There is clearly vast potential in southern Sudan, as
in many other parts of the country to undertake ethno-archaeological research
(for an interesting study in western Sudan, see N. Tobert 1988.
The Ethnoarchaeology
of the Zaghawa of Darfur (Sudan). Oxford. BARS445.)
for some ethno-archaeological
web-resources
A number of such studies have appeared in the BIEA journal Azania
and a BIEA Memoir edited by John Mack and Peter Robertshaw ('
Culture History
in Southern Sudan ' 1982).
We also have some interesting
studies by Else Kleppe on aspects of Shilluk culture.
One potentially interesting field of research relates to the use of
beads in the region. As in many parts of Africa, beads enjoy
considerable social importance. (see for example Else Kleppe 'Religion Expressed
through Beads Use: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Shilluk, Southern Sudan'
in G. Steinsland (ed.)
Words and Objects. Towards a dialogue between archaeology
and history. Oslo)
.
Beads
were certainly an integral part of 19th century trade into southern Sudan.
As the century progressed, private trading expeditions greatly increased,
in the hands of growing numbers of northern ‘jellaba’ traders as well as
a small group of European adventurers, interested mainly in slaves and ivory.
With attempts to control the slave trade during the later 19th century, major
exports were ivory and gum Arabic, while textiles (‘Manchester Goods’) seem
to have been the major import (Santi & Hill 1980: 3). Trade up
the White Nile was operating in a non-monetary market and beads seem to have
been the primary exchange item, although cowries also acted as a form of
currency in some areas, as in Kordofan.
As in other parts of Africa, the appearance of a wide range of new
‘fashion items’ along the Upper Nile is likely to be the most obvious indicator
of the huge quantities of ivory extracted during the 19th century (Lonsdale
1992). Probably the most abundant of these were beads. Some first-hand
accounts, such as that of J.-A. de Vaissière (Santi and Hill
1980) give us some insights into the variety of these trade beads,
as well as their exchange value: an elephant tusk might be had for 2 pound
of blue glass beads and 4-5 pounds of glass trinkets along the Upper White
Nile in the mid-1850s.
Contemporaray accounts also give us some idea of the‘trajectory of meanings’
of trade items in action, as different types of beads swiftly passed from
the highly desirable back to the realm of more everyday things, losing their
value as goods for barter. So de Vaissière observed in early 1854
at one stop on a trading voyage: “there has been a popular revulsion
against glass beads. The matrons and local lordlings have decided that glass
beads, previously cherished as fashionable, were no longer good taste. This
means that we have as good as nothing to offer them in exchange of tusks ..”
(Santi & Hill 1980: 142).
Elsewhere we get hints of differing local tastes: “the Galla [?Mangala]
ask for round, red glass beads, cowries .. the people of the Lokkaia mountains
want instead bracelets of red leather and dada of the kind called
franji
, while the Bilin ask only for
keri or round, black and white,
glass beads..” (Santi & Hill 1980: 150).
Over the longer term, we may also want to reflect on how beads have retained
considerable significance in local cultures. Amongst some Dinka groups, for
example, antique ‘
guen-jang’ beads, types “selling during the Turkish
Rule” have maintained a considerable value as important items of personal
property: “since its source of production have become extinct it has become
so precious that no one can correctly state its value” (Makec 1986: 129).
Makec, J. W. (1986)
The Customary Law of the Dinka (Jieng). Khartoum:
St George Printing Press
Lonsdale, J. (1992) ’The Conquest State of Kenya 1895-1905’, in
B. Berman and J. Lonsdale,
Unhappy Valley, pp.13-44. London: James
Currey.
Santi, P. and Hill, R. (1980)
The Europeans in the Sudan 1834-1878
: some manuscripts, mostly unpublished, written by traders, Christian missionaries,
officials and others. Oxford : Clarendon.
some links to
African Beads
Society
of Bead Researchers
Journal of Society of Bead Researchers
© D N Edwards