Nyangatom

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The Nyangatom (sometimes written Inyangatom) are a small and warlike pastoral tribe of south western Ethiopia and south eastern Sudan, who live with their herds in a particularly inhospitable part of the disputed Ilemi Triangle.

They are related to the Toposa, their only friendly neighbours. They are called by the pejorative exonym Bume meaning 'the smelly ones' by their neighbours (all but one tribe being their ennemies) such as the Suri and Turkana in the Omo valley.

Since the 1990s they have been armed with automatic weapons from Ethiopia because of their dispute with the Turkana. They struggle to get water, as they have to dig several metres into the ground, where as local tribes just go to the rivers. Food is often scarce, the men herd animals, while doing this they must have guns (commonly used guns are AK-47s, must have come from the Sudan) ready at all time, as they pr the cattle can be attacked at any time. They were the first tribe to get the guns. Since the introduction of fire arms the previously serious stick fighting is now only practiced as a virile sport by the warriors among eachother. Upon killing an enemy they scar themselves repeatly to stop the bad blood from magically killing them. They are blessed and have their names changed when they kill.

Their cows are stabbed, and blood is drained and drunk.

The anthropological explorer Bruce Parry visited them, like several neighbouring tribes, to experience their daily life, in this case being adopted by a village chief and made an honorary warrior of the male generation set (the present totem is the ibex) of 'military age' in charge of cowherding and armed, repeatedly lethal interaction with neighbouring tribes in line with age-old feuds.

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