The Political System of the Anuak of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

E. E. Evans-Pritchard

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780367717155
• eBook ISBN: 9781000323504
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia del antiguo Egipto

This description of the political system of the Anuak is part of the results of two expeditions by the author to East Africa in 1940. Although Anuak country had been visited in 1855 by the Maltese Andrea Debono and Philippe Terranuova D'Antonio and by several other European travellers thirty to forty years ago, the Italian Bottego (1897), the French missions under De Bonchamps (1897) and Faivre {1898), Wellby (l899), Austin (1900), the German Oscar Neumann (1901), and the MacMillan Expedition (1904), practically nothing was known about the Anuak when the Government of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan began to administer the whole of their country in 1921, this book seeks to change that.

CHAPTER I.
Some General Considerations.

I.

The Anuak, who call themselves Anyuaa, do not number more than forty to fifty thousand and probably between thirty and forty thousand would be an estimate nearer the mark. They are a riverain people living along the Baro and Pibor and their tributaries, partly in the Sudan but mainly in Ethiopia. Along the Baro their villages do not commence till about the 34th parallel and from there eastwards its right bank may be taken as their northern boundary, though there are three small Anuak communities on the Jokau about 22 miles from its junction with the Baro. It is unknown at exactly what point on the Gila Anuak villages commence, but almost certainly not till east of 33° 30′. Anuak villages stretch eastwards along the Akobo from its junction with the Pibor. Except for the isolated village of Beet (Ajungmir) near the mouth of the Pibor, where the Anuak have been much influenced by the Nuer, Anuak country along that river does not commence till a few miles to the north of its junction with the Akobo and extends along its right bank as far south as its junction with the Agwei. From that point Anuak villages stretch eastwards along the Agwei and Oboth. Except for the two isolated villages of Dhirmac and Utieri, a line running along the Agwei and a few miles to the south of the Oboth to the point where the Akobo makes a bend eastwards into Ethiopia may be taken as the southern frontier of Anuak country. A few years ago the Anuak began to reoccupy a fringe of country to the south of the Oboth, but, except for the two villages mentioned above, they remained within ten miles of the river. It is not easy to state exactly the eastern limits of Anuak country but, with the possible exception of the village of Ukwac, which is said to be near the foot of the Ethiopian escarpment, probably no Anuak live east of the 35th parallel. They naturally keep a wide stretch of country between themselves and the Galla and Amhara, and, since these peoples will not descend to the plains for any length of time, there is an extensive no man’s land between the Anuak of the plains and the highlanders.

There is a colony of Anuak in the neighbourhood of Nasser. It is known that it is an offshoot from the village of Nyighum on the Akobo which split on account of a fight between two sections about the appointment of a headman. Indeed, the Anuak call Nasser by the name Nyighum Umiel to distinguish it from Nyighum Ubaa on the Akobo, Umiel and Ubaa being the two leaders in the fight which occasioned migration of the beaten party to the Sobat.

There is an isolated pocket of Anuak, called Fori, at Lafon Hill, about 15 miles N.E. of Lafit (vide Walsh and Driberg). They are now separated from Anuakland by the pastoral Beir.

Such is the extension of the Anuak at the present time. There are many indications that they once occupied a wider territory. The traditions of both Anuak and Nuer and the reports of travellers suggest that a century ago Anuak occupied parts of what is now Jikany Nuer country to the north of the Sobat, parts of what is now Jikany and Lou Nuer country to the south of that river, the banks of the Pibor to its junction with the Sobat, and the banks of the Sobat to within a few miles of Abwong.¹. The Ballak people, who still occupy the right bank of the Sobat slightly to the east of Abwong recognize that they are partly of Anuak descent, though they all speak Dinka today, and pockets of Nuer who admit their Anuak origin are to be found at the mouth of the Nyanding and elsewhere on the Sobat. There is good reason to suppose that Anuak canoes at one time used to ply the course of the Sobat, perhaps as far as the Nile.

1 See the writings of D’Antonio, Vannutelli and Citerni, Michel, Bacon (2.), Gleichen, early Sudan Intelligence Reports, Sudan Government maps, and maps by early travellers.

