The Nyimang are an ethnic sub-group of the Nuba peoples in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan in Sudan. Their population may exceed 180,000. Most are Muslims.
Culture
Communication
They speak Nyima languages, also known as Ama language of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Their language is named after the tribe. There is no written language, but some are trying to create a written language using Latin letters for the sounds.
There are about fifty names for men and about fifty names for women, the names have no special meaning but are made because they have a pleasant sound.
Social behavior
Not many games are played, but one significant exception is kirang. It is a game that is played with a bat that looks much like a cricket bat.
The way people greet each other depends on their generation. For example, people from the same generation greet each other by sliding the palm over the back of the other person's hand. Youths shake each other's hands vigorously, which is how they display their strength to one another. when an adult greet a child, they place their hand on the top of their head.
As for their daily schedule, the first meal is eaten at five to six in the morning. Then, the men tend to the fields until noon, while the women go later because they are preparing food. They have their lunch at noon and then they take care of other daily work. Dinner is held at sunset, and then they wait till about nine before going to sleep. The evening hours are dedicated to quality time with friends and family.
Braids are considered stylish for women and teenagers. Once a boy matures he does not wear braids.
Weddings happen very often, especially since a man has a minimum of two wives. A man goes to a girl's family and asks for her hand. Then, all the men that want to marry the girl have a competition and they are rated on their warrior traits and bravery. The father and the girl's brothers decide on the man for her. Once they decide who it should be, then they get the dowry and the man has to "kidnap" the woman. It is sort of a game they have. If the man does not kidnap the woman, then they will not live in the same house or be officially married. If the groom fails to kidnap the bride, then she stays at her father's house until she becomes the mother of at least three to four children.
Art Forms
The Nyimang tribe has many different forms of art. They have dances and ceremonies for various events. They celebrate births, weddings, harvests, and the life of someone when they die. They even have a special dance for when they are about to go to war with enemy tribes. They believe it gives them special energy and scares the enemy.
They are also fond of pottery and woodcarvings; they have mud plates with authentic designs that they favor. Their woodcarvings are shown in the form of a pillar with carved designs on them.
They also have great music. Their instruments are not that different from Western instruments; they have string instruments, woodwind, and drums. their favorite instrument is a string instrument that quit resembles the guitar; it is called conyang.
The Nyimang tribe tells many stories to amuse both grown men and children. There is a certain story of how they believe they came from the sky and landed on the Nuba Mountains. They believe this because they saw footprints on the mountains and thought it was the footprints of their ancestors when they first descended from the sky.
Architecture
The Nyimang live in attached villages very close to mountains, for defence and security reasons, houses are very close, mostly round huts with clay or wooden walls, another one of their architectural achievements. The walls of the house are made of mud and the roofs are made of hay or twigs and leaves. The kitchen or storage room is very big and spacious, they keep some calves in there and meat and vegetables. It is where they keep mostly everything, in their language it is called the "merdang", there is many huts in one family house 4 to 5, and some times more, surrounded with some plants hedging as a fence, the house is usually surrounded by a farm, besides animals small farm in the house for cows and goats