Mundari (people)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A mundari fisherman with smoked fish in Terakeka , Central Equatoria

The Mundari are an ethnic group in South Sudan of around 70,000 to 100,000 people. They speak a dialect of Bari , a Nilotic language . Its area lies on the White Nile in the Central Equatoria region , with the most important localities being Terakeka , Tali and Tombe .

The Mundari are traditionally agropastoralists who mainly grow sorghum , maize , peanuts and simsim in subsistence farming and keep cattle, goats and sheep in large numbers. They are divided into clans to which one belongs by the paternal line of descent. Politically, they are organized in independent villages with heads whose status is hereditary. The traditional religion of the Mundari includes the belief in a god Ngun .

They belong to three groups: the original clans - whose origins cannot be determined more precisely -, the Bora - who are said to have separated from the other Bari-speaking groups - and groups who later immigrated. Neighbors of the Mundari are the Atuot- and Aliab- Dinka and the Moro in the west and northwest, the Bor-Dinka in the east and northeast, the Bari in the south and southeast and the Bari-speaking Nyangwara in the southwest. Relations with the Bor-Dinka are strained because of conflicts over cattle theft and land, but there are good relationships with the Bari and Moro.

During the civil war , the Mundari area was particularly affected by the SPLA in the early 1980s , which is why the Mundari were more on the side of the government. Many Mundari had to leave their villages because of the war and fled mainly to cities like Terakeka and Juba. In October 2009, over 40 people died in fighting between Mundari and Bor-Dinka.

swell