Nilotic Kings and Their Mothers' Kin PDF

International African Institute
Nilotic Kings and Their Mothers' Kin

Author(s): Godfrey Lienhardt
Source: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jan., 1955), pp.
29-42
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1156894 .
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[29]
NILOTIC KINGS AND THEIR MOTHERS' KIN'

GODFREY LIENHARDT
I
THIS paperoffersan interpretationof some detailsof the myth and custom of two
Nilotic tribes, the Shillukand the Anuak of the SouthernSudan.2Each of these
tribeshas a noble or royalclan in a centrallyimportantposition in its politicalsystem,
and the royal myths of both tell of the founding of kingship. In both also we find
representedin myth a conflict between the first kings and their maternaluncles and
grandfathers.It is this representationof conflict which we attempt to explain, by
referenceto the political structuresof the tribes.
The analysisfollows in part from some of the hypothesespresentedin Professor
Radcliffe-Brown'spaper,' The Mother'sBrother in South Africa',3 though it deals
with specialcases of exception to the principlesof uterinekin relationsin patrilineal
societies there examined.It is true of these Nilotic societies, as of those African so-
cieties consideredby Professor Radcliffe-Brown,that the approved pattern for the
relationsbetweena manand his maternalkin, especiallyhis mother'sbrothers,is based
upon a theory that greater kindness and indulgenceprevail between kin of these
categoriesthan between paternalkin.
We have to try to explain, then, how it is that the royal myths representhostility
between the early kings and some of their maternalkin,4 contradictingthe value
generallygiven to this relationshipin the thought of the people. It is necessaryfirst
to give a sketch of the political systemsand environmentof the two tribes, for upon
these certaindetails of comparativeinterestin the myths seem to depend.
II
Shilluk-landis a continuous strip of territory,little more than 20 miles wide at its
widest points of settlement,and some 200 miles long, situatedon the west bank of the
Nile in the SouthernSudan.Thereis a Shillukcolonyalsoatthe mouthof the Sobatriver.
The countryas a whole is divided into two main provinces,Gerr in the north and
Luak in the south, roughly coinciding with an older religious division into Gol
Dhiang and Gol Nyikang. This division becomes apparentand important at the
installationof a king (reth),when both halves of the kingdomhave to be unitedin the
election. Each province is composed of severalsmallerterritorialdivisions, strips of
I A form of this paper was read to a class in the College, Oxford, for generous assistance towards
Department of Social Anthropology, University of this and other Nilotic research.
Manchester, and I have profited much by suggestions 3 Originally printed in the South
African Journalof
from Prof. M. Gluckman and his students. Science,vol. xxi, and appearing in a more recent ver-
2 Information comes from the references later sion in A. R. Radcliffe-Brown, Structureand Function
listed, supplemented by my own field researchamong in PrimitiveSociety,I952.
the Anuak in I952-4. This work was carried out by 4 The theme of hostility between such kin in myth
me as a Research Fellow of the International African is not confined to the Shilluk and the Anuak. It is
Institute, by whom it was financed with funds made found, for example, among the Alur (Crazzolara,
available by UNESCO for the study of African cos- J. P., I95I, pp. i8off., 2Io, 2x6) and among the
mologies. I am grateful to the International African Rwanda (Pages, Rev. Pare, I933, pp. 626 ff.).
Institute for its great help, and also to All Souls

30 NILOTIC KINGS AND THEIR MOTHERS' KIN
the country running inland from the river. The original political significance of these
smaller divisions is now only obscurely discerned through the use to which they have
been put in the course of foreign administration. They are composed of settlements,
which are composed of villages and finally of hamlets. The settlements have chiefs or
headmen who come from lineages dominant in their local communities, which are
linked in various ways with the royal clan. In many settlements, lineages of the royal
clan have superseded in importance commoner lineages traditionally associated with
the sites, and this still leads to rivalries between royal and commoner lineages.'
The Shilluk are for the most part sedentary cultivators and cattle-herders. The
whole tribe may consist of i 1o,ooo people, all of whom now acknowledge the rule
and primacy of a single king. A king must necessarily be the son of a previous king, and
thus a member of the royal clan (kwvareth), which is the largest of the many Shilluk
exogamous clans. Like the other clans, the royal clan is dispersed in localized lineages
and families over much of Shilluk-land. The king and his court have for long been
established in a royal capital, Fashoda, which is more or less in the centre of the
country. Tradition tells that at one time there was no such royal township, and the
early kings would reign from the villages in which they had chosen to live, often
the villages of their maternal kinsmen.2 The royal wives are sent away to their homes
to bear their children, and there, or in the home of some headman selected by the king
as guardian for the young princes, the royal children are brought up. They are thus
'planted out' or raised in local communities, away from the court and the king.
When they are grown, the princes are rivals for the kingship.
The royal clan traces descent from an early culture hero, Nyikang,3 who was the first
leader and king of the Shilluk as a distinct nation. Every king is associated in thought
with Nyikang, and Nyikang, represented in effigy, is identified with each new king
in the rites for his installation. Myths of Nyikang validate the position of the king.
The Anuak may be between 35,ooo and 45,000 people-that is, probably less than
half the total number of the Shilluk-and they live, far more isolated and dispersed,
in little village communities in the south-east of the Sudan and in Ethiopia. Numerous
rivers cross their country and make great tracts of it impassable during the floods of
the wet season. Most of their villages are built on alluvial mounds on the banks of
rivers-the Pibor, Agwei, Oboth, Akobo, and Baro. Socially and spatially, each
village is a clearly distinct and isolated community, rarely comprising more than 500
people, and often much smaller than that. This pattern of settlement and the eco-
logical separateness of village communities contrast with the almost continuous
chain of hamlets found in Shilluk-land.
Two different but related political systems are found among the Anuak. Over most
of the country, each village is an autonomous unit, dominated by a lineage from which
headmen are chosen. The qualification for headmanship is that candidates should be
sons of headmen who have ruled in the village. Though every appearance of deference
is shown to the village headman, he is often little more than a figure-head, providing
food and entertainment for his people. Headmen are frequently changed in the course
I Pumphrey, M. E. C., 194I, p. I2. one account to another. In general, I have used the
2
Howell, P. P., and Thomson, W. P. G., 1946, simplest spelling in the text, retaining the authors'
p. io, and others. spelling in quotations.
3 The
spelling of some of these names varies from

