The Fur are an ethnic group predominantly inhabiting western Sudan. They are concentrated in the Darfur region, where they are the largest ethnic group. They speak the Fur language, which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan family.
With a population of approximately 744,000, the Fur are the largest ethnic group in Darfur (Darfur means "land of the Fur"). Also called Fora, Fordunga, Furawi, Konjara, or Kungara, the Fur speak a Nilo-Saharan language that is used alongside Sudanese Arabic, which is mostly spoken for trade and commerce.
The Fur are the largest ethnic group in the Darfur region of western Sudan. They are also sometimes referred to by the names Fora, Fordunga, Furawi, Konjara, or Kungara. They are an active agricultural people and may also herd cattle. Some Fur families who have accumulated a substantial cattle herd developed a more nomadic lifestyle like that of their herding neighbors, the Baqqara (Baggara) Arabs. Culturally, those cattle-herding Fur are now considered to be Baqqara. The Fur are nominally Sunni Muslims following the Maliki school of Islamic law.
They are a Western Sudanese people who practice sedentary herding and agriculture, mainly the cultivation of millet. Their society is a traditional one governed by village elders. They speak Fur, a Nilo-Saharan language, and are Muslims, having adopted the religion following the region's conquest by the Kanem-Bornu Empire during the Middle Ages. Some of them have come to speak Arabic in recent years.
The name of Darfur comes from the name of this ethnic group and means "the home of the Fur". Most of the well known governors of Darfur such as Deriage and Tegani Seisei are members of the Fur. The Fur established the historical Sultanate of Darfur which governed Darfur until 1916.
Abdul Wahid al Nur, a leader among the Fur, established the Sudan Liberation Movement and Army. Another leader of the Fur, as of 2007, is Ahmed Abdelshafi (Toba).
The traditional heartland of the Fur is the mountainous region around Jebel Sî and Jebel Marra Wadi Salih and Zaligi; today, however, most of them live in the lower country west and southwest of that area, between 11–14 N and 23–26 E. Some Fur live across the border in Chad, many of them refugees.
The Furs' lifestyle has led to conflict with the nomadic Baggara, cattle-herders of the region, concerning access to water and grazing land, particularly in Darfur's central Jebel Marra mountains where the best agricultural land is to be found. This has been the source of ethnic tensions for many years, culminating in the Darfur conflict which began in 2003.
Many Fur villagers were massacred in the ethnic fighting as Mahria and Terjem tribes divided up land they conquered from the Fur, according to a September 3, 2007 New York Times account citing United Nations officials and Fur survivors.
The Fur people’s preferred self-name is Fora (sing. Fordungɔ). The neighboring Masalit, Senyar, Deju, Zaghawa, and Arabic speakers call them, respectively, Forta (sing. For), Forsi, Yerce, Kora, and Furawi.
The Fur constitute Darfur’s largest ethnic group. In 1937 their population was about 120,000, increasing to 303,000 by 1956. There are no comparable, ethnically-disaggregated data for more recent years. Drawing on Sudanese government sources, Flint and de Waal (2008:4) reported that the total population of Darfur in the mid-2000s was over six million people.
Comparative linguists consider the Fur language to be unrelated to any of the other languages spoken in the Darfur region. Greenberg (1971), classified Fur as apart from several languages that fall within the main Nilo-Saharan language group. Beaton (1948) similarly argued that Fur is distinct from Arabic because it contains a range of vowels and consonants widely present in the Niger-Congo language family, yet is contrastingly rich in vocabulary, and is highly complex both in its grammatical and syntactical systems.
The Fur speak the Fur language, which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan family. They also speak Arabic as a lingua franca.
There is no written or symbolic script for the Fur language. They recently have been using Arabic or Latin characters to put the language in written form. Most Fur people speak Fur fluently as their mother tongue.
Common greetings include:
Heavy drums are often used while making speeches and other public addresses.
