A Political and Cultural History of the Jii-speaking Peoples of Eastern Africa

114 Pages·2004·19.019 MB·English

by  Bethwell A. Ogot

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2004
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A POLITICAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY OFTHE
JII-SPEAKING PEOPLES OF EASTERN AFRICA
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
A POLITICAL AND CULTURAL HISTORY OF
THE JII-SPEAKING PEOPLES OF EASTERN
AFRICA
Prof. Bethwell A. Qgot, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professofof History,
Maseno University,
and
Olancellor, Moi University
ANYANGE PRESS LTD.
P.O. BOX 2034, I<ISUMU
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I Bethwell A. Ogot
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All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, retrieved or transmitted in
any forn1 or by any means, electronic, mechanical, for any purpose,
without the express written permission from the publisher
Published 2004
Designed and Typeset by Desktop Publishing Unit Section,
Institute ofR esearch and Postgraduate Studies,
Mllseno University, KENYA.
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TABLE OF CON'I'EN'IS
Introduction ................................................................................................. 1
Cha.pter One .......•.......•.............•.....•..........•........•.•...•...•.•••.••..•••...••...•.•.•.•.....
The Rise of the Babito in Bunyoro Kitara ................................. 8
Cha.pterTwo
Mukama and the Creation
Luo Politics in Busoga ••••••••••••••••••.••••••••••..••••••••••••.••••.•••.•.•••••••.•• 15
Col'IClusion ................................................................................................. 21
Cha.pter Three
The Alur of Uganda and Congo .••.••....•.•••.......•.•.•....•.•.•........••.. 27
Cha.pter Four
The Struggle For the
Conb'ol of the Nile Valley •••••.•..•.•••....•....•..•••.••..•••••.•.•••.••.••••.•••.• 32
Cha.pter Five
The Naath of Sudan an.d Ethiopia .....•.•......••.•.•........•........••.....• 41
The Jieng' (OINK.A) ..................................................................... 44
Cha.pter six
The Luo - Speaking Peoples in Sudan •.•...•.•.•...•..•.•.....•.•..•..... 52
Chapter seven
The Ocholo (Shilluk) of the Upper Nile .................................. 57
Cha.pter eight
The Anywaa of Sudan and Ethiopia •....•.......•.••.........•......•.•..... 65
Cha.pter nine
The Great Encounter •.•••••••...••.••••..•••••...•.•........•......•.•........•.•....... 72
Cha.pter
ten
Independence, Neo-Colonialism
and th.e Great Bmayal ..........•...................................................•.. 84
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Introduction
A look at the history of Easter11 Africa during the last fifty years
reveals a steady decline of the political influence of} ii-speakers. Almost
everywhere, they are at the receiving end of national political
dispensations. In the Sudan, for the last twenty one years, the
international community, including African countries, has largely
ignored the genocide that has been carried out against black people -
the majority of them }ii-speakers - by successive Islamic Arab regimes
in Khartoum. The jihad has resulted in the deaths of over two million,
mostly black southern Sudanese, tens of thousands of southern
Sudanese enslaved, and some five million people displaced from their
homes. In northe111 Uganda, over 1.2 million people live in "protected"
u:i
villages and camps. Most of these are Acholi, which is the area which
has borne the brunt of the rebellion in the north over the past eighteen
years. Seventy to eighty per cent of the Acholi population live in these
military camps characterized by abject poverty, malnutrition, lack of
health and education facilities, high levels of promiscuity and a general
social breakdown. In the meantime, the strategies the government of
President Museveni has deployed in norther·11 Uganda over the past
eighteen years shows clearly that he is not keen to bring an end to the
te110.dsm of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army. It is one way of keeping
the north weak and in a crisis while the south prospers. Is this not
another form of genocide? Even in Kenya, it has become fashionable
to talk and write about the future of the Luo community in an alarmist
manner. Words like 'salvation' and 'survival' are carelessly and
thoughtlessly bandied about by the prophets of doom who lament the
decline of the Luo community. From this cursory glance of the
