Anwar and I conduct a taped interview in Arabic with Sheikh Baabo ʿUmar in a hotel in Damazin. He states that his father left the Sokoto area of northern Nigeria when the British arrived. His group moved via Maiduguri and Yarwa into Cameroon and then into Chad, north of N’Djamena, close to the Lake. They stayed for nine years near the rivers Saadi (Chari?) and Kuuri (?) and then crossed with the Sultan Mai-Wurno, a descendant of ʿUthmaan dan Fodio, into Sudan, by way of Nyala. They moved at the pace of livestock, pausing frequently, so that the whole relocation from Sokoto to the Nilotic Sudan took decades.
The name of their breed of cattle is kuuri ḥamra ('red kuuri' or big red zebus with relatively long horns). They sell them only for slaughter. Arabs or Dinka do not want to acquire them for breeding, because they are not well adapted to their husbandry practices. They are large, demanding animals, which need much pasture and have to follow the rains. They are not suitable for being kept around villages. "Their bull is close in height to a camel."
Next they will go north to Wad an-Nail which is their turning point (some actually move up to Abu Na’ama), and then they will move south again to Malakal (Upper Nile). Sheikh Baabo mentions Jaasir, Beeke (Begi on maps), Rumbela, and Baamaasa as place names, the last as a crossing point into Ethiopia. Ethnic groups the Mbororo encounter on their southern migration include Oromo and "Tirikaaka" (?). The latter live close to Kenya and are on bad terms with the Oromo.
There are always problems with Dinka, "because they are Southerners". Sheikh Baabo mentions a major cattle raid by Dinka against Mbororo in the region of Nasir. In such cases the Mbororo call the (northern Sudanese) army for help. Relationships with the Oromo are peaceful. They are mixed farmers and do not compete directly with the nomadic Mbororo. The Mbororo buy calves from them. Sheikh Baabo claims that, otherwise, the cattle of the Mbororo (whose specialty is cattle herding!) would be depleted.
Arabic serves as the language of communication with Oromo and others in the Beni Shangul area, although it is only spoken by part of the population. On the Sudanese side of the Sudanese-Ethiopian border, there are frequent fights with Gumuz. Only where Oromo are in charge, there are no problems. The category 'Gumuz' comprises many groups such as the Funj, the Gawaala, the Jabalawiin (= "Mountain People"), Berta, Zagariig (= "Blacks"), Falatiik, and Jujumaana. So much for the interview with Sheikh Baabo.
Click here to read the full text of the interview.
Like some of the other interviews mentioned in the present documentation, this one is available both in Arabic and English, with a transcription of the Arabic text in Latin characters to account for the particularities of the Sudanese dialect.
The Oromo mentioned here may be settlers on the western fringe of the agricultural expansion of the Oromo or refugees living in camps under the control of the OLF (Oromo Liberation Front). The latter had a marked presence in the Sudan at this period. The OLF suspected the Sudanese Government of trying to appropriate aid from Europe and America that was intended for the Oromo, and there was a struggle for control.