Mohammed Fadl (1800–1839) reorganized the sultanate into four administrative regions or magdumates, variously ruled over time by hereditary or centrally-appointed governors/emirs/madgums, recruited from major ethnic groups. This new administrative system reinforced central control over local communities and economically important resources, and facilitated implementation of a complex land tenure and taxation system tailored to Darfur’s three major ethnic and economic zones. The northern zone was home to several, predominantly nomadic Arab and non-Arab herders; the largest was (and remains, although in other zones now largely agricultural) the Zaghawa, who also are found in the adjacent areas of Chad and Libya. The central zone, encompassing the relatively cool Jebel Marra, is home to the predominantly millet-cultivating Fur, Masalit and other, smaller groups. The southern zone is inhabited by the Arabic-speaking Baggara and other nomadic cattle herders.
Like other ethnic groups in Sudan’s northwestern and southern regions, the recent history of the Fur is dominated by devastating civil wars. The most tragic of these was the Darfur war that during its height in 2003-2004 caused the deaths of some 200,000 civilians and left millions homeless (Flint and De Waal 2008: 305). Most analysts trace one root cause of the war to the 1984-1985 drought that threatened the livelihoods of millions of people, from Africa’s Sahel region in the west through northern Sudan and the Ethiopian highlands in the east. In response, nomadic herders from the arid areas of Darfur reportedly encroached on the arable land of Fur farmers in the wetter Jebel Marra area. Ethnic competition over productive land was exacerbated by climate change that accelerated desertification, especially in the already arid areas of Darfur to the north and west of the Jebel Marra. Starting in 1986, a struggle over resources grew into a large-scale civil war with the rise and consolidation of a pro-Arab Islamist regime in Sudan led by Sadiq al-Mahdi, followed by Omar al-Bashir in 1989. Farming communities in ethnically Fur, Masalit, Zaghawa and other non-Arab communities felt that the Khartoum regime pursued Arab-supremacist policies, including the arming of Arabic-speaking nomadic herders, while securing and disarming sedentary black communities demeaningly referred to using the racist term “zurga.”
During the Egyptian occupation of Darfur in 1875, the hereditary rulers of each magdumate were replaced with military governors loyal to the new regime. This change, together with invading ethnic groups from the east, greatly diminished the customary prerogatives of Fur elites, including preferential rights in land access. In 1898 Ali Dinar, a descendant of the hereditary Fur sultans, restored the Darfur Sultanate through a protracted insurgency against Egyptian forces, against a backdrop of a broad coalition of anti-colonial movements across Sudan. Over the next two decades, Ali Dinar took a series of measures that reconfigured ethnic relations in the region to favor Fur political elites, among them driving back the encroachment of nomadic non-Fur peoples on agricultural lands in areas surrounding the Jebel Marra, and strengthening central control over local communities by appointing a large number of agents (mandubs), troops, and police, undercutting the authority of the four regional governors (magdums).
The local impacts of the civil war became especially severe with the rise of ethnically-based, armed insurgency groups that sought to seize military bases, and “liberated” areas in the Jebel Marra and along Sudan’s border with Chad and the Central African Republic. The largest such insurgent group was the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). Although predominantly multi-ethnic in both its senior leadership and rank-and-file fighters, the SLA in Darfur mainly was supported by settled farmers, the majority of whom are ethnically Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit. In the course of the long civil war some SLA commanders quit to create rival, ethnic-based that splinter groups that fought not just against the government of Omar al-Bashir but also against other warring factions, including their former allies and many pro-government Arab militias locally called Janjawiid.
Ali Dinar was killed by the British in 1916 when they re-annexed Darfur as part of their Sudan colony. They instituted a policy of “Indirect Rule” in which the predominantly Fur political elite continued to govern the region under the supervision of a handful of strategically deployed British colonial officers. This system remained in place until Sudan’s independence in 1956.
The Fur people have a long history of dynastic rulers who founded, organized and enlarged the Darfur Sultanate. Both oral tradition and written sources trace the origin of the sultanate to the mid-sixteenth century, when Suliman Solong rose to power, establishing his capital at Dar Tora. Over the ensuing decades and centuries, successive hereditary sultans moved the capital to El Fasher, and expanded the empire in all directions. Suliman Teirab (1752-1758) defeated the Fung, adding a huge part of Sudan eastward to the Nile and the Ethiopian border. The territory of the sultanate also stretched westward and southward to the frontiers of Chad and the Central African Republic.
