Dinka people
The Dinka people are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Mangalla-Bor to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and the Abyei area of the Ngok Dinka in South Sudan.
They number around 4.5 million, according to the 2008 Sudan census, constituting about 40% of the population of that country and the largest ethnic group in South Sudan. The Dinka refer to themselves as and .
Origins
The Dinka originated from the Gezira in what became Sudan. In ancient times, this region was once occupied by the Kingdom of Kush. In medieval times, the area was ruled by the kingdom of Alodia, a Christian, multi-ethnic empire in Nubia. Living in its southern periphery and interacting with the Nubians, the Dinka absorbed a sizable amount of Nubian vocabulary. From the 13th century, with the disintegration of Alodia, the Dinka began to migrate out of Gezira, fleeing slave raids, military conflict, and droughts.Conflict over pastures and cattle raids have occurred between Dinka and Nuer as they battled for grazing land.
Dinka migration from Gezira & Alodia
The Dinka presence in Alwa suggests a significant historical connection between the Dinka and the Kingdom of Alwa. Cultural practices, such as beer-drinking rituals during sowing and harvesting sorghum, reflect similarities to Nubian traditions noted by Ibn Selim el-Assouani, indicating a continuity of influence from Alwa. Historical accounts, including manuscripts from the 18th century, reference the Dinka's ancestral ties to the Alwan Nubians, with early modern Sudanese manuscript writers noting that they are derived from the "Anag", a term used by Spaulding to describe eastern sudanic speaking peoples who were a part of the kingdom of Alodia. Linguistic studies support the idea that the Dinka resided in the Gezira, which was under Alwa's influence before their migration southward, likely due to political upheaval and increased slavery following Alwa's decline in the 13th century. Shared Nilotic traditions, such as human sacrifice and ceremonial regicide, further indicate a cultural heritage influenced by Nubian practices. Additionally, 13th-century accounts by Ibn Sa'id al-Andalusi describe the Damadim, who were engaged in conflict with the Alodians, highlighting interactions between Nilotic groups and Nubian territories. Archaeological evidence, including the tradition of king-killing, links the Dinka to later groups who lived in Alodia's successor state Fazughli where the custom persisted into the 19th century.
The Damadim, a group of Africans mentioned by various medieval Arab writers during the 13th century, may have been ancestors of the Dinka and other Western Nilotic groups like the Luo peoples. They were reported to live southwest of Alodia, possibly in the Southern Gezira or around the Bahr al-Ghazal and Sobat regions of South Sudan. Stephanie Beswick suggests that the Dinka's ancestors could have been based along the White Nile in the Gezira plains. The Damadim were known for their raids and conquests, notably their sacking of the Christian Kingdom of Alodia's capital, Soba, around 1220 A.D. During this period, they were referred to as the "Tatars of the Sudan" due to their simultaneous raids with the Mongol invasions of Persia. Archaeological evidence from Soba indicates significant destruction, including the looting of burial sites and the destruction of two major churches, possibly tied to the Damadim conquest. Despite the limited sources, the Damadim's movements and activities provide a potential link to the later Nilotic migrations into South Sudan that would occur post-1000 A.D. and are linked with the introduction of humped cattle.
The Dinka migrations southward during the 15th to 18th centuries played a crucial role in shaping their territorial dominance in what is now South Sudan. Following the collapse of the Alodian Kingdom and the establishment of the Funj Sultanate in 1504 by Sultan Amara Dunqas, the Dinka, alongside other Nilotic groups like the Shilluk, moved further south, clashing with the Funj and other local populations. Oral traditions and archaeological evidence suggest that the Dinka displaced and absorbed various groups in their path, including the remnants of the Funj people, who were themselves possibly linked to the Nubian traditions of medieval Alodia. These conflicts between the Dinka and the Funj are well-documented in Dinka oral histories, with stories of fierce battles where the Dinka eventually forced the Funj northward, allowing them to establish their sultanate as Sennār, which the Dinka would also raid in the following centuries. Over time the Dinka and Funj developed more complex relations, with Dinka warriors serving as mercenaries in the Funj provinces, and Dinka merchants engaging in the regional slave trade. Despite these evolving relations, the Dinka continued to expand into western and southern territories, solidifying their presence and dominance in much of modern South Sudan.
The Dinka's religions, beliefs, and lifestyle have led to conflict with the Arab Islamic government in Khartoum. The Sudan People's Liberation Army, led by Dinka John Garang, took arms against the government in 1983. During the subsequent 21-year civil war, many thousands of Dinka, along with non-Dinka southerners, were massacred by government forces. Since the independence of South Sudan, the Dinka, led by Salva Kiir Mayardit, engaged in a civil war with the Nuer and other groups, who accuse them of monopolising power.
