1. Evans-Pritchard, E.E. has done this for the Azande in his “Zande Cannibalism” in The Position of Women in Primitive Societies (London, 1965)Google Scholar and The Zande. History and Political Institutions (Oxford, 1971).Google Scholar He also gives a more general, though sometimes inaccurate, survey in “Sources with Particular Reference to the Southern Sudan,” Cahiers d'études africaines, 11 (1971), 129–79.Google Scholar Fr. Stefano Santandrea's major works on the Bahr al-Ghazal are long comparisons of written material with his own local research: A Tribal History of the Western Bahr el Ghazal (Bologna, 1968)Google Scholar, and The Luo of the Bahr el Ghazal (Bologna, 1968)Google Scholar, and Ethno-Geography of the Bahr el Ghazal (Sudan) (Bologna, 1981).Google Scholar

2. Johnson, D.H., “The Future of the Southern Sudan's Past,” Africa Today, 28 (1981), 33–41.Google Scholar

3. Johnson, D.H., “The Fighting Nuer: Primary Sources and the Origins of a Stereotype,” Africa, 51 (1981), 514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarSparkes, W.S., “Extracts from the Diary of Kaimakam Sparkes Bey During His Patrol from Fashoda to the Bahr ez Zeraf,” Sudan Intelligence Report [SIR], 62 (1899), 10.Google ScholarGordon, H., “Report on the Nuers of the Sobat River,” SIR, 107 (1903), 12.Google ScholarO'Sullivan, H.D.E., “Lau Nuers,” (1906)Google Scholar, Central Records Office, Khartoum [CRO] Dakhlia I 112/13/87. Coriat, P., “Gwek the Witchdoctor and the Pyramid of Dengkur,” Sudan Notes and Records [SNR], 22 (1939), 221–37.Google Scholar

4. Johnson, , “The Fighting Nuer,” 518–20.Google Scholar

5. Evans-Pritchard, E.E., The Nuer (Oxford, 1940), 188–89.Google Scholar Evans-Pritchard makes no specific reference to government reports in his discussion of the prophets, but he does cite a number of them throughout his book. It is evident that he did use Gordon (above) in his section on Ngundeng and, while he does not make a specific reference to Blewitt (see note 21 below), he does cite Edward, , Gleichen, Count, The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, (2 vols.: London, 1905)Google Scholar, who used Blewitt in compiling his information on the Nuer. Coriat's article on Guek is cited occasionally in Nuer Religion (Oxford, 1956)Google Scholar, but only in reference to Guek and not his father Ngundeng.

6. Howell, P.P., “‘Pyramids’ in the Upper Nile Region,” Man, 58 (1948), 53Google Scholar; Lewis, B.A., “Nuer Spokesmen. A Note on the Institution of the Ruic, SNR, 33 (1951), 77Google Scholar; Collins, Robert O., Land Beyond the Rivers (New Haven, 1971), 218.Google ScholarSanderson, L.M. Passmore and Sanderson, G.N., Education, Religion and Politics in Southern Sudan, 1899-1964 (London, 1981), 4–5.Google Scholar

7. See Johnson, D.H., “History and Prophecy among the Nuer of the Southern Sudan,” (Ph.D., UCLA, 1980) 303–07Google Scholar, Appendices I and II for reasons for accepting this dating.

8. Jackson, H.C., “The Nuer of Upper Nile Province,” SNR, 6 (1923), 91.Google ScholarEvans-Pritchard, E.E., “The Nuer: Tribe and Clan,” SNR, 18 (1935), 64Google Scholar; idem, Nuer Religion, 310. Coriat, Gwek,” 225-26.

