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Diary September – October 2002 (Trip to eastern Sudan)

Monday, September 23

Wednesday, September 25

Thursday, September 26

Saturday, September 28

Sunday, September 29

Wednesday, October 2

Wad an-Nail

On the market place of Wad an-Nail, ʿAwad Karim and I meet Abdullahi, the ḍaamin for the Mbororo, or "guarantee man", as ʿAwad translates this term (see contributions to Schlee, 2004, for similar functions in livestock markets elsewhere). The security officer who had quizzed us at the bus stop had already pointed him out to us, identifying him as sheekum, or "their sheikh".

Abdullahi explains to me that he is a Rufaʿa Arab, but that he has had dealings with the Mbororo since 1963. They come here every rainy season, and he is responsible for them as a ḍaamin, i.e., he has to guarantee that the animals they come to sell have not been stolen. He claims to speak Fulfulde perfectly.

He explains that the Mbororo will move south again in October/November in spite of the war. According to Abdullahi, the following sections (khashm al-beyt) are now present in the area:

• Mbororo (in the narrow sense of the term)
• Weyla (= Woyla)
• Daneeji (baggar abyad – [Fulɓe group with] "white cattle")
• Uuda
• Fallaata Malle
• Dagara
• Booɗi.

Abdullahi says that the nomadic Fulɓe (Mbororo in the wide sense of the term) who spend the rainy season in the Wad an-Nail area come from the south, from Yabus, Jikaw, and Gambela. (In fact, they come from quite a few different areas, and we met none who have been inside Gambela State, Ethiopia, this year.)

Abdullahi himself was with Mbororo in Jikaw during the last dry season (seef), as he has been for the last three years. He accompanies them as a trader, selling salt and medicines.

He describes his route, which leads along the road to Geesan (Geissan), then to Musay, Gooja, Baabar, Undu, Ahmar Dallu, Raaba, Kashan Karo, Khartuum bee Leel (literally: "Khartoum by night"), Khor Ad-Dhahab ("Gold Valley"), Jabal Faabo, and Musai. All these locations are within Blue Nile State, Sudan. In Musai one crosses into Ethiopia. He claims that there are no problems on the Ethiopian side with the population or the authorities.

(In this Abdullahi agrees with Mbororo informants, who never report difficulties encountered in Ethiopia or say explicitly that there were none. Oddly, this contradicts information collected from Ethiopians, who emphasise the ecological damage caused by Mbororo and report attempts to expel them. A possible explanation for this apparent contradiction is that the difficulties experienced by the Mbororo in Ethiopia pale in comparison with what they have to face in the southern parts of the Sudan [Southern Blue Nile and Upper Nile] each year and, therefore, soon fade from memory.)

The Mbororo only go to Jikaw in the dry season. I tell Abdullahi that Nuer cattle there wade in the flood in the rainy season and graze under water. He confirms that he has heard this, but he has never seen it himself.

We rent an old Toyota Landcruiser, with a certain Ya’aquub as owner/driver, and, taking a Mbororo named Derdi along, set out to find the hamlet of Maahi Bello, our old acquaintance.

His brother, Harun Bello Usmaan, addresses me in Oromo. He says he (and that applies, basically, to the other members of this hamlet) was in Oromia for three years. He first went there nine years ago and stayed for three years, but he has not gone there for the past six years. Later he says seven years. He names the following locations: 

 
In another enumeration:

 
These places have all been mentioned as stopover points in the migration of the camps with their herds. Individuals, of course, have a wider range of mobility. In addition to the above localities, Harun has visited the markets in the following towns: