ANUAK

also spelled Anywak a riverain Nilotic people of the northern Luo language group. About one-fourth of the Anuak live in southeastern Sudan, the remainder in Ethiopia. The Anuak are believed to have migrated from lands east of the African great lakes several centuries ago. The Sudanese Anuak occupy high ground in savanna grasslands along riverbanks that are flooded annually; separate wet- and dry-season villages are maintained. The Ethiopian Anuak live in forested savanna and along streams in the highlands bordering The Sudan. Because more dry ground is available to the eastern (Ethiopian) Anuakresulting in more closely connected villagesthey have a wider political organization than that afforded by the autonomous villages of the western Anuak. Unlike most Nilotic peoples, the eastern Anuak keep no cattle; instead they fish, hunt, maintain gardens, and rear some sheep and goats. Through the turbulent 19th and early 20th centuries, the Anuak fought with neighbouring Nuer and resisted colonial occupation. From 1930 the Anuak, represented by chiefs, have participated in the Sudanese administration. They were active participants, however, in the civil war (195572) to create an independent black state for the southern Sudanese. Anuak clans are patrilineal. Lineage members live in the same village, but each village, of 200 to 2,000 people, comprises several unrelated clans. Eastern Anuak traditionally have had a royal clan and a king, while western village headmen have had autonomy. Most Anuak are monogamous.