SOURCE: ADJ
Shilluk Woman, Sudan
I found this image on the tumblr ADJ. The image was original black and white, but I love the way it has been re-coloured. The colours are not too hard, which allows the image to maintain it’s traditional elements. In other words, the image hasn’t been grossly saturated with photoshop effects!
I had never heard of ‘Shilluk’. I realised I don’t know anything about African tribes. I know the main ones in Ghana, some from Nigerian, and the tribes like the Masai and Zulu tribes because there always seems to be either a coffee table book or a documentary about it making it seem like the only tribes in Africa. I know that there are many tribes in our great continent, so I have decided I am going to start posting information about a particular tribe once in a while. I won’t be able to find out about every single tribe, but I think it is important that we at least try to unpack our continent. And starting with the tribes would be a good place to start. Especially now when so many Africans are, moving to the west and in some way forming new tribes. My parents are from the Ashanti tribe in Ghana and in Sydney the Ghanaian community still holds alot of the traditional practices for funerals and weddings etc. I went to an Ashanti memorial service in London a few weeks ago and I was quite surprised to see how completely different it was to how we did it in Sydney. It was as if Ashanti-Sydney people had taken half of the Ashanti traditions and the Ashanti-Londoners had taken the other half from Ghana. I realised that although we are the same people, we are like new tribes in each country all streamed from the original tribe in Ghana. I bet if I went to Germany or the USA, it would be different!
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The Shilluk‘s traditional homeland is in Southern Sudan, in the Upper Nile Province and also extending along the west bank of the Nile River around the city of Malakal. It is believed that they probably originated in Uganda and their ancestors were forced out by their leader Nyikang after he had a disagreement with his older brother. Nyikang is been given special gifts by Jwok (God) and as the patriarch of the tribe has become the Shilluk national hero.
The Shilluk have a very sophisticated hierarchical ruling system. They are the only tribe in Sudan to still have a King and a kingdom. The kingdom is divided and into areas each overseen by a Chief, whilst each village in that area is overseen by sub-Chief and Elders. However, the King is the ultimate authority. Their economy is based on flocks of goat, sheep and cattle. The ownership of cattle provides status within the community.
TO READ MORE, GO TO THE JOSHUA PROJECT
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