By James Ojoch*
Are the Nuer the pure champions of equality and fairness? Hell knows.

Dec 4, 2005 — The Nuer have voiced their dissatisfaction with the formation of GoSS (Government of Southern Sudan) and GoNU (Government of National Unity) that they were insignificantly represented. In other words, they were and are marginalized. This is evident in the Open Letter by the SPLA/M Caucus Nuer in the Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly to Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit on 10/26/2005. This letter is floating everywhere. All other Nuer platforms are in chorus with a very strong grudge against the Dinka Elite. In their eyes the Dinka tribe has cornered them as a revenge for the events of 1991 and also for the frequent changes of positions back and forth in between Bashir and the SPLA/M. The legacy of those changes is the SSDF which Bashir still uses as a sharp leverage needle pricking the SPLA/M to weaken it. Also the SSDF uses Bashir in the same way. The Nuer expect that the pressure by SSDF and Bashir will overcome the marginalization. But what the SSDF doesn’t want to tell is that Bashir is an enemy to both SSDF and SPLA/M. Bashir is interested in foiling the CPA. However the Nuer threat is that if the SSDF is not accepted by the SPLA/M as equal there will be chaos and CPA will crumble dead. Another threat is that if the Nuer aspirations are not met the Nuer will quit from SPLA/M to join other parties taking the minorities with them. That is the gamble to loosen the SPLA/M.

That withstanding, the Nuer have a point to ask for equal rights and representation. In fact this interim period should accommodate ethnic groups for smooth implementation of the CPA. Accordingly the SPLA/M must also find ways to get the SSDF on board to seal off the hostility for the sake of peace. Getting SSDF on board is not a defeat but a good gesture. Doing so will isolate Bashir who is now enjoying the company of the SSDF. SPLA/M is struggling with two bad guys. It would have been Bashir sitting in that position.

While the Nuer have the right to claim for rights and equality, are they democratic in their treatment of other people? While the Nuer feel the pain of marginalization and “Dinkanization” do they have mercy on minorities whom they hope to carry along to other parties? Obviously no minority will sail away with the Nuer. The minorities know how much suffering they endure under the Nuer tyranny. The Nuer is interested in building a big Nuer empire accross the Southern Sudan landscape. It is obsessed with outdated idea of conquest as the main goal of life.

To justify their claim for equality and freedom they abhor the Dinka presence in the Moro and Mundari country where the Dinka are a cause for loss of life these days. It is a good point. But the Nuer are very brutal against the Anyuak, the Shilluk, the Murle, the Burun and the Dinkas in their borders. The Nuer have forcefully occupied lands of all these tribes and call it their own even during this time of peace. The Shilluk Kingdom was devastated by forces of SSDF dominated by Nuer with the Arab gun. The Nuer have built homes in Obel and Doleib Hill which are Shilluk domains. People like John Luk Jok, Timothy Kueth Luak etc, had their intermediate in Obel School. They know it is Shilluk land. Today they are the colonizers.

The Nuer marginalization of the Anyuak is extreme. Again with Arab gun the Anyuak country is devastated and is still under siege. Today, the Nuer call Akobo their country by force. All peoples of the Sudan including the enemy Arab know it is the Anyuak land. The Anyuak IDPs want to go home. They cannot because the Nuer have built on the homesteads pushing the Anyuak of Akobo further inland. If the loss of government representation is painful to the Nuer the loss of land should be more painful to the Anyuak. Yet the Nuer are against marginalization by the Dinka. Do they really deserve to cry?

Talking about representation in government, Akobo commissioner is a Nuer. All deputies are Nuer. In Jonglei State Government and Assembly Akobo is represented by Nuer. The Anyuak commanders have been dispersed away from Akobo by the Nuer to silence the Anyuak voice. These actions were and are not by accident. It is a well planned brutal assassination of a tribe. Yet the Nuer are thirsty for equality and representation. The big SSDF is also thirsty when it has been the main cause of delay of Southern Sudan liberation.

There are several clans of Nuer in the Anyuak land today. But the main clans are the mor and the Gon. While they both have occupied the lands they fight day and night for the share of lands. They cannot mix and stay together even while in their mainland in Lou. The whole Nuer territory is full of trouble. Gajook against Gajaak. Gon against Mor, Jikany against Lou and crisscross fights. Cieng Nyajengni clan is a refugee group chased away by the another clan because of blood feud. The Upper Nile and Jonglei States are in chaos created by the Nuer.