NILOTIC KINGS AND THEIR MOTHERS'KIN 31I
of village revolutions,which occur when a rival candidategatherssufficientsupport
within his village to challengethe reigningheadmanand take his office,sometimesby
force, sometimes by agreement.Headmen thus removed from office usually go to
live in the villages of their maternalkin, where many will have preparedgardensto
support them in their banishment.
In south-easternAnuak-landa differentsystem is found. According to tradition,
the villages of this area,like those of the rest of the land, were at one time ruled by
independentvillage headmen; but they have now for long accepted the rule and
influence of membersof a single noble clan. Membersof this clan who have been
invested with the emblemsof nobility-who have had the royalbeadsplacedon their
necks and have sat on the royal stools-have then become establishedas leadersin
villages where, in many cases, they have replacedthe village headmen.Membersof
such villages support their noble candidatesin competition for the possession and
retention,in their villages, of the emblems.The actualholder of the emblemsis not
distinguishedby title, as 'king', from other nobles who have been invested with
them. In recenttimes, at least, the emblemshave changedhandseitherby fighting or
by arrangement,though they are said to have been handedfrom fatherto son in the
earliesttimes of the noble clan. Temporaryinvestiture,by which the young son of a
noble may be investedfor a short time in returnfor payment,thus ensuringthe rights
of his sons to claim investiturein the future, was introducedby the Administration,
with the intention of modifying the custom of seizing the emblemsby force, which
led to much bloodshed. This has now produceda very large numberof nobles, some
of whom have little hope of attainingthe leadershipof villages. The presentholder
of the emblems, supportedby the Administration,is but primusinterparesamong
these many other nobles.
We areprimarilyconcernedherewith the politicalsystemof thatpartof Anuak-land
which is ruled by nobles, though the royal myth is everywhereknown, and nobles
everywhereare recognizedas having a specialdignity. The myth of the founding of
the royalclanis thus an all-Anuakmyth, though the political system which it inaugu-
rates and validatesis effectivelypresentin a small part of Anuak-landonly.
The son of a noble is usually brought up in the village of his mother's brother,
though occasionallya noble may appoint someone else as the guardianof his son.
Nobles in the past have reignedfrom villages in which they have been acceptedand
installed as rulers, these often being the villages of their maternalkin. There the
emblems were taken when they had been seized with the support of the villagers.
There also the noble was, and often is, buried outside the village. As will later be
described, the son of a noble depends upon his mother's brothers to sponsor his
investiture, without which he cannot attain noble rank and therefore cannot be
eligible to representa village in competitionfor the possession of the emblems.
The noble clan of the Anuak is divided into severallineages, some of which have
startedin recent times to intermarry.On the whole, however, the Anuak regard
their noble clan as having been, for most of its history, exogamous, like that of the
Shilluk.In the emblemsand the royal clan, the villages of the areaunderthe influence
of nobles sharea set of common values and interestswhich villages ruledby headmen
lack; this resultsin a loose confederacy,basedupon rivalriesand oppositionsbetween
villages in competition for the emblems.

It will be seen that the kingship of the Shilluk, vested in a single person at any
particular time, is more firmly and widely established throughout the land than that
of the Anuak, where kingship is not co-ordinate with the whole country and there are
at any one time many ' kings ', the nobles. With the Shilluk, the nation forms a single
clearly defined political unit, and whatever the oppositions between its segments, they
are clearly subsidiary to the unity of the whole expressed in common allegiance to the
kingship. Environmental conditions and settlement patterns do not there, as among
the Anuak, emphasize the political isolation and exclusiveness of smaller segments of
the kingdom.
In traditional history, language, and in many features of custom, the Shilluk and
Anuak are closely related peoples, though they rarely meet, even individually, at
the present day. There is reason to conjecture that the kingship of the Shilluk once
spread through the land as that of the Anuak has begun to spread in more recent
times, and that we are dealing with very similar institutions at different stages of
development. Whether or not this be accepted, it is clear that the myths here compared
tell of the founding of related types of kingship in societies which have much else in
common to justify comparison.
III
Different versions of the myths give slightly different accounts of the relationships
here described, but in general they are represented as they appear in this article.
The origin of the Shilluk kingship is accounted for as follows. The first and proto-
typical Shilluk king, Nyikang, was himself the son of a chief or king in a distant
country, where those people who are now the Shilluk lived together with other
members of the Shilluk-Lwoo-speaking group of peoples. Nyikang's father, Okwa,
traced his descent through a line of kings or chiefs to a cow of divine origin from the
river, or to heaven itself.
One day Okwa saw the daughters of the crocodile playing in the river, and took
one of them, Nyikaya, and made her his wife. This daughter of the crocodile became
the mother of Nyikang. Okwa died, and Nyikang and his half-brother quarrelled
about who should succeed their father as king. Nyikang eventually left the country
with his supporters, who later became part of the present tribe of the Shilluk. In their
wanderings they reached the country of a chief or king called Dimo (Dhimmo) and
his son, or descendant, Thurro (Thurru). In the country of Dimo, Nyikang married
Dimo's ' daughter '-it may have been Thurro's daughter, but was in any case a girl
of Dimo's descent group-named Akec. It was she who bore Nyikang's most
important son and successor, Dak.
With Dak begin the conflicts of the Shilluk royal house with their maternal kin.
Dak, as Nyikang's most outstanding son, is clearly the beginning of the royal clan,
since it is he who continues the succession and consolidates the kingship. Without
him Nyikang remains simply an individual leader, not the founder of the royal
lineage. Dak is represented in myth and song as a strong, aggressive, mercurial, and
clever character,I in contrast to his effeminate half-brother Cal, who refuses to reign.
With his father, Dak stands above the other kings in reputation.
One story tells how Dak kills and roasts the children of the crocodile, who com-
I Hofmayr, W., 1925, passim.

