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 (two out of three provinces that were formerly part of southern Sudan), 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 (singular) and (plural).

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.

Conflict over pastures and cattle raids have occurred between Dinka and Nuer as they battled for grazing land.

Dinka migration from Gezira & Alodia

thumb|right|Approximate extension of Alodia based on accounts of Ibn Hawqal

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", During this period, they were referred to as the "Tatars of the Sudan" due to their simultaneous raids with the Mongol invasions of Persia.

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. Over time the Dinka and Funj developed more complex relationship. the Dinka continued to expand into western and southern territories, solidifying their presence and dominance in much of modern South Sudan.

alt=Dinka-män med spjut, halsband och armband|thumb|Dinka men with spears, necklaces and bracelets

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

thumb|An example of rainy season temporary settlements—note the stilts upon which the huts are built to protect against periodic flooding of the region

thumb|Cattle of the Dinka people, [[Juba, South Sudan]]

Southern Sudan is "a large basin gently sloping northward", through which flow the Bahr el Jebel River, the White Nile, the Bahr el Ghazal (Nam) 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 ecology of the large basin is unique; until recently, wild animals and birds flourished, rarely hunted by the agro-pastoralists.

thumb|A cattle camp in [[Rumbek]]

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."

thumb|Dinka beaded collar, [[Sudan Ethnographic Museum, 2022]]

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. The sacrificing of oxen by the "masters of the fishing spear" is central to Dinka religious practice. Young men become adults through an initiation ritual that includes marking the forehead with a sharp object. During this ceremony, they acquire a second cow-color name. The Dinka believe they derive religious power from nature and the world around them rather than from scripture.

Men and women eat separately. When milk supply is low, children get priority. Children are fed milk from 9–12 months. After about one year, children start eating solid food (porridge). After children turn three, they eat two meals a day. Adults also eat two meals a day.

In Dinka territory, there exist a number of mounds, described by the Dinka as “pyramids,” which have religious significance to those who tend them. These mounds were built in the form of a cone and the material used was cattle ashes, cow dung, cotton soil, clay, and debris. In all cases the history of the origin of each mound is connected to a prominent Dinka priest who ordered its construction by the people as a monument to his name.

Pyramid of Alel

A pyramid of stones known as Alel exists in the territory of Western Luaic Dinka in the town of Makuac. This pyramid entombs the body of a prominent Eastern Twic Dinka priest named Kuol Alel who led his people across from the banks of the eastern Nile and in the process of migrating west died in this region. Every year there is a celebration held ar Aled in honor of this prominent leader. The pyramid is located north of the Paliang region in the Bahr el-Ghazal, and local Dinka estimate that it pre-dates the Egyptian colonial period (1821) and hence is at least over 200 years old.

