Talk:Murle people

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With interest in Murle now high because of recent clashes, I threw in some of my own experience from working in South-Sudan during 2006. I red some reports from UN and NGO's about their predicaments, but I didn't keep them after handing over my job, so I can't quote them. Also I had lengthy talks with some of them in Pierri about the mentioned issues. In that sense my contribution is 'original research' and doesn't meet WiPe standards, so I hope people come up with better stuff.Pieter Felix Smit (talk) 20:01, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

This article asserts that the Murle have not been the main aggressors (cattle raiding and child stealing, etc.), but my research has proven that to be untrue. For a class at the Hubert Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, we attempted to address the problem of child theft in Juba and thereabouts--my classmate was Dinka and his three-year-old half-sister had been taken. We set up a non-profit, Save Yar. My task was to research the Murle (who were the ostensible kidnappers), and unfortunately there were very few sources at that time (prior to independence). The most detailed was a book by a British anthropologist, and I have not been able to source it easily; hopefully I will be able to get a cite. But it did assert that the Murle were the aggressors in the region, and that the word itself means "enemy" in their language. This does not mean that they are necessarily the "bad" people here: the Dinka and Nuer "self-defense" groups are now stealing children and killing Murle en masse. And the Dinka always thought that twins were unlucky, and would give them to the Murle. But to say that "contrary to what the [other tribes say]" the Murle have not traditionally been the aggressors is just inaccurate. I hope to have some time soon to properly edit the page to reflect this. Juanasanchez (talk) 07:06, 23 December 2013 (UTC)