SUMMARY
The Nyangatom (also referred to as Bume and Dongiro) is a mainly pastoral ethnic group, numbering some 20 000 individuals. They live in the Lower Omo Valley, which is located on the margins of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, with the bulk of the group inhabiting the Nyangatom woreda (district) in the SNNP (Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples) region in south-western Ethiopia. The area is a dry, semi-desert where there is serious competition for access to scarce water and grazing resources. The Nyangatom have adapted to this environment by relying mainly on pastoralism, but segments of the group have turned to agriculture. In many cases a combination of the two are utilized. Those Nyangatom that practice agriculture engage in rain cultivation during the wet season and flood cultivation during the dry season. They live along the western bank of the Omo River, where they supplement their livelihood by catching fish. Any cattle that this segment of the Nyangatom own cannot be kept in this area due to the presence of the tse tse fly along the river. Instead, they tend to leave the cattle in the hands of their pastoralist relatives to the west, who spend large parts of the year moving with their herds.
The Nyangatom originate from northern Uganda, from where they arrived about 150 years ago. Since then, the group’s homeland has continued to slowly shift north- and, more recently, westwards. In the 1920s, the center of their territory was located near Kalam (Ethiopia), by the 1980s it had shifted about 40 km north to Kibish and by the year 2000 the group’s main settlement, and the heart of their homeland, had moved to Naita, roughly 40 km to the northwest. Both Kibish and Naita are located on the border between Ethiopia’s South Omo Zone and the contested Ilemi Triangle, which is claimed by Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan alike, but that is de-facto controlled by Kenya. This northward movement has to some extent been caused by pressure from- and conflicts with the Nyangatom’s southern neighbours, such as the Dassanetch and the Turkana. It has also played a part in the outbreak of a number of other conflicts, as the expansion north has, in turn, put pressure on the Nyangatom’s northern neighbours, such as the Suri.
The Nyangatom view themselves as being very different from most other peoples in the region, whom they call “ngimwe”, meaning “strangers” or “enemies”. Relations with these neighbouring groups have, in line with this terminology, been strained and oftentimes characterized by violent conflict. For instance, during the 1970s, the Nyangatom were involved in conflict with almost all surrounding groups, with the smaller ones creating coalitions against them. Being in a weak position, the Nyangatom between the years 1970 and 1976 lost almost ten per cent of their total population (400 – 500 of around 5000, which was the size of the group at that time).
The Nyangatom subsequently have few allies among its most immediate neighbours. However, inter-ethnic relations in the South Omo Valley are in some cases fluid. Thus, while some groups are viewed as so-called “eternal enemies”, there are other groups with whom alliances of convenience are sometimes established, to, for instance, raid yet another group. In line with this, some experts that work in the area describe the situation as “frequently shifting alliances”.
There is one exception to this, however, as the Nyangatom have one stable ally – the Toposa ethnic group, residing in southern Sudan. The Nyangatom and the Toposa have a reciprocal religious relationship and their alliance has been long-standing. They frequently support each other in conflicts and when the region was hit by drought in the 1970s, hundreds of Nyangatom went to Sudan and settled with the Toposa. It was also the Toposa that in the mid-1980s started to supply their Nyangatom allies with automatic weapons, which they had acquired by first siding with the Sudanese rebel group SPLM/A (Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army) and then the Sudanese government in the context of the intrastate conflict in the country. The Nyangatom were subsequently one of the first ethnic groups in the area to have access to this type of weaponry. Through this they gained total superiority to the north, as their Suri enemies had no access to automatic weapons.
The Nyangatom ethnic group has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.
The Toposa is an ethnic group in southern Sudan that numbers about 700 000 and 750 000 people. The Toposa homeland is Kapoeta County in Eastern Equatoria; the most south-eastern region of Sudan. This area has very little vegetation and this has influenced the Toposa way of living considerably. The Toposa are agro-pastoralists, with social and economic life centring on livestock such as cattle, camels, donkeys, goats and sheep. In addition to this the Toposa also pan for gold and other valuable minerals in the river beds.
The Toposa are part of a larger group known as the Ateker cluster. This group includes the Toposa, Nyangatom and Jiye in Sudan, the Turkana in Kenya and the Karamojong in Uganda. The Toposa speak a language of the same name, a language that is similar to the other languages within the Ateker group. Within Toposa society there exists no clear political organisation. However, the chiefs, elders, fortune-tellers, medicine men, and witch-doctors exercise administrative and spiritual powers.
The Toposa’s neighbours are the Didinga, Pari and Boya to the west and southwest, the Turkana to the south, the Nyangatom to the east and the Jive, Murle and Kachipo groups to the north. Competition over scarce resources such as water and pasture as well as cattle-rustling has determined relations between the Toposa and their neighbours. Successive regimes in Khartoum and Juba have marginalised the Toposa and kept them at arms length. At some points during the civil war between the regime in Khartoum and SPLM/A the Toposa co-operated with the government but later changed sides.
The Toposa group has been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.