Notable people

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  • Hussein Abdelbagi – Vice President of the Republic of South Sudan.
  • Deng Adut – defence lawyer and former child soldier
  • Adut Akech – model
  • Elijah Malok Aleng – former Central Bank Governor
  • Abel Alier, known as "Abel Alier Kwai" – the first southerner to serve as president of the High Executive Council of Southern Sudan and Vice President of Sudan (1972-1982)
  • Aliir Aliir – Australian rules footballer
  • Mathiang Yak Anek – 19th-century female chief and escaped slave
  • George Athor – Sudan People's Liberation Army lieutenant general and an SPLA dissident
  • Francis Bok – author
  • Bol Bol – NBA player, son of Manute Bol
  • Grace Bol – model
  • Manute Bol – deceased former NBA player, one of the two tallest players in league history
  • Daniel Deng Bul – former South Sudanese episcopalian archbishop and primate of the episcopal church of Sudan, now called the Province of the episcopal church of South Sudan.
  • John Frog- Recording Artist
  • Adut Bulgak – first South Sudanese WNBA player, 2016 draft
  • Chok Dau – football player
  • John Dau – one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan", author of God Grew Tired of Us, and the subject of the eponymous documentary
  • Stephen Dhieu Dau – former Minister of Finance and Planning of the Republic of South Sudan and SPLM member
  • Majak Daw – Australian Rules Footballer
  • Aldo Deng – former Sudanese cabinet member and South Sudanese statesman; father of Luol Deng
  • Ataui Deng – model and niece of Alek Wek
  • Lt. General Dominic Dim Deng – South Sudan's first political officer of SPLA, Minister for SPLA Affairs
  • Francis Deng – author and SAIS research professor
  • Luol Deng – former NBA player
  • Thomas Deng – football player
  • Wenyen Gabriel – NBA Player
  • John Garang – former First Vice President of Sudan, Commander in Chief of Sudan People's Liberation Army and Chairman of Sudan People's Liberation Movement.
  • Kuol Manyang Juuk – former Commander of the SPLA Forces, Minister in the Government of National Unity, Governor of Jonglei State, former minister of Defence and current Senior Presidential Advisor
  • Michael Makuei Lueth – lawyer, spokesman and current minister of Information and Postal Service for South Sudan.
  • Awer Mabil – football player
  • Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior – Vice President of South Sudan
  • Ater Majok – former NBA player
  • Thon Maker – former NBA player
  • Bona Malwal – journalist and politician
  • Guor Marial – marathon runner
  • Mathiang Mathiang
  • Majak Mawith – Soccer player
  • Salva Kiir Mayardit – first President of the Republic of South Sudan, Commander in Chief of Sudan People's Liberation Army, and Chairman of Sudan People's Liberation Movement
  • Tokmac Nguen – footballer
  • William Deng Nhial – political leader of Sudan African National Union, SANU and co-founder of Anya Anya military wing
  • Marial Shayok – NBA player
  • Alek Wek – model
  • Anok Yai – Fashion Model and 2025 Model of the Year.
  • Gout Gout – Sprinter
  • Khaman Maluach – South Sudanese basketball player and 2025 top-10 NBA Draft pick.

Dinka tribal groups

This list of Dinka tribal groupings by region. Note that these divisions are further divided into several subdivisions; for example, Dinka Rek is subdivided into Aguok, Kuac, and many other things, but they speak the same language; only the pronunciation is slightly different.

  • Dinka Agar (Lakes State), Bahr El Ghazal
  • Dinka Gok Lakes State Bahr El Ghazal
  • Dinka Ciec (Lakes State), Bahr El Ghazal
  • Dinka Aliab (Lakes State), Bahr El Ghazal
  • Dinka Twic (Warrap State), Barh El Ghazal
  • Dinka Rek (Warrap State, and parts of NBG and Western Barh El Ghazal), Bahr El Ghazal
  • Dinka Luanyjang - Warrap State Bahr El Ghazal
  • Dinka Malual (NBG), Bahr El Ghazal
  • Dinka Ngok (Abyei, Malakal), Bahr El Ghazal
  • Dinka Padang (Unity State), Upper Nile
  • Dinka Bor (Upper Nile Region]), Jonglei
  • Dinka Nyarweng, Jonglei
  • Dinka Hol, Jonglei
  • Dinka Twic East Jonglei
  • Ruweng, (Unity State), Upper Nile
  • Dongjol Malakal , Upper Nile

The number of Dinka sub-divisions is contested, as the border between groups, sub-divisions, and sections is blurred and often difficult to determine. The Atuot people can be divided into Apaak and Reel, Bor, Twic, Nyarweng and Hol

The Dinka people have no centralised political authority. Instead their clans are independent but interlinked. Some traditionally provide ritual chiefs, known as the "masters of the fishing spear" or beny bith, who provide leadership and are at least in part hereditary.

See also

  • Sudanese nomadic conflicts
  • Ethnic violence in South Sudan
  • Dinka-Nuer conflict

References

Further reading

  • The Power of Creative Reasoning: The Ideas and Vision of Dr John Garang by Lual A Den

Davies, K., Riddle, T., Johnson, A., & Xiong, C. (2023). Chitin and its derivatives: A review of their applications and potential in various fields. University College London. Retrieved from https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10090610/1/Davies_Kay%20et%20al%20final%20submission.pdf