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ABSTRACT
The Dats’in are an indigenous minority group living on the Sudanese-Ethiopian borderland. They passed unnoticed to researchers, administrators and the wider world until 2013, when the authors of this paper met them in the lowlands of Qwara (NW Ethiopia). They speak an undocumented Nilo-Saharan language, related to Gumuz, and share important cultural and social traits with other indigenous communities in the area, while at the same time remaining clearly distinct. Dats’in history, which is related to that of the so-called Hamej peoples – the blanket name by which they are known to other groups – can be traced back several centuries through oral traditions, texts and archaeology. The Hamej, in fact, played a crucial role during the Funj Sultanate (1504–1821) and probably before. The present article is based on three field seasons carried out in the lowlands of Qwara (Ethiopia), one of the areas where they live today, and intends to offer some insights into their history and culture. They exemplify well the multifaceted relations between small-scale and State societies that have characterized the last millennium in the Sudanese-Ethiopian borderland.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Dats’in for their generosity, hospitality and patience, which made the research not only feasible, but also pleasurable. A particular thanks to Swale Belay for his invaluable assistance. The article has benefitted from the insightful and constructive comments of two reviewers.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Jedrej, Ingessana.
2 Wolf, Peasants.
3 Jedrej, Ingessana; Jedrej, “Where Nuba and Hajeray”; González-Ruibal, An Archaeology of Resistance; James, “Charles Jedrej”.
4 Cerulli, Peoples of South-west Ethiopia, 14.
5 James, “Charles Jedrej,” 3.
6 Fernández, “Four Thousand Years”.
7 González-Ruibal and Falquina, “Sudan’s Eastern Borderland”.
8 Scott, Seeing Like a State.
9 Kopytoff, “Frontiers and Frontier Societies,” 170; see also Korf et al., “Geographies of Violence and Sovereignity,” 29.
10 González-Ruibal, An Archaeology of Resistance.
11 Ahland, “Daats’iin, a New Identified”.
12 Hernando, “Cuerpo, cultura material y género”.
13 Ahland, “Daats’iin, a New Identified,” 418.
14 Ibid., 417.
15 Markakis, Ethiopia.
16 González-Ruibal, An Archaeology of Resistance.
17 The complete list includes the following place names: Berbet, Bangwo, Bilbit, AbuMendi, Pink’uliki, Yetet’ea, Bendwaji, Madar, Dunkur, Tomat, Gimb, Derahassan and Madis.
18 Rossetti, “Una punta in Etiopia,” 967.
19 González-Ruibal and Falquina, “In Sudan’s Eastern borderland,” 196–7.
20 Rossetti, “Una punta in Etiopia,” 968.
21 Gwynn, “Surveys on the Sudan-Abyssian Frontier,” 573.
22 Guida dell’Africa Oriental, 365.
23 James, “Kwanim Pa,” 41, 44; James, “Lifelines,” 120.
24 Seligman and Seligman, The pagan tribes, 416–8; see also James, “The Funj mystique”.
25 Seligman, “Note on two languages”.
26 Endalew, Inter-ethnic relations, 54.
27 Seligman, “Note on two languages”.
28 Cerulli, Peoples of South-west Ethiopia, 14; Bashir et al., “Rosieres Dam,” fig. 1.
29 Spaulding, “The Fate of Alodia”.
30 Bender, Peoples and Cultures, 13, 183.
31 Evans-Pritchard, “Ethnological observations,” 42; Triulzi, Salt, Gold, and Legitimacy, 66.
32 Spaulding, “The Fate of Alodia”.
33 Triulzi, Salt, Gold and Legitimacy, 60.
34 Chataway, “History of the Funj,” 248.
35 Delmet, “Populations du Djebel Guli.”
36 Holt, “Fung Origins,” 45.
37 Triulzi, Salt, Gold and Legimacy, 62.
38 Ibid., 63.
39 Robinson, “Abu El Kaylik,” 235–6.
40 Newbold, “Anag at Gebel Haraza,” 127–8; Newbold, “The White Nuba,” 35–7; Hawley, “Zanneia,” 137.
41 Delmet, “Populations du Djebel Guili,” 133; Delmet, “Islamisation et matrilinéarité,” 47.
42 Crawford, Funj Kingdom of Sennar, 145.
43 Chataway, “History of the Funj,” 257.
44 “Hameg, a name used by the Hadendoa to denote an ignorant people, in other words, those who are still in the dark pre-Islamic days”, Jackson, Osman Digna, 54.
