Hiluks
The Shilluk are the sixth largest ethnic group in South Sudan, with a total of 449,800 people worldwide, of whom about 444,000 are settled in South Sudan.
The native language of the Shrukh people is Shruk, and many also speak Arabic and English. At present, 45 per cent of the Hiluks are Christians (80 per cent Protestant and 20 per cent independent), while the remaining 55 per cent still believe in the primitive religion, the native religion.
The Hiluks live mainly in the Upper Nile region, which stretches from Tunga in the south to the west bank of the White Nile at 11° north latitude, and there are also some scattered Shruks on the east bank of the river.
Although the main mode of production of the Hiluk was cattle raising, they relied more on farming and fishing than the Dinka and Nuer of the West Nirog because of their suitable living environment – abundant water resources and fertile land on both sides of the Nile.
The Shrukhs were not as scattered as the Dinka and Nuer, they had permanent settlements and therefore did not move regularly between arable land and cattle camps.
The Hiluk people are mainly engaged in subsistence agricultural production, with sorghum, corn, fat flax and soybeans as their main crops, but because their territory is surrounded by the Nile River with moderate rainfall and dense vegetation, they raise small numbers of cattle, goats and sheep.
In addition, ecological changes in recent years have made the territory of the Hiruk people an important source of gum arabic. The Hiluks were also skilled fishers and skilled in exploiting the fishing resources of the Nile and its many tributaries.
Due to the presence of oil fields not far from the territory of the Hyruks, it is thought that there may have been oil reserves underneath their territory.
In the tradition of the Hiruks, the origins of the capital can be traced back to the legendary Khyūk hero, King Nyikang, the son of Okwa, the ruler of the kingdom of the "Far Away Lake".
Nikon's brother Duwadh succeeded his father, Okova, and in desperation that he could not take the throne, Nikon led his followers northwest to Pothe Thuro, who was often near Wau in the Greater Bahr el Ghazal region.
Nikon welcomed one of the daughters of the local chieftain, Dimo, and lived there for several years. However, a conflict arises between Nikon and Dimo, which begins when Dimo wants to disembowel Nikon's child in order to find a priceless bead that has been swallowed by the child, and the result is Nikon's re-migration.
Nikon crossed the Ghazal River with six families and landed at the village of Acietagwok, more than 20 miles from Tonga.
Under the leadership of their successor, the Hiruks established their own state on the west bank of the Nile.
After 35 terms of Reis, the Siege of the Hiruk was devastated by colonial rule, the civil war between the north and the south of Sudan, and the civil war in South Sudan, but its unique traditional governance system was still preserved and maintained the functioning of the Siluk society.
The social structure of the kingdom of Shśruk
Unlike their neighbors, the Dinka and Nuer, all the Hiruks live a settled life. They had a narrow stretch of riverbank enough to support all the Hiluk population, so there was no need to migrate every year for the summer nomadic pasture.
During the summer, the youth of Hiluk herded their cattle to the small islands of the White Nile and built temporary cattle sheds on the islands, but there were no periodical complete abandonment of the villages.
Unlike the Dinka on the other side, the Shruk villages were not disbanded and reorganized by seasonal nomadism, and their clan organization was more of a territorial administrative unit that grew in progression.
With territorial units, the habit of perennial settlement and the complete disappearance of clan organization made the administrative organization of the Hiluks relatively simple.
However, the conservatism of the Hiluks led to a deep-seated clan mentality. Even after more than 400 years of sedentary life, if for some reason they were forced to return to a nomadic state, the clan organization of the Hiruk people would undoubtedly appear immediately.
During the development of the Hiluk kingdom, neighboring villages gathered to defend against other ethnic groups, and gradually developed into "settlements".
kava
The English word "Kwar" literally means "descendant, descendant, descendant", and is equivalent to the clan of the Hiluks.
The word "Kwar Okel" is used in front of ancestral names, for example, "Kwar Okel" refers to all paternal descendants under Okel. Often, the ancestors of the Hiluk people come from legends.
There are hundreds of clans that have been identified among the Hiluks. Although each Hiruk knows which clan he/she belongs to, due to intermarriage between different clans, the Hiluk clan no longer has any practical role in uniting the clansmen, and the clan does not have a similar chieftain.
In fact, the clans of the Hiluk kingdom were superficially divided and weakened. Thus, not only is a clan divided into several settlements, but a settlement may also include branches of multiple clans.