9. Coriat, , “Gwek,” 225–26.Google Scholar

10. A copy of the final manuscript of the article can be found in Coriat's papers now in Rhodes House, Oxford (mss Afr. s. 1684), but there are no other notes or papers containing any information or hints at sources for this period in Ngundeng's life. There is not even a copy of the 1928 report (see below note 12), but a number of Coriat's papers were lost before the remainder were donated to Rhodes House. See Johnson, D.H., “Percy Coriat on the Nuer,” Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford, 12 (1981), 199–206.Google Scholar

11. Cameron, A., “Extracts from a Private Letter from Angus Cameron Bey to Wilson Bey, Dealing with His Tour in the Dengkur District,” SIR, 130 (1905), 6.Google Scholar

12. P. Coriat, “General Report. Patrol S8. (Lau Nuer) 1928,” CRO Civsec 5/2/11.

13. Evans-Pritchard, , “The Nuer: Tribe and Clan,” 63.Google Scholar

14. Macar Ngundeng, 28.6.75. Tut Jiak Gai, 3.7.75. Bil Peat, 11.7.75. Garang Ngundeng, 1.4.76.

15. Dhieyier Bol Ngundeng, 24.6.75.

16. Rol is a type of red ox associated with the turuk, and mac, fire, is the word commonly used for rifle. The songs examined include a comprehensive survey of Lou and Jikany songs, and a smaller sample of Gaawar and Jagei songs. I use here Terese Svoboda's translation of rolmac as “gunmen:” Svoboda, T., Nuer Song Translation (P.E.N. Fellowship Report, 1979).Google Scholar

17. See Blewitt's report, reproduced below and Coriat, “Gwek.”

18. If anthaar was not used in the nineteenth century, there are two ways in which the word could have become current during the twentieth century. The first is through the return after 1898 of ex-slaves from Omdurman and ex-soldiers from the Mahdist and Anglo-Egyptian armies. There do not seem to have been a large number of Nuer either as slaves or as soldiers, but there are enough references in early government documents to the existence of such returnees and the prominent place some of them took in Nuer society. They could well have had a significant impact on the Nuer conception of the north, despite their small numbers. Ex-slaves would have been likely to have used ansar as the name the Mahdists used for themselves, but ex-soldiers would more likely have used “dervish,” then current in Anglo-Egyptian military jargon, and this word does not appear to be part of modern Nuer vocabulary. The second possibility is the one mentioned above, that anthaar was adopted after independence. I favor this possibility, first, because I have found no recorded use of the word anthaar by the Nuer during the Condominium period, and second because it is a word commonly used by educated southern Sudanese, including” Nuer, when referring to the Umma Party and sometimes even to other northern Sudanese considered to be Muslim fanatics. The word is used by modern southern Sudanese as a deliberate link with the slavers of the nineteenth century, even when in some areas, such as the Nuer, the Mahdist presence was insignificant or non-existent.

19. Tut Jiak Gai. Garang Ngundeng.

20. SIR, 72 (1900), 2.

21. SIR, 94 (May 1902), Appendix B, 8-12, reprinted by permission of the Central Records Office, Khartoum. Major Arthur Blewitt (1861-1917) served as Administrator of Fashoda District (later Fashoda Province) from 7 Dec. 1900 to 28 May 1902. At this time Ngundeng was known to the government by his ox-name, Dengkur (frequently mistaken by later authors as the name of his divinity), which is spelled throughout the report as “Denkur.”

22. Capt. H.H. Wilson (1874-1915) of the Lancashire Fusiliers, was Inspector, Fashoda Province, 1902-04, and Senior Inspector, Upper Nile Province in 1905. His map was not printed with the report, but it did appear in his “A Trip up the Khor Felus, and Country of the Left Bank of the Sobat,” Geographical Journal, 20 (1902), 403.Google Scholar

23. Dr. E.S. Crispen served in the Sudan Medical Service from 1922 and was its director from 1915 to 1922. His medical report of the patrol (11-12) is not reprinted here. His photograph of Ngundeng's Mound, taken during this expedition, was printed in Seligman, C.G. and Seligman, B.Z., Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, 1932)Google Scholar, between 200 and 201, and in Evans-Pritchard, , Nuer, opp. 228.Google Scholar

