Lou Nuer
 |
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (Approximately 2,900,000 people) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| South Sudan, Ethiopia | |
| Languages | |
| Nuer language | |
| Religion | |
| African Traditional Religion, Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Dinka, other Nilotic peoples |
The Nuer people are a Nilotic ethnic group primarily inhabiting the Nile Valley. They are concentrated in South Sudan, with some also found in southwestern Ethiopia. They speak the Nuer language, which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan family. The Nuer are related to the Dinka people of South Sudan with whom they share customs, languages, myths, and culture. Despite the many conflicts, the Dinka and the Nuer have intertwined their lineages and community since their origin. As one of the largest ethnic groups in southern Sudan, the Nuer people are pastoralist who herd cattle for a living. The cattle of the Nuer people serve as companions and a lifestyle. However, they refer to themselves as "Nath". The Nuer people have historically been under counted as a result semi-nomadic lifestyle the community engage, as well as lack of proper national statistic about the community.
The nature of relations among the various southern Sudanese tribes was greatly affected in the 19th century by the intrusion of Ottomans, Arabs, and eventually the British. Some ethnic groups made their accommodation with the colonizers and others did not, in effect pitting one southern ethnic group against another in the context of foreign rule. For example, some sections of the Dinka supported colonial rule which was resisted by the Nuer. The Dinka treated the resisting Nuer as hostile, and hostility developed between the two groups as a result of their differing relationships to the British.
There are different accounts of the origin of the conflict between the Nuer and the Dinka, South Sudan's two largest ethnic groups. Anthropologist Peter J. Newcomer suggests that neither the Nuer nor the Dinka are intrusive and that the Nuer are actually Dinka. He argues that hundreds of years of population growth created expansion, which eventually led to raids and wars.
In 2006, the Nuer were the tribe that resisted disarmament most strongly. Members of the Nuer White Army, a group of armed youths often autonomous of tribal elders' authority, refused to lay down their weapons, which led SPLA soldiers to confiscate Nuer cattle, destroying their economy. The White Army was finally put down in mid-2006, though a successor organisation self-styling itself as a White Army formed in 2011 to fight the Murle tribe (see 2011–2012 South Sudan tribal clashes), as well as the Dinka and UNMISS. Nuers have been fighting hard to preserve their lifestyle, economy, culture, religion and history in the way of continuous onslaught by notorious Dinka tribes.
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