Thesiger with Nuer name-bull
35 mm | Negative film Kodak Panatonic
Previous PRM Number:
WT.Southern Sudan.2.22
Accession Number:
2004.130.32823.1
Description:
Wilfred Thesiger standing next to a man wearing a checked body cloth holding the tether of a bull that is to be presented to him by the Jikany as his 'name-bull', the beast from whom he was to take his Nuer name, Kwecuor or Kwechuor as he describes it.
This name refers to the ox's markings of a white face (kwe) and mottled dark body marks (cuor).
This ox was given to him by a leading man of a Western Jikany village at the beginning of his Western Nuer service in January 1938.
Men from the community stand in a line behind them.
Thesiger probably handed Wedderburn-Maxwell (the DC) his camera to take this commemorative image for him.
Photographer:
?H. G. Wedderburn-Maxwell
Date of Photo:
1938 (January?)
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Wahda
Group:
Nuer Western Jikany
NamedPerson:
Wilfred Patrick Thesiger
PRM Source:
Wilfred Patrick Thesiger
Acquired:
Accepted as Art in Lieu of Inheritance Tax by H.M. Government and allocated to the Pitt Rivers Museum, March 2004
Other Owners:
n/a
Class:
Animal Husbandry
Keyword:
Animal Cattle
Event:
Ceremony
Other Information:
[from similar image] Manual Catalogue - 'VOL E p.
21 WESTERN NUER 1937-39/top L.
my name bull Kwachuor' Chris Morton [15/9/2004] In The Life of My Choice (Harper Collins 1987) Thesiger notes (page 266) that 'All British officials who served among the Nuer were known by their 'bull names'...This same Jikany chief formally presented me with a black ox marked with white, which was known from its colouring as 'Kwechuor'...On Wedderburn's advice I asked the chief to keep Kwechuor for me with his herd.' Chris Morton [15/9/2004]
Recorder:
Elin Bornemann [10/12/2003] Christopher Morton [15/9/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]
