Scaring in Sudan
May 20th, 2009 by 
Taylor
I haven’t taken any photos specifically to ’showcase’ scarification in Sudan, but I found a few good examples that I thought I’d show you.
Click any image to see a large version.
The first is an old Nuer man. He used to be the village chief. This was taken in a small village on the Sobat river South of Nasir. This is very common and only done on men. It should be done with elders and young women in attendance.
I am not sure what tribe this woman comes from. This photo was taken in Nasir, a town of mostly Nuer Sudanese. I have only seen this kind of scaring on women. Sometimes a woman’s entire body can have this spotted scaring.
Sorry for the blurry photo. This was originally a MUCH wider photo that I cropped. But this man’s scaring is VERY prominent. I believe this photo was taken in Malakal and he is likely Dinka. The Dinka and Nuer lined scares on the forehead are very similar and I have not learned to distinguish it yet.
This Nuer is actually a friend of ours. He is a Baptist pastor and also works with a Christian NGO started in Africa by Africans. His scars are hard to see. He is also quite educated and it is rare to find educated men with scars as they typically were in a boarding school at a young age and did not grow up in the village. The Sudan political leadership are often referred to as boys as they were never scared into manhood and can be denied tribal rights as they are not considered adults.
This woman is from the Shuluk tribe. The photo was taken in Atar which is mainly Dinka. I am not sure if she was just visiting the area or actually lived there. Malakal, where we live, is historically considered a Shuluk town (but Dinka also claim it). Both men and women have the protruding scars just above their eye brows.
Posted in Update | 
7 Comments »
May 20th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
interesting, so does the scarring have religious meaning, or is it purely a ethno/political rite to show maturity in their tribes?
May 22nd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Hey Taylor, just to say I’ve heard somewhere that now the scaring is forbidden by the GOSS because it might contribute to some racial conflicts (much easier to know if the guy comes from the tribe you’re fighting against). I don’t know how true this info is though
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Hi, nice posts there
thank’s for the interesting information
May 25th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
No religious per-se. It's more of a right of passage/becoming a man thing. The men who have been educated, grew up in Christian boarding schools and now run the country are often not considered 'men' by their tribe because they were never marked.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:54 am
I’ve heard that it has been banned in different parts of Sudan, but didn’t hear that GOSS had banned it. I was told when the boys get it done anyways, they have to pay a cow as a fine in some places.
June 25th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Derrida in Khartoum – Is the Disintegration of the Sudan Imminent?
My latest contribution to Konkret (7/09) deals with the intensification of the many conflicts in Africa’s biggest country. Some analysts even go so far as to predict a Somalia scenario any time soon. The warrant of arrest of the ICC for President Omar al-Bashir was supposed to raise the pressure on the Islamists, but some observers doubt that this strategy in fact succeeded. Read some excerpts of that article here.
http://rubeneberlein.wordpress.com
November 16th, 2009 at 9:37 am
I am living in Kenya, E.Africa and am wanting to highlight the Nuer . We are a non-profit mission organization and am wondering if you would allow us to use one of your photo's of the Nuer to send out. I am happy to give credit to you for the picture and also send you a copy of what I want to send out . Would you be willing for me to download a picture and use it? Thanks for your time.. Annie