There is also no doubt about their displacement from the country to the south of the Oboth river. Travelling from Ugak to Umeeda (Bonjak) one passes one large mound after another, all displaying sherds and other evidences of human occupation. Although the disappearance of their inhabitants (Jowatyuaa clan) is attributed by the Anuak mainly to epidemics, Nuer invasions and Beir raids were certainly contributory causes. Further eastwards the whole country for a considerable distance to the south of the Oboth river was once occupied by Anuak. According to their traditions the noble clan was centred here and a century ago the people whose descendants formed the extensive village of Utalo in the time of Akwei-wa-Cam were living to the south of the Oboth on sites which are being reoccupied today. Two of these freshly occupied sites, Dhirmac and Utieri, are within a day of Beir villages. On the Sudan Government map “Old Sites of Anuak Villages” are marked some 20 miles S.E. of Ugak. It is likely that at one time there was unbroken communication between the Anuak of the Agwei and Oboth and the Fori of Lafon Hill, part of whom are undoubtedly of Anuak origin.

It is not known whether the Anuak have suffered any displacement in the east but this seems likely in view of what has happened to other negroid peoples at the foot of the escarpment and of the Galla and Amhara raids which have continued up to the present time.

The present day neighbours of the Anuak are Nuer to the north and west; Beir (Murle) and a number of Beir-speaking peoples, Nyilara, Bula, Zuak, to the south and south-east; a remnant of the Masango people to the east and behind them the Galla and Amhara at the top of the escarpment.

II.

Living in independent village communities, frequently fighting each other, the Anuak were unable to combine on a large enough scale or for a long enough period to resist aggression and have consequently been subjected to frequent invasions and raids from their neighbours. They have been driven further and further into the protection of marsh and forest where they display all the tenancity and cleverness of the habitually oppressed. It is only possible to trace faintly the later stages of the history of their relations with foreign peoples.

Anuak tradition, recounted by several nobles and commoners, says that they have a common origin with the Shilluk. The Anuak (kwar Nyigiilo) and Shilluk (kwar Nyikango) are descended from two brothers the ancestor of the Shilluk being the elder, who had a quarrel about a woman and separated. Another version says that they killed two black sheep and that when Nyikango told Giilo to skin them he was angry and spoilt one of the skins. They quarrelled about who should take the uninjured skin, Giilo saying that he would take the perfect skin as he was not the servant of Nyikango, and they parted. The Nyiluo or Joluo were also mentioned by informants and it was said that they had a noble clan like the noble clan of the Anuak. One informant included a third brother, Diimo, between the ancestors of the Shilluk and Anuak and he may be regarded as the ancestor of this Joluo stem.

All Anuak questioned agreed that their ancestors came from a westerly direction and almost all pointed south-west. Awangnyang, Tingdir, and Ujuomlenyi were mentioned as names of their homeland and they said that they reached their present country in successive migrations, Ajak and Apiidi being named as their leaders by one infomant. It was said that a people like the Beir, called Jirudola, raided them in their old home so persistently that they were forced to leave it. That the Anuak came from the south-west cannot be doubted, but too much ingenuity need not be devoted to building up from their traditions conjectures about the time and order of their migrations. Certainly some Anuak have been in their present home for many generations.

In recent times, for which the general trend of events is fairly well established, the chief enemies of the Anuak have been the Nuer, who, though they probably began raiding Anuakland earlier, seem to have launched their first serious attack some sixty to seventy years ago when they advanced along the Akobo and Oboth and devastated the country, destroying most of the villages, including the populous village of Ukaadi, as far as the sacred rock ‘Abula’, near Ubaa village, at the south-eastern extremity of Anuakland. ¹. Here they are said to have eaten a tortoise which came out of the rock and to have died in large numbers. The Nuer, who seem to have been both Lou and Jikany, came with their wives and children intending to settle in the country and their hasty retreat along the Gila was probably due mainly to loss of stock from tsetse. The invasion badly broke up the Anuak. Many were killed and many died in the famine that resulted, though it was mitigated by the stores of millet they had hidden in deep holes in the ground before fleeing into the bush. Most of their cattle were stolen. This invasion was succeeded by raids on a large scale, but none penetrated as far eastwards as the earliest intrusion and there was no attempt to settle in the main Anuak country. However Nuer grazed their cattle annually on the fringes of the Ciro and Nyikaani districts and in the neighbourhood of Anuak settlements along the Baro and frequently raided the Anuak villages from their cattle camps. Bottego and Michel refer to these raids.