NILOTIC KINGS AND THEIR MOTHERS' KIN 33
plains: 'My grandchildrenhave been eaten by your grandchildren.'"This is the
beginning of enmity between men and crocodiles. The theme, it will be seen, is one
of relationship between whole descent groups-' my grandchildren' and 'your
grandchildren'-rather than between individuals.The crocodilesare the agnatickin
of Nyikang's mother, the mother of the Shillukroyal clan. This act of aggression is
thus againstthe agnatesof the mother of the Shillukkings, though in relationto Dak
himself the crocodiles are father'smother's agnates.What is important,however, is
the contra-positionof the two agnaticgroups, the one springingfrom a daughterof
the other. Dak, acting as a memberof his own descent group, attacksand slays the
crocodiles, mother'sagnates of the Shilluk royal house.
If this text were unique, it might seem merely a just-so story, and in any case it
seems that the story is also told of the rabbit, the tricksterof Shilluk folk-lore. A
similartheme, however, appearsvery clearlyin another story of Dak, and suggests
that it is not merelyfortuitousthat the second Shillukking should be representedas
attackinghis clan's mother'sagnates.
The second storytells of the relationsof Dak with the agnatesof his own mother,
Akec the' daughter' of Dimo. Nyikang and his followers are living in the land of
Dimo and Thurro. Father Crazzolara2makes it clear that 'the people of Dhimmo '
are regarded as a descent group, the affines of Nyikang and the classificatory
mother's brothers and grandfathersof Dak. Nyikang and Dimo quarrelso badly
that they can no longer live together. Before they separate,in Father Crazzolara's
account, Dimo asks Nyikang what is to become of Nyikang's sons, Dak and
Anongo. Nyikang repliesthat they will accompanyhim, since they are of his seed.
Dimo suggests that, on the contrary,they will remainwith his group, their classifica-
tory mother's brothers. Nyikang says that they may have their choice, and they
choose to remainwith Dimo ratherthan go with their father.They cleave, that is, to
their mother'sagnates.' Dhimmo told them: " All right, come with me; you will be
my children! "'3 Later, however, Dak quarrelswith Dimo and his people, and the
princes returnto their fatherNyikang.
Dimo and his people now hate Dak and plot to kill him. They attemptto spearhim
when he is sitting in the courtyardplaying his harp, but Nyikang and Dak, having
been warnedof the plot, substitutean effigyfor Dak. This is spearedin his place; and
at the burial ceremony, Dak appearsalive to confound his mother's kin who have
sought his life. Nyikang and his sons then part from Dimo and his people.
Anotherversion of the hostilityof Dimo andhis people for Dak, their' daughter's'
son, states that Dimo's people were jealous of Dak, asking: 'The country is to be
ruled by Dak alone? '4 Then follows their unsuccessfulattempt to kill him. Other
stories are of contests of power between Nyikang and Dak acting together on the
one side, and Dimo on the other. Here, it appearsthat Dimo's wives are in favour of
Dak. Dak and Nyikang are triumphant.
There is a point in one version of the story which is of importancefor the analysis
which follows. Fr. Crazzolara5reportsthat, when Nyikang parted from Dimo and
I Westermann, D., 1912, p. 155, and others. of the texts suggests that the ' uncles ' were paternal
2
Crazzolara, J. P., 1951, p. 123. uncles; the Shilluk text, however, has neyi, which
3 Ibid., means ' maternal uncles '.
p. I24.
4
Westermann, D., 1912, p. 159. The translation 5 Crazzolara, J. P., 195I, pp. I27-8.
D

