Nuer people

Nuer
Total population
(Approximately 2,900,000 people)
Regions with significant populations
South Sudan, Ethiopia
Languages
Nuer language
Religion
African Traditional Religion, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Dinka, other Nilotic peoples

The Nuer people are a Nilotic ethnic group primarily inhabiting the Nile Valley. They are concentrated in South Sudan, with some also found in southwestern Ethiopia. They speak the Nuer language, which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan family. As one of the largest ethnic groups in southern Sudan, the Nuer people are pastoralist who herd cattle for a living. The cattle of the Nuer people serve as companions and a lifestyle.[1] However, they refer to themselves as "Nath".[2] The Nuer people have historically been under counted as a result semi-nomadic lifestyle the community engage, as well as lack of proper national statistic about the community.

History

The nature of relations among the various southern Sudanese tribes was greatly affected in the 19th century by the intrusion of the British. Some ethnic groups made their accommodation with the colonizers 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 supported colonial rule which was resisted by the Nuer. The Dinka treated the resisting Nuer as hostile, and hostility developed between the two groups as a result of their differing relationships to the British.[3]

There are different accounts of the origin of the conflict between the Nuer and the Dinka, South Sudan's two largest ethnic groups. Anthropologist Peter J. Newcomer suggests that neither the Nuer nor the Dinka are intrusive and that the Nuer are actually Dinka. He argues that hundreds of years of population growth created expansion, which eventually led to raids and wars.[4]

In 2006, the Nuer were the tribe that resisted disarmament most strongly. Members of the Nuer White Army, a group of armed youths often autonomous of tribal elders' authority, refused to lay down their weapons, which led SPLA soldiers to confiscate Nuer cattle, destroying their economy. The White Army was finally put down in mid-2006,[5] though a successor organisation self-styling itself as a White Army formed in 2011 to fight the Murle tribe (see 2011–2012 South Sudan tribal clashes), as well as the Dinka and UNMISS.[6] Nuers have been fighting hard to preserve their lifestyle, economy, culture, religion and history in the way of continuous onslaught by notorious Dinka tribes.

Culture

Cattle have historically been of the highest symbolic, religious and economic value among the Nuer. Sharon Hutchinson notes that "...among Nuer people the difference between people and cattle were continually underplayed." [7] Cattle are particularly important in their role as bride wealth, where they are given by a husband's lineage to his wife's lineage. It is this exchange of cattle which ensures that the children will be considered to belong to the husband's lineage and to his line of descent. The classical Nuer institution of ghost marriage, in which a man can "father" children after his death, is based on this ability of cattle exchanges to define relations of kinship and descent. In their turn, cattle given over to the wife's patrilineage enable the male children of that patrilineage to marry, and thereby ensure the continuity of her patrilineage. A barren woman can even take a wife of her own, whose children (obviously biologically fathered by men from outside unions) then become members of her patrilineage, and she is legally and culturally their father, allowing her to participate in reproduction in a metaphorical sense.

Kinship dynamic is different with the Nuer. To a Nuer individual, his parents and siblings are not considered mar (blood relatives) kin. He doesn't refer to them as kin. To him they are considered gol which is far more intimate and significant. There are kinship categories in the Nuer society. Those categories depend on the payment to them. There is a balance between the mother and father's side that is acknowledged through particular formal occasions such as marriage.[8]

Nuer girls usually marry at 17 or 18. If a young girl gets engaged at an early age, the wedding and consummation ceremonies are essentially delayed. Women generally give birth to their first children when they are mature enough to bear them. As long as a girl marries a man with cattle, she pretty much has the free will to choose her mate. Now, her parents can choose a mate for her, but they ask for her consent. It is quite tough for parents to force their daughter to marry a man she isn't attracted to or simply dislikes. Nuer girls do stand up against being pressured by family when it comes to marriage issues.[9]

E. E. Evans-Pritchard studied the Nuer and made very detailed accounts of his interactions. He also describes Nuer cosmology and religion in his books.

Nuer Online indicates that, "Nuer (Nuäär) believes that God is the spirit of the sky or the spirit who is in the sky” Kuoth Nhial” (God in Heaven) the creator, but Nuers believe in the coming of God through rain, lightning and thunder, and that the rainbow is the necklace of God. The sun and the moon as well as other material entities are also manifestation or sign of God, who after all is a spirit.

The spirits of the air above are believed to be the most powerful of the lesser spirits, while there are also spirits associated with clan-spears names such as WiW, a spirit of war, associated with thunder. Nuers believe that when a man or a woman dies, the flesh, the life and the soul separate. The flesh is committed to the earth, while the breath or life goes back to God (Kuoth). The soul that signifies the human individuality and personality remains alive as a shadow or a reflection, and departs together with the ox sacrificed, to the place of the ghosts.".

In the 1940s, missionaries began to attempt to evangelize the Nuer. The book of Genesis was translated and published in 1954, with the whole New Testament following in 1968. By the 1970s, there were nearly 200 Nuer congregations established. However, reporting indicates that only around 1% of Nuer identify as Christian.

In the 1990s, Sharon Hutchinson returned to Nuerland to update Evans-Pritchard's account. She found that the Nuer had placed strict limits on the convertibility of money and cattle in order to preserve the special status of cattle as objects of bride wealth exchange and as mediators to the divine. She also found that as a result of endemic warfare with the Sudanese state, guns had acquired much of the symbolic and ritual importance previously held by cattle.

The people speak the Nuer language / Thoknath which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan language phylum. Though their geographical proximity with their Dinka's neighbors, the two people speak completely different languages and are unable to understand each other.

