206 Scarcity and Surfeit
between these two communities manifests as an ethnic rift compromising the
southern people's campaign for self-determination. The following case study
traces the roots of this conflict to the flood plain environment.
The Nile Flood Plain Conflict
SahlinsI4 describes the Nuer as "transhumant mixed farmers with a pastoral
bias': The Dinka can best be described as "transhumant mixed farmers with
an agrarian bias". The Dinka occupy an eco-zone supporting a more gener-
alised system of land use. Specialised adaptation to flood-prone lower areas
poor for agriculture distinguishes the Nuer from their more numerous
cohorts. They developed methods for rearing cattle in disease-prone areas,
allowing them to concentrate on livestock. In addition to a common empha-
sis on livestock, both groups also fish, and occasionally hunt wild animals.
Small but critical differences in elevation are the real measure separating
the two communities and their subsistence strategies; small variations in alti-
tude across the flood plain produced a patchwork of mixed Dinka-Nuer set-
tlement. Southall describes their distribution from the point of view of the
two groups: "the Nuer see the Dinka country as a fringe of their own, while
the Dinka see the Nuer country as a wet enclave in the midst of them':'5
The flood plain itself displays an asymmetrical pattern of variation across
seasons, years, and climatic cycles. The unpredictability is a source of social
uncertainty that reinforces dependence on the web of social relations so con-
sistently cited to account for the persistence of ethnic identity. Intermarriage
and cooperation among these groups, however, are the norm in most cases,
and internecine raiding among clans and lineages blurs the rigid aspect of
Dinka-Nuer opposition.
These intermingled communities nevertheless stress their differences over
the multiple cultural features they share in common. Indeed, while relative
harmony may prevail most of the time, the eruption of Nuer-Dinka conflict is
the eventuality characterising their relationship since before the first appear-
ance of external forces to the immediate present. The phenomenon arguably
lies at the historical crux of the Dar a1 Ha~b designation. Regardless, the gov-
ernment in Khartoum has benefited greatly from the tendency of Nuer-Dinka
hostility consistently to resurface. It is therefore necessary to examine the
ecological parameters of this conflict within the civil war.
The Nuer Expansion
Around 1818 the Nuer began to expand at the expense of the Dinka and they
eventually occupied most of the lower areas of Nile flood plain. Nuer expansion
reached its limits in 1895, representing the single largest case of one commu-
-;+.. ai*nl--inn 5nd wmnvinv annther ~OUD'S territory in known history.