Tribes

Nuer people

The Nuer people are a Nilotic ethnic group primarily inhabiting the Nile Valley. They are concentrated in western Ethiopia.

Cattle have historically been of the highest symbolic, religious and economic value among the Nuer. Cattle are particularly important in their role as bride wealth, where they are given by a husband's lineage to his wife's lineage. It is this exchange of cattle which ensures that the children will be considered to belong to the husband's lineage and to his line of descent. The people speak the Nuer language which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan language phylum.

The Nuer receives facial markings called gaar as part of their initiation into adulthood. The pattern of Nuer scarification varies within specific subgroups. The most common initiation pattern among males consists of six parallel horizontal lines which are cut across the forehead with a razor, often with a dip in the lines above the nose. Dotted patterns are also common. Typical foods eaten by the Nuer tribe include beef, goat, cow's milk, mangos, and sorghum in one of three forms: "kop" finely ground, handled until balled and boiled, "wal wal" ground, lightly balled and boiled to a solid porridge, and injera, a large, pancake-like yeast-risen flatbread.

Anuak (Agnwak) people

The Anuak, also known as the Anyuak, are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting parts of East Africa. They are primarily found in villages situated along the banks and rivers of western Ethiopia, in the Gambella Region.

The "Anuak" are from the family of Nilotic. They have lived in the area of the Upper Nile for hundreds of years and consider their land to be their tribal land.

Anuak people on the banks of the Baro River in the Gambella Region, unlike other Nilotic peoples in the Upper Nile, whose economies are based on raising cattle, the Anuak are herdsmen and farmers.

Majangir (Majang) people

The Majang people or Majangir, live in western Ethiopia and speak a Nilo-Saharan language of the Surmic cluster. The total of the Majangir population as 20,000 but since they live scattered in the hills in dispersed settlements their actual total number is undoubtedly higher. They live around cities of Tepi, Mett'i, and scattered southwest of Mizan Teferi and towards Gambella.

They traditionally lived in small groups, farming for 3 to 5 years and then moving on as the fertility of the soil diminished. They were active bee keepers, collecting honey from hives consisting of hollowed logs placed in trees. They did some hunting and snaring of game and trapping of fish. They raised the bulk of their own food by farming, animals providing only a small part of their diet.

The Majangir have over 70 clans, with clan identity passed down through the male line. A person cannot marry a person from the same clan (exogamy) nor should they marry a person from their mother's clan. The Majangir traditionally made two kinds of alcoholic drink: one from grain "tááján" and one from honey "ògòòl"

The Majangir have traditionally used a number of musical instruments, sometimes to accompany singing and sometimes played without. Their instruments include a five-string lyre, thumb piano, drum, rattles, pan flute. In addition, they play a vertically suspended marimba with as few as three wooden bars, but this is seen as a way of passing time, especially when guarding fields, rather than an instrument for music. Their vocal music includes singing of both harmonies and antiphonal parts. Often, this results in two parts being sung by women and two parts by men.