Age, conflict & power in the 'monyomiji' age systems

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Book chapter

Title:	Age, conflict & power in the 'monyomiji' age systems
Author:	Simonse, Simon
Book title:	Conflict, age & power in North East Africa: age systems in transition
Year:	1998
Pages:	51-78
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Sudan
Subjects:	Otuho generations
Abstract:	The 'monyomiji' age systems are practised by all the Lotuho-speaking peoples and by communities bordering on the Lotuho in southeastern Sudan: the Lwo-speaking Pari and Acholi of Parajok, the Madi-speaking Lulubo, and the Surma-speaking Tenet, the Bari of Ngangala. In the Lotuho area, the 'monyomiji', the ruling generation, are not subordinate to the king; they are his principal interlocutors and, frequently, his opponents. This chapter discerns a swing of the pendulum in the development cycle of the 'monyomiji' generational system. The years preceding and immediately following the transfer of power are marked by an intensification of antagonism, both in external relations and in internal, intergenerational conflict. In the years following the changeover the new rulers are expected to prove themselves, now in 'legitimate' warfare. As time goes by hierarchy and complementarity take over from antagonistic symmetry as the principal scenario governing interactions between successive age-sets. Hierarchy and conflict are equally important dimensions of the age system and each of them prevails during a particular phase of the maturation cycle of age-sets and generations. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]