24. Ayong Yor of the Duor Dinka and Agweir Wiu of the Luac Dinka had been allies of the slavers of the 1870s and were defeated by Ngundeng when they raided him after the slavers' expulsion. They were early allies of the new government and had been agitating since 1899 for a campaign against both the Lou and Gaawar (Sparkes, 10-1). It was only after the 1902 patrol that the governemnt decided that neither man was a reliable source on the Nuer, and both spent a brief spell in prison for misleading the government about Ngundeng, Southern Regional Records Office, Juba [SRRO] “Return of Prominent Persons in Upper Nile Province--1909.” By 1907 Agweir Wiu was dismissed as “a Nuer agitator” and scarcely listened to. Struvé, K.C.P., “Report on Khor Atar District,” SIR, 153 (1907), 9.Google Scholar

25. Mabur Ajuot (known to the British as Mahbub) was an Angac Dinka living among the Twij. He had also been an ally to the slavers and the Egyptian government against the Gaawar and was later driven from his home by the Gaawar (identified in this report merely as the “Zeraf Nuer”). His reliability was also questioned after the 1902 patrol and, while his knowledge of Arabic made his continuation as a government agent virtually inevitable, his statements about the Nuer were subsequently treated with great caution. See Liddell, J.S., “Report on March from Taufikia to Twi and Visit to Twi by Steamer,” SIR, 119 (1904), 4.Google Scholar

26. Bul Kan was still alive when the government killed Ngundeng's son Guek in 1929. He was described as “a loyal old Chief who never gives any trouble,” Coriat, P., “Handing Over Notes, Abwong, 6.5.29,” Rhodes House, Mss Afr. s. 1684.Google Scholar

27. The construction of this sentence is unclear and it looks as if some words were omitted. Wilson's account in Gleichen, , Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 140Google Scholar, clearly describes the location of the two fences.

28. Not reprinted here.

29. Coriat, , “Gwek,” 225.Google Scholar

30. Tut Jiak Gai.

31. This interview was transcribed by Simon Kuny Puoc and translated by Gabriel Gai Riam and myself.

32. These were Ngundeng's special drums, all of which were captured and carried away by the government in 1929. At the time that Garang Ngundeng spoke, there had been great agitation among the Lou for the return of these drums along with other relics of Ngundeng. One of the smaller drums, Dogeal, was returned in December 1979, but the whereabouts of Jokluala, the largest drum, are still uncertain and a matter of dispute.

33. Carlel, the black bull, and Tutinbor, the white bull, were two special bulls tethered at the Mound. The Mound itself was sometimes called the cattle-peg of Carlel, and the village around the Mound the village of Carlel. Black and white are colors associated with the divinity Deng. The Mound was built in Gun Lou territory (the largest primary section of the Lou) close to the border with Mor Mou (the other Lou primary section). Mor Lou country is clearly visible across the plain east of the Mound.

34. This is the normal formation the Nuer adopted when invading a country or meeting an enemy force. See Evans-Pritchard, , Nuer, 128.Google Scholar

35. These were prominent Lou leaders, contemporaries to Ngundeng. Kuony Goy appears as Kwoing Gol in many government reports. He later made tentative overtures to the government and died in December 1905, at about the same time as Ngundeng. See SIR, 105 (1903), 3Google Scholar; O'Sullivan, “Lau Nuers.”

36. Ngundeng's stick (dang) was sometimes referred to as the dang of Wiu, the clan-divinity of the Jikany, among whom Ngundeng was born and grew up.

37. Ngundeng's mother, Nyayiel, was a Lou, and it was to his mother's brothers that Ngundeng came when he left the Jikany. Ngundeng's link with the Lou was thus through his maternal kin, such as Kuony Goy.

38. The small black ant is the Nuer image used when describing human beings in the sight of divinity. See Evans-Pritchard, , Nuer Religion, 12.Google Scholar

39. The word used here for the Mound is luak (cattle byre) rather than bie, which is normally used. There had been a fishingspear In the apex of the Mound, but Tut Jiak Gal, who was older than Garang Ngundeng, claimed that the spear was captured along with the ivory. Against this can be set the fact that no mention of a spear at the apex appears in Blewitt's or Wilson's descriptions of the Mound. It would be highly likely that Ngundeng took the spear along with his other regalia when fleeing the Mound.