his people, Dak was followed by some members of Dimo's group who were Dak's
closest maternal kin. These became the Kwa Thurru clan now living in Shilluk-land.
Fr. Crazzolara writes:' Daak had evidently made a name for himself, and for his sake
a smaller part of the Thurro-Dhimmo group, related to him through his mother,
joined the group of Nyikaro. Most probably... their blood connection with Daak
was the occurring cause for leaving their home.' It seems here, as will later be sug-
gested for the Anuak, that it is primarily with his classificatory mother's brothers,
seen as mother's agnatic kinsmen, that the young prince is in conflict. His own close
maternal kin leave their own agnates to follow him. There is no suggestion in any of
the myths of conflict between the prince and his mother, who is under the protection
and hand of his father the king. It is with her male agnates that there is conflict.
The myth thus represents Nyikang, the first specifically Shilluk king, as the descen-
dant of a line of kings or chiefs who are ultimately of divine origin on the paternal
side. By his mother, the crocodile-woman, he is related to the river. Rivalry between
the king's sons for the kingship, as it occurs at the present day, is established in the myth
from the beginning, and is the cause of Nyikang's leaving his original home.
Then begin conflicts between the king's son and his mother's agnates, and with the
mother's agnates of the whole royal house, the crocodiles. The main theme appears
to be the conflict between the prince's 'loyalties' towards his mother's and his
father's agnates. It is worth mentioning that even in the life of ordinary Shilluk today
some such situation, though differently concluded, may arise. Dr. P. P. Howell
writes: ' In a few cases the Shilluk settle matrilocally .... Often the descendants of a
man who has settled in his wife's home seem to trace descent matrilineally, and will
often mention the name of their mother's father, if asked their lineage, rather than
a forbear in the paternal line....'" The Shilluk princes, however, are always brought
up in homes of maternal kinsmen or others who are not their fathers' people. It is
essential, for the preservation of the agnatic integrity of the royal clan, that the princes
should clearly detach themselves from the commoner lineages among whom they
grow up and have their only homes.
It is notable how, in Shilluk myth, song, and invocation, Dak and Nyikang stand
together as father and son. A song2 composed by Dak to celebrate his triumph over
his maternal uncles emphasizes that he has succeeded as the son of his father:
You cannot end the fight, I the son of Curecang,3
You cannot stop the fight, I the son of Nyikango ...
The final emphasis is upon the strength of royal agnation, as against the counter-
attraction of the prince's mother's agnates; and this theme relates to a situation which
is today a necessary condition of the integrity and structure of the royal clan, and thus
of the national political structure of the Shilluk.
A comparable theme may be elicited from quite a different set of facts, relating this
time to the royal daughters. There seems to be only one incident in Shilluk myth in
which the royal clan is represented in the role of mother's brother to another lineage.
Here a sister or half-sister of Nyikang, called Nyadwai, is given in marriage to a
Nuban, and some of the Nubans thus become classificatory sister's sons to the royal
1 Howell, P. P., 194I, p. 55, footnote. 3
Curecangis a praise-name for Nyikang.
2
Hofmayr, W., 1925, p. i6.

NILOTIC KINGS AND THEIR MOTHERS'KIN 35
clan. This relationshipseems to have some functionalimportanceat the present day.
It is said that, in return for his sister, Nyikang received from the Nubans certain
objects which were included among the Shilluk royal emblems, and the Nubans
received special rights to take part in the election of Shilluk kings. According to
what seems to have been the ancient custom, it was the Nubans who, by a type of
sortilege which varies from one accountto another,would indicatewhich of several
princes was chosen by God to be king of the Shilluk. Here, where the royal clan
figures as ' mother's brother' in a classificatorysense, its sister's sons are Nubans,
outside the Shilluk kingdom and political system, and their function is merely to
serve the kingship as a medium by which a new king is made known.
The uniquenessof this exampleof the royal clan as ' maternaluncles ' is to be con-
sidered in relation to other features of ancient and modern custom. It is said that,
even today, the daughtersof a king should not marry,and more particularlythat they
should not bear children. In fact, they take lovers, but it is thought that their off-
spring should not be allowed to survive. It is saidalso that the royal daughterscount,
in a sense, as males, and that intercoursewith them thereforehas in it an element of
sexualperversion.IDaughtersof the royal clan, that is, daughtersof princes,but not
of the king, may marry,though even this is objectionableto the Shillukin principle,
and when a new king is installed he may break the marriagesof his daughters. A
reasongiven me for this prohibitionwas that it would be unfittingfor the king, who
greatly transcends commoners, to appear as wife's father in relation to a com-
moner, since the relationshipinvolves bargainingand disagreement.It has also been
suggested that the king could not receive in bridewealthwhat in a sense, like every-
thing in the land, reallybelonged to him already.2
The Shilluk king should thus have no sisters'or daughters'sons within the king-
dom. It is to be rememberedthat,when one of the earlykingswas sister'sor daughter's
son in relationto anotherlineage, there was conflict between him and his mother's
agnatickin, basedupon theirresentmentat his rivallingtheirown politicaldominance.
In the ban on the marriageand child-bearingof the Shillukroyal daughters,it is as
though, from the point of view of the royal clan,this challengeof the sister'schild to
the establishedmother'sbrother'slineagehadbeenrecognizedandavoided.The count-
ing of the royal daughtersas males furtherstresses the importanceof purely agnatic
affiliationsin the royalclan. Not appearingin the role of mother'sbrotherto any other
lineage,the royalclan cannotdrawdescendantsof other lineages,throughits women,
towards itself and away from their own agnatic affiliation.Consideringits strength
in the country,this, if not prohibited,would be likely to happen. In preserving the
exclusively agnatic principle within itself, it also preserves the agnatic principlein
commonerlineageswhich might otherwisebe graftedon to it throughits women.
The theme of agnaticintegrity, the king at one with his fathers, seems to be pre-
sent also in the rites of installation,in which each king is identifiedwith his ancestor
Nyikang. There is, however, one detailof myth which representsa quarrelbetween
the prince Dak and his fatherthe king. Nyikang gives away Dak's motherto one of
his own paternal kin, who leaves the country with her. Dak's anger will not be
appeasedexcept by his receivingin returnNyikang's daughterto wife. This detailis
I Howell, P. P., D.Phil. thesis in the Institute of 2 Hofmayr, W., I925, p. 141.
Social Anthropology, Oxford.