With all the pains that the Nuer inflict on other tribes they claim to be more democratic and champions of peace and equality. If the Nuer think that the Dinka Elite caused them problems, it is the Nuer Elite causing problems to the Anyuak. People like John Luk Jok, Timothy Kueth Luak, Tap Kota, Wal Duany, James Sejin [ including Riek Gai Kok who is part of the bunch around Bashir] are the think-tanks behind the strategies of occupation of Akobo and to make sure the Anyuak don’t exist there forever. Luk Jok, Riek Gai Kok and others like Nyang Keak, Nyang Dak, Loang Puot, Gatreay Luak, Taban Luak, [sorry some have passed way], learned their first ABC in Anyuak vernicular in Anyuak schools because they were aliens to the region. Today they call themselves the real Akobo citizens without shame.

The Anyuak and the others do not oppose the Nuer claims for rights and representation at all levels of government. It is up to the GoSS to judge whether those claims are legitimate. The message to them is therefore for them to stop marginalization of others if they are also looking for justice. They should vacate the Anyuak and other peoples’ lands unconditionally. They should reverse the old ideology of colonization. The time for colonization is over with the British in 1956. If the Nuer and the SSDF want a good gesture from the Dinka and SPLA/M they must also show the rule of law to others.

Let the people of Southern Sudan see this: Lou Nuer alone have created three counties in the middle of nowhere to get more seats in government. This is a typical cheating. On top of acquiring three counties in Lou area they have taken away Akobo county. All four counties are represented by the Lou Nuer. The Lou Nuer cannot say there are no Anyuaks fit to be appointed. The fact is it was a design to seal off the Anyuak they [ Lou Nuer] are the ones manipulating that part of Jonlei State.

The message to the GoSS is to protect the minorities against the brutal majorities like the Nuer. It is a responsibility of the GoSS not to wait too long to issue a decree that all ethnic groups who are IDPs or occupiers of other peoples lands must go back to their origins of 1956. If the GoSS needs Abei to be part of the South then it should not difficult for the Southern nationalities to go back home. The Governor of Jonglei, Philip Thon Leek, is doing a great job by trying to find ways to bring back the Dinka IDPs from Equatoria and planning to disarm unauthorized people in the Jonglei State. He should also move further and quickly to effectively protect minorities evicted by tyrants from their ancestral lands for them to go back to rebuild their lives. The time now is for peace and development. The peace and development will not happen if the inter-ethnic antagonism still exists. Unnecessary suffering must cease. No Southerner must suffer at the hands of another Southerner.

ANYUAK/NUER - Acquiring citizenship by aggression in Ethiopia

Wednesday 22 March 2006 16:35.
By J. Ojoch*
Mar 19, 2006 — The Nuer are not true nomads. True nomads roam for water and grazing only. The Nuer roam in the grass and water leaving so much behind but thirsty for more new lands.

The Nuer want others to endure their presence for diversity to flourish [Kong J. Toang, Sudan Tribune, March 10/2006].

For the Nuer the way to earn acceptance and recognition is to fight and then make peace. To the outsiders it is surprising. To those who know the Nuer well it is not surprising because in Nuer culture there is no system of law and order. As such violence is the motto and basis of manhood. Violence is the first choice for resolutions. They never had a governing body in their culture. Even today they remain antagonistic in the Southern Sudan and Ethiopia. They see the CPA differently. They see the Ethiopian federalism differently. The notion of and living under a government is alien to them. No wonder why the Nuer country is full of “nyagat”. They fit nowhere. The first time they saw law and order was when the British arrived. The British wanted a liaison with the Nuer society. So leaders had to be nominated to work with the British administration. But the spirit of arbitrary action never vanished. The Nuer authority rests on individuals or splinter groups who take action on their own any time. For example, we saw recently in Jonglei what happened at Yuai. A white army splinter attacked the SPLA soldiers who went to welcome them into the peace process now that Matiep joined the SPLA. The loss of life there was as a result of arbitrary action.

Contrarily the Anyuak had and still have kings and chiefs. Arbitrary action in the Anyuak society is out of question. Law and order is always in place. For this reason crime involving human life is very minimal in the Anyuak community in contrast to the Nuer community which teems with blood all the time. Diversity to the Anyuak must come as a result of peaceful interaction, not by imposition.

Migration is a thing of the past fitting that period. The world of ancient migrants has changed and is more civilized today. The Nuer are yet in the ancient world with their migration. They cherish it because it is an arbitrary process and a source of pride for them. The present migration and the present intimidation of neighbors stem out of the outrageous whims and covetous nature of the Nuer nation in groups, clans or individually. The arbitrary behavior, the migration and resultant aggression are a function of manhood and power in the Nuer culture. Historically, the Nuer migration came to a halt in all directions by 1860. But the lust, the whims and the urge to move and acquire continued to this day becoming a basis to cause war and bloodshed with the Anyuak in the Anyuak territory and in other places in the Sudan. A Nuer man is born to go out to do the unthinkable.

