Mainly self-sustaining in what they cultivate in the hill area, the Gaahmg are slow to grow cash crops or to migrate for wages.
[4] In 1888-1889, the Mahdist government raided the Funj area and the Ingessena hills in particular, to provide for Khartoum during a severe and widespread famine, taking 1000 head of cattle from the Gaahmg on one occasion.
The Gaahmg made counter attacks and held Arabs captive for ransom at ten head of cattle per person.
When the Gaahmg attacked tax patrols in protest to tribute collections, the Anglo-Egyptian government conducted ‘military operations’ which, although they did not involve taking slaves, seized livestock and killed those deemed responsible.
Attempts to resolve Blue Nile’s past and current conflicts thus very much reflect Sudan’s existential dilemma as to how best it should define itself.
During the dry season, young men and boys take herds of up to 50 head of cattle a hundred miles south to the Yabus River for water and pasture.
[7] This confusion may be based on the fact that the Gaahmg language is tonal (that is, relative pitch is used to contrast between different words and/or different grammatical forms[8]).
Their skin is black and they are happy, but besides that they have few characteristics of the negro, for their features are regular and small like the mixture of Amhara and Galla that one meets in the Shoan countryside.
Their long skirt or sarong is rolled tight over their buttocks and their hair is plaited back to fit the turn of their heads.
They carry two spears and balance on their easy shoulders, blade towards the sky, a magnificent curved and formal sword concave to the front of them.