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Niam-Niam redirects here. Niam-Niam can also refer to a
Mancala game with a 2×8 and stores.''
The Azande ("Zande" as an adjective) are a tribe of north central Africa. Their number is estimated by various sources at between 1 and 4 million.
They live primarily in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in southwestern Sudan, and in the southeastern Central African Republic. The Congolese Azande live in Orientale Province, specifically along the Uele River; and the Central African Azande live in the districts of Rafaï, Zémio, and Obo.
Language
The Azande speak
Zande, which they call Pazande in their language. (Their language is also called Zandi, Azande, Sande, Kizande, Badjange). Zande is an
Adamawa-Ubangi language.
Population
The Zande population is spread over three countries, namely
Sudan,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the
Central African Republic - the effect of colonial borders. In most cases, people use the estimate in Sudan to determine the total Zande population, an approach that does not show correct estimates.
Agriculture
The Azande are mainly small-scale farmers. Crops include maize, rice, groundnuts (also known as peanuts), sesame, cassava and sweet potatoes. Fruits grown in the area include mangos, oranges, bananas, pineapples, and also sugar cane. Zande land is also full of oil palms and sesame.
From 1998 to 2001, Zande agriculture was boosted since World Vision was buying agricultural produce. The Azande managed to supply as much maize, soya beans, sesame, sorghum and groundnuts as possible to feed the whole population of Southern Sudan sacks were marked Yambio or feed Sudan within Sudan.
Livestock
Azande have changed dramatically over the past years. In the 1970s, the only domestic animals the Zandes raised were chickens; by the early 1980s, the number of domestic animals had increased. Among the domestic animals the Zande keep at present are goats, chickens and pigs. The Azande in DRC and CAR keep more goats than the Zande who live in Sudan because the Zande in Sudan get meat supply from other tribes unlike Zandes in DRC and CAR.
History and traditional beliefs
Most Azande traditionally practiced an animist religion but this has been supplanted to large extent by Christianity. Their remaining traditional beliefs were around magic and what is referred to as witchcraft.
Witchcraft, among the Azande, is believed to be an inherited substance in the belly, which lives a fairly autonomous life, including performing bad magic on the person's enemies. Witches can sometimes be unaware of their powers, and can accidentally strike people to whom the witch wishes no evil. Because witchcraft is believed to always be present, there are several rituals connected to protection from and cancelling of witchcraft that are performed almost daily. When something out of the ordinary occurs, usually something bad, to an individual, they may blame witchcraft, just as non-Zande people may say "bad luck".
Oracles are a way of determining from where the suspected witchcraft is coming and they were for a long time the ultimate legal authority, the main determining factor in how one would respond to the threats.
There was also a social institution similar to pederasty in Ancient Greece. As E. E. Evans-Pritchard recorded, male Zande warriors between 20 and 30 years of age, in the northern Congo, routinely took on young male lovers between the ages of twelve and twenty, who participated in intercrural sex and sex with their older partners. The practice largely died out by the mid-20th century, after imperialist Europeans had gained colonial control of African countries, but was still surviving to sufficient degree that the practice was recounted in some detail to Evans-Pritchard by the elders with whom he spoke.
Military
The weaponry of the Zande was showcased on the cable television show
Deadliest Warrior. The Zande were renowned for their military prowess, using a mix of
Iron Age and
Stone Age weapons to great effect on raids to gain new resources, including the Makraka, a sickle-bladed weapon capable of decapitation and the Makrigga, a seven foot spear with backwards facing hooks effective at inflicting massive ripping trauma upon being pulled out of a wound. The iron Kpinga throwing knife functioned much like a scaled up
shuriken, with cutting edges protruding from almost every angle and the ability to inflict deep stabbing wounds from a distance, as well as functioning as an effective close up stabbing and slashing weapon. They used bows with the arrows dipped in a mix including
strychnine, which is used in rat poison, capable of inducing severe pain, muscle spasms, and death in those hit.
The Zande used intimidation as a weapon, filing their teeth to take on a frightening, animalistic appearance and using a distinctive chant of "nyam-nyam", an adaptation of the name "great eaters" given to them by other tribes.
Folklore
E. E. Evans-Pritchard and other anthropologists have paid special attention to Zande stories about Tule, also known as Ture. Tule (pronounced ), which means "spider" in Zande, is sometimes portrayed as a trickster, similar to
Anansi or
Br'er Rabbit.
The name
s]]
The word
Azande means
the people who possess much land, and refers to their history as conquering warriors.
There are many variant spellings of Azande, including: Zande, Zandeh, A-Zandeh, Sandeh, etc.
The name Niam-Niam (or Nyam-Nyam) was frequently used by foreigners to refer to the Azande in the 19th and early 20th century. This name is probably of Dinka origin, and means great eaters in that language (as well as being an onomatopoeia), supposedly referring to cannibalistic propensities. This name for the Azande was in use by other tribes in Sudan, and later adopted by westerners. Naturally, today the name Niam-Niam is considered pejorative.
Another tribe called the Niam-Niams were a tribe from ancient legend, said to have short tails.
See also
Richard Buchta
Notes
References
Spike-TV (2010) 'Deadliest Warrior: Aztec Jaguar vs Zande Warrior'
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1979) ‘Witchcraft Explains Unfortunate Events’ in William A. Lessa and Evon Z. Vogt (eds.) Reader in Comparative Religion. An anthropological approach. Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. pp. 362–366
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1967) The Zande Trickster. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E.1937 Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. Oxford University Press. 1976 abridged edition: ISBN 0-19-874029-8
External links
Equatorians Abroad
Ethnologue entry on the Zande language.
Homosexuality in "Traditional" Sub-Saharan Africa and Contemporary South Africa (pdf), by Stephen O. Murray, quotes extensively from Evans-Pritchard's books on the Azande, particularly on pages 7–9 of the online document.
, includes interviews with experts on Zande military practices and weaponry and demonstration on simulated human bodies.
Category:Ethnic groups in Sudan
Category:Ethnic groups in the Central African Republic
Category:Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Category:Homosexuality in Africa
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