contentporary situation, it would appear that the }ii-speakers are nunder
siege" everywhere in Easte1·11Africa: in Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia
and Congo.
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In this book, I do not intend to discuss this tale of woes. Instead,
my theme stresses the vitality and resilience of Jii politics and culture
viewed from a historical perspective. I want to look at the history of
the Jii-speaking peoples for the last 4,000 years or so in order to
document ways in which past oriented accounts can be used to alter a
people's sense of empowerment. During that period, the originally
small group, located by c. BCE 1000 along the Nile Valley south of the
confluence of the Nile and Sobat rivers, expanded into much of Southern
Sudan, parts of Ethiopia and Eastern Congo, much of Northern and
Eastern Uganda, most of Western Kenya and North-Eastern Tanzania
- a real Jii diaspora. Today, they number about 20 million people, and
their world traverses the modem states of Sudan, Ethiopia, the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Theirs
is transnational history which can only be understood not as fragments
of the different national histories of the countries where they live today,
but as a people's history, which predates the colonial period, but which
has its own dynamism, vitality and meaning. A fascinating story
indeed.
But before we trace this odyssey, it is important to say a word about
methodology. Those of us who studied Nilotic history in the 1950s
and 1960s believed in the notion that the spread of Nilotic languages
and cultures was the result of a vast migration that was accompanied
by the diffusion of a single type of society and its associated culture.
Later research has totally discredited this view by showing that other
dynamics have been involved. Among others, these include expansion
by very slow drifting and mutual socio-cultural assimilation of earlier
inhabitants and Nilotic speakers; language shifts induced by various
means such as the creation of Nilotic - speakings diasporas by traders,
water transporters, metallurgists, hunters; the emergence of prestige
centres, or even conquest in some cases. Continuing debate about
Nilotic "expansion" is therefore important for students of African
history and also on a wider scale. Our views of such large - scale
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language spreads have been partly fornaed by, and may in tum help
shape, contemporary assumptions about modes of population
interaction, whether these have involved migration and conquest,
population displacement, or more peaceful contacts and interchange.
Recent reconstructions such as Christopher Ehret has attempted in his
great book, An African Classical Age (1998), have yielded a very different
picture of cultural processes in Africa over the last five thousand years,
rejecting many of those earlier ideas. However, such important changes
in viewpoint have to be examined carefully, to ensure to the greatest
possible extent that they are more than just reflections of contemporary
preoccupations.
The Jii referred to here include the Alur, who live in the Okoro and
Padyere counties of West Nile District in Uganda and in Mahagi district
in Eastern Congo, where the majority of them live, the Acholi who live
for the main in Northern Uganda and on the borders of Southern Sudan,
the Ocholo (Shilluk) who live along the West Bank of the White Nile
from Lake No where they had settled at Wipaco between 1031 and
1058 CE, the Luo who live in the Bahr-el-Ghaza] Province of the South
West Sudan who usually refer to themselves as the descendants of
Podho; the Shatt or Thuri together with many offshoots in Bahr-el
Ghaz.a]; the Pari or Lokor in Equatorial Province, the Anywaa (Anuak)
who call their country which is situated along the banks of the rivers
in the Southern-East Sudan and West Ethiopia, Pach AnywlllT, the Naath
(Nuer) and Jieng' (Dinka) both living in Southern Sudan; the Padhola
who live in Tororo District of Eastern Uganda; the Labwor in Eastern
Uganda; the Paluo in Bunyoro; and the Luo who live in Western Kenya
and Northern Tanzania. The discussion will also include the once Luo
speaking peoples of Bunyoro - Kitara and Busoga.
It is now accepted that the Jii represent one of the oldest living
communities in Africa. In the late second millennium and early first
millennium BCE, the Western Nilotes, who had previously lived in the
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