The Nuer receive facial markings (called gaar) as part of their initiation into adulthood. The pattern of Nuer scarification varies within specific subgroups. The most common initiation pattern among males consists of six parallel horizontal lines which are cut across the forehead with a razor, often with a dip in the lines above the nose. Dotted patterns are also common (especially among the Bul Nuer and among females).

The Nuer adopted the practice of circumcision as part of the process of assimilation other ethnic groups. The Nuer are not historically known to circumcise, but on rare occasions, may participate as part "of ritual in their belief systems". For instance, The Nuer occasionally perform circumcisions to cleanse people who have engaged in the act of incest.

Typical foods eaten by the Nuer tribe include beef, goat, cow's milk, mangos, and sorghum in one of three forms: "ko̱p" finely ground, handled until balled and boiled, "walwal" ground, lightly balled and boiled to a solid porridge, and injera / Yɔtyɔt, a large, pancake-like yeast-risen flatbread.

In the early 1990s about 25,000 African refugees were resettled in the United States throughout different locations such as South Dakota, Tennessee and Minnesota. In particular, 4,288 refugees from Sudan were resettled among 36 different states between 1990 and 1997 with the highest number in Texas at 17 percent of the refugee population from Sudan.[10]

The Nuer refugees in the United States and those in Africa continue to observe their social obligations to one another. They use different means ranging from letters to new technologically advanced communication methods in order to stay connected to their families in Africa. Nuer in the United States provide assistance for family members’ paperwork to help their migration process to the United States. Furthermore, Nuer in the United States observe family obligations by sending money for those still in Africa.[11]

Nuer military and political leaders

Some important Nuer politicians are Both Diu was the first Nuer and South Sudan Politician from 1947 and follow by Gai Tut in Military is Bol Nyawan who fought against the Khartoum government in Bentiiu; he was killed in 1985 by the current president of Sudan. Commander Ruai and Leah Diu Deng were responsible for the attack that forced Chevron to suspend activities in the oil field around 1982.

Naming conventions

Most Nuer people are named after their cattle. The boys usually chose the name of their favorite cattle based on the form and color of the ox. The girls are named after the cows that they milk. Sometimes the cow names are passed down.[13]

Impact of Oil Economy on Nuer

Oil exploration and drilling began in 1975 and 1976 by companies such as Chevron.  In 1979 the first oil production took place in the southern regions of Darfur. In the early 1980s when the North-South war was happening, Chevron was interested in the reserves in the south.  In 1984 guerrillas of SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) attacked the drilling site of the north at Bentiu.  In return, Chevron cleared Nuer and Dinka people in the oil fields area to ensure security for their operations.[14]

The Nuer-Dinka struggle in oil fields continued in late 1990s into the early 2000s. The struggle for oil production was not only manifested in North-South fight, but also in Nuer-Dinka and many internal conflicts among Nuer.[15]

As part of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), 50 percent of net revenues of southern oil fields were given to the government of souther Sudan as a solution to one of the sources of decades of civil conflict.[16]

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ Hutchinson, Sharon (1992). "The Cattle of Money and the Cattle of Girls among the Nuer, 1930-83". American Ethnologist. vol. 19, no. 2: pp. 294–316 – via JSTOR.
  2. ↑ Gardner, Robert. "The Nuer". Kanopy streaming. Kanopy. Retrieved 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  3. ↑ "Sudan - Non-Muslim Peoples". Countrystudies.us. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  4. ↑ Newcomer, Peter J. (1972). ""The Nuer Are Dinka: An Essay on Origins and Environmental Determinism"". Man. New Series, Vol. 7, No. 1: pp. 5–11 – via JSTOR.
  5. ↑ Young, John (June 2007). "The White Army: An Introduction and Overview" (PDF). Small Arms Survey. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
  6. ↑ "Sudan youth 'planning to attack tribe'". News24.com. News24. 27 December 2011. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
  7. ↑ Hutchison, Sharon (1992). "The Cattle of Money and the Cattle of Girls among the Nuer,". American Ethnologist, Vol. 19, No. 2: 294–316.
  8. ↑ Evans-Pritchard, E.E (1951). Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  9. ↑ Evans-Pritchard, E.E (1951). Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  10. ↑ Shandy, Dianna J. (2006). Nuer-American Passages: Globalizing Sudanese Migration. Gainesville, Florida: U of Florida. p. 65.
  11. ↑ Shandy, Dianna J. (2006). Nuer-American Passages: Globalizing Sudanese Migration. Florida, US: Gainesville: U of Florida. p. 160.
  12. ↑ Hutchinson, Sharon (May 1992). "The Cattle of Money and the Cattle of Girls among the Nuer, 1930-83". www.jstor.org.
  13. ↑ Evans-Pritchard, E.E. (1940). The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford University Press.
  14. ↑ Lobban, Richard Andrew (2010). Global Security Watch - Sudan. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. p. 104.
  15. ↑ Lobban, Richard Andrew (2010). Global Security Watch - Sudan. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger. p. 106.
  16. ↑ Shandy, Dianna J. (2006). Nuer-American Passages: Globalizing Sudanese Migration. U of Florida, US: U of Florida. p. 21.
  17. ↑ Jon D. Holtzman. "Nuer Journeys, Nuer Lives: Sudanese Refugees in Minnesota". Amazon.com. ISBN 9780205543328. Retrieved 2016-08-03.

Wechtuor, Kuajien Lual, Chiek, Yual Doctor and Manyuon, Peter Gai (2016), The Nuer Nation, Amazon.com, ISBN 978-1540632364

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