When visited by Fredrik Barth in 1964, a majority of the Fur lived in village communities of up to about 500 inhabitants. A typical village consisted of the homesteads of the original founding families, with those of their daughters’ husbands and some newly settled relatives expanding the hamlet over the years. Enclosed by a rough hedge or fence, the homestead consisted of circular huts of varying numbers and sizes. Larger households had several huts, including a larger one where the couple and their under-aged children slept, and separate, smaller huts for each married daughter and her husbands. Traditionally, a husband maintained a separate hut nearby and socialized with other men in the village’s men’s house. All unmarried adult and adolescent girls and boys slept in gender-separated smaller huts.
Both men and women jointly performed a range of agricultural activities. During sowing time, men made holes in the soil with stakes and women followed, dropping seed in each hole. Men spun cotton, often while chatting in public spaces. Women, in addition to cooking and other domestic chores, brewed beer for seasonal labor exchange parties. Men participated in labor exchange for a wide variety of tasks, such as felling trees, hunting big game, building homes, seasonal agricultural activities, and organizing annual rituals.
The men bear the family name. They work to bring money to the family and are responsible for all important decisions related to the family, such as finances and marriages. The women get water, prepare the food and ensure the cleanliness of the home.
Daughters normally help their mothers, milk the cows and stay at home. Sons rear and herd cattle along with the domesticated cows. If either of these two misbehave they are similarly punished by their elders. Also, it is disrespectful look an adult in the eyes.
When studied by Beaton in the late 1930s, land was communally owned by village communities. Individual farmers held rights to use small plots of land within their village territory. Household plots were, at the same time, recognized as the fief of a centrally-appointed official who held hereditary rights to collect taxes and other tribute, including free labor. With increasing population pressure on village lands, the titled fief-holder could appropriate some plots from larger stakeholders for reallocation to new claimants.
The Fur are broadly described in the older literature as having matrilineal descent. Beaton mentioned the presence of a matriclan system (ori), but noted that what constituted a “clan” was unclear because it did not prohibit endogamy. Similarly, the Fur communities Barth studied in 1964 lacked distinct unilineal lineages with a corporate ideology and related characteristics found in other parts of Africa. Instead, each village consisted of a large block of relatives who thought of themselves as patrilineally related, though in reality they were loosely related through female ancestors. Emphasizing this ambiguity, Barth argued that Fur villages are best understood primarily as territorial units administered by hereditary heads, as opposed to kin-based affective groups.
The Fur have adopted a rich repertoire of kinship terms that do not easily fit formal classifications, a majority apparently borrowed from Arabic and exhibiting a strong patrilineal orientation.
While bridewealth in the form of some animals and basic gifts was required, the actual amount was negotiated and often depended both on the girl's rank and the boy’s wealth. Beaton (1948:19) listed basic bridewealth as the bride's cow, the cow of the mother's breast, the cow of the father's clan, the mother's sister's share, the mother's brother's share, and the father's sister's share.
The marriage ceremony, which was commonly held in the evening in the bridegroom’s village, involved immense quantities of food, beer and wine.
The preferred residence pattern after marriage was matrilocal, but with flexibility over the ensuing years because of the unusually loose nature of Fur marital relations. When a girl approached marriageable age, her fiancé would be invited to build her a separate hut inside (or sometimes near) her parent's compound, where he regularly visited her while also maintaining a separate hut for himself nearby. After the birth of children the husband was allowed to bring the wife to a new hut built in his own homestead. Beaton (1948) noted that such a change could also happen at any time following the marriage, especially if the husband did not get along with the wife’s family.
When visited by Beaton in the late 1930s the Fur practiced limited polygyny. Men usually took additional wives only after they had accumulated enough wealth to build them a separate hut in a different part of the village or in another village.
Fur marriage prohibition was limited only to a person’s maternal cousins, as well as siblings, parents and grandparents. Marriage with paternal cousins and all other clan members and relatives was allowed. The preferred marriage age was following the onset of puberty, typically marked by initiation rites for boys, and the onset of menstruation for girls who, although they could be betrothed earlier. During an engagement period that lasted for a year or two, the young man was allowed to visit his fiancée at night in a separate hut he built for her.
