DESPITE THE VARIOUS forms of big-man competition that the Nunu had developed over the years, becoming a water lord with estates and clients had always been the Nunu ideal. It had defined the essence of what it meant to be a Nunu male. Even Nunu living in the fringe areas had proudly traced their ancestry back to the water lords in the swamps. But by the mid-twentieth century, old notions of core and fringe were being challenged. The traditional core area of Nunu settlement had literally become hollow, and it was the new competition along the river that was defining the parameters of Nunu life. The redistribution of people over the land forced the immigrants in the river towns to adjust their cultural ideals to the new realities.

This shift in the focus of Nunu identity from the swamp to the riverbanks carried with it the potential for an expanded ecocultural identity. In contrast to the old swamplands, where a specific variant of big-man competition had been rooted in a geographically isolated micro-environment, the river extended far beyond the territory occupied by the Nunu. For a thousand kilometers upstream from Bolobo, the river environment was relatively uniform, and the strategies of fishing camps, nets, and commerce were common. Notions of a larger riverine community were suggested by the continual mixing of river peoples at fishing camps.