The Anyuak do not hate the Nuer
By J. Ojoch
March 26, 2008 — The Anyuak have voiced so much against the Nuer for obvious reasons. The main reason being that the Nuer are hungry for Anyuak land and are not satisfied with what they took already through the long history. The Nuer call the Anyuak resistance hatred.
This article explains how and why the Anyuak do not hate the Nuer for understanding and appreciation of the Anyuak position by anyone concerned. The charge of hatred is that the Nuer are guilty and hence have no better reaction to the Anyuak resistance and non-acceptance of the them. The guilt haunts them all the time because they have not admitted and corrected the wrong. They know how much they are wrong. Yet they want to move on with it. The article also clarifies the assertion that the Anyuak want to live alone in isolation. This is another big mistake by the Nuer. Yet another failure for the Nuer to reform.
This is not to generalize the Nuer nation. The article directs itself to those Nuer bordering and hurting the Anyuak. If it also applies in places like the Chilluk land or elsewhere then it is a terrible confirmation of the behavior described by the article. Also those who do not know the Nuer attitude must research to be able to form their opinion.
To begin with, the Nuer as a people, have the right to live and to have access to necessities of life. They have the right too to own property such as land and cattle with which no one should temper.
If the above is true, all other people too have the same rights. The problem between the Anyuak and the Nuer is how to manage and apply those rights. The Anyuak maintain that those rights such as having land, cattle or sedentary life within specific local or international boundaries, must be respected. The knowingly refuse to accept what is acceptable to all Sudanese people. However, the Nuer say no to those basic rights because they superficially believe in no man’s land or properties. But they own property. They talk only of no man’s land or property just to cheat others. They say there is no limitation to getting something. Anything belongs to God. We must have it. If we do not get it peacefully we must fight to get it. It is a dangerous theory of “ram mi ran” that says the Nuer is the only human forgetting that the world they are living in at the moment is not the same as decades ago when people owned any property without legal process. This disregard of respect is quite opposite to what the Anyuak believe and uphold. Therefore, it is unfortunate that these two tribes with opposite view of life live in the neighborhood.
The Nuer interpret the rights as being something to apply anywhere, anytime, regardless of whether it affects other people down the line. This meaning of rights is a source of problems, even in the Nuer country. The Nuer have trouble with all of the neighbors for this reason. They have trouble with the Dinka, the Shilluk, the Murle, and the Anyuak because of their inherent violent culture. It has a lot to do with manhood. It is a social factor for a man to be proud and be respected for achievements be it bad achievements. To achieve that, a man must go out to fight and get it, in a good way or in a bad way. It does not matter. It is the end result that is important. A man must not be passive or afraid. A man must be daring and aggressive to have that good name and esteem among the peers. That is why there are a lot more deaths and feuds in the Nuer land. For example, around Akobo, families kill each other a lot for trivial reasons, just to show strength, courage and influence leading to prestige and control. This is opposite to Anyuak culture.
The Nuer quest for rights is extreme. They can fight in the airplane in midair in the sky. Listen to this: A Nuer was in an airplane. Other passengers got drinks in cups with uniform color. The Nuer got his in a different color by chance. The Nuer lashed at the hostess: “Am I not equal to others that you gave me a different cup? Take it away. I do not want to drink”. One passenger volunteered to exchange cups. The problem was solved. The Nuer was satisfied that his “dignity and equality” was restored. He did not care about how people thought of him. He cared about the end result. Anyway, that was the Nuer equality at its best anywhere at anytime. What remains to be seen is whether all the Nuer will ride a car and live in a house like that of Salva Kiir in order to be equal. In Gambella the Nuer said they wanted a Nuer president in the same office with the Anyuak president in order to be equal. It seems like a joking matter but it is serious for the Nuer.
It is opposite with the Anyuak where a man must not be daring because it is a disrespect to oneself, to family and society. A man must only get up and revenge or confront an imminent threat. The Anyuak man thinks first about what the society will regard him if he reacted to situations just on spur. The Anyuak man looks at the horizon and projects the end result. His decision to make a move depends on that projection. That is why there are less deaths and feuds among the Anyuak.
The exercise of rights among the Nuer is extreme and loose without limits. Everybody must be equal in everything. This is a very dangerous democracy. The only way Nuer are seen to be unequal is in the ownership of cattle. Cattle are mostly derived from marriages of daughters. Every Nuer does not have equal number of wives or daughters. This is a natural inequality. They can do nothing about it. But at some point it is cattle raids for wealth and equality.