40. Puot Puol was the only Mor man found in Yiidit when Ngundeng moved into what was normally a Mor settlement.

41. In Dinka mythology Buk is the mother of the divinity Deng, and among the Nuer and Dinka she is closely associated with water and rivers, just as Deng is associated with rain. Among the Dinka, both Buk and Deng are invoked together to bring life, and that is clearly what is implied in the reference here. See Evans-Pritchard, , Nuer Religion, 31Google Scholar, and Lienhardt, R.G., Divinity and Experience (Oxford, 1961), 90, 161.Google Scholar See also the Nuer hymn to Buk as the mother of Dengkur, in Nuer Religion, 45–46.Google Scholar

42. Reference to the Dangonga here helps us to give a more precise dating to other events in Lou history. We know from statements by Garang Ngundeng that the Luac were initiated shortly after Ngundeng's death at the end of 1905 or beginning of 1906. Given a ten- to fifteen-year gap between the beginning of the initiation of one age-set and that of the next (Jackson, 149. Evanst-Pritchard, , Nuer, 250–51Google Scholar), the Dangonga would have begun to be initiated around 1890-95. Their initiation coincided with the building of Ngundeng's Mound, which followed a major smallpox epidemic. The building of the Mound, then, would have been in the early to mid-1890s. See Johnson, , “History and Prophecy among the Nuer,” Appendix I, especially 667–69.Google Scholar

43. See above, note 12.

44. The year before, Garang Ngundeng had refused to speak to me and feigned senility (not very convincingly) when I went to visit him. I later heard that he answered the remonstrances of his family by saying that I came from those people who had killed the Lou before, and they may do so again if I was given the information I wanted. In 1976 he agreed to speak after lengthy persuasion by several members of his family and a number of prominent men of the district, all of whom were present at this interview, and some of whom prompted him with specific questions. Among those present were the late Stephen Ciec Lam (former member of the Regional Assembly for Lou Nuer), Gatkek Ngundeng (sub-chief for the section to which the Ngundeng family belonged), Kom Joar (another local sub-chief and expert singer of Ngundeng songs), and Simon Mayan Tut (veterinary assistant).

45. See Johnson, “History and Prophecy among the Nuer,” chapter 5. For relations between maternal kin see Evans-Pritchard, , Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer (Oxford, 1951), 157-58, 162–67Google Scholar, and Lienhardt, R.G., “The Western Dinka” in Middleton, John and Tait, David, eds., Tribes without Rulers (London, 1958), 119–20.Google Scholar For the imagery of the fishing-spear among the Dinka see Lienhardt, Divinity and Experience, chapter 5.

46. Evans-Pritchard, , Nuer-Religion, 101.Google ScholarLienhardt, , Divinity and Experience, 87, 139.Google Scholar

47. See above, note 35.

48. Ngang Kuac Agok, 2.7.75. These songs may be those that Coriat referred to as “encouraging prophecies” and “plausible excuses for his impotence to stem the ravages of the foreigners.” Coriat, , “Gwek,” 225.Google Scholar

49. Matthews, G.E., “Fashoda” in Report on the Finances, Administration, and Conditions of the Sudan (Cairo, 1902), 346.Google Scholar J.J. Asser, “Extracts from Colonel Asser's Inspection Report,” CRO UNP 1/12/101.

50. See, for instance, Lyth's comment about the “fair fight” at the Mound in 1902: R.E. Lyth, “Short Summary of the Recent History of the Murlee [sic], Lau and Anuak Tribes,” 16.3.46, CRO UNP 1/44/329. See also Collins, , Land Beyond the Rivers, 93.Google Scholar The only administrator who seems to have accepted the Lou view of Ngundeng was P.L. Roussel, who wrote in 1954 that “his greatest achievement was in uniting so many Nuer in a common and peaceful cause that promised no rewards in plunder.” “Lou Nuer District Handing Over Notes of Mr. P.L. Roussel,” SRRO LND 48.A.2.

51. Johnson, D.H., “Tribal Boundaries and Border Wars: Nuer-Dinka Relations in the Sobat and Zaraf Valleys, c. 1860-1976,” JAH, 23 (1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

52. See notes 8 and 41 above, and Johnson, “History and Prophecy among the Nuer,” Appendices I-III.