Christianity
In 1983, due to Sudan's second civil war, many educated Dinka were forced to flee the cities to rural areas. Some were Christians who had been converted by the Church Missionary Society. Among them were ordained clergymen who began preaching in the villages. Songs and praise were used to teach the mostly illiterate Dinka about the faith. Most Dinka converted to Christianity and are learning to adapt traditional religious practices to Christian teachings. The conversion took place in rural villages and among Dinka refugees country. The Lost Boys of Sudan were converted in significant numbers in the refugee camps of Ethiopia.Dinka massacre
Between 2013 and 2014, forces led by the breakaway Riek Machar faction deliberately killed an estimated 2,000 civilians from Hol, Nyarweng, Twic east and Bor and wounded several thousand more over two months. Much of their wealth was destroyed, which led to mass starvation deaths. It is estimated that 100,000 people left the area following the attack.Physique
Dinka are noted for their height, and, along with the Tutsi of Rwanda, they are the tallest group in Africa. Roberts and Bainbridge reported an average height of in a sample of 52 Dinka Agaar and in 227 Dinka Ruweng measured in 1953–1954. However, the stature of Dinka males later declined, possibly as a consequence of undernutrition and conflicts. An anthropometric survey of Dinka men, war refugees in Ethiopia, published in 1995, found a mean height of.Agriculture and pastoral strategies
Southern Sudan is "a large basin gently sloping northward", through which flow the Bahr el Jebel River, the White Nile, the Bahr el Ghazal River and its tributaries, and the Sobat, all merging into a vast barrier swamp.Vast oil areas are present to the south and east on the flood plain, a basin in southern Sudan into which the rivers of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia drain from an ironstone plateau that belts the regions of Bahr El Ghazal and Upper Nile.
The terrain can be divided into four land classes:
- Highlands: higher than the surrounding plains by a few centimetres; there host permanent settlements. Vegetation consists of open thorn woodland and/or open mixed woodland with grasses.
- Intermediate Lands: slightly below the highlands, commonly subject to flooding from rainfall in the Ethiopian and East/Central African highlands. Vegetation is mostly open perennial grassland with some acacia woodland and other sparsely distributed trees.
- Toic: land seasonally inundated by rivers and inland water courses, retaining enough moisture throughout the dry season to support cattle grazing.
- Sudd: permanent swampland below the level of the ; covers a substantial part of the floodplain; provides good fishing but not grazing; historically a physical barrier to outsiders.
The climate determines the Dinka's migration patterns, responding to the periodic flooding and dryness of their surroundings. They begin moving around May–June, at the onset of the rainy season, migrating to their settlements of mud and thatch housing situated above flood level, where they plant their crops of millet and other grains. These rainy season settlements feature other permanent structures such as cattle byres and granaries. During the dry season, everyone except the aged, ill, and nursing mothers migrates to semi-permanent dwellings in the for cattle grazing. The cultivation of sorghum, millet, and other crops begins in the highlands in the early rainy season, and the harvest begins when the rains are heavy in June–August. Cattle are driven to the in September and November when the rainfall drops off and graze on crop remnants.
While the Dinka are often seen as only pastoralists, they are actually agro-pastoralists. Agriculture plays a very big part in their livelihood, with Sorghum being their most important crop grown. The Dinka also grow okra, sesame, pumpkin, cow peas, maize, cassava, ground nuts, different types of beans, water melons, tobacco and millet. In Dinka society, both genders engage in cultivation, and on big farms the women brew beer and everyone is involved. Before the Sudanese civil wars each household cultivated an average of two acres of sorghum around their homestead along with other crops. An estimated 87% of total calories and 76% of protein by weight are provided by crop production compared with 13% of calories and 24% of protein derived from livestock produce. Today, 83% of all available labor is estimated to be employed in agricultural activities compared with only 17% in livestock husbandry. In recent times, some poor or cattleless Dinka have farmed the land of their non-Dinka neighbors. According to the Balanda Bviri politician Bandindi Pascal Uru: "The Dinka are good cultivators; they cultivate slowly but surely for hours. When the Dinka leave the business of cattle they take the hoe very seriously."
The connection of agriculture and economics to Dinka marriage is important. Grain as well as cattle have been and continue to be used in both bartering and bridewealth payments. Wealth is acquired when a man and his family produce a small surplus of crops which they convert into a more stable and valuable resource, cattle. In turn, this enables a man to acquire more wives, more children, and thus more economic and political power. In Dinka society cattle acquired by the wealth yielded from agriculture are considered a more stable form of "property." If a Dinka couple divorce the cows given as bridewealth may be returned to the former husband. However, those Dinka male members of a clan who possess animals bought with grain, rather than acquired by way of marriage payments, are more honored and given more respect because their wealth is perceived as being more stable. Thus: "this cattle is not returnable and does not have external links and cannot be taken back easily, for example, by divorce. It therefore represents ‘pure property’ derived from labor and this kind of man has much more stable wealth and is more honored. However, no one has all cattle that are free of ties." Because of the link between agriculture, wealth, and marriage the Dinka grow a wide variety of crops.