The traditional Fur domestic group was characterized by notable ambiguity, both in its social boundary and in relations among family members. As observed by Felkin (1886), the most common domestic group included one’s parents, and married daughters with their husbands. Relations within Fur domestic groups, including between spouses, were reportedly looser than commonly found in comparable extended families or joint households, leading Barth to argue that Fur households were not primary units of production and budgeting. While reciprocally exchanging certain obligations and services as household members, Fur husbands and wives cultivated separate plots and stored their produce in separate bins. In addition to cooking for the husband, wives used their own stores to feed young children. Responsibilities of fathers included sponsoring the education of boys and contributing to their bridewealth when they came of age for marriage.
Married daughters inherited dry plots from their mothers, and sons took over fields that had been cultivated by their fathers. The lineal transfer of agricultural land across generations often was negatively affected by population growth in a village. The titled fief holder often sought to accommodate newly-established households who lacked land by taking plots from those with larger holdings. Children of the deceased also inherited all other property, such as houses, animals, grain, weapons, and other valuables. Under Sharia law the share for each heir varied by gender and seniority at birth.
Fur households practiced strict child rearing practices. As soon as they were old enough to understand instructions, children were taught to disdain stealing, deceit, and related bad conduct. Children were also taught, as well as expected, to be very polite and to obey orders at all times. Disobedience was severely punished with a whipping, or by being bound for a time and denied food and water. Children also were instructed to be helpful in both seasonal agricultural activities and domestic chores. Young boys were encouraged to complete basic religious schooling prior to coming of age. In achieving this goal, most boys moved from one koranic school taught by a fiki to another, in the course of which they had to feed themselves and their fellow students by begging.
Under the old system, sultans maintained a large class of dignitaries and soldiers by imposing burdensome taxes and tributes on overworked, near-starving peasants. In addition to the royal family, political elites benefitting from this system included senior army chiefs, the police, troop commanders, local fief managers, and village heads.
The Fur were successively ruled by a series of hereditary Sultans whose line continued from the seventeenth century to 1916, when Darfur came back under the control of the Sudanese government. Sultans commanded a large personal army and ruled by delegating power to a body of councilors and carefully-recruited provincial and district governors. For much of the nineteenth century, the sultanate was organized into five large provinces, each ruled by a titled dignitary beholden to the sultan. The provinces were in turn subdivided into small districts ruled by title-holding local governors. The wealth and power of these officials depended on the sultan’s judgement of their success in ensuring peace and security at each level of the political structure.
Each village had a small council of elders who settled minor disputes over land, enforcing their decisions through advice and warnings. Decisions of elders and traditional authority figures were strictly obeyed, so very few land disputes arrived in court. Willful homicide and other serious crimes were severely punished by the police and formal courts.
The prolonged Darfur war that began in the late 1980s and reached its peak in 2003-2004 was popularly viewed as one between indigenous African insurgent groups and government-supported militias drawn from nomadic Arab herders. This view was only partly true, in that a majority of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army’s (SPLA’s) rank-and-file fighters, as well as some of its influential leaders, were drawn from the Fur people and neighboring settled black farmers. Furthermore, none of the warring factions were ethnically or “racially” homogenous in a way that fit the Arab vs non-Arab dichotomy. Baggara Arabs, for example, historically included successful Fur farmers who, after accumulating enough cattle, adopted herding as their principal livelihood. Similarly, the neighboring Zaghawa and Masalit peoples included both Arab camel herders and non-Arab (“African” in popular perception) millet cultivators.
By the late 1930s the Fur were all followers of Islam, which spread steadily under Arab influence. Beaton (1948:38) noted that every village had a mosque or designated prayer place with a revered imam and fiki (religious scholar and teacher). Villagers gathered there for both regular public prayer and major religious festivals. Beaton nevertheless observed that the villagers retained some traditional beliefs, such as how the people of certain localities were able to transform themselves into animals, or that some men had powers to drive away plagues of locusts.
The village imam (religious leader) or fiki (religious scholar/teacher), offered prayers and blessings at a number of events, including births, weddings, offerings, and burials. They were also called upon to help in crises, including when disputes broke out, family members fell ill, or life-threatening misfortune occurred.
