The magazine of the art-form of the photo-essay
“A free, really high quality photo-essay magazine. Fabulous!”
Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film & documentary maker
May 2015 back issue
by Robert Young Pelton
The Nuer White Army, sometimes decapitalised as the "white army", is a semi-official name for a militant organisation
formed by the Nuer people of central and eastern Greater Upper Nile in modern-day South Sudan as early as 1991.
According to the Small Arms Survey, it arose from the 1991 schism within the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/
Army (SPLM/A) for the dual purpose of defending Nuer cattle herds from neighbouring groups and fighting in the
Second Sudanese Civil War between the SPLM/A and the Sudanese government.
The White Army was so named due to the Nuer practice of smearing one's skin with a light-coloured ash as a
protection against biting insects, according to a Small Arms Survey report published in June 2007, though other
sources contend the name was merely intended to draw a distinction between the Nuer militia and the Sudan Armed
Forces. (Extract from Wikipedia)
