The Anuak, also called Anywaa and Anyuak, are a Nilotic people of the Luo group who live along rivers in the Gambela Region of western Ethiopia and in South Sudan. Their language is Dha Anywaa. Estimates of their number range from about 200,000 to 300,000. Wikipedia, Anuak people
Published accounts of Anuak belief are short and mostly in older ethnography. This page includes what could be checked in sources that are available online and does not fill the gaps. Major scholarly works include E. E. Evans-Pritchard's The Political System of the Anuak of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan (1940) and Conradin Perner's eight-volume The Anyuak: Living on Earth in the Sky, whose first volume is titled The Sphere of Spirituality. Wikipedia, Anuak people
Where the Anuak Live and How
The Anuak were originally settled near the Pibor and Sobat rivers south of Gambela and near the Adura and Mokwau rivers to the north. Other groups forced them out of some of these areas, and today they live mainly near the Baro and Akobo rivers, in two villages on the Sobat near Nasser, and at Ajungnur near the mouth of the Pibor. Cultural Survival reported in 1984 that they farm, keep a few cattle, sheep or goats, fish, and hunt wild birds, and that their diet is mainly sorghum flour, fish and fowl. They often set up small temporary villages in good fishing areas. Cultural Survival, The Anuak: A Threatened Culture
Deities and Spirits
The Anuak traditionally believed in an almighty spirit. A 1984 Cultural Survival report spells the name Gwok, and other writers give it as Jwok or Jwøk. Cultural Survival, The Anuak: A Threatened Culture; Wikipedia, Anuak people Trees played an important part in Anuak religion, and some villages still have "holy" trees. Cultural Survival, The Anuak: A Threatened Culture
No other named spirits, and no creation story, were found in the sources used for this page. Perner's Anyuak Religion (1992) and the first volume of his The Anyuak cover this ground. They are the places to look for names and stories, and this page does not repeat claims about them that it could not check.
Myths and Stories
No Anuak narratives are retold here, because none could be found in an openly available, citable source. This page does not retell stories that cannot be traced to the Anuak themselves or to a published collection made with Anuak narrators.
Headmen, Nobles and Royal Regalia
The best-documented ritual life concerns political office. In most Anuak villages the headman (kwaro) is chosen from a lineage that has traditionally supplied headmen to that village, and the village can remove him. The anthropologist who followed Evans-Pritchard in the field described these removals as "revolts", in which a faction tires of a headman and tries to expel him. The headman keeps the village drums and plays a large part in the major dances. Cultural Survival reported that, in Anuak thinking, there are no "God-men", and that a headman can be removed for acting like a dictator. Cultural Survival, The Anuak: A Threatened Culture; Africa, Anuak Village Headmen (1957)
In the southeast, a noble clan reigns in a group of villages. These villages compete for a single set of royal emblems, the most important of which are several ancient bead necklaces. The noble clan's influence has been spreading among the villages. Evans-Pritchard wrote that the Anuak resist authority yet enjoy the ceremony of a noble's court, with its drumming, processions and etiquette, which gives a village prestige in the eyes of its neighbours. Africa, Anuak Village Headmen (1957)
Today
Most Anuak are now Christian, and Cultural Survival described them in 1984 as largely evangelical. Wikipedia notes that the Anuak were among the first Nilotic groups to become almost entirely Christian. Traditional belief is therefore not held by everyone, and descriptions of it come from earlier periods. Cultural Survival, The Anuak: A Threatened Culture; Wikipedia, Anuak people
Anuak communities in Ethiopia have been displaced and attacked repeatedly. Cultural Survival reported that the military government that ruled Ethiopia until 1991 dispossessed the Anuak of land through resettlement and villagization programs, destroyed fields, prohibited hunting, and recruited Anuak men into the army. In 2005, Human Rights Watch called on the Ethiopian government to stop immediately the commission of crimes against humanity and other abuses in Gambella and to investigate abuses beginning with the December 2003 massacre. Many Anuak have fled to neighbouring countries, and communities have formed abroad, including in Minnesota. Cultural Survival, Oil Development in Ethiopia: A Threat to the Anuak of Gambela; Human Rights Watch, Ethiopia: Targeting the Anuak (2005); Wikipedia, Anuak people