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ETHNICITY IN THE SHADOWS OF THE NATION-STATE: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF ANUAK – NUER ETHNICITY IN THE WESTERN BORDERLANDS [Abstract ID: 0502-17]
Based mainly on regional archives and informants, this paper attempts to situate the historical dynamics of Anuak–Nuer ethnicity within the larger Ethiopian state framework, paying particular attention to the post-1941 period. Historical analysis shows that the juxtaposition of the two groups in relation to economic resources, particularly Nuer bid to share the main rivers of the region, has been the variable which governed the nature, magnitude, and mode of expression of Anuak–Nuer ethnicity. As long as it remained gradual, isolated, and of low intensity, Nuer incursion into Anuak inhabited areas had been either accommodated or resisted by the latter without radically upsetting the natural and social order in the region. This traditional rhythm was upset during the second-half of the twentieth century (since the start of the first Sudanese civil war in 1955) by the massive influx into Gambella of Sudanese Nuer as refugees and dissidents. This led to the genesis of modern Anuak – Nuer ethnicity which is largely a political struggle for power, territory, and wealth with universalist rather than local concerns. This paper argues that Ethiopian state and its modernizing drive has been a major internal context governing interethnic relations in Gambella. The failure of the state to arbitrate the Anuak and the Nuer justly and its inability to provide credible guarantees for Anuak ‘fears of the future’ led to existential concerns and fueled ethnic violence. The paper also holds that the swing from unification socialism to ethnic particularism since 1991 has further upset the delicate inter-ethnic relationship in the region and highly escalated the polarization between the Anuak and the Nuer.