Often the excuse is blamed on competition for water and grazing for Nuer to wander afield across unknown territory. This trend of movement is relevant elsewhere with true nomads. The Nuer case is different. It is a show of guts and power. If it were for water and grazing for the cattle, the Nuer got enough land, water and fishing grounds already acquired over time. For example, all the rivers flowing from the Anyuak territories pour into the Nuer acquired lands and home land with all the fish in it. The flood plains of the Jikany are rich and lush grazing grounds during the dry season. Going upstream to get more water, fish, or grass for the cattle is a very meaningless and an irrelevant adventure.

With all the natural resources available to the Jikany Nuer, they are not satisfied to settle down for a meaningful life. The continuity to move east into the Anyuak zone is the quest for land and lust to impose; lust to take by force to show manhood, strength and recognition and hence to gain social acceptance. In their sense it is how diversity must come. Raiding the Anyuak and others is a sport for the young men who initiate into manhood after the initiation ordeal. The young men get out of seclusion wild and ready for recklessness. Each generation must do something extraordinary, that is, to go out to fight the Anyuak for more land and to loot cattle from others. When will the Nuer think of doing something else than antagonism, anarchy and fighting? Among the Nuer are great scholars but yet there is no change in the methods of living among themselves leave alone with others. The popular word is: If our grandfathers migrated and won, we must migrate also to win [Pal Thokbuom Deng, The Eastern Jikany Migration and the Evolution of their Political System, March 01, 2006, MGERF articles, Maiut.net].

All wars were and are always fought on Anyuak soil. The only time the Anyuak ever took the fight into the heart of Lou was in 1910-11. The Lou Nuer were chased way out to the Zaraf River. The Anyuak would have settled had not the British pre-empted them. That was to show the Nuer the misery of occupation.

With the above narration the readers understand how adventurous the Nuer are to this day. Even the elite who are expected to teach the populace encourage this trend of life style. The Nuer is a race proud of bad things. The Anyuak resist the Nuer encroachment in all its forms not because of misunderstanding the value of diversity as asserted by Kong J. Toang [Conflicts and Resource managent in the Gambella region, Sudan Tribune, March 10/2006]. Not because the Nuer are less human. It is because aggressive diversity is unacceptable. Understanding diversity is not by giving up land to please other parties. Diversity should not be enforced by intrusion and war. Peace cannot come after cheating the Anyuak. Peace cannot take place with the Nuer in the Anyuak house after pushing the Anyuak outside. Where is the civilized logic that Kong wanted the audience in Ethiopia and Sudan to hear?

Kong analysed the consequences of the Abwobo Dam as a case that caused the Cieng Nyajaani to move into the Anuak land. The readers already know that going upstream for more water is meaningless unless there is some other agenda. It is even much more troubling when the Nyajaani chose to go upstream of another river. True, the Dam reduced the water levels of Aluoro and Ciru down the course. The Pokedi villages are also below the dam. The Anyuak of Pokedi did not move anywhere. There is enough water for all purposes. Aluoro River has no connection with Makuey. Makuey is another river that falls into Sobat [Baro, Openo] at a different point. Hence no connection with Abwobo dam. Cieng Nyajaani are not affected in any way by the dam.

The Dam flooded Abwobo town too. The residents of that town were compensated for their homes and permanent farm plants. That was not enough but they did not complain and did not migrate. Abwobo people built another Abwobo nearby. But it is not a good reason to drive the Cieng Nyajaani upstream of another river to get water. There were and are short cuts to water for the Nyajaani if there was a problem at all. The Cieng Nyajaani had access to the Sobat [Baro] at Jikou and the environs if Makuey river water evaporated. Instead they went upstream to Akado, Opanya, marching towards Gambella town which Kong said was “voting by foot”. Is that the search for water? The fact is, the Cieng Nyajaani were running away from blood feud with the other clans adjacent to Makuey who are closer to the Sobat River banks. They killed a person. They had to run to escape the revenge. Now Kong is lying big on their behalf that the government in Gambella did not provide water for the Cieng Nyajaani. The Nyajaani could not be accommodated at Lare, the seat of “Nuer government”. The Opuo rejected them after a fight. Other Nuer clans could not even accommodate them. If the Nuer clans cannot live together, share together, what kind of diversity do the Anyuak expect of the Nuer?

