Nyangatom (people)
The Nyangatom (also spelled Ñaŋatom ) are a Nilotic ethnic group on the Omo River in southern Ethiopia , on the border with South Sudan . In Ethiopia, they are also as trees or Buma known. Their language, the Nyangatom , is one of the Nilotic languages .
The Nyangatom are organized into around 20 clans, to which one belongs by paternal origin. However, as political units, territorial groups are most important. These have names such as “storks”, “flamingos” or “ibises” or names of ethnic groups such as “ Kumam ”. There is a system of age groups that has separated from that of the Toposa; the generation of the "founders" was followed by the "wild dogs", "zebras", "turtles" and "mountains" and the "elephants", "ostriches", "antelopes" and "buffalos" that are still alive today. The youngest generation (in 2008) has not yet received its own name.
history
Like the Toposa, they belong to the Karamojong group. Together with the Toposa, the forerunners of the Nyangatom emigrated from Karamoja in what is now Uganda in the 18th century . They reached the Omo Valley around the middle of the 19th century. The ethnic groups already living there disparagingly called the newcomers Nyam-etom , which means "elephant-eater"; the Nyangatom themselves reinterpreted this as Nyang-atom / Ñaŋ-atom (“yellow guns”). Originally one of the weaker groups in the region, they were among the first to replace spears, bows and arrows with Kalashnikovs in the 1980s . They are considered warlike. Relations with neighboring Turkana, Surma, Baale, Dassanetch , Hamar , Mursi and Kara are tense, with conflicts over cattle theft and scarce land and water. Nevertheless, there are also individual friendships and trade relationships between the groups, for example the Nyangatom buy pottery - which they do not make themselves - from the Mursi and Kara. They are also known for storytelling and singing.
In 1898/99 the area was conquered by the armies of Ras Woldegiorgis and incorporated into Ethiopia, but for a long time this had little practical impact on the population. From the 1960s, ethnographic studies were carried out on the Nyangatom. Their number was estimated at around 5,000 in the 1970s. At the beginning of the 21st century, according to Serge Tornay, their number may be over 14,000; in the 2007 census in Ethiopia, around 25,000 people were registered as nyangatom. The main reason for the strong population growth was the presence of a church-based Swedish aid organization, which from 1972 to 2002 provided relief supplies and health care.
Since the 1990s, the Nyangatom have pushed the Surma north. More recently, the Nyangatom Pentecostal Churches have joined, and they are politically and economically increasingly integrated into the region of the southern nations, nationalities and peoples .
Culture
The Nyangatom, like the neighboring ethnic groups, live as semi-nomads from agriculture and cattle breeding. They grow sorghum, corn, soy and tobacco. From a cultural point of view, they place the greatest value on their zebu cattle, and they also keep small livestock and donkeys, which serve as pack animals on migrations from the rainy season to the dry season pasture areas. The area of the Nyangatom stretches from the middle of the lower Omo valley and the west bank of the Omo to the Kibish , the border river to South Sudan. They also nomadize in the Ilemi Triangle , where they meet the Toposa , allied with them , but also the more hostile Turkana and Surma (Suri).
It is traditional to wear jewelry scars and labret piercings .
literature
- Serge Tornay: Ñaŋatom ethnography , in: Siegbert Uhlig (Ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica , Volume 3, 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05607-6 , p.
- Serge Tornay: Modernization in the Lower Omo Valley and Adjacent Marches of Eastern Equatoria, 1991-2000. In: Günther Schlee , Elizabeth Watson (Ed.): Changing Identifications and Alliances in Northeast Africa. Volume 1: Ethiopia and Kenya (= Integration and conflict studies 2) Berghahn, New York NY et al. 2009, ISBN 978-1-84545-603-0 , pp. 77-88.
See also
Web links
- BBC: Tribe: The Nyangatom , 2008
- Central Statistical Agency : Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007 Population and Housing Census Results ( Memento of March 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.7 MB) (p. 85)