Encyclopedia of African Religion

(Elliott) #1

DAGU


The Dagu arean ancientpeople whose origins
gobacktotheareaaroundTunis in NorthAfrica.
The ancient Phoenic ians,Greeks, and Romans
considered theDagutheindigenouspeopleofthe
Tunisre gionofAfrica.However,theDaguhave
experienceda longhistoryof warfarean d in va -
sions.Fr omthetimeofthePhoenicianinvasion
inthe9thcenturyBC,they haveabsorbedother
groups.ThesmallbandofPhoenicianswholeft
Tyre wi thPrincess Elyssa andsettled in North
Africawassoonassimilatedintotheindigenous
po pulationssuchastheDaguandotherAfrican
ethnicgroups.
After nu merouswarswithArabs, du ringthe
Great AfricanUpheavalof the7thtothe19thce n-
turies,theDaguwereforcedin totheinteriorof
CentralSudan.Theynowoc cu pya considerable
re gionof Darfur and Kordofan in West an d
CentralSudan.TheDaguhaveretainedmanyof
their customs, although they have incre asingly
be comeArabicizedbythepolicies oftheSudanese
government.
Theywereknownin thepastfo r theirability
toabsorbotherethnicgroups.Forexample,the
Dagu assimilated many of th e Furand Arab
pe opleintotheircommunitieswhilemaintaining
theirstrongmatrilinealstructure.Thus,although
theDaguexpressa beliefinIslam,theyalsorely
ontheirmoreancienttraditions.Inthepast,when
areasofSudanwereChristian,theDagual soheld
fast totheir tr aditionalancestral customs,thus


weather ingboth the Chr is tian and Islamic
on slaught.However,duringthe20 thcentury,the
in creasingcentralizedpo weroftheSudanesegov-
ernmentforcedthepeopletoacceptmoreArabic
elementsintotheirculturebecauseArabicis the
preferredlanguageamongtheelites.
ThepatternofDagudisintegrationis likethat
of many ethnicgroups inthe Sudan. TheArab
armiesmetwithgreatresistancefromthe Dagu
kings.ThiswasalsothecasewiththeNubaroyals.
However,theArabs whofoughtagainsttheindige-
nou s peoplewereoftenmorevictoriousamongth e
matrilineal peopleofthe Sudanwhentheytook
thedaughtersofth e kingstheydefeatedaswives.
The offspring of these Arab fathers and Dagu
mothers wouldbecometherulersofthecountry
because these children, especially males, would
inheritfromtheirmother’ssideofthefamily.
In thisway,mosthistoriansoftheDagubelieve
thattheDagu,Nuba,andFurpeopleoftenmoved
frombeingAfricantobeingArab. Oncepatrilin -
eality was introduced in an area by the Arab
Muslims,it meantthattheolderAfricanmatrilin -
ealformended.Asonewriterclaims,allvestiges
ofauthorityan d traditionusuallydisappearedin
thelands where thisoccurred,andtheoldpat-
terns ofauthority wereexchanged forthenew
BedouinAr abau thority.
Elementsofresilienceexistinallcultures,and
fromtimetotime,evenamongtheDagu,thereare
periods of reevaluation and reassessment that
suggest a neo-renaissanceofeventhemoretradi-
tionalcustoms thathavedisappearedovertime.
Consequently, although theoutward religionof

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