Major life-cycle events such as births, puberty, weddings and funerals are marked with communal feasts and celebrations. The Fur also observe annual Muslim religious holidays and celebrate a range of agrarian rites, most notably the sowing and harvest festivals.
Victims of witchcraft and sorcery consulted the a fiki (learned man) for help. The commonly prescribed antidote was to drink the water used to wash a koranic inscription off a writing tablet. Amulets protecting against bewitchment consisted of formulaic verses from the Koran written on carefully rolled parchments. The Fur recognize a hereditary class of healers who treat diseases with medicinal barks, roots and leaves.
Death was believed to be caused by the devil, sickness or the evil eye. At death, the Fur believed that the soul would leave the body and fly to meet God somewhere in the west. Within a few hours after death the body was buried in an individual grave in a graveyard, after having been washed, wrapped with cloth, and laid in front of the house or under a tree for prayer and recital from the Koran.
Fur practice their traditional rituals alongside Islam. Fur villages are typically composed of four or five households, and most are farmers who cultivate food both for the family and to sell at market. Their primary crop is dukhn (millet), which is used to make their staple food asida, a thick porridge paste. Dukhn beer is an important part of the Fur diet and is also payment for field work. This tradition has lasted even though Islam prohibits the consumption of alcohol.
Fur husbands and wives remain in separate housing after marriage, and have separate fields for food. Polygamy is common and marriages are frequently arranged by parents, with a bride price given to the bride’s family.
Political power is determined by hereditary position. The village sheik (religious leader) serves for life and is typically elected by the villagers to serve in relation with higher government-appointed officials.
The Fur are very fond of storytelling, and of traditional music employing a number of musical instruments, most notably drums. They also have a variety of unique folk dances. Other skills are displayed in basketry patterns and decorated pottery.
The Fur people make their own handmade art and utensils. These include talak, which is used for cleaning pots (talak looks like a sponge); birish, which is a carpet for sitting; and gada, which is a wood plate or bowl used for important occasions.
Among the Fur people, stories are told to keep children safe from the outside world. These stories are designed to keep children close to home. In some stories children are told that if they go out in the morning they will die from the heat of the sun, and in the night they are told if they go out an animal called nyama will eat them.
Fur music is very popular in their culture. The main instruments are drums. The music is played with a heavy drumbeat that accompanies their celebrations. Some popular Fur musicians are; Abdalla Kioka and Marium Amo.
A common type of architecture in homes and buildings is called mud architecture. They dig the clay from the ground, break it up, mix it with water, work thoroughly, and also mix other substances like straw. The clay will then pile up while still wet, pressed on to the scaffolds made out of wood , or cast in molds of various sizes into bricks. When the mud dries up in the molded shape, the process is complete. This technique is applied to most architecture in Western Sudan such as farmhouses, barns, outer walls, palaces, and even mosques. Mud is good at absorbing heat, which is advantageous for cold nights. However, because of its low resistance to wind and rain, there is a constant need to repair buildings. Therefore, the mud architecture is no longer practical because of its fragility, as well as cultural changes and foreign influences.
Clothes among the Fur people are similar to what is worn in Sudan. They wear casual Sudanese clothes like a jalabiya. The jalabiya is a white garment that covers the wearer from head to toe. A long time ago, when the Fur tribe was Arabised, Fur women used to poke their lower lip many times until the lip starts to swell. These dents were considered a sign of beauty.
In the social structure of the Fur people, they do not have so much regard for their wealth. A poor leader and a rich leader can become a chief. The experience of a man is based primarily on his knowledge of the Quran. A man cannot even get married if he does not know a couple pages of this text.
The Quran is studied with the help of a hand-held board shaped object known as the lohh and a wooden stylus called a kalam. The Fur tribesman’s knowledge of the Quran determines their position on the tribe’s hierarchy ladder. For example, a tribesman must know almost the whole book to attain position as chieftain.
The Fur people also have their own crafts for entertainment. These include dance-games like “ALLE” (all-eh) and toys like Burajei. Burajei is a small doll-like toy made from a camel’s back. It is bound by rope and sewn by thorns.
