From: danny@orthanc.cs.su.oz.au (Danny)
Subject: Book Review - Baggara Arabs
Reply-To: danny@cs.su.oz.au (Danny)
Organization: Basser Dept of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 01:44:47 GMT

Baggara Arabs - Power and the Lineage in a Sundanese Nomad Tribe 
Ian Cunnison 
Oxford 1966 
pp. 233

_Baggara Arabs_ is an anthropological study of a Sundanese Arab tribe,
the Humr.  It is based on fieldwork carried out by the author in the
1950s.  The emphasis of the book is on politics and power relations
within the tribe, and in particular the relationship between these and
the lineage system (hence the subtitle), but it also gives a description
of the physical environment and way of life of the people.

The Humr are a semi-nomadic tribe of Baggara Arabs who live in
South-Central Sudan, in the province of Kordofan, and have occupied that
area since around 1800.  They spend the wet season in settled camps to
the north and the dry season along the Bahr el Arab, one of the major
tributaries of the Nile.  Their livelihood comes from cultivating millet
and herding cattle, and more recently from growing cotton for sale.

Humr social organisation is segmentary in nature.  They are divided into
two sections, the Felaita and the 'Ajaira, which are in turn divided
into omodiyas, which are divided into major sections, minor sections and
so on.  The dogmatic (generally accepted) model for this structure is an
agnatic lineage system, so the members of these groups are in theory all
descended from the one paternal ancestor.  Individual camps (surras) are
themselves lineages, and tents within the surra are organised on the
basis of individual families.

The reality is somewhat different to the theory.  In practise sections
have moved around and joined other sections, and these 'stranger'
sections are considered full members of the higher section they join
(though the difference between 'native' and 'stranger' sections may be a
line of separation in the event of later disputes within the group).
Also while a group ideally acts as a unit in relations with other groups
of the same level, due to internal dissent a subsection of the larger
group may ally itself with others.  (So the minor lineage Jumal el Din
Zerga may ally with Awlad Salamy major section even against the rest of
its own Ariya major section).

Relationships between sections are formalised by agreements for the
sharing of payments for injury.  So if someone from one omodiya kills a
man from another, the standard payment of 60 cattle blood money comes
from all the sections of the killer's omodiya, and from sections allied
to that omda, and is paid to the sections of the omodiya of the victim,
along with their allies.  These relationships are in a continual state of
flux.

With the establishment of the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, the imposition
of new institutions of control has brought changes to the internal
politics of the Humr.  The lowest level of recognised official are the
tribute sheikhs, who are responsible for organising the payment of
taxes.  They have highly variable numbers of followers (all individual
Humr pay taxes through on sheikh), and anyone with the necessary
economic resources (ie cattle) can become one.  As a result they fit in
easily with the flexible segmentary system already existing.

At a higher level the Government recognises nazirs and omdas - there is
a nazir for the Humr as a whole and one for each of the Felaita and
'Ajaira, and each omodiya (there are eleven altogether) has its own
omda.  This has had a major influence on political structures because of
the Government's tendency to treat these positions as hereditary.  The
result is a conflict between a rigid hierarchical structure on the one
hand, and a much freer system at the bottom.

To illustrate the political system, the book concludes with a chapter on
tribal level politics, a chapter on the structure of the omodiya, and a
chapter describing the course of a blood-feud within the Mezaghma omda.

As well as being of interest to anthropologists interested in the area,
this will also be of interest to political scientists interested in
alternative forms of political organisation and ways of maintaining
social order.  The Humr occupy a position intermediate between a fully
segmentary system (such as that of the Nuer) and that of less structured
societies.  

28/9/92
Newsgroups: alt.books.reviews,alt.native