Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Tribal Boundaries and Border Wars: Nuer-Dinka Relations in the Sobat and Zaraf Valleys, c.1800-1976 |
Author: | Johnson, Douglas H. |
Year: | 1982 |
Periodical: | The Journal of African History |
Volume: | 23 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 183-203 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Sudan |
Subjects: | Dinka Nuer colonial administration History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/182056 |
Abstract: | Nuer-Dinka relations are usually described as being based on constant mutual hostility. An examination of Nuer-Dinka relations along the Sobat and Zaraf valleys since the beginning of Nuer eastward expansion in the nineteenth century reveals a different pattern. Conflict during the immediate Nuer conquest of Dinka territory was followed by assimilation of individual Dinka into the Nuer social and political system. By the end of the nineteenth century a number of religious leaders deliberately fostered the growth of a Nuer-Dinka community. With the arrival of the Anglo-Egyptian administration an attempt was made to separate the Nuer and Dinka into discrete political units. This policy exacerbated tensions between some of the neighbouring Nuer and Dinka settlements, and ultimately failed due to the strength of the ties linking the two peoples. The model of structural opposition between Nuer and Dinka which Evans-Pritchard presented is based on data from the early 1930s when separation was in force. It must now be modified by an examination of evidence covering a longer historical period. Fig., notes. |