The Concoction and Evolution of Nuer-wew in South Sudan
3 min readDr. Simon Wuor Gai, USA
Wednesday, September 26, 2018 (PW) — What is like to be called Nuerwew, a term coined by Riek Machar Group when they thought they were liberating the to-be the Republic of Riek Machar and Ngundeng?
To answer such a question, many things come to mind. First, the connotation of the term implies that the Republic of South Sudan belongs to Dinka and that any Nuer person working with that government is only working to get paid not because the nation is his and being a part and parcel of it.
Second, the term Nuerwew suggests that those Nuers, who have been working with the government of the Republic of South Sudan, are not Nuer in their origin. Meaning, they are Dinka and they are called Dinka a couple of times by their Nuer brothers and sisters.
Thirdly, the term proposes that the government of South Sudan is not a republic and a legitimate entity. It is therefore replaced by Machar’s movement, which is seen as an incoming legitimate Republic. There are so many theories that come to mind, but I will only address the aforesaid theories in this short, but informative article.
The question that one may want to ask today becomes, who is the Nuerwew now? I think it is reasonable to mention that Dr. Riek Machar is the first Nuerwew if we have to go by the first theory, which seems to suggest that the Republic of South Sudan belongs to Dinka.
As the figure has shown, there is a common saying that “A Picture is worth more than a thousand words.” In this context, one may see that the word Nuerwew was used in 2014 by almost every Nuer man and a woman blindly not knowing what the future was holding for them and their doomed leader, Riek Machar.
Looking at this graph, it is fair to read that 100% of Riek’s supporters used the term Nuerwew in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
The used of the term Nuerwew subsided in 2016, probably because of the agreement in 2015. However, the term went up again in 2017, but seriously declined in 2018 to only 30% of users, as shown on the graph. For those Nuers, who had to work for the government, or any Nuer, who has been supporting the government, they are all termed as Nuerwew.
Now Dr. Riek Machar is going back to Juba and work with the same government. How are you going to call him? If you happen to go back and work with the same government, though, how are you going to call yourself?
Or how would you like yourself to be called? It is just a heads up, I will come back to address those challenges with a more in-depth formal article next time when time allows me to do so.
Be all blessed.
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