Mundari Cattle Camp – South Sudan

Ascending into South Sudan is another world unto itself, arriving at the Mundari cattle camp is like using a time machine to go back a hundred years. The smoky air, the jingling bells, the subdued voices of beasts and ghostly silhouettes roaming around welcome you into this ancient world brought to reality. Africa is a continent full of amazing surprises, but until you are right there in person, it seems unreal from the perspective of those living in a crazier modern century. 

Life in the cattle camps starts well before sunrise, smoke is still filling the air. The children start by gathering the fresh dung deposited overnight. They dump it on the outer borders of the camp and spread it across the ground to dry. This will become the fuel to light fires just before the cattle return in the evening. The children work from an early age, developing the symbiotic bond that is so much a part of the camp’s “ecosystem.” 

As your eyes adjust to the dim light you will start to notice the shadow figures of tall men moving through the density of the misty smoke and around the massive-horned Ankole-Watusi cattle as they prepare for the day. The ash from the fires is used to cover their bodies and massage the cattle so that they are protected from insect bites and the harsh sun. Once they are covered in ash, they appear almost as ghosts floating in the atmospheric scene. 

Soon the camp becomes a chaos of activity. As you navigate through it, you may find some men showering with the urine of their cattle, which functions as an antiseptic. Young males also use cattle urine to color the top of their hair orange to attract young ladies. Some of the young boys paint the horns of the cattle with ochre and the older boys might prepare the horns for ornamentation. The women and young girls milk the cattle, make coffee and distribute food. Then in a blink of an eye, the cattle are released, the men follow them into the fields and the women and children are scattered across the land to do their daily activities. The camp instantly becomes quiet and empty. 

Late in the afternoon young boys will start to gather the dried dung onto skins, carry them to the center where the cattle will stay the night, dump them into a pile, and start a fire. This is the sign that the men will soon be returning with the large herds of cattle. Fire is as integral to life in camp as a hat is to a cowboy and a rungu to a Maasai. Next, the boys take down the ropes that have been stored high up on the family poles. On the ground are short stick poles, which the boys will tie up the cattle for the night. 

 Once again, the mounds of fuel release plumes of clouds that form beautiful wavy white patterns before merging to form a smoky blanket across the camp. Music from horns begins to float through the camp as people sing close to the fires where they will fall asleep under the stars and next to the cattle just a few feet away. This experience has become a burning quest for photographers as the entire camp seems purely artistic and more like fantasy than reality.

Experiencing these truly extraordinary places leaves one breathless. It was so exciting to be back in the magic of a remote place that makes the heart race a little faster. These last two weeks in South Sudan were extremely magical like the Omo Valley was before tarmac roads, cell phones, and tourism entered. Join us in 2024!!!!