Anuak people

The Anyuak, also known as Anyuaa and Anywaa, are a Luo Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting parts of East Africa. The Anuak belong to the larger Luo family group. Their language is referred to as Dha-Anywaa. They are primarily found in Gambela Region in western Ethiopia, and South Sudan. Group members number between 200,000 and 300,000 people worldwide. Many of the Anyuak people now follow Christianity. It is one of the first of the Nilotic groups to become almost entirely Christian, following the Shilluk people. According to American non-profit organization Cultural Survival, the Anuak originally lived on land near the Pibor River and the Sobat River, in present-day eastern South Sudan near Ethiopia. Due to displacement from other groups, most Anuak now live along the Baro River and the Akobo River. The Anuak are a Nilotic people. They have lived in the area of the Upper Nile for hundreds of years and consider their land to be their tribal land. Unlike other Nilotic peoples in the Upper Nile, whose economies are based on raising cattle, the Anuak are herdsmen and farmers. They are believed to have a common origin with their northern neighbors, the Luo and Shilluk. Also, they share a similar language with their neighbors to the south, the Acholi.The Luo peoples are scattered all over Eastern Africa, including Sudan and Ethiopia; they identify as a people who have preserved their cultural heritage wherever they reside. The Luo-speaking people of Eastern Africa are found beyond the Sudan and Ethiopia in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and the Congo. Their language(s) and dialects belong to the broader cluster of Nilo-Saharan languages. During the Abyssnian Empire, many Anuak people were taken as slaves, often by wealthy and imperial households. Slavery in predominantly Anuak regions was abolished in the early 20th century, but was briefly restored following World War II. According to Human Rights Watch, a prominent non-governmental organization, the Anuak people were the predominant ethnic group in Ethiopia's western Gambela Region, until the 1980s.