The current implications of the two competing theories about the Nuer People

[Elisabeth Janaina]

The current implications of the two competing theories about the Nuer People
Posted: September 8, 2017 by PaanLuel Wël in Commentary, Contributing
Writers, Junub Sudan, Opinion Articles, Opinion Writers, Philosophy
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The two-theoretical approach in Dr. Wal Duany’s dissertation at the
Indiana State University, USA, about the Nuer People: Do they have any
implication with the current crisis in the Republic of South Sudan?

“Not so with the Nuer. . . . Their institutions are invisible. Every
now and then a regulatory idea surfaces and marshals activity, then
sinks out of sight, while another becomes visible in its effect upon
movements of cattle and people. If they can be said to have anything
corresponding to political institutions, these have absolutely no
physical form, no architecture of palaces or prisons, no embodiment in
piles of stones. . .” (Johnson, 1980, as cited in Duany 1992).

By Dr. Simon Wuor Gai, Nebraska, USA
Nuer white army

South Sudan Rebels: Nuer White Army Fighters

September 8, 2017 (SSB) — While this author is neither a political
science major nor a historian by profession, I like to read stuff that
is relevant to our contemporary societies, particularly the two
Sudan’s—South and the North. There is significant evidence that any
decision-making process can be maximized within the context of knowing
the unlimited body of knowledge. In this context, I always push myself
to capitalize on my current expertise to other areas, where I am not a
subject matter expert in or anything along those lines.

With that being said, I find it interesting when reading Dr. Wal
Duany’s dissertation at the Indiana State University where he
addressed the Nuer’s constitution order by examining the
two-fundamental theoretical knowledge in his capacity as a political
science’s scholar. To conceptualize the Nuer’s social order, Dr. Wal
Duany compared the two theories, the Acephalous and Autocephalous
theoretical understanding against the Nuer people to unearth the
strength or weak social order of the Nuer tribe from the Republic of
Sudan in his dissertation—South Sudan was not independence yet by
then.


Although Dr. Wal Duany successfully defended his doctoral thesis, some
challenges remained to be answered and interpreted by the next
generations of the Nuer tribe. For instance, other scholars have
mocked out the acephalous societies as one of the primitives and
backwardness societies in the world for resistant to change while
changes were part and parcel of any society. Interested readers are
referred to (Ayittey, 2012).

In the same line of reasoning, Duany (1992)’s dissertation quoted two
famous scholars, who did not appreciate the social order of the Nuer
and other stateless, headless societies around the globe. From the
perspectives of these scholars, Douglas Johnson (1982) stated out loud
and clear that Nuer have no visible institutions, per se, in thy
social order. He suggested that their institutions come and go,
especially during the marshaling activities and during the cattle camp
for pasture, water points, as well as other use of the resources.
Literally, what this means is that Nuer have no centralized legal and
political institutions, as opposed to some types of kinship
arrangements, or social capital to which disputes, marriages, among
the others, can be settled through (Johnson, 1980, as cited in Duany
1992).

His counterpart, echoed similar observation as he put it “The Nuer are
considered by some observers as lacking institutions. Their social
arrangements might instead, be viewed as forms of social capital which
need to be understood in order to appreciate how problems of further
development can be addressed” (Coleman, 1989, as cited in Duany 1992).
Drawing on these theoretical understanding, it is crystal clear that
these four academic scholars have reached a consensus that the Nuer
tribe is an acephalous, stateless, headless, egalitarian, classless
society. They are all equal in form, shape, and color (Ayittey, 2012;
Coleman, 1989; Johnson, 1980, as cited in Duany, 1992).

By and large, Nuer people have no court buildings, visible political
institutions, and centralized system, where one man or a woman is
appointed as a head of the system. According to Duany (1992), Nuer
people are all equal. Perhaps, the etiology of this belief, as
suggested by the above study, stems from Lic, the forefather of Nuer,
who was believed to have been created by God. In turn, Lic had a son
by the name Holnyang, who had two children with different mothers
later. He named them as Ghaak and Gee. In his own right, Dr. Wal Duany
seemed to suggest that it was where the principle of equality got
started from Nuer tribe. Meaning, these two sons of Holnyang are equal
and that nobody is above the other regardless of any social status
they may have had in the society. They are still equal to the common
man.

This finding is consistent with the rest of African tribes, who are
also stateless or acephalous societies like Nuer. For instance, Prof.
G.N Ayittey (2012) pointed out that “There is a wide dispersion of
this system across Africa, adopted by such ethnic societies as the Tiv
and Igbo of Nigeria, the Nuer of Sudan, the Somali, and the Bedouin
Arabs throughout North Africa. Such societies reached compromises in
conflict resolution rather than making judgments and applying
sanctions.”

Autocephalous, on the other hand, is a system where power is
centralized and bestowed to the head of the institutions. He/she could
be a king, a queen, a president, judges; you name it. According to Dr.
Wal Duany, this system is not in favor of Nuer people. Many
governments of the today’s world are being run by an Autocephalous
system where power is centralized for the community’s coherency
including the government of South Sudan, which is in question right
now in the Nuer’s eyes. With the current knowledge of South Sudan
national census, we have 64 recognized tribes in the country. Then the
question becomes, how many tribes subscribe to Acephalous and
Autocephalous social order in South Sudan?

