SUMMARY

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.