The Anyuak, also known as Anyuaa and Anywaa, are a Luo Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting parts of East Africa. The Anuak belong to the larger Luo family group. Their language is referred to as Dha-Anywaa. They are primarily found in Gambela Region in western Ethiopia, and South Sudan. Group members number between 200,000 and 300,000 people worldwide. Many of the Anyuak people now follow Christianity. It is one of the first of the Nilotic groups to become almost entirely Christian, following the Shilluk people.
History
According to American non-profit organization Cultural Survival, the Anuak originally lived on land near the Pibor River and the Sobat River, in present-day eastern South Sudan near Ethiopia. Due to displacement from other groups, most Anuak now live along the Baro River and the Akobo River.
The Anuak are a Nilotic people. They have lived in the area of the Upper Nile for hundreds of years and consider their land to be their tribal land. Unlike other Nilotic peoples in the Upper Nile, whose economies are based on raising cattle, the Anuak are herdsmen and farmers. They are believed to have a common origin with their northern neighbors, the Luo and Shilluk. Also, they share a similar language with their neighbors to the south, the Acholi.The Luo peoples are scattered all over Eastern Africa, including Sudan and Ethiopia; they identify as a people who have preserved their cultural heritage wherever they reside. The Luo-speaking people of Eastern Africa are found beyond the Sudan and Ethiopia in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and the Congo. Their language(s) and dialects belong to the broader cluster of Nilo-Saharan languages.
During the Abyssnian Empire, many Anuak people were taken as slaves, often by wealthy and imperial households. Slavery in predominantly Anuak regions was abolished in the early 20th century, but was briefly restored following World War II.
According to Human Rights Watch, a prominent non-governmental organization, the Anuak people were the predominant ethnic group in Ethiopia's western Gambela Region, until the 1980s. However, beginning in 1984, the Derg regime embarked on a resettlement program, whereby 60,000 people from the central Ethiopian Highlands were relocated to Anuak lands in the Gambela Region. Simultaneously, the Second Sudanese Civil War broke out to the west of the Gambela Region, resulting in a large amount of refugees fleeing into the same area. These changes were further compounded by a gradual migration of the Nuer people eastward into the region, which had been taking place throughout the 20th century.
Following the collapse of the self-proclaimed socialist People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1991, ethnic tensions and episodes of ethnic violence broke out in the Gambela Region. Many Anuak openly resented the migration of non-Anuak residents into their historic lands, and perceived their ethnic territory to be shrinking. From 1991 onwards to the mid-2000s, ethnic clashes which have killed hundreds and displaced thousands have taken place between the Anuak and other peoples in the Gambela Region.
During the 2000s, the Ethiopian military began conducting operations to neutralized armed Anuak groups in the region. These groups, which are not unified under any single organization or political cause, include groups which target other ethnic groups and Ethiopian soldiers. The Ethiopian government has taken an increased interest in providing stability in the Gambela Region due to the recent discovery of petroleum and gold in the area.
As a result of inter-ethnic violence, and alleged discrimination from the Ethiopian government, a sizeable Anuak diaspora began to form during the 1990s and 2000s. Many settled in Minnesota, in the United States.
Geographic distribution
The Anuak people predominantly reside in western Ethiopia and South Sudan. Many live along the Baro River and the Akobo River, and within the Gambela Region of Ethiopia. The Anuak of Sudan live in a grassy region that is flat and virtually treeless. During the rainy season, this area floods, so that much of it becomes swampland with various channels of deep water running through it.