Nara
One of Eritrea's nine recognised peoples and among its smallest, farmers of the western lowlands whose Nilo-Saharan language has no close relative in the country, and whose land sat directly on the front line of the war with Ethiopia.
Identity
Population: Estimated 30,000 to 60,000, under two per cent of Eritrea
Location: The Gash-Barka region of western Eritrea, around Barentu and the Gash river
Language: Nara, a Nilo-Saharan language; Tigre and Arabic widely used, Tigrinya in administration
Language family: Nilo-Saharan → Eastern Sudanic
Traditional governance: Village elders and customary land arrangements; Eritrean regional administration, in which all nine recognised nationalities have formal but limited standing.
Clans, Sections & Sub-groups (3)
Most African peoples are federations of named sub-groups — clans, sections, chiefdoms or sub-tribes — each with its own dialect, territory and traditions.
Higir and Mogareb sections
Principal divisions of the Nara, named in Eritrean ethnographic accounts.
Santora and Koyta
Further named groupings of the Gash valley communities.
Displaced and returnee households
Families displaced by the 1998 to 2000 war and its aftermath.
Culture
Clothing: Cotton wraps and contemporary dress; women's silver and bead ornament; the western lowlands dress differently from the highlands and the difference is noticed.
Food: Sorghum and millet porridge, sesame, groundnut and the produce of the Gash's flood-recession fields; goat and cattle where kept.
Ceremonies: Harvest and rain observances; weddings with drumming and dance distinct from highland forms; Islamic festivals, since most Nara are Muslim.
Marriage customs: Bridewealth in cattle and goods; the Nara have historically been described as matrilineal in inheritance in some accounts, a feature that has attenuated under Islam and Eritrean law.
Initiation rites: Quranic school; instruction in the Gash's flood cycle and the timing of recession planting, which governs the agricultural year.
Stories & Oral Literature
Nine NationalitiesPolitical account
Eritrea officially recognises nine ethnic groups, and its national narrative places heavy emphasis on their equality: banknotes, stamps and school texts all present the nine. The Nara are among the smallest. Formal recognition has not translated into education in the language, and Nara children learn in Arabic or Tigrinya, which for a Nilo-Saharan-speaking child is a wholly unrelated language either way.
On the Front LineContemporary account
The Gash-Barka region was among the most heavily fought over in the 1998 to 2000 border war with Ethiopia, and much of its population was displaced. It is also Eritrea's agricultural heartland and the site of large mining operations. A small people occupying strategically and economically valuable ground has a particular kind of vulnerability, and the Nara's is well documented by human rights organisations.
Proverbs
“The Gash comes once and feeds the year.”
Flood-recession farming on a seasonal river.
“Nine names on the note and one language in the school.”
Recognition without provision.
“The small field is nearest the road.”
Small communities on contested ground.
Mythology & Spiritual Beliefs
Creation: Islamic cosmology for the Muslim majority, with a Christian minority; older Nilotic-associated practice surviving in rain and harvest observances.
Beliefs: Sunni Islam; rain and harvest rites tied to the Gash's flood; ancestral observance at named sites; a Christian minority, chiefly Catholic through the Barentu mission.
Ancestors: Lineage claims underpin rights to flood-recession land, which is the region's most valuable asset and increasingly subject to state allocation.
Gods, Goddesses & Spirits
Allah
The one God, worshipped by the Nara majority
Rain and river powers
Addressed in observances tied to the Gash's annual flood
Ancestors
Honoured at named sites in the lowland landscape
Architecture
Traditional settlements: Villages of round mud houses with conical thatch on the Gash's higher ground; granaries; block construction in Barentu.
Building techniques: Mud and pole with thatch; granary building sealed against pests; the reading and management of flood-recession planting on the Gash.
Village layout: Villages above the flood line with fields on the recession land, and grazing on the drier ground beyond.
Artifacts
Gash flood-recession fields
Agriculture
Farmland watered by a seasonal river, the western lowlands' agricultural basis.
Nara language
Language heritage
A Nilo-Saharan language with no close relative in Eritrea, untaught in schools.
Silver ornament
Craft
Women's jewellery of the western lowlands.
Barentu regional museum collections
Archive
Material culture of Gash-Barka's peoples.
Historical Timeline
Pre-1800
Nara communities occupy the Gash valley in western Eritrea.
1890–1941
Italian colonisation; the western lowlands are administered as an agricultural periphery.
1961–1991
The Eritrean liberation war; the western lowlands are a major theatre and source of refugees to Sudan.
1993
Eritrean independence; nine nationalities are officially recognised, the Nara among them.
1998–2000
The border war with Ethiopia devastates Gash-Barka and displaces much of its population.
Sources & Further Reading
Open sources
- Minority Rights Group: EritreaMinority Rights Group International
- Ethnologue: NaraSIL International
- Britannica: Eritrea — peopleEncyclopaedia Britannica
Premium & scholarly sources