The Anyuak democracy is regulated. It has limits. There are lines drawn that must not be crossed between elders or chiefs or kings. Land is well respected as to its value and boundaries with others. Land belongs to God but people who inhabit it through time own it. The whole of Anyuak land is demarcated according to clan or sections. There is freedom of movement to live anywhere but with permission of those who own that territory. That permission does not entitle one to assert claims beyond what was offered. This person must follow the norms of the new place.
It should by now be clear to the reader that there is so much that divides the Anyuak with the Nuer even though they border each other. The Anyuak resent the Nuer attitude and their way of violent life as it is full of blood. The Anyuak continue to resist the imposition of that way of life on them by the Nuer unlimited expansion to their land.
The Nuer quest for more rights is compounded by the ever scarce resources in some of their areas such as the Lou. When it is dry season in Lou the human and the animals both suffer. They migrate to water points. Once there it is time to claim ownership and rights. That is one reason why there is much fighting at cattle camps. Water and grazing are the main resources that cause big problems between Nuer and Anyuak at Akobo also. Getting the chance to drink water and graze the cattle led to claims of unlimited rights. The Nuer fought hard to the point of claiming Akobo today just because of getting access to drink water in the first place. The Anyuak reaction to this is what the Nuer call hatred. At the border of Gambella, the Nuer do not seek water or grass. It is simply a lust to move to have new lands and experience the unknown regardless of consequences. Here again there is resistance. The Nuer call it hatred.
The exodus of Nuer into Ethiopia as refugees and simple wanderers has been because of the civil war in the Sudan. This gave a big chance for the Nuer to exert unlimited rights to the point that they do not want to return to Sudan or back to the borders where they actually lived before the war. Refugees proper are in the camps, registered and monitored. They will return to Sudan in the ongoing repatriation process. There are those in the middle, the wanderers, who are neither refugees nor Ethiopian, but do not want to go away. They are claiming the right to live anywhere because land belongs to God. The Nuer who think they are Ethiopian are found in Lare and Jikou enjoying the local government. The wanderers are not accepted at Lare or Jikou. These are the trouble makers who ran away from blood feuds and now want to hide around the Anyuak villages with their guns. Yet they do not stay like people hiding from trouble. They kill the Anyuak because it is a right to live here. They exercise the unlimited rights and there should not be an opposition to it. There is an assumption that some if not all were sleeping cells of recruits of Thwath Pal waiting to strike Gambella when the time arrives.
The highlander government in Addis Ababa did not understand the Nuer before until recently when a plot was uncovered. The Nuer officials in government teamed up with the Thwath Pal rebel movement. The Thwath Pal movement was known to exist with the Oromos. But it was a surprise to the Ethiopian government to catch the salaried Nuer officials in this mess. However, now the lingering Nuer are being driven out of Gambella and other Anyuak villages. Even in this process three Anyuak were killed and one highlander was killed as a reaction to the limitation of rights. This adds to the rapport of the already bad attitude. The Nuer call this removal hatred.
At this time the Nuer in diaspora affected by the removal of families from Gambella are collecting money to help out the situation in Gambella. The most obvious thing to do is to attempt to bribe the highlander officials in order to reverse the removal decision. They want to make use of the corruption. But the highlanders do not want to look foolish again. The Nuer politics sent them to sleep already only to wake up with trouble on hand. However, it is too late for the diaspora to salvage the exercise of unlimited rights.
We have come a long way with ups and downs with the Nuer lust of migration. At this time the execise of unlimited rights is more politicized than wandering for water and grazing. It is an expansion of political domain and influence. For example, the Nuer in the GoSS and GoNU support the Nuer aggression to get the total Anyuak land under their influence for more constituencies. Similarly, the Nuer want to increase numbers in Gambella region to capture the Gambella government. The future holds a lot of things. If the Nuer get hold of total Anyuak land, it will be time to annex the whole territory to Sudan and declare the Nuer empire.
In Gambella it will not be easy since the Anyuak are still in control, even though the highlanders are suspicious. Akobo case is a headache for the Nuer. They thought it was a gone case. To their surprise it is not. They are sleeping with one eye and one ear open. The occupation is not a free ride. It has consequences. What the Nuer want permanently is to see that Akobo is 100% Nuer land. Riek Machar said in 1994 [Simon Mori, Paul Anade Othow] that the Nuer will continue to go to Jor, Tedo and the rest. He badly wanted the Lou support during those tough years of separation with the SPLA. It was a serious thing but also a way to please the Lou to stay with Nasir faction. One wonders if Riek will still say this today while back into the SPLA and enjoying a top seat. The political atmosphere is yet conducive for the Nuer to execise unlimited rights in Akobo. The resistance is on and will continue. The Nuer call this hatred.
