Chapters › Christian Nubia · South Sudan – Upper Nile

Shilluk Kingdom

1490 CE – 1861 CE Arabic under review

Dating note

Founding c.1490 traditional (Nyikang); 1861 end-point not re-verified.

Key events

• Founded by Nyikang (tradition)
• Royal seat at Fashoda
• Holt & Daly: range formerly reached Aba Island (mid-19th c.); raided Arab settlements down the White Nile until early Turco-Egyptian period
• Tradition ascribes the Funj foundation to a Shilluk war-band

Capitals / sites

Fashoda (Kodok)

Geopolitics

Raided Arab settlements down the White Nile and met northern neighbours 'on equal terms' until firearms and steamers (Holt & Daly).

Culture

Ogot dates the first Shilluk settlement near Malakal to their leader Nyikang (c.1490–1517). Luo-speakers absorbed Funj and Nuba elements and formed 'what became known as the Shilluk nation' from the later 17th century, settled in villages along the west bank (GHA V ch.7, p.193). Reth Tugo (c.1690–c.1710) founded Fashoda as the permanent royal seat; before that each reth ruled from, and was buried in, his own village. Tugo also instituted the elaborate installation ceremony of the reth, and a social hierarchy developed alongside centralisation (p.197).

Economy

Before 1860 a trading system grew up in the kingdom, which the reth (king) 'could no longer control' as foreigners came to dominate it. Kaka in northern Shillukland became the main slave market of the White Nile after 1854. Kate Petherick called the Shilluk 'an industrious people' who 'cultivated grain to a large extent'. One raid by Muhammad al-Khayr is recorded as taking 500 slaves and 12,000 head of cattle. Turco-Egyptian rule then imposed heavy cattle taxes, an annual tribute of £15,000 on the Shilluk and Jieng, and cotton grown with forced labour around Fashoda (5,000–6,000 ha by 1874) (GHA VI ch.14, pp.366–367).

Regional power

• Shilluk: Research in progress 'equal terms' with northern neighbours is qualitative only

Open data flags

• Pass 17 text: [WORKING TRANSLATION – needs native Arabic review] for every Arabic field
• Pass 20 text: [WORKING TRANSLATION – needs native Arabic review] for every Arabic field
• Shilluk dates from oral tradition (GHA V ch.7)
• 'equal terms' with northern neighbours is qualitative only

Sources

1. P.M. Holt & M.W. Daly (2011) A History of the Sudan: From the Coming of Islam to the Present Day Routledge (Pearson/Longman) link [en]
2. H.A. Ibrahim (with B.A. Ogot) The Sudan in the nineteenth century (General History of Africa VI, ch.14) UNESCO link [en]
3. Y.F. Hasan and B.A. Ogot (1992) The Sudan, 1500–1800, ch.7 (General History of Africa V) UNESCO / Heinemann / University of California Press link [en]
4. Wikipedia contributors Shilluk Kingdom Wikipedia link [en]

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