sometimes said to explain why, until recently, every Shilluk king took one of his own
half-sisters among his wives.'
Again the theme of agnation is clearly represented in this detail of myth. Dak, who
has quarrelled with his mother's agnatic kin, is still angry when his own mother is
given away. Such close uterine kinship cannot be broken even for the sake of the unity
of son and father. Yet the prince's mother is given away and taken from the country.
It is the last and most pointed representation of the unimportance for the royal clan
of links through women. In taking his own agnatic kinswoman as a substitute for his
mother, Dak in his maturity finally abandons even the closest of a child's attachments
to the mother's side, and cleaves entirely to his own clan.
IV
It seems that, for the Shilluk, the conflicts with mother's agnates represented in
myth were over by the time Nyikang had firmly established his own, the Shilluk,
kingdom. Other myths tell of the way in which he peopled his land and attached its
parts to himself. Nyikang and Dak, in the Shilluk kingdom, are clearly masters of
the land and their title to reign exclusively is not disputed there.
The Anuak royal myth, though again representing hostility between the first king
and his classificatory mother's brother, has rather different implications. As the
Anuak see it, the noble clan in recent times has been in the process of extending its
domain through the land, and may try even now to establish itself in villages which
are still effectively ruled by their traditional dominant lineages of headmen. So the
struggle which the Shilluk myth places in the time before the present kingdom was
founded is a reality in Anuak-land today, where the royal clan does not reign so fully
or so exclusively over the whole country. Consistently with this, we find that in the
Anuak myth, and in some features of custom, the balance of power between mother's
and father's agnates of the nobles is less clearly decided in favour of the nobles and
their sons.
The Anuak royal myth is as follows. Once two children were catching fish with
their hands in the river. One had seized the head of a fish and one the tail, and they
were quarrelling about whose fish it should be. Then a spirit of the river, in the form
of a man, appeared on a log and told the child who held the head of the fish to release
it. The fish escaped. The spirit, whose name was Ukiro or Ucudhu (a name derived
from the word for log) told the children that in future whoever held the tail of a fish
should release it and allow the one who had the head to keep the fish. A fish could not
be held by the tail. He who seized the tail of a fish had only the right to beg it from
the other. The conclusion implies that this is not merely a matter of formally recogniz-
ing a right, but that with the recognition should go goodwill also.
The children returned to their village and told the headman, Cuai, what had hap-
pened. Cuai is the founder of the Jowatcuaa clan, regarded as one of the two original
Anuak clans and now one of the largest. In some versions of the story, Cuai was at
this time living with his kinsman Maaro, founder of the Jowatmaaro clan, the other
original Anuak clan. Even today the descendants of Cuai own more village sites than
do members of any other clan, and Cuai is thus the very type of village headman.
When Cuai heard the story of the man-spirit in the river, he sent his young men
I Oyler, D. S., I918 (i), p. III, and others.

NILOTIC KINGS AND THEIR MOTHERS'KIN 37
to watch and to capturehim. They caughtUkiro, though he changedhis form several
times, and he was taken back against his will to Cuai'svillage. It is sometimes said
that Cuai'smotive in wanting him there was that he wished to have someone who
could delivera judgementwhich his people would listen to, as nobody paidany atten-
tion to what he said himself.
In the village, Ukiro would not eat or drink. This representsfor the Anuak his
refusal to regard himself as a member of the community into which he had been
brought. Today, for example,when a new wife is brought to her husband'svillage
for the first time, she will not eat its food or drink its water until she has received
many presents from the young men of the village. Only after this present-giving
ceremony(kacdhago)does she become a memberof the village and eat its food and
drink its water, and she is expectedto show much formal reluctanceto do so.
Eventually,Cuai sent his daughter,Koori, to Ukiro with water and he drank.He
then ate food which she had prepared,and finally lay with her and she conceived.
Ukiro then was anxious to return to his own people in the river. He gave Koori
variouspossessions,includinga necklaceof blackand green beads.This necklacewas
called the ucwokbecauseUkiro said he would cwokKoori with it, meaninghe would
give her less than she deserved;it was to be placed on the neck of her son when he
was born, and she was to call the child Gilo. Ukiro returnedto the river (an expres-
sion still used for the deathsof Anuak nobles) and in time Koori bore a child whom
she called Gilo and on whose neck she placed the ucwoknecklace,which is still the
most importantof the noble emblems. This Gilo, son of the river-spiritUkiro and
the village headman'sdaughterKoori, was the first Anuak noble and the founder of
the royal clan.
Gilo grew up in his mother'svillage with her people. He becamevery popularwith
the women on account of his good looks and winning manners.This popularitywas
resented by a collateralagnatic kinsman of his mother, his classificatorymother's
brotherOthieno,' whom the women despised.Othieno plotted to kill Gilo, singing:
Gilo hasa long neck,I will cut it down;
My father's daughter'sson has a long neck, I will cut it down....
Eventually after several attempts he coaxed Gilo to the foot of a tree in the forest.
There, concealedin the branches,Othieno spearedGilo to death. Gilo's dog dipped
its muzzle in the blood of its master and, returningthus to the village, spreadthe
news that Gilo had been killed. Othieno was left as leader of a group of warriors
(luak)in the village; but they desertedhim and he was eventuallyslainhimself. Some
say merely that he disappeared;others, that he was slain but left a son who dis-
appeared.Gilo's son was concealedin a pot by his maternalgrandmotheror aunt and
grew up to continue his father'slineage, the Anuak noble clan.
There are significantdifferencesbetween the themes of this myth and those of the
Shilluk royal myth. The first king of the Shilluk comes from a line of established
human rulers. His mother, a river-being, is not localized in any particular human
community. Dak, the prince, is helped by his father in outwitting his mother's
agnates. The Anuak myth, on the other hand, shows the first two nobles, Gilo and his
I Othieno is sometimes said to have been the classificatory mother's brother of a later noble named Gilo,
but the story is usually fused with that of the first noble.

