PeoPles & cultuRes of tWo sudans 85that extends south to the Great Lakes region of Central Africa and is
distributed widely across southern Sudan, where it includes – besides
the Shilluk – the Anuak of Jonglei, the Jur-Luo of Bahr al-Ghazal and
the Acholi and Pari of Lafon in Eastern Equatoria. Unlike the Dinka and
Nuer, Shilluk political organization was historically centralized under a
monarchy with divine authority established near the town of Fashoda.
Interaction between the Shilluk kingdom and the polities to the north has
been continuous since the time of the mediaeval Funj sultanate; yet there
is strikingly little Islamic influence among the Shilluk. (This is in contrast
to the Dinka groups across the Nile on the east bank, the Abialang and
Dungjol Dinka, who are now mostly Muslim). The Shilluk king, the Reth,
still exerts a powerful influence on the affairs of the Shilluk people.
The south-western area of Sudan, the fertile wooded country on the
ironstone plateau between the floodplain and the Nile-Congo divide and
towards the border with Uganda, is the home of a number of communi-
ties who live largely by agriculture. The Bari-speaking peoples of Central
Equatoria, living on each side of the White Nile, include the Kuku of
Kajo-Keji, the Madi, the Pajulu and – around Juba – the Bari themselves.
In Western Equatoria, the Zande occupy an extensive area from Maridi,
through Yambio to Tambura. The last two towns are named after Zande
kings, scions of a conquering aristocracy, the Avongura, who created
the Zande empire in the eighteenth century – incorporating indigenous
peoples – in the area where Sudan, the Central African Republic and the
Democratic Republic of Congo now meet. The military-political organi-
zation of the Zande was dismantled by European colonial powers, but it
has left an enduring cultural and ethnolinguistic legacy.
Between the Zande and the Dinka to the north, and extending west to
Wau and Raga, live a range of much smaller groups, historically subject
to absorption by their larger neighbours, from the Jur-Bel and Jur-Modo
and Bongo in Lakes and Warrap to the Fertit peoples in Western Bahr
al-Ghazal, who extend to the border with Darfur. Finally, east of Juba, in
the mountainous areas of Eastern Equatoria, are a number of sizeable
groups, notably the Lotuko, the Acholi and the Didinga, who practiseThe Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors mixed^ economies^ of^ agriculture^ and^ livestock^ raising.
(www.riftvalley.net).