Shilluk people

Shilluk woman carrying a jar

Photo of Shilluk "material culture" from the late 1870s

More Shilluk "material culture"

The Shilluk people formed today's Shilluk Kingdom in southern Sudan in 1454. Historically, the Shilluk was a patriarchal monarchy led by a reth from the divine lineage of the culture hero Nyikang who is believed to affect the nation's health. Their society was once fairly hierarchical, with castes of royals, nobles, commoners, and slaves.[1]

Today, democracy governs the Shilluk through an elected headman voted in by a council of hamlet heads.[1]

The Shilluk are closely related to the Anuak people, also members of the Luo Nilotic. The Shilluk language shares many words with dha anywaa, the Anuak language.

Most Shilluk are sedentary agriculturists.[1] Like most Nilotic groups, cattle-raising is a large part of their economy; however, agriculture and fishing are more significant activities than usual. Both sexes engage in agricultural work.[1]

The Shilluk, along with the Dinka, are some of the tallest people in the world. In an investigation between 1953-1954, D. F. Robers reported that Dinka Ruweng males were, on average, 181.3 cm (5 ft 11 1⁄2 in) tall, while Shilluk males averaged 182.6 cm (6 ft 0 in).[2] General characteristics among the Nilotic people include long legs, narrow bodies and short trunks, adaptations to South Sudan's hot climate.[3]

However, in 1995, male Shilluk refugees in southwestern Ethiopia were, on average, 172.6 cm (5 ft 8 in) tall. The study suggests that Nilotic people "may attain greater height if privileged with favorable environmental conditions during early childhood and adolescence, allowing full expression of the genetic material."[4] These refugees were displaced as a consequence of the succession of civil wars in their country from 1955 to the present.

Most Shilluk have converted to Christianity, while some still follow the traditional religion or a mixture of the two; a few have converted to Islam. The Shilluk pride themselves in being one of the first Nilotic groups to accept Christianity, the other being the Anuak people. The Episcopal Church of the Sudan dates the event to the late 19th century, when the Church Mission Society first began to send missionaries.

Colonial policies and missionary movements have divided Shilluk into Catholic and Protestant denominations. The Catholic Church historically proselytized in the western bank of the Nile and ran mission stations at Lul, Detwoc, Tonga and Yoynyang, while the American Inland Mission ran a mission station at Doleib Hill, located to the south of Malakal on the eastern side of the Nile, but situated on the Sobat river. The Shilluk were a minority in the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) for most of the Second Sudanese Civil War, their number peaking in the late 1980s and the pre-ceasefire fighting in 2004.

During the summer of 2010, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), in an attempt to disarm the tribe and stop a local Shilluk rebellion, burned a number of villages and killed an untold number of civilians in South Sudan's Shilluk Kingdom.[5] Over 10,000 people were displaced in the midst of the rainy season and sent fleeing into the forest, often naked, without bedding, shelter or food. Many children died from hunger and cold.[5]

Violence started again in April 2011 with an SPLA crackdown on rebel-controlled regions. Shilluk and Nuba were the alleged victims.[6]

Violence broke out again in Tonga in late 2022.[7]

• Corbett, Greville G. (2000). Numbers. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 156–158. ISBN 0-521-64970-6. This section discusses number systems in Dhok-Chollo.

• Media related to Shilluk at Wikimedia Commons
• The Shilluk people, their language and folklore (1912)
• The Gateway to Shilluk Community
• Library of Congress Photo of two Shilluk men, dated 1936
• Mayhem in Sudan's Shilluk Kingdom
• Shilluk, Dhocolo in South Sudan