infant son, left without fathers in their mothers' village. The mother of the first
noble is clearly localized in a particular Anuak village community, where her father
is the headman. Strongly stressed in the Anuak myth, and quite absent from that of
the Shilluk, is the constraint imposed upon the father of the first noble, who is cap-
tured by his wife's father, and cajoled to stay and beget a child in that human com-
munity. From the beginning, the Shilluk kings appear as leaders with the will to
reign, and they triumph decisively over their maternal kin. In the Anuak myth, the
collateral agnatic kinsman of the first noble succeeds in killing his classificatory
sister's son, Gilo, though not in destroying the lineage. The Shilluk king of the myth
transcends any local village community, both as the son of his father, a king of divine
ancestry, and as son of his mother, a river-creature who even today is regarded as a
spiritual being. The first Anuak noble transcends or is outside the village community
as the son of his spirit father, and in that capacity may belong potentially to the whole
country, like the Shilluk king. As the son of his human mother, however, and the
ward of his mother's lineage, the first Anuak noble is localized in and dependent upon
a particular community and necessarily, therefore, identified with a specific part of
Anuak-land.
The account of the Shilluk and Anuak political systems given in Section II above
already suggests how consistent this is with differences between these two peoples at
the present day. The sons of Anuak nobles are dependent upon their mothers' agnates
for their investiture, often for bridewealth for their marriages,' and usually for a
permanent home and following. It is as candidates supported by their mothers'
brothers that they are presented for investiture with the royal emblems, to which,
however, they have the right only as sons of their fathers. The Anuak often say that
without a clever mother and strong mother's brothers the son of a noble cannot him-
self become important. This is sometimes the reason given for the loss of noble
status by whole lineages, originally descended from nobles, through sons who had
weak or insignificant mothers' brothers. Among the Shilluk, on the other hand, such
degraded lineages are attributed to the action of early kings who have been able to
deprive collateral branches of the royal clan of royal status.
The part played by the mother's brothers at the investiture of an Anuak noble is
also very important symbolically. Though I was never able to see an investiture, I
was repeatedly told that the new noble was escorted to the stools by the mother's
brothers, who held the legs of the stools while he sat upon them. This seems clearly
to suggest the necessity of the support of the maternal kinsmen. Further, it is believed
that anyone who is not biologically the son of a noble will fall from the stool, or the
stools will collapse under him, and it is said that if such an impostor appears he will be
in danger of being killed, along with the maternal kinsmen who have sponsored him.
Unfortunately, little specific indication of the place of the mother's brothers at the
installation of a Shilluk king is given in the literature. If their part were as outstanding
as that of a noble's maternal kin at an Anuak investiture it seems unlikely that so
many careful observers of the Shilluk could have neglected the fact. What is reported
for the Shilluk is that when the Shilluk king Anei Kur was installed in I943,Z the
I It seems that the Shilluk princes receive their 2 Howell, P. P., and Thomson, W. P. G., 1946,
bridewealth from their fathers. Hofmayr, W., I925, p. 62.
p. I43.

NILOTICKINGS AND THEIR MOTHERS'KIN 39
of
effigy Nyikang was first placed on the stool, and the leg was then held by the
king-elect. When in turn the new king was placed on the stool, the 'chamberlain'
and 'another Shilluk' supported its legs. At the installation of King Fafiti Yor
in 1918, the legs of the stool are said to have been held by a member of the royal
the son of a prince,while the new king sat upon it.' Suchaccounts
clan (kwanyireth),
of the Shillukas we have, then, not only makeno particularreferenceto the import-
ance of the maternalkin of the king in these situations;they also specificallymention
that the king himself holds the legs of the stool for the effigy of his ancestor,and
that a memberof the king's clan held the legs of the stool for FafitiYor. The Anuak
investiture displays the dependence of the young noble on his mother's brothers
which we find in myth also; while the Shilluk installationwould seem to display
the greaterdependenceof the king on his own agnateswhich is also more strongly
emphasizedin the Shillukthan in the Anuak myth.
V
I have takenfor granted-and from the Nilotic facts it would be possible amplyto
support-the correctness of Professor Radcliffe-Brown'sanalysis of the mother's
brother/sister'sson relationship,seen simply as one of kinship, in the context of
interpersonalrelations.The Shillukand Anuak royal myths, however, in contradict-
ing the idealand receivedpatternfor this relationship,suggest that thereareelements
in it besides those of kindnessand affectionbetween close uterine kin. It has also a
political aspect; and, it seems to me, this is what the myths represent.
The Shilluk kings and the Anuak nobles are not ordinarysisters' sons to their
commonermaternaluncles; or rather,they are more than ordinarysisters'sons. The
firstAnuaknoble standsfor all the nobles and for the noble clan as a whole. The first
Shilluk kings representthe kingship as a whole. As sisters' sons, then, they have
significancefor the political structureof groups larger than the local communities
in which, as persons, they are raised.In both cases, their wider significanceis based
upon the principleof agnaticdescent from foundersof the royal clans who, coming
ultimatelyfrom outside society, are able to transcendit. The rivalriesof these agnatic
kinsmen,aroundthe kingshipin the case of the Shilluk,aroundthe possessionof the
emblemsin the case of the Anuak, become the means by which differentlocal com-
munities are enabled to take part in a common political system, for the royal and
noble clans are the only genealogical structureswhich extend, in importance,far
outside particularlocal communities.
Yet the political structureof the smallerlocal communitiesalso is based upon the
presencein them of dominantnuclearlineages, often, and originally,commoners,in
which political leadershipis vested or is thought at one time to have been vested.
Membersof the royal clans settledin these communitiesenablethem to have a share
in the wider system, but also tend to usurp the local position of the dominantcom-
moner lineages,often the lineagesof theirmothers'agnates.In a sense, therefore,the
princes'and nobles' mothers'agnatickin are requiredto sacrificetheir local impor-
tance in orderto gain a differentkind of importancein a wider polity. The sacrificeis
not madewithout conflict,as the mythsreveal;and we aretold also of rivalries,at the
' Munro, P., 1918, p. 15I.