45 Spaulding, “The Fate of Alodia”.
46 Ibid., 27.
47 Delmet, “Populations du Djebel Guli,” 133.
48 Delmet, Histoire, peuplement et culture, 529.
49 Delmet, “Islamisation et matrilinéarité,” 39.
50 Delmet, “Populations du Djebel Guli,” 121.
51 O’Fahey and Spaulding, Kingdoms of the Sudan, 94–5.
52 Delmet, “Populations of Djebel Guli,” 133.
53 James, “The Funj Mystique”.
54 Delmet, “Populations du Djebel Guli”, Chataway, “History of the Funj”.
55 González-Ruibal and Falquina, “Sudan’s Eastern borderland”.
56 Ibid., 195.
57 Ibid., fig.18.
58 Falquina, “Arquitecturas Salvajes”.
59 James, “Reforming the Circle”.
60 Wallmark, “The Bega of Wellega”; Feyissa Dadi, Los Gumuz de Etiopía occidental, 397; González-Ruibal, An Archaeology of Resistance, 329.
61 James, The Listening Ebony, 22.
62 Hernando, “Cuerpo, cultura material y género”.
63 Wedderburn-Maxwell, “The Maban of the Southern Fung,” 181.
64 Feyissa Dadi, Los Gumuz de Etiopía Occidental, 268.
65 Rossetti, “Una punta,” 969.
66 Habtamu and Bekele, “Habitat Association”.
67 James, The Listening Ebony, 41.
68 Feyissa Dadi, Los Gumuz de Etiopía Occidental, 209.
69 James, The Listening Ebony, 339.
70 Informant: Halima Mohamed, fiyi from Omedla.
71 González-Ruibal, “Order in a Disordered World,” 393.
72 James, The Listening Ebony, 7.
73 Wolde-Selassie, Gumuz and Highland Resettlers.
74 Viveiros de Castro, “Os pronomes cosmológicos,” 135.
75 Informant: Osman Sebiyte, from Babuja.
76 González Ruibal, “Order in a Disordered World,” 398.
77 Jedrej, Ingessana, 78; James, The Listening Ebony, 84–5; 358–9.
78 Evans-Pritchard, “Ethnological observations,” 6.
79 Delmet, “Islamisation et matrilinéarité”; Evans-Pritchard, “Ethnological observations”.
80 James, “Matrifocus on African Women”.
81 Informants: Habiba Asalu, from Dängärsha and Mustafá Argo, from Mahadid.
82 Informants: Bayita from Beloha and Zehara from Dängärsha, women in their 20s.
83 González Ruibal, “Order in a Disordered World,” 391.
84 Jedrej, Ingessana, 22, 27.
85 Spaulding, “Incident of Dynastic Succession,” 26.
86 Evans-Pritchard, “Ethnological Observations,” 6; Grottanelli, “I Pre-Niloti”, 309.
87 Kleppe, “Religion expressed through bead”; Labelle, Beads of Life.
88 Honegger, “Settlement and cemeteries”.
89 Bashir et al., “Rosieres Dam,” pl. 17.
90 Chataway, “History of the Funj”, figs. 5–6; González-Ruibal and Falquina, “In Sudan’s eastern borderland,” fig. 24.
91 Schilder, The Image and Appareance.
92 Boesch, Symblic Action Theory, 333.
93 Informants: Kaltuma, from Beloha, and Zehara, from Dängärsha
94 González-Ruibal and Falquina, “In Sudan’s Eastern borderland,” fig. 9.
95 Marcoux, “Body exhanges”.
96 James, Kwanim Pa, 19; Feyissa Dadi, Los Gumuz de Etiopía occidental, 266.
97 Informants: Amuna Shikkiden from Omedla and Zehara from Dängärsha.
98 Cyrulnik, Resilience.
99 Jedrej, “Were Nuba and Hadjeray,” 209.
100 Zeleke, “Gumuz children’s school participation”.