1 The dating of this invasion is by reference to the age of certain old nobles who were babies or small children at the time, e.g. Akwei-war-Alal and Anyoonya-wa-Thomo; to the names of nobles, grandfathers of living men, who held the emblems about that time; to Nuer traditions; and to the statements of the earliest European travellers on the Sobat and Pibor.

Towards the end of last century the Anuak, whose traditional weapon is the spear ¹., obtained rifles from Ethiopia and this weapon changed their fortunes. Henceforth they were able not only to defend themselves against the Nuer but to carry out extensive counter raids into Nuerland. Moreover, as we shall see later and as the Anuak themselves point out, the introduction of firearms lead to the amalgamation of small local groups, at any rate in some districts, and nobles who managed to acquire firearms were able to establish effective control over other villages than their own. These political changes enabled the Anuak to utilize their new weapon more effectively against the Nuer and Beir. Udiel-wa-Kuat first obtained rifles from Abyssinians and despatched an expedition against the Gaajok Nuer tribe. The rifles being muzzle loaders the Nuer did not labour under so strong a disadvantage as they suffered after the introduction of breach loaders and Udiel’s force was defeated. Uliimi-war-Agaanya was the next noble to obtain rifles in large numbers. He led a big force against the Gaajak Nuer tribe but it was defeated and Uliimi was killed. Before Uliimi’s death he had lost supremacy in the Adongo district to Akwei-wa-Cam. Akwei’s foreign expeditions were uniformly successful. He led a large force in 1911 into the country of the Lou Nuer which he laid waste to its furthest confines, returning with vast herds and many child captives. This raid was followed by another, carried out by the Anuak of Ciro district likewise against the Lou, and by attacks on the Jikany tribes. The Nuer suffered heavily in these raids, having no guns, and Anuak casualties were few. As a result of their exploits the Anuak came up against the Sudan Government, which by this time had assumed administrative responsibility for the Lou and Jikany tribes. Relations with the Nuer have been hostile till the Government compelled them to live in peace on opposite banks of the Pibor. Since the Nuer are chiefly interested in cattle and the Anuak possess very few beasts there was no intermarriage or trade between them.

1 Antonio (pp. 43-46) says that the “Nicana”, by which title we are perhaps to understand the Anuak of the Nyikaani district, used “fleches”. We have no other evidence that the Anuak used bows and arrows as weapons. Boys, however, make small bows and reed arrows to shoot at birds.

The Beir have not, in recent times at any rate, been so aggressive towards the Anuak as the Nuer have been, though, as we have mentioned, Anuak say that it was pressure from people of the Beir type which caused them to move northwards. In more recent times raids by the pastoral Beir were one of the contributory causes of the evacuation of village sites to the south of the Oboth and up to the present day Anuak allege that they have occasionally made furtive night attacks on their villages. When Akwei-wa-Cam obtained guns he raided Beir country on several occasions. Nowadays the Beir come to Adongo district to graze in the dry season and frequent visits are paid by small parties of Beir for the purpose of exchanging sheep and goats for tobacco. The two most southernly Anuak villages, Dhirmac and Utieri, seem to be in friendly contact with the Beir. As far as is known, however, there is no intermarriage between the two peoples. The Anuak of Ciro district carried out an extensive raid on the Beir in 1932. An isolated village ¹. composed of refugees from the agricultural Beir of the Boma Plateau is within a mile of Ubaa, the last Anuak village on the Akobo. Relations between these two villages are harmonious. In Ubaa itself there is a colony of Olam people, no doubt refugees also, who speak a Beir dialect. There seems to be no enmity at the present day between the Anuak and the Boma Plateau (agricultural) Beir and I met emissaries from the Plateau on their way to beg assistance from the Anuak against an Abyssinian force which had invaded their country. Relations may not always have been so friendly. ²

1 This village must have been in its present position for many years as it is, presumably, the Melilè or Murlè of Bottego’s map (op. cit. p. 384).