present day, between dominant commoner lineages and princes and nobles who come
to replace them in local importance.'
There are indications that it is indeed the classificatory mother's brothers of the
princes and nobles, and not their own close uterine kin, whose resentment and
aggression is in question. The mothers' full brothers, the close kin, tend to become
attached to the cause of their own sister's sons, and support them even against their
own agnatic kin. This is indicated in the myth of the division of the Kwa Thurru-
the group of Dimo-mentioned on page 34 above. Anuak have themselves sug-
gested to me that the mothers' full brothers of young nobles love them and support
them; it is more difficult to win over the mothers' distant agnatic kinsmen. In the
village of Pocala, for example, a noble has for long been the leader of a group of his
own close maternal kin, who have assembled about his court; other villagers have
paid him less attention. The latter, many of whom are his mother's more distant
agnatic kin, collateral lineages of the same clan, have effectively prevented his being
installed as the ruler of the whole village, though they do not resent him as a guest.
What seems to be represented in these royal myths is not, or not primarily, an
anomalous behaviour of uterine kin to each other-anomalous kin-relations-but
the relations between the kings and their mothers' agnates seen as relations between
descent groups rather than between persons. The early kings and nobles and their
maternal kin are bound together by personal kinship but opposed as members of ex-
clusive agnatic groups. The prince or noble, therefore, may see his mother's brothers
as maternal kinsmen, closely linked to him personally, and also as a group of agnates,
opposed to his own agnatic descent group. This situation of opposition and con-
junction of descent groups linked by women is important in other Nilotic societies
also. To regard the mother's brothers as a group of the mother's agnates, as well as
kinsmen, is to understand the conflicts of these myths. Anuak may make the distinc-
tion themselves by saying either: ' My mother's brother is a man of clan X ', empha-
sizing the kinship bond, or: 'Clan X are my mother's brothers ', emphasizing the
linked agnation of two descent groups. The position of the ' classificatory mother's
brother ' is thus not entirely to be understood in terms of the extension of sentiments
developed in relation to the 'real' mother's brothers. The classificatory mother's
brother also particularly represents the exclusiveness of the mother's descent group,
as opposed to that of the father.
Although it is in the myths that the theme is most marked, since there it refers to
the politically unique royal clans, it may also be seen in certain of the customary
observances of commoners. Among the Shilluk, I was told, a sister's son must never
sit near the entrance of his mother's brother's hut, lest the entrance split apart. The
significance of this prohibition might be understood in the light of what appears in
myth as the threat offered by the sister's son's lineage to that of the mother's brother.
For in Shilluk, the ' entrance to the hut' is also the common word for ' lineage ', and
the expression and prohibition therefore suggest the splitting of the lineage of the
maternal uncle by his nephew, which appears also as a theme in the myths. Among
the Anuak, a sister's son should not sleep between two maternal uncles 'lest his
strength be lost '. This prohibition is consistent with the power, in Anuak myth, of
the mother's brother over the sister's son. The strength of the nephew may be lost
I Pumphrey, M. E. C., I94I, p. 12.

NILOTIC KINGS AND THEIR MOTHERS' KIN 4I
between two-that is, a group of-maternal uncles. The royal myths show such
themes writ large, in a wide politicalcontext; but it is to be rememberedthat though
the agnaticintegrityof the royalclansis more importantfor the total polity of these
tribesthan that of other clans,theirpoliticalstructureat all levels depends upon the
exclusivenessand opposition of distinct agnatic descent groups, forming the nuclei
of local communities.The rivalriesof claimantsaroundthe Anuak emblemsand the
Shillukkingshiprepresent,to differentdegrees,the exclusivenessandalsothe common
values of these local communities,underthe form of rivalrieswithin a single agnatic
descent-groupsystem, that of a royal clan. In the case of the Anuak, that system has
been less firmlyand clearlyestablishedthan among the Shilluk,where in myth there
are strongerindicationsof the force of royal agnationas comparedwith the counter-
attractionof the mothers' agnatesfor the princes.
Further, the main lineages of the Anuak noble clan have now started to inter-
marry.It is said that the first intermarriagebetween the two strongestlineages, the
Nyi Tung Goc and the Nyi Tung Odola, was about two generationsago, in the time
of the very powerful noble Akwei war Cam, who obtained muskets from Ethiopia
and perhapsdid more than any other single noble to extend the power and prestige
of the kingship. His leadership,moreover, coincidedwith the meeting of challenges
from the Nuer and from the British, and it may have been similarlyas a focus of
opposition to foreignersthat the Shillukkingship was strengthened.It seems, then,
that the beginning of the intermarriageof lineagesof the Anuakroyalclan coincided
with the rise of its most powerful representative,and the wider establishmentof its
power over south-easternAnuak-land.One is remindedof the Shillukcustom of the
king's taking his half-sisterto wife; but I think that the ending of the exogamyof the
Anuak royal clan has other implications.Although the Shillukkings are said to have
takeneach a half-sisterto wife, the lineagesof the Shillukroyalclan cannotin general
intermarry.The rule of exogamy of the whole clan indeed stressesthat, in relation
to other descent groups within the country,the Shillukroyal clan is a single agnatic
unit. Exogamy is a mark of total agnatic solidarity.With the Anuak, this ending of
exogamy implies deeper divisions between the lineages of the noble clan than exist
between those of the Shillukroyal clan. That the Anuak noble clan, contrastedwith
the Shilluk, should be thus divided is consistent with the greater social distance
between the differentlocal communitieswhich its membersare requiredto represent,
and with the greater importanceof the mother's agnation for the Anuak noble as
comparedwith the Shilluk prince. This theme appearsin myth and in present-day
custom.
REFERENCES
CRAZZOLARA,FR. J. P. The Lwoo. Part 2, Lwoo Traditions,1951.
EVANS-PRITCHARD,E. E. The Political Systemof the Anuak of the Anglo-EgyptianSudan, 1940.
' Further Notes on the Political System of the Anuak ', SudanNotes and Records,1947.
HOFMAYR, FR. WILHELM.Die Schilluk, 1925.
HOWELL, P. P. 'The Shilluk Settlement', SudanNotes and Records,1941.
and THOMSON, W. P. G. ' The Death of the Reth of the Shilluk and the Installation of his Successor',
ibid., 1946.
MUNRO,P. ' Installation of the Ret of the Chol (king of the Shilluks) ', ibid., I9I8.
OYLER, REV.D. S. ' Nikawng and the Shilluk Migration', ibid., 1918.
PAGES,REV.PERE. Un RoyaumeHamite, 1933.
PUMPHREY,M. E. C. 'The Shilluk Tribe ', SudanNotes and Records,1941.
WESTERMANN, D. The Shilluk People. Their Languageand Folklore, I912.

