THE DINKA TRIBE OF SOUTH SUDAN.

Sudan is the largest country in Africa, to the south lies the Sudd, one of the planet’s most extensive swamplands. The Dinka live throughout these floodplains. Plagued by decades of civil war and tribal conflict, the day-to-day concerns of the tribe remains the same, their cattle. The Dinka clans, move from one cattle camp to the next, one of them is the PAYOK one of hundreds of clans who form the four million strong Dinka ethnic group, the largest in southern Sudan. The Dinka refer to themselves as the JIENG.

 

A Dinka woman with facial scarring

 In Southern Sudan today, clashes over grazing territory and infighting has caused widespread displacements and grazing land is in constant dispute. But sometimes it is not war that brings change, but peace. Even in the remotest cattle camps, since Sudan’s reunification in 2005, international aid agencies and traders have escalated modern development. The world of the Dinka cattle camps is rapidly changing .Modern clothes brought from the cities are increasingly common.

 

 

Scarification is another aspect of the Dinka culture that is rapidly disappearing. Individual clans have their own forehead markings. These scars are made during childhood and during ceremonies which traditionally mark the most important rites of passage in a person’s life. The scarification is not solely about cultural identity, patterns cut on their torsos and behind their eyes, are time-honored healing remedies. The Dinka divide their time between living in permanent dwellings, and the nomadic community of the cattle camps. Lifestyles are divided by clear gender boundaries. Decision making and cattle ownership are the preserve of men, bringing up the children and managing the household that of women. Men and women have different perspectives on their separate roles. The Dinka hold wrestling contests whenever the clan agrees it is an appropriate time, usually this is when there is an ample amount of nourishing food, to give the wrestlers strength.

 

Cows are at the center of the Dinka daily life. Every morning the Dinka use their hands to gather the night’s cow dung. The dung attracts worms and insects, so it is placed aside in mounds. In the dry season, the dung is baked in the sun and added to their fires, but during the rainy periods of the year it never dries out. The children also help collect the cow’s milk, sometimes if the cow refuses, they will stimulate its sexual organs, and this unique technique encourages the cow to lactate, its natural response to a calf attempting to suckle. It’s usually left to the young boys to carry out the task. Another Dinka custom is showering under urinating cows. The urine turns the hair orange, a decorative color people of all ages greatly admire. Decoration is not limited to men and women, but encompasses their cattle. The Dinka alter the shape of their cattle’s horns by regularly shaving them. Once the bull’s horns are treated, they will eventually grow backwards, a pattern greatly admired. Dinka men are inextricably linked to their herd. They accumulate cattle when they marry, receiving a share of the dowry, but lose cattle when acquiring wives of their own.

 

In their eyes, cattle are everything, from food to wealth and social status. Dinka men go to great lengths to tend and protect their herds, cattle raiding and theft is widespread, exacerbated by years of civil war. No herdsman can protect his cattle without modern arms. The Dinka sometimes use palm trees to construct their huts. Maize and sorghum are two agricultural foods, clansmen bring to the cattle camps from their home villages, or barter for milk with nearby settlements. In Dinka tradition, it is customary for suitors to provide food as well as cows for the bride’s family, and the suitors must win the female relatives’ approval. At the cattle camp, the unmarried women perform tradition songs and dances, it is during these colorful dances that adolescent girls attract future husbands. Often the words of their songs are particular to the clan groups, and known only within the tribe. Dinka women rarely choose their husbands, though couples in love occasionally elope if they wish to stay together. Marriage arrangements are vital to the whole family, for daughters they are the principal means of acquiring wealth. Beautiful daughters brings rich husbands. In Dinka cattle camps life is, as ever, unpredictable. Young men and cattle endlessly on the move, as with husbands and wives. The future of the Dinka culture is unpredictable too, as conflict, war and modernization present new challenges to an ancient culture.