SUMMARY
The Suri (called ‘Surma’ by the Ethiopan regime and surrounding groups) is a Nilo-Saharan (Surmic) speaking group, made up of the two sub-sections Tirma and Chai. They presently number about 28 000 people. The origin of the group is unclear; according to the Suri themselves the group emerged some 250 years ago around Mount Naita (called Shulugui by the Suri) in the Ethiopia–Sudan border area. This semi-arid region was not incorporated into the Ethiopian state until in the early 20th century, and even then the Suri was not much affected by the imperial regime. The group’s area was considered to be remote, “uncivilized and uncontrolled” and it only saw occasional incursions from Ethiopian northerners who had come to settle in the neighbouring highland areas. Under Emperor Haile Selassie the situation slowly started to change, but it was not until under the Derg (the military council ruling the country between 1976 and 1991) that the state started to really affect the Suris’ life.
During these known 250 years of Suri history, the group has been agro-pastoralist, combining this with hunting and gathering. Since the mid-1980s, especially young men have also started to earn money trading in gold from the gold-panning areas just north of Suri country. The Suri live together in relatively compact villages and their cattle are grazed in lowland pasture a day’s walk away. The livestock are herded by young men, who are also charged with their protection. Cattle is the group’s most prized possessions, a view that is shared by neighbouring pastoralist groups such as the Nyangatom, and cattle raiding is common in the region and the cause of much violence.
In the mid-1980s, the Suri were forced to abandon their traditional grazing area around Mount Naita, and migrate north. This was due to two interlinked processes: draught and famine in combination with the northwards expansion of their southern neighbours, the Nyangatom. The years 1984–85 saw a drought and subsequent famine that was described as the groups’ worst period in living memory and the number of deaths was so high that most corpses were only covered in branches and leaves and left unburied. One of the reasons for why the famine struck so hard was that the Suri at the time was involved in a conflict with the Nyangatom, who were steadily expanding northwards with the help of newly acquired automatic weapons. In turn, the Nyangatoms’ migration north was partly driven by similar movements by the mainly Kenya-based Turkana. In 1986–87, the Suri were eventually forced to settle some 50 – 60 km to the north, in the Maji foothills, close to the Dizi Mountains and the western Akobo Valley. At the time, this was part of the Keffa province. After the ousting of the Derg regime in 1991 Ethiopia was turned into an ethnical federation and the area became part of SNNPR (Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s region).
After the move north, the Suri eventually recovered from the draught and famine and in the early 1990s they improved their position in the region by succeeding in – like the Nyangatom – acquiring automatic weapons. This was made possible by an increase in the exploitation of gold, a commodity that had previously not been seen as valuable in Suri society. The famine had however forced some Suri to take up this practice and it soon turned out to be profitable.
Traditionally, political authority among the Suri was vested in a senior age grade of elders and in a more ceremonial leader called the komoru, in charge of communicating with the spirit world. While this social structure is still in place it no longer functions the way it traditionally did. The authority of the elders is being challenged by the young men, with the latter making decisions on e.g. launching raiding parties on their own, without sanctioning them with the elders. This growing power of the young herders is a result of their increasing economic independence, due to them making profit in the gold trade, and acquiring automatic weapons.
Up until the late 1980s, the groups in the region interacted with each other, trading and following a common code of fighting. The Suri even had a ritual alliance with their northern neighbours the Dizi. However, the situation has changed significantly over the past two decades. Rules of engagement are no longer adhered to and the Suri are now in a state of conflict with most of their neighbours, no longer having any allies in the region.
The Suri has been involved in the non-state category of organised violence.