2 Major Henry Darley reported (Slaves and Ivory, 1926, p. 172) that “There is constant war between the men of Boma and the Annaks”.

Little is known of the tribes that border the Anuak to the east. Anuak sometimes visit a tribe called Bula who live along the Akobo where it enters the plains. This people has been almost exterminated by the Abyssinians and the same may be said of the Masango, called Ojang by the Anuak, a remnant of whom live under Anuak patronage near Gok.

The Anuak seem to have been in contact with Galla and Amhara for a considerable period. Till recently their country was rich in elephant and buffalo and attracted hunting parties of Galla during the dry season. Also, the Amhara were anxious to obtain ivory and skins and, having great fear of the malarious lowlands, with typical recklessness traded guns with Anuak for the purpose. Anuak exchanged the tusks for more guns, so that at the present time those on the Baro and Gila are well-armed and there must be several hundred guns among the Sudan Anuak. Though most of them are old (about 1870), they are servicable ¹. The first European travellers in Anuakland met hunting and trading parties of Galla. Anuak villages were also raided for slaves, though this became more difficult when they obtained rifles and their leading nobles were invested with official dignity by the Ethiopian governors at Gore.

1 Ammunition is obtained at Gambeila and Gore, the price at Gore being in 1935 three rounds for a Maria Theresa dollar.

The Abyssinians have never administered the Anuak who lie within the Kingdom of Ethiopia – at least not in the sense understood by civilised peoples. Nevertheless the three nobles mentioned overleaf, Udiel-wa-Kuat, Uliimi-war-Agaanya, and Akwei-wa-Cam, were all agents of the Ras at Gore who supplied them with rifles and exacted tribute from them. The Abyssinians withdrew their support from Udiel-wa-Kuat about 1906 and transferred it to Uliimi-war-Agaanya, Udiel being kept for some time a prisoner on the Plateau. Uliimi was in constant contact with the Ethiopian authorities at Gore, who seem to have kept him in control by encouraging Akwei-wa-Cam against him. Akwei was certainly an agent of the Ethiopian government and, at any rate occasionally, paid it tribute. It is not well known what have been the relations between the Abyssinians and the Anuak of the Gila and Baro who lie outside the direct control of the nobles, but certainly the Abyssinians sometimes raided the more easily accessible villages. Only a few of the most easterly villages such as Gok and Gambeila seem to have paid tribute. ². The Anuak of the Baro still live in stockaded villages and are sufficiently well supplied with rifles for the headman of Itang to have defeated a large Abyssinian force sent against him in 1934, killing sixty of their troops.

2 See Bulpett, p.153 and Michel, p.387.

Not only have the Eastern Anuak been in various ways culturally influenced by the Galla but it is important to bear in mind that their political system of today has probably undergone certain changes as a result of these historic relations, indirectly through military menace from the plateau and by the introduction of firearms and, perhaps, directly through imitation of the Amharic court and administrative organizations.

The considerable prestige of the Abyssinian rulers at Gore in the east only began to be balanced by British prestige in the west when in 1911 the Government decided to stop Akwei-wa-Cam from raiding the Nuer and to exercise administrative control from the Pibor. In that year a gunboat patrol shelled the Ciro villages on the right bank of the Pibor River, causing considerable loss of life, and captured most of their livestock. The gunboats then attempted to steam up the Akobo which proved unnavigable, so they turned back and burnt every village accessible to them. Akobo Post ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Preface
• Contents
• List of Plates
• Introductory
• Chapter I Some General Considerations
• Chapter II The Village Community
• Chapter III The Nobles
• Chapter IV Transmission of the royal Emblems
• Chapter V The Position of Nobles in their Villages
• Conclusion
• Appendices
• Index