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Observations on the Shilluk of the Upper Nile. Customary Law: Marriage and the Violation of Rights in Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

P. P. Howell
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Extract

In a previous article on the Shilluk I discussed the laws of homicide and the legal and ritual functions of the reth or King. An interpretation of Shilluk law and authority is not easy because, apart from early contacts with the peoples of the northern Sudan, they have been subjected to external influences and some kind of Government since the early years of the last century. These contacts began with cursory and not altogether happy encounters with the Turco-Egyptian Government which were followed by the establishment of a provincial headquarters at Kodok in 1867 under the authority of a mudir; later came the turbulent and dismal years of the Mahdia and finally the occupation by the present Government in 1898. It would be idle to suppose that the political system of the Shilluk has remained unaffected by these influences. The Shilluk are by reputation an exceptionally conservative people and certainly the effects of their relations with outsiders are, to the casual observer, hard to detect. Profound changes have taken place none the less, especially in the sphere of customary law, and these changes are undoubtedly gathering momentum.

Résumé

NOTES SUR LES SHILLUK DU HAUT NIL: DROIT COUTUMIER: MARIAGE ET DROITS SUR LES FEMMES

Les mariages chez les Shilluk sont effectués par l'exécution de plusieurs cérémonies ayant une importance tant sociale que rituelle, qui sont accompagnées par le transfert de bétail répresentant le paiement du mariage. Le transfert de bétail figure, également, dans les actions de divorce et détermine le statut légal des enfants, car il constitue le symbole du transfert des droits légaux. Ces caractéristiques des droits de mariage chez les Shilluk sont également rencontrées parmi les Nuer et les Dinka, bien qu'il y ait des différences de détail, plus particulièrement en ce qui concerne la répartition, parmi les parents, du bétail qui constitue le paiement du mariage. De plus, la quantité de bétail représentant ce paiement, parmi les Shilluk, est toujours de dix têtes, et les arrérages en suspens sont reportés quelquefois à perpétuité. Ceci est une cause fréquente d'inadaptation sociale et de litige, et les difficultés qui en résultent sont susceptibles d'être aggravées par l'accroissement de la population et I'épuisement des troupeaux par suite de maladie.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , April 1953 , pp. 94 - 109
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1953

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References

page 94 note 1 ‘Observations on the Shilluk of the Upper Nile: The laws of homicide and the legal functions of the reth.’ Africa, xxii. 2, 1952. I am again indebted to the Sudan Government for permission to quote from official reports and to Mr. W. P. G. Thomson and Mr. J. L. Baker for comments and suggestions.Google Scholar

page 95 note 1 Sudan Notes and Records, vol. xxiv, 1941.Google Scholar

page 95 note 2 The reader may consult the works of Professor Evans-Pritchard on the Nuer. The Dinka are less well documented.

page 96 note 1 The tendency to use cash in lieu of cattle is apparently increasing.

page 96 note 2 Ratio of human to cattle population: Shilluk 1:0·25; Nuer 1:2·3 (highest recorded).

page 96 note 3 See Bibliography of the Shilluk, given in a previous article (Africa, xxii. 2).

page 96 note 4 Pumphrey, , ‘The Shilluk Tribe’, S.N.R., vol. xxiv, 1941.Google Scholar

page 96 note 5 Based on field work carried out in 1937 and on an investigation and analysis of the marriages of one Shilluk lineage carried out in 1948. The results are to be published later.

page 96 note 6 Family group and legal guardians.

page 96 note 7 Pumphrey, , op. cit., p. 25.Google Scholar

page 97 note 1 A further cow (over and above the ten head of cattle for bridewealth) is expected after the birth of the first child.

page 96 note 2 This is not the same as the ceremonial and conventional abduction which forms part of the moghothiek ceremonies. Pumphrey says: ‘The mogho thiek …sometimes ends with the “violent” removal of the bride by the kinsmen of the bridegroom’, op. cit., p. 28.

page 97 note 3 Op. cit, pp. 28-29.

page 98 note 1 The average seems to be somewhere between fifteen and thirty.

page 99 note 2 Encouraged perhaps by the removal of customary deterrents. The 10th meeting of the Shilluk Council (1935) records: ‘Chiefs are warned that the following customary “punishments” for a woman are forbidden and will be followed by imprisonment:

(1) Tying her up in a net and half drowning her.

(2) Tying her up outside at night for the mosquitos to bite her.

(3) Smoking her in a closed up house.

(4) Sticking thorns up her finger nails.

The Government does not object to the lawful guardian of a woman or a girl giving her reasonable correction with the palm of his hand, or a light whip, but beating with a stick is also forbidden.’

page 101 note 1 juok means God: hence dissolution by act of God.

page 101 note 2 Pumphrey, , op. cit., p. 32.Google Scholar

page 102 note 3 Pumphrey: from unpublished records.

page 103 note 1 Crop production in Shilluk country is unreliable and erratic because the soil on the high ground in the immediate vicinity of the villages is exhausted, while the land in the hinterland is subject to flood owing to poor drainage.

page 103 note 2 Pumphrey: unpublished records,

page 103 note 3 Ibid.

page 103 note 4 Pumphrey, , op. cit., p. 26.Google Scholar

page 103 note 5 Ibid., p. 33.

page 104 note 1 See Evans-Pritchard, : ‘Some Aspects of Marriage and the Family among the Nuer’, Zeitschrift für Vergfeichende Rechtswissenschaft, 1938 and Rhodes-Livingstone List. 1948.Google Scholar

page 104 note 2 Pumphrey: unpublished records.

page 105 note 1 Shilluk say that it was seven head in the time of reth Kur (1903).Google Scholar

page 105 note 2 Shilluk say that the number demanded in the past was eight.

page 105 note 3 Unlike the Nuer and Dinka, there is no limit to the number of times a man may demand compensation for the adultery of his wife. Moreover, if several men are concerned, compensation is demanded in full from each. This does not apply if a child is born, as here only one man can be held responsible, and it is said that the woman will sometimes be prevailed upon to name the richest of her lovers.

page 105 note 4 As suggested by Hofmayr.

page 107 note 1 Nyireth, daughter or son of a reth.

page 107 note 2 Seligman, , e.g. ‘The Cult of Nyakang and the Divine Kings of the Shilluk’. Report of the Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories, Khartoum, 1911, p. 218.Google Scholar

page 108 note 1 Thomson, W. P. G.: unpublished records, 1946.Google Scholar