The question has no right or wrong answer, but it is our
responsibility to build on this two-theoretical approach, pioneered by
a late uncle, Dr. Wal Duany in his dissertation at the Indiana State
University. Research does not come out of the blue; one should anchor
his/her research on the existent body of knowledge. I have personally
admired our uncle, Dr. Gat Duany for putting these two-theoretical
understanding into a good use on behalf of Nuer tribe in South Sudan.
To me, there is a correlation between the current crisis of our nation
and the 1992 Dr. Wal Duany’s dissertation’s findings at the Indiana
State University. The system of the governance in South Sudan seems to
be in question, as its constituencies are not all acephalous,
headless, stateless, egalitarian, nor all are autocephalous, or
hierarchical societies. In this context, how do you choose the system
of governance for this type of people? I will leave the question
unanswered for now so that the interested readers can research it.

Beyond a cloud of a shadow, I find it that there is a gap in the
social order of South Sudanese people, as we speak. On the one hand,
some ethnic groups are autocephalous, hierarchical, head of state,
judges, among the others, in thy social order. On the other hand,
other are acephalous, headless, egalitarian, and stateless in their
social order. How do you bring these forces to form one political
system that governs our nation? Once again, such a question rests
squarely on our shoulders, especially the second generation of Nuer
and those, who may subscribe to the same social order across South
Sudan.

With that in mind, there are serious implications on behalf of our
nation generally, and Nuer tribe on Dr. Wal Duany’s research study.
One, the current generations of Nuer tribe need to revisit this
theoretical assumption and expand its relevance at this point in time.
Possibly, it could be a turning point in unearthing the underlying
issues in our country’s crisis. By re-examining this theoretical
approach, perhaps, we may discover another way of governing ourselves
in the Republic of South Sudan. Two, Nuer ethnic group may be dwelling
in the past, while the world has changed a thousand times. It is a
high time for us to conduct a new line of research to find out whether
or not this system still intact. Three, in line with the
above-mentioned academic scholars, the acephalous social order is
reported to have a strong resistant to changes. For this reason, we
need to conduct a new line of research to either expand the current
theoretical knowledge or find another way of conducting a new
scientific theory to solve the existent problem in our country.

Conclusions and recommendations, scientific inquiries do not come out
of the blue; one should build and draw on the existent body of
knowledge already compiled by other researchers in the field. For
instance, Late uncle, Dr. Wal Duany had helped us in discovering the
theoretical lens, in which our community was operating through awhile
back. Furthermore, Dr. Wal Duany and Dr. Giat Jal also have reached a
consensus that the Nuer have originated from Lic, who was reported to
have been created by God. His son, Holnyang had two sons from
different mothers—Ghaak and Gee who become the Nuer ancestors in life
later. I find it interesting that we have something in our hands
already built by our fathers, Late uncle Dr. Wal Duany and late uncle,
Dr. Giet Jal. As defined in the preceding paragraphs, acephalous
societies are headless, stateless, societies, which have no political
authority, or social hierarchies except in time of marshaling
activities, which come and go. They are egalitarian or non-stratified
societies, and all these terms can be used interchangeably with
acephalous and autocephalous theories, respectively. In this kind of
societies, everyone else is equal. There is no single man or woman
bestowed with the absolute legal or political authority, as well as
kings and queens.

Consequently, I have strongly recommended Dr. Wal Duany’s research
study to be expanded by our current generations to see whether or not
there is any application to our contemporary crisis in South Sudan. I
don’t want to leave my readers with the impression that Dr. Wal Duany
and Dr. Giet Jal’s research studies were incorporated into this
article, pieced together by me (Dr. Simon Wuor Gai) entirely. I only
addressed the conceptual framework in which Dr. Wal Duany used in his
dissertation to prove it to the scientific communities that Nuer
people are acephalous, headless, stateless, egalitarian society, who
have nothing to do with the theory of sovereignty. Now with the
existence of the Republic of South Sudan as a central authority to all
its constituencies, how does this authority resonate with the
acephalous societies in South Sudan, such as Nuer and other ethnic
groups out there?

Notice to all readers of this piece: In-text citations were provided
to help the advanced readers locate the sources when they conduct thy
own further research or verifying the contents of this piece. List of
references was not provided as this piece is not intended for the
academic publication. Therefore, its readers or audiences are the
common men and women in the social media and other local news outlets.
I, therefore, thank those, who will take time out of their busy
schedules to read this piece in advance.

The author lives in the greatest city of Omaha in the State of
Nebraska, USA. He holds a doctorate at the Colorado Technical
Univerity in the area of management and global leadership, and a
master degree in counseling psychology from the University of
Nebraska. Furthermore, Dr. Simon is currently serving as an advisor to
the Nuer Union for Development (NUD) in the USA and beyond. He can be
reached at simongai2