Howell referred to a branch of a clan in a settlement as a "lineage" @
Podh, or "Podh" in English, is as flexible in meaning as "home" in English or "dar" in Arabic.
Settlement is a fundamental element in the social structure of the Hyrukhs, and it can be described as a state of the entire Siluks, a settlement, or a group of settlements.
However, Berdekh is more suitable for what is called a settlement, i.e. a collection of villages that include several "families". They were gathered for the purpose of mutual defense and shared loyalty to a chieftain.
The kingdom of Hiluk was divided into hundreds of settlements, ranging in size from Kodok onwards, with the largest including more than 600 adult males and the smallest including 100 adult males. Geographically, they are scattered like a line on the west bank of the White Nile.
From a micro point of view, each settlement has tribal management challenges. Settlements were originally seen as purely territorial units, but were in fact collections of different families.
Although the families were loyal to the same chieftain, in times of relative peace, these families, which were held together by the threat of war, were prone to disagreement. In fact, there were territorial disputes between the subordinates of the chiefs in settlements and even throughout the kingdom, and clans that once existed but have disappeared can trigger similar conflicts.
Unlike settlements, each village, i.e., a pac, is a homogeneous unit, i.e. a village contains only people from the same family. Some villages are very small and consist of only one house, while large villages may have as many as 50 houses.
The house was placed in an open field, shaped like a horse's hoof, surrounded by the cattle and sheep of the village. Often, there is a very large luak (shack) in the village, which is used as a hotel all year round, and this large shed also serves as a meeting place for the village and also provides shelter for the livestock.
Villages also usually have some normal-sized sheds called "geu" (geu), which are not fenced and are used as dormitories for single or unmarried men.
In these sheds, ash made from cow dung is stored, which the young people apply to their bodies at night to keep warm and prevent mosquito bites. Some villages have a tree in the center, but most do not have full and cool shade.
Social class
There are still four elements in the Hiluk society – "KwarReth", "Ororo", "Collo" and "Bang Reth". Together, the first two encompass all the patrilineal descendants of King Nikon, while the latter two constitute the ruled kingdom of Hiluk.
However, there are no significant differences between these four social classes, either in terms of physical appearance or clothing. In terms of population, the Koro people have a great numerical advantage in Hiluk society.
In short, the Kvar Laces are a large clan, making up about one-fifteenth of the entire Hiluk population, while the Oloro are considered to be a very small part of the Kvar Laces, negligible in number. The population of the Bangor Reis is probably larger than that of the Kwar Reis.
Like any other clan, the Kvar Laces are found throughout the kingdom of Hiluk.
Although they have lost their political authority and are outwardly indistinguishable from their neighbors, the Koro, the Kwar Lacey still exist as a declining aristocracy, occasionally producing settlement chiefs.
All Khvarrek clans, including the Kvar Reis, are not allowed to marry close relatives, so there are no restrictions on marriage between the Kvarreis and the Koro except for the daughters of the Laces, who are not allowed to marry due to the Khwarres tradition.
"Ololo" is the Kvar Reis family who was degraded by Reis as the Koro people, so it was nicknamed "the body of the Kvar Reis, the life of the Koro people" by the Shiruk people. In terms of numbers, the Oloro people are very rare, but their origin and status are very interesting.
The Koro are made up of many vassal clans, and their origins are complex and mostly obscure. Yes
A small number of Koro people believe that their family originated from the retinue of King Nikon, who came from the vicinity of Wau, such as Abogo, Moul, Nyileng, and Ojul; A small number of Koro claimed to be descendants of King Nikon's collateral relatives, such as Jur, Othou, and Okel.
However, there are more mythological origins, some of which were apparently added later, such as the Jung, who originated in the Dinka people; Others considered themselves to be descendants of the kingdom's earliest inhabitants, such as the Omans.
In order to maintain and manage the wealth (i.e., cattle) that would create royal pomp and power, Reis recruited a large number of servants, who were recruited through various means, known as Bangor Reis.
The Bangor Reis people were originally from the captured enemy, but later in the longer and longer peacetime, the Bangor Reis came from a voluntary call-up. These people were already in poor living conditions, and there were not enough cattle to marry wives.
In becoming Bangor. The moment Lacey was born, they severed all ties with their original clan and became Lacey's men, and vowed to assist Lacey wholeheartedly in various ways, such as building, tending livestock, performing duties alone, and receiving cows for their wedding gifts.