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This report explores food need and production capability in rural areas of South Sudan in 1990.      

By comparing the 1929-36 period with preceding and succeeding periods of great environmental stress, this article (1989) discerns a pattern of developing interdependence between contiguous Nuer and Dinka groups, as each sought the resources of the other in reconstructing their economic lives. Link to publication

Most of the people who start to work for relief agencies in Africa have not bad previous experience of knowingly contributing to the suffering and death of a large number of people. Relief agencies do not tend to attract people who have this sort of experience, and they do not include it in their job descriptions when recruiting. Yet the disturbing activity of voluntarily being unpleasant to strangers is one of the most frequent activities…

NUER courts and court procedure are an innovation of the Anglo-Egyptian government.’ It was a necessary innovation, according to administrators, because of the lack of institutionally authoritative figures among the Nuer, or of an ‘organised political body’ which met regularly, could enforce its decisions, and could therefore maintain public order.The government chose the parallel courses of tradition – administering a law derived from Nuer custom – and innovation – establishing institutions and procedures which were…

This article is an attempt to examine a number of interrelated factors which can be cited to account for the relative failure of evangelical Christianity in three pastoral, Nilotic-speaking communities of the southern Sudan, the Dinka, Nuer, and Atuot. The social context of missions was largely created by the British colonial presence, so that it is best to understand missionary efforts in thaflight. At the same time, it can be argued, the colonial administration fostered…

Written by the son of the late Paramount Chief of the Ngok Dinka, this ethnography provides a rich, well-balanced view of Dinka life in the Sudan. Always in direct contact with a hostile environment, deprivations, and troubles, the Dinka now form part of modern Sudan but remain among the least touched by modernization. Their pride and ethnocentrism are important factors in their conservatism and resistance to change. A rare view of these “Lords of Men”…

This article from 1983 summarizes the experience leading up to the 1981 Local Government Act, and examines the extent to which the new legislation offers an effective structure. The finance of local government, a recurrent problem in the Sudan, emerges as a critical issue, together with the future role of the Provincial Commissioner. Link to publication

Nuer–Dinka relations are usually described as being based on constant mutual hostility. This article (1982) examines Nuer–Dinka relations along the Sobat and Zaraf valleys since the beginning of Nuer eastward expansion in the nineteenth century and reveals a different pattern. Conflict during the immediate Nuer conquest of Dinka territory was followed by assimilation of individual Dinka into the Nuer social and political system. Link to publication

This article (1981) is concerned with the reinterpretation of Nuer ethnicity and challenges static ethnic designations. Link to publication

This article from 1981 provides a historical account of decentralisation policies in Sudan. Link to publication

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