The Lak are a tribe of the Nuer people, a Nilotic ethnic group from South Sudan. The Lak are part of the Central Nuer alongside the Thiang, Gawaar, and other tribes. Their ancestral territories are located primarily in the greater Upper Nile region.
History The Lak were considered Central Nuer,Historical Dictionary of South Sudan, Douglas H. Johnson, Kuyok Abol Kuyok, Nicki Kindersley, 2025, pp. 225, ISBN 9798881865979. and an important Nuer tribe.Gari-Gari: The Call of the African Wilderness, Hugo Adolf Bernatzik, 1936, pp. 23.The Nuer Conquest: The Structure and Development of an Expansionist System, Raymond C. Kelly, 1985, pp. 13, ISBN 0472100645. E. E. Evans-Pritchard estimated the Lak population at 24,000 in 1940.The Nuer, a Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People, Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, 1968, pp. 117.
They were targeted in punitive campaigns in 1911, 1912, and 1914 in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.Historical Dictionary of South Sudan, Douglas H. Johnson, Kuyok Abol Kuyok, Nicki Kindersley, 2025, pp. 371, ISBN 9798881865979. During the Second Sudanese Civil War, there was a self-declared prophet named Wutnyang Gatkek who was from the Lak tribe and led a significant militia.Sudan: Struggle for Survival, Graham F. Thomas, 1993, pp. 245, ISBN 9781850771180.
The Lak were distinct from the Leek (Lek), another Nuer tribe.The Nuer, a Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People, Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, 1968, pp. 119.The Anthropological Lens: Rethinking E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Christopher Morton, 2020, pp. 174, ISBN 9780192542250.Sudan, Oil, and Human Rights, Jemera Rone, Human Rights Watch (Organization), 2003, pp. 113, ISBN 9781564322913. References