Kong also touched severely on the Gambella administration under the Anyuak when Mengistu fell. The Anyuak fought Mengistu while the Nuer were enjoying life with Thuath Pal and Joshua De Lual at the helm of power in Gambella. When Mengistu fell they had no choice but to run home to Nuer territory taking everybody along. All Nuer fled and were booed on the way homeward by the other Nuer along the way. Those who did not run were those caught up by the wave in Addis Ababa. Yet the Anyuak accepted all of them back. It was not impossible to shut the border then. But that war was not about Nuer. It was a revolution against a brutal government. Those who did not have a purpose to die for did not go out to fight that regime but had to run for dear life when their government fell. They went home quickly traveling day and night. The assertion that the Anyuak went on rampage to kill the Nuer elite is a complete misrepresentation. If that happened, the Nuer would have totally gone away. It happened at Akobo when Sijin Banak killed the Anyuak using the Arab government apparatus. The Anyuak fled Akobo town and the surroundings. The Nuer would not have the guts that much to stay on in the face of killing of the magnitude described by Kong.

The atrocities and killing of the Anyuak by the SPLA in Piny-Udo was indeed generated by the Nasir faction who wanted to topple Garang. Thuath and Joshua were the men who used the Gambella power to advance the Nuer aspirations against Garang. These officials and the Nasir faction drew a wedge between the Anyuak and the Dinka and refugees at large with the hope that the Anyuak would form alliance with the Nuer to overthrow Garang. The whole equation was to remove Dinka from Ethiopia by using the Anyuak anger. Unfortunately the Anyuak did not lose focus to see the real killer behind the scene. The SPLA did not come to Ethiopia because the Nuer opened the way for it. The SPLA went to Ethiopia as Anya-Nya I and Anya-Nya II did. On the way to Bilpam, the Nuer killed a lot of Dinka passing through their territory. The Anyuak did not blame the Nuer [or Thuath and Joshua] for the presence of the SPLA in the region. It was the sabotage that the Nuer officials did to spill the Anyuak blood to help the Nasir faction against the Dinka. It was a dangerously calculated politics.

Gambella government politics entails different meanings to outsiders. It is not the backward development in the region nor the Anyuak jealousy for highlanders’ businesses as claimed in the article cited above that generated problems. The Anyuak did not and do not like two things to infringe on their lives. One, the Anyuak did not want the EPRDF military to dictate their affairs. Everything was imposed on Gambella government in the form of a calculated order from the capital through the EPRDF representatives and appendages. The autonomy therefore was not practically genuine. The other thing was the Nuer imposition and war attitude in quest for power coupled with the pressure of Nuer numbers roaming the region fighting with the farmers. Consequently the Anyuak requested their constitutional rights to stay alone, and the Nuer to form a local government at Lare for them to have a complete power in their hands. This would resolve the political frictions. At long last the Nuer have a government in Lare. Yet they are not content. They want more.

The Nuer have acquired Ethiopian citizenship by aggression already. The statistics of population quoted is disputable because it was cooked by Joshua, inflating it with refugees and people who never existed. The road to Sudan is opened at this time. Refugees will return home. The next census will be different.

The acceptance of the Nuer in Ethiopia by the upper government was not without reason. The rulers above in the capital wanted to keep the border people tangled in feuds to keep them away from national politics. The government found an Anyuak rival. This is true in Southern and Eastern Ethiopia. It is the same equation here in Gambella. The Anyuak therefore wanted a solution which the Nuer and the highlanders saw in a different way each looking for own advantage while on the surface siding against the Anyuak. The Highlanders saw that if the Nuer went away, the Anyuak attention will concentrate on them. The highlanders had experienced expulsion in other regions of members who did ethnically belong there. For example, the Oromo expelled the Amhara, the Tigre and vise versa. So they did not want a thing like that to happen to them in Gambella, a thing which the Anyuak did not even think about. Behind all that the highlanders did not want their power challenged.

The Nuer purpose of living on earth is to get the Anyuak land at any cost. So the Nuer saw that if they went away encroachment and migration will totally stop. Getting the Anyuak land will be difficult. Their intrusion and marauding attitude will single out. The two groups advised themselves to stay tight against the Anyuak. It is a game play that built up tension over time. This pressure was supported by the government to protect the highlanders’ interests and embracing the Nuer to maintain the border conflicts. Since the Nuer and the highlanders have interests to safeguard they did not see the Anyuak plight otherwise. There is and was, indeed, no chance the Anyuak would accept diversity that way.