One complaint from the Nuer is that the Anyuak want to stay in isolation. This is the language of selfishness. The Murle are intact in Pibor county. Is that isolation? It is that if the Nuer want their rights respected, the Anyuak want theirs respected too. This does not entail wanting to live in isolation. Mixing with the Nuer with their fatal ways is not the way to coexist. If the Nuer have feelings like all others they must vacate the Anyuak villages in Akobo in order for coexistence to take its natural course. Coexistence is a give and take exercise through time. It is not to kill, take and coexist. Some times it is thought good to pester the Nuer the way the Murle do to them. Other say it is not lawful to go out and hunt. This has given the Nuer more latitude to gain against the Anyuak. The Murle may be right. That is why the Nuer have not been able to exercise unlimited rights in their territory.
Coexistence is good. But it must not be rushed with chaos. It has to trickle down through generations for it to end peacefully. We saw the recent explosion in Kenya. It was land that was misappropriated in the long past. The issue kept brooding. At the end it became lethal. The chock sent waves through the young Southern Sudan nation. It is a big worry in relation to the coming census and elections. People will be registered in the wrong place and vote in the wrong place. All that is a time bomb. The GoSS must be ready to account.
The best way forward for the Nuer and the Anyuak is to respect each others’ rights without prejudice. The Nuer in Ethiopia have acquired defined areas. The Nuer in the Sudan have their areas too. The Nuer must live and develop those areas without intimidating neighbors. The Nuer of yesterday must be different from the Nuer of today and of the future. But it seems the Nuer do not want change. They love the name “warriors” when in modern terms it means “savages”. They are always the same; migration, war and death without limitation as a way of real life. The Nuer elites in government and media must be ashamed to see themselves in this picture. If the elites are the same always, who will teach the rest of the populace? Hunting for prestige in dangerous ways must be seen as savage at this time. The prestige in big government posts should suffice. The prestige of having fought the Arabs courageously should add up to more prestige. Life must be seen differently in light of development and civilization. The resent attack of the Nuer at Ulang by the Lou has no meaning. Rustling cattle from friends does not add up to a good prestige. This is the sought of behavior the Anyuak hate of the Nuer. The Nuer elite must stand up like Luke Kuth Dak [Sudan Tribune; Anyuak Media] to challenge the ideology of destruction. The few elites and politicians are destroying the Nuer nation in various ways. The Nuer nation is down because of greed and prestige. A lot of Luke Kuth Daks must change the Nuer attitude.
From the above, it is clear that the Anyuak do not hate the Nuer. They hate the Nuer actions and insensitivity to other peoples’ rights. The Nuer is not the only human with feelings in this world. “Everything belongs to God notion” does not work, at least at this time of civilization and laws. If it worked in the past it must be dead today. The Nuer cattle belong to God but there is an owner for them. Nuer wives belong to God, but there are husbands for them. Yes, everything belongs to God but there are owners for them including land on earth. How much clearer could anybody tell the Nuer?
The Nuer, as all human beings do, must ask for help when they need it. It is possible to create understanding for seasonal watering and grazing among communities that have those resources. Community leaders are very good at doing this arrangement. With the Southern Sudan free today, it is more possible for the government to issue regulations of usage of resources. At the end peaceful coexistence will thrive. Without change of attitude, the tug of war between Nuer and Anyuak and elsewhere in the Sudan, will continue to hamper development.
The GoSS should not turn deaf ears to cries across the land about tribal conflicts. All tribes must be in peace with each other. The GoSS has the responsibility to bring that peace. Clean the house in the Southern Sudan and build peace in it. The constitution is there; land commissions are formed. Why is the GoSS dragging to implement its own laws and causing more wrangling among its own people? Is it impossible for the president to declare to all citizens to go back to their original villages before the war? Refugees are returning in great numbers. The GoSS doesn’t know where to put them. Is that not a source of more trouble?
In conclusion, the Anyuak are good people. They do not hate the Nuer but do not like the Nuer unnecessary violence and lust for land leaving more land behind empty.
* Reach J. Ojoch at [email protected], USA.