limited, uninterrupted area along the west
bank of the Bahr al Jabal, just north of the point where it
becomes the White Nile proper. A few lived on the eastern bank.
With easy access to fairly good land along the Nile, they relied
much more heavily on cultivation and fishing than the Dinka and
the Nuer did, and had fewer cattle. The Shilluk had truly
permanent settlements and did not move regularly between
cultivating and cattle camps.
Unlike the larger groups, the Shilluk, in the Upper Nile,
were traditionally ruled by a single politico-religious head
(reth), believed to become at the time of his investiture
as king the representative, if not the reincarnation, of the
mythical hero Nyiking, putative founder of the Shilluk. The
administrative and political powers of the reth have been
the subject of some debate, but his ritual status was clear
enough: his health was believed to be closely related to the
material and spiritual welfare of the Shilluk. It is likely that
the territorial unity of the Shilluk and the permanence of their
settlements contributed to the centralization of their political
and ritual structures. In the late 1980s, the activities against
the SPLA by the armed militias supported by the government
seriously alienated the Shilluk in Malakal.
Bari, Kuku, Kakwa, and Mandari
Several peoples living mainly to the south and east of the
Nilotes spoke languages of another section of the Nilotic
subbranch of Eastern Sudanic. Primary among them were the Bari
and the closely related Kuku, Kakwa, and Mandari. The Bari and
Mandari who lived near the Nilotes had been influenced by them
and had sometimes been in conflict with them in the past. The
more southerly Kuku and Kakwa lived in the highlands, where
cultivation was more rewarding than cattle-keeping or where
cattle diseases precluded herding.
Murle, Didinga, and Others
Two other tribes, the Murle and the Didinga, spoke Eastern
Sudanic languages of subbranches other than Nilotic. The Murle
had dwelt in southern Ethiopia in the nineteenth century and some
were still there in the 1990s. Others had moved west and had
driven out the local Nilotes, whom they reportedly regarded with
contempt, and acquired a reputation as warriors. Under
environmental pressure, the Murle raided other groups in the late
1970s and early 1980s.
Along the mountainous border with Ethiopia in Al Awsat State
lived several small heterogeneous groups. Some, like the Uduk,
spoke languages of the Koman division of Nilo-Saharan and were
believed to have been in the area since antiquity. Others, like
the Ingessana, were refugees driven into the hills by the
expansion of other groups. Most of these peoples straddling the
Sudan-Ethiopia border had experienced strife with later-arriving
neighbors and slave-raiding by the Arabs. All adapted by learning
the languages of more dominant groups.
Azande
In western Al Istiwai and Bahr al Ghazal states lived a
number of small, sometimes fragmented groups. The largest of
these groups were the Azande, who comprised 7 to 8 percent of the
population of southern Sudan and were the dominant group in
western Al Istiwai.
An Azande chief in the south standing near a hut being
completed for his new wife
Courtesy Robert O. Collins
The Azande had emerged in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries when groups of hunters, divided into aristocrats and
commoners, entered the northeastern past of present-day Zaire
(and later southwestern Sudan) and conquered the peoples already
there. Although the aristocrats provided ruling kings and nobles,
they did not establish an inclusive, centralized state. The means
of succession to kingship, however, encouraged Azande expansion.
A man succeeded to his father's throne only when he had
vanquished those of his brothers who chose to compete for it. The
brothers--princes without land or people but with followers
looking for the fruits of conquest--would find and rule hitherto
unconquered groups. Thus, the Azande became a heterogeneous
people.
Their earlier military and political successes
notwithstanding, the Azande in the twentieth century were poor,
largely dependent on cultivation (hunting was no longer a
feasible source of food), and afflicted by sleeping sickness. The
British colonial authorities instituted a project, known as the
Azande Scheme, involving cotton growing and resettlement in an
effort to deal with these problems. The program failed, however,
for a variety of reasons, including an inadequate understanding
of Azande society, economy, and values on the part of the
colonial planners. Azande society deteriorated still further, a
deterioration reflected in a declining birthrate. Azande support
of the Anya Nya guerrilla groups, as well as conflicts with the
Dinka, also served to worsen the Azande's situation. In the early
1980s, there was talk of resurrecting a revised Azande project
but the resumption of the civil war in 1983 prevented progress.
Bviri and Ndogo
Several other groups of cultivators in southwestern Sudan
spoke languages closely akin to that of the Azande but lacked a
dominant group. The most important seemed to be the Bviri. They
and a smaller group called Ndogo spoke a language named after the
latter; other, smaller communities spoke dialects of that tongue.
These communities did not share a sense of common ethnic
identity, however.
Others
The other groups in southwestern Sudan spoke languages of the
central branch of Nilo-Saharan and were scattered from the
western Bahr al Ghazal (the Kreish) to central Al Istiwai (the
Moru and the Avukaya) to eastern Al Istiwai (the Madi). In
between, in Al Istiwai, were such peoples as the Bongo and the
Baka. The languages of Moru and Madi were so close, as were
aspects of their cultures, that they were sometimes lumped
together. The same was true of the Bongo and the Baka, but there
was no indication that either pair constituted a self-conscious
ethnic group.
Nuba
Living in the Nuba Mountains of southern Kurdufan State were
perhaps three dozen small groups collectively called the Nuba but
varying considerably in their culture and social organization.
For example, some were patrilineally organized, others adhered to
matrilineal patterns, and a very few--the southeastern Nuba--had
both patrilineal and matrilineal groupings in the same community.
The Kurdufanian languages these people spoke were not generally
mutually intelligible except for those of some adjacent
communities.
Despite the arabization of the people around them, only small
numbers of Nuba had adopted Arabic as a home language, and even
fewer had been converted to Islam. Some had, however, served in
the armed forces and police. Most remained cultivators; animal
husbandry played only a small part in their economy.
Data as of June 1991
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