Now there is a government in Lare. Are the Nuers not happy about it? Some good and sensible Nuer individuals have even confided and said openly that it was wrong for the Nuer to impose so much on the Anyuak in their towns now that the Lare administration is functional. The solution is almost near with Lare government in place. The Lare people are developing their district freely without worry of conflict with the Anyuak. They have also sifted their ranks and exposed the Nuer elite from Sudan not to compete with them for jobs. Such persons finally ran to Sudan to enjoy the CPA.

At present the Anuak are helping the Lare government with technical personnel in agriculture, education, infrastructure etc. This is the way the diversity can flourish spontaneously, not by war. The Lare government has rejected all other Nuer roaming about in their region. That is why you see the Cieng Nyajaani lurking behind the Anyuak settlements. All Nuer sections, in districts, sub-districts, must settle for development to reach them. If Lare Nuer did not sit down, development would not have reached them. At this time Lare market is booming. The Gon and the Mor must learn from Lare and settle in Lou for development to reach them. Fighting for Akobo waters is not a safe way to diversity.

The massacre of the Anyuak by the EPRDF did not occur overnight. What was seen on December 13/2003 was a conclusion of the plan. If it was not a plan a list of wanted persons could not be generated during the chaos. Time for oil drilling was near. The EPRDF saw that drilling will not be smooth if the Anyuak were not neutralized first. The highlanders also have sensed the building tension that the ambush of a car, which was not proven to be an Anyuak creation, became the perfect pretext to implement the plan. Once the Anyuak were done it was expected that the Nuer would finish them off and dominate the land and its people. That was why the EPRDF quickly announced the killing as a Nuer-Anyuak ethnic fight.

However, at the end of the massacre both the government and the Nuer were surprised by the aftermath fever. The Anyuak in Diaspora raised the massacre to international heights that put the heat on Meles Zenawi to this day. Ethiopia was accused of genocide to account for the Anyuak lives. The highlanders started moving out of the region fearing Anyuak retaliation. Some never returned back.

The Nuer surprise was that the EPRDF smeared them with the killing calling the massacre a Nuer-Anyuak conflict. This is what has been designed for border conflict excuses. Once the Nuer were implicated by the government they had no way but to keep aloof from it all. Without that smearing the Nuer could have easily devastated the Anyuak further while the Anyuak were frightened and on the run. Some wise Nuer saw the massacre as something coming for the Nuer also once the Anyuak are subdued. The smearing curtailed Nuer action. Nuer as Nuer would have filled up the vacuum. Also some Nuer anticipated highly that a Nuer would be president of the region now that the Anyuak were out of politics. The Nuer celebrated in the USA, Canada and the Sudan. It did not happen. This was another bad message for the Nuer.

The Gambella region will get peace in the future. The EPRDF will not be there forever. The first prerequisite for peace is for the Nuer to settle for development to go to them. Once the Nuer settle the government in Lare will be stronger to present claims for development to regional and national houses. While the Nuer is on the move and fighting on the road to new lands, development will not be in their favor therefore prolonging Gambella conflicts. Anyuak do not follow the Nuer. It is the Nuer that follow everywhere with the cattle, women and children. The Anyuak always tried to make gaps wider to avoid conflicts. Yet the Nuer took this as a cowardly retreat. The Nuer are insensitive to the goodwill and feelings of others.

To sum up, the case with the highlanders is politics. The ordinary highlanders are there for business. They already feel the results of their actions in concert with the government against the Anyuak. Those brought to settle do not move from where the government put them. The highlanders’ general stay may depend on how long the EPRDF will rule. Any other government may have a different approach altogether. In the meantime the trust between them and the Anyuak is limited. They do not have a backyard to hide in. So they feel the pain more than the Anyuak do. Peace will surely come as attitudes change within the highlanders’ society and the government itself. Peace will come with Nuer settlement.

The plight of Cieng Nyajaani cannot be blamed on Abwobo Dam. The Cieng Nyajaani must settle the blood feud than running from it. Only then can they be free. Miration for no relevant reasons must stop if the Nuer want to show their arrival into the civilized world. The ancestors did what they did because it fitted those conditions.

Overall, history has taken its course to bring the Nuer and the highlanders to the Anyuak land. It should not be blamed for the present problems. It is the selfishness and the tyrany of the comers to demand more of the Anyuak that is to blame.

* J. Ojoch is a Sudanese based in the USA. For more information and for people who are interested by the Anyuak people in Sudan and Ethiopia please visit http://www.anyuakmedia.com