Nuer cattle camp
35 mm | Negative film Kodak Panatonic
Same Image As:
2004.131.71.204
Previous PRM Number:
WT.Southern Sudan.7.15
Accession Number:
2004.130.32959.1
Description:
Small reed and mud-plastered huts in a Nuer cattle camp with a few cattle and a calf nearby.
Thesiger describes huts like this at a 'Kilwal' (probably Karlual) cattle camp whose leading man was called Rai Wur, where he camped for some time and got to know the inhabitants.
In the background is a cattle-dung fire known as gol.
Such fires or smudges were made to help keep away pests such as mosquitos from cattle during the rainy season, and sometimes during the dry season, by enveloping the kraal in thick smoke.
Such fires were metaphorically associated with both the home, family and lineage, and the ash was rubbed on cattle before blessing or sacrifice.
Photographer:
Wilfred Patrick Thesiger
Date of Photo:
?1938 March
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Wahda
Group:
Nuer ?Leek Karlual
PRM Source:
Wilfred Patrick Thesiger
Acquired:
Accepted as Art in Lieu of Inheritance Tax by H.M. Government and allocated to the Pitt Rivers Museum, March 2004
Other Owners:
n/a
Class:
Animal Husbandry , Settlement , Shelter
Keyword:
Animal Cattle , Cattle Camp , Building House
Primary Documentation:
Manual Catalogue (Thesiger album card) - 'VOL E p.
23/Nuer cattle camps.' [Elin Bornemann 24/5/2004]
Other Information:
In The Life of My Choice (Harper Collins 1987) Thesiger notes (page 271-2) that 'In early march I found a delightful camp site on a shady ridge under some large tamarisk trees; their heavy shade was very restful in this shadeless land...In these camps the shelters, made of reeds plastered with mud, were little more than windbreaks surrounded by stakes to which the cattle were tethered at night.
I remained here for a while, getting aquainted with these Kilwal Nuer.
Rai Wur, their chief, had been speared in the arm while hunting hippo, and I treated the wound, which was going septic.' Chris Morton [17/9/2004]
Recorder:
Elin Bornemann [11/12/2003] Christopher Morton [15/9/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]
