|
Sudan
Ethnic Groups
The definition and boundaries of ethnic groups depend on how
people perceive themselves and others. Language, cultural characteristics,
and common ancestry may be used as markers of ethnic identity
or difference, but they do not always define groups of people.
Thus, the people called Atuot and the much larger group called
Nuer spoke essentially the same language, shared many cultural
characteristics, and acknowledged a common ancestry, but each
group defined itself and the other as different. Identifying ethnic
groups in Sudan was made more complicated by the multifaceted
character of internal divisions among Arabic-speaking Muslims,
the largest population that might be considered a single ethnic
group.
The distinction between Sudan's Muslim and non-Muslim people
has been of considerable importance in the country's history and
provides a preliminary ordering of the ethnic groups. It does
not, however, correspond in any simple way to distinctions based
on linguistic, cultural, or racial criteria nor to social or political
solidarity. Ethnic group names commonly used in Sudan and by foreign
analysts are not always used by the people themselves. That is
particularly true for non-Arabs known by names coined by Arabs
or by the British, who based the names on terms used by Arabs
or others not of the group itself. Thus, the Dinka and the Nuer,
the largest groups in southern Sudan, call themselves, respectively,
Jieng and Naath.
Data as of June 1991
|