When greeting each other, a woman and a man have different forms of respect. The woman must kneel down before the man and the man must slow his pace. Different sexes can also dance together but are forbidden to touch or live with each other unless they are family.
Men and women usually get married in their late teens to their early twenties. The groom and wife will meet each other and get to know about them, their accomplishments and other important attributes. If everything goes well they will proceed to wed.
Sudan is well known for its Guhwah coffee served from a jebena, a special Sudanese pot. The coffee beans are roasted in this pot over charcoal, then ground with cloves and other spices. The grounds are steeped in hot water and the coffee is served in tiny cups after straining it through a grass sieve.
Tea or chai is also very popular and served in small glasses without milk. Some beverages enjoyed in the non-Islamic areas are Aragi, a clear strong spirit made from dates, merissa, a type of beer and tedj, or wines, made from dates or honey. Sudanese cuisine is as varied as its cultures, especially in the south, but it has certain unique characteristics. Millet porridge and fool medamas, a savory dish of mashed fava beans, are popular breakfast foods in the north. Lamb and chicken are often eaten, but pork is prohibited to Muslims.
Wheat and dura sorghum are the staple starches. Breads include the Arabian khubz, and kisra, an omelette-like pancake which is part of the Sudanese dinner. Maschi, a beef and tomato dish, is also typical. Fruits are peeled for dessert and a favourite treat is creme caramel.
In the south, dinner is served on a low, bare table. There may be five or six dishes to dip into with large pieces of flatbread. These dishes are accompanied by a salad and shata, a red-hot spice mixture served in small dishes. After the meal, dessert is served, then tea. On special occasions incense may be lit. The ritual of hospitality is important in Sudan.
The Fur people have many types of families. Porundia, or nuclear families, are a very common type. They normally have 2 or more children. In a typical Fur family the parents of the groom and wife will be taken care of until they die.
In a Fur marriage, the groom's father goes to the bride's father and asks for his son's permission to marry. The bride's father does not give an answer immediately, but then asks the village for its opinion. If everyone approves, the bride's father accepts. The whole village gathers for the announcement of the marriage, and preparations are made. Then the marriage starts in the groom's house. The imam recites words from the Quran. The groom and bride hold hands during this time. After the wedding, the family and guests have lunch, then they start a lively dance called firalubia. Then the bride and groom are taken to the bride's house and given food during which everyone says congratulations (mabrouk in Arabic).
Islam is the major religion among the Fur people, although some still practice their own religion. The schools called (Kalwa) in this region teach the Quran. Classes begin at 6–7 years and they continue learning the Quran (though not entirely in school) for the rest of their lives. Normal schooling is also practiced in these schools.
The main occupation here is farming. The Fur people are excellent farmers. They grow and harvest wheat, herbs, spices, etc. Wealth is not really important for the Fur people. Only his knowledge of the Quran determines his altitude.
Until 1916, the Fur were ruled by an independent sultanate and were oriented politically to peoples in Chad. Though the ruling dynasty before that time, as well as the common people, had long been Muslims they have not been arabized. They are now incorporated into the Sudan political system. The Fur had been basically independent from the 17th century. After British reconquest in 1899, the British approved the re-establishment of the Fur Sultanate, assumed by Ali Dinar when the Mahdist movement crumbled.
Mahdist revolts continued to break out in Sudan until 1916. The fall of Darfur was decided when Ali Dinar declared loyalty to the Ottoman Empire in World War I. The British abolished the Fur Sultanate in 1916 after Dinar died in battle.
In World War I Darfur made a bid for independence by allying with Turkey against the British. The British conquered Darfur in 1916, and since then it has been part of Sudan. Since the 1970s, the Darfur area has suffered some of the effects of the northern Arab war prosecuted in the south against Southern ethnic groups who wanted to secede from the Sudan.
War has been the primary factor in the last few decades of the Darfur area. A civil war lasted about 20 years until the end of the 20th Century. A new conflict arose in 2003, involving local Arab militia called Janjaweed attacking the African peoples village by village in a campaign of terror, reportedly supported by the Sudanese military.
In the current conflict, an estimated 2,500 Fur have lost their lives and 400 villages have been burned, causing tens of thousands to flee their land in search for safety.
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