Resume
LES ROIS NILOTIQUES ET LES PARENTS DE LEUR MERE
DANSson article ' The Mother's Brother in South Africa', le ProfesseurRadcliffe-Brown
examinele modele de comportementgeneralementapprouveentre un homme et ses parents
maternels,et notammentles freresde sa mere, qui est fonde sur l'hypothese qu'une amabilite
et une complaisanceplus grandesregnent entre parentsde ces categoriesqu'entreceux de la
ligne paternelle.L'auteurdu present article, tout en admettantqu'un modele de comporte-
ment similaireest accepteparmiles societes nilotiques,fait ressortircertainescaracteristiques
des mythes shilluk et anuak comportantune descriptionde conflits et de rivalites entre un
homme et ses parents maternels.En outre, les coutumes actuelles parmi les Shilluk et les
Anuak revelent des conflits semblablesdans certainesconjonctures.Une description som-
maire de la situation geographique et de la structurepolitique des deux societes en cause
montre de quelle maniere celles-ci sont refletees dans leurs mythes respectifs et dans leur
usage actuel. Les Shilluk occupent un territoirecontinu sur la rive occidentale du Nil, qui
est divise en deux provinces qui correspondenta une division anterieure,etablie selon les
cultes; le peuple habite dans des colonies sous l'autorite des chefs, mais la tribu toute
entiere reconnait la suprematied'un seul roi, qui est etabli actuellement,avec sa cour, a
Fachoda, la capitale.
Les Anuak, une tribu beaucoup moins nombreuse, habitent dans des communautes
villageoises isolees et eparpilleesdans le Soudan du sud-est et dans l'Ithiopie. Dans la plu-
part du territoire, chaque village est autonome avec son propre chef provenant d'un clan
dominant. Dans la partie sud-est du territoirede l'Anuak les habitantsdes villages se sont
soumis a l'autoritedes nobles, membresd'un seul clan noble. Les fils des rois shilluk, et les
fils des nobles anuak, sont eleves ordinairementdans les villages de leurs parentsmaternels.
Parmi les Shilluk, seul le fils d'un roi peut devenir roi, et de meme, seuls les fils de nobles,
parmiles Anuak, peuvent etre investis des emblemesqui leur permettentde gouverner, mais
ils ont besoin du soutien des freres de leur mere contre des pretendantsrivaux.
Les mythes shilluk et anuakcomportent des recits de conflits entre le heros cultuel ou le
roi et ses agnats maternels,mais dans ces conflits c'est le groupe de ses agnats maternels,
plutot que les parents proches de sa veritable mere, qui est l'ennemi du heros. Par conse-
quent, l'auteurarrivea la conclusion que ce qui est representedans ces mythes n'est pas un
comportementanormalde parentsuterins,les.uns envers les autres,mais des rapportsentre
groupes de descendance.Les rois et nobles primitifs et leurs parents maternelssont reunis
par la parente personnelle, mais ils sont en opposition, en tant que membres de groupes
agnatiquesexclusifs. Les rois shilluk et les nobles anuakont de l'importancepour la struc-
ture politique de groupes qui depassent les communauteslocales auxquelles, en tant que
personnes, ils appartiennentet leur importanceest basee sur la descendanceagnatique des
fondateursde clans royaux qui sont censes etre d'origine demi-divineet qui, de ce fait, sont
capablesd'outrepasserla societe locale. Pourtant,les rivalites de parentsagnatiquesqui lut-
tent pourla royauteou pour les emblemesde la noblesse,permettentaux communauteslocales
de participerdans un systeme politique commun. L'integrite agnatique des clans royaux
a de l'importancepour la constitution politique de ces peuples dans son ensemble, mais en
meme temps leur structurepolitique a tous les niveaux depend de l'opposition de groupes
distinctsde descendanceagnatiquequi etaient autrefoisles noyaux de communauteslocales.
Les rivalites de pretendantsa la royaute shilluk ou aux emblemes anuak represententle
caractereexclusif et, egalement,les valeurs communes de ces communauteslocales, sous la
forme de rivalites au sein d'un seul groupe de descendanceagnatique,celui d'un clan royal.


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