Cultural and Territorial History: The Nuer

    As I said in my previous introduction post, I would be doing some research on the history of the Nuer tribe. Avery popular tribe east of the Nile River, the Nuer people possessed quite a bit of land before the Turks conquered the Sudan in the 1800’s. So to give you just a bit of information to get you hooked on my adventure. Lets explore the existence of the Nuer.

    There are many tribes in South Sudan. The Dinka, who make up almost a quarter of South Sudan’s population of around 9 million, have historically had territorial altercations with the Nuer. The Nuer (also known as the "Nei Ti Naath" (meaning the original people)) are a confederation of tribes in South Sudan and Western Ethiopia. The two have always had very similar lifestyles from the beginning. The Nuer began actively migrating east across the Nile in the mid 1800’s, during which many Dinka were incorporated into the Nuer community. As the Nuer people began to migrate, they also ran into a problem with other migratory people.

    Before the Turkish occupation in the 19th century, the tribal boundaries remained relatively isolated by natural borders. As the Turks occupied South Sudan, the territorial boundaries made it seem as if the South Sudan was already a state. For the first time all the tribes in South Sudan were subject under the same government. The next major chapter in Sudan’s colonial history was the conquest of the country by the British in 1898.
    The conquest brought an increased influence of Christianity and European culture to the region. The British viewed the South Sudan as useless territory, but later realizing the Nuer territory could be used as a major trade route. So in other words, the Nuer were seeing many bits and pieces of culture from all over Eastern Africa and Europe.

    Out of the territorial history, on to cultural background. Several interesting components of their lifestyle involve the cattle they have to care for, the men living as herdsman who direct cattle to other areas in Sudan, as the Nuer tribes depend upon the cattle for obvious reasons such as meat and milk. Cattle are basically gold to the Nuer. besides from using the cattle in everyday life, the Nuer also plant vegetables when the weather allows them to stay in an area long enough without migrating to better growing conditions. Cattle are also offered in religious rituals. They are passed down through the family lineage.

From what seems bizarre to us, the Nuer's rituals can also represent age transitions for males in the tribe. Boys will cut lines in their face with arrow tips to represent the movement from childhood to manhood. Cattle would be exchanged between a man and woman's father as an offering for marriage. The Nuer are a very cultural diverse people. Other groups, tribes, and lineages in Africa have similar cultural representations. 

Next I will be exploring the homeland of the Nuer. Stay tuned.





1996 "War Threatens African Tribe's Centuries-Old Cattle Culture". Christian Science Monitor.

1992 "The Cattle of Money and the Cattle of Girls Among the Nuer", 1930-83. American Ethnologist.