SUMMARY
Uduk (alternatively Kwanim Pa, Koma or Gomus) is an ethnic group that lives in in the southern parts of Sudan in the El Kurmuk district in Blue Nile State. The Uduk is a sub-Saharan Nilotic people and according to tradition, has its origin in Ethiopia. The Uduk are matrilineal and number around 30 000. The group is agro-pastoralists, cultivates grains such as sorghum, and holds pigs and sheep. Traditionally, the Uduk have worn strings of beads and clothes colored with ochre. The use of red ochre is still prevalent in different traditions and rites, such as the birth of a child or funerals. The Uduk is often identified as Christians, however, Islam and Nilotic beliefs such as ebony diviners and elephant medicine is also represented among the group.
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Uduk community suffered heavily due to the slave raids carried out by Arab and Ethiopian groups in the area. It was mainly women that were taken, and many Uduk communities fell apart during this time. However, the group was able to rebuild their social organization when most of the slave trade came to a halt during British rule. While the Uduk have lived peacefully with neighboring ethnic groups such as the Burun and Jumjum; they have remained hostile towards for instance the Berta, which participated in the slave raids.
Since Sudan’s independence the Uduk and other tribes living in the Blue Nile have been discriminated against and oppressed by the central government. Policies that have led to the degradation and exploitation of the Uduk’s land have been prevalent, including land grabbing, which have left the area underdeveloped and poor. Uduk church leaders have taken a leading role in the Uduk community, petitioning for a referendum for the area to join the Southern Region since 1953, and for the distribution of famine relief to the Christian population in the Blue Nile in the 1980’s when aid previously only had been given to Muslims. For this, the Uduk church leaders have been harassed and arrested by both the local and central government, and their churches have systematically been burned or destroyed in the area.
During the Second Sudanese civil war between the government in Khartoum and the SPLM/A from the 1980’s to the early 2000’s, intense fighting in the Blue Nile State and the El Kurmuk area, was devastating for the Uduk. Whereas Uduk people joined both sides of the conflict, the Uduk population at large mainly sided with SPLM/A, and was thus targeted by the government for doing so. Peter Kuma Luyin became the first Uduk SPLM/A officer. A majority of the Uduks were displaced and thousands took refuge in neighboring Ethiopia; there were reports that around 26 000 Uduks lived in Ethiopian refugee camps in 1989. After the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, the Uduk were able to start to repatriate back to the Blue Nile State. However, much of the area had been destroyed in the conflict and the process of rebuilding the Uduk communities was arduous.
In 2011 the governmental conflict in the Blue Nile State picked up when the SPLM/A-North, later part of the alliance named SRF, challenged the government. Many Uduk took part in the insurgency and several held leading roles in SPLM/A-North in Blue Nile, for instance Gen. Joseph Tuka that was Blue Nile Chief of Staff, and commanded one of the fronts against the government forces. The government targeted the civilian population in many cases and considered the Uduk to be pro-SPLM/A-North . Again the majority of the Uduk became displaced, and took refuge in the South Sudanese Upper Nile State. For some of the Uduk it had only been five years since they returned from refugee camps in Ethiopia.
