James speaking Nur

This video was recorded by Richard Benton in Minneapolis, USA, where he and James, a pastor, met. Nur, also written as Nuer, is spoken by as many as 900,000 people, primarily in the Central African nations of Ethiopia, in particular the Gambela region, and South Sudan. Along with the Dinka language, it is one of Central-Eastern Africa’s most widely spoken mother tongues. It is written with a variety of the Latin alphabet, and is dialectically diverse, with at least 15 distinct varieties. A Nilo-Saharan language, Nur is perhaps most similar to the Jieng variety of Dinka and the Shilluk language of South and North Sudan, also known as Chollo.