The Dinka People

In geographic areas where different environments meet, there often are cultural clashes as well.  Such has been the history of Sudan’s Dinka people.  The Dinka are the largest ethnic group in southern Sudan. Outside powers, from ancient Egyptians to the Ottoman Empire and the British, have repeatedly invaded and colonized Sudan over the centuries. Sudan became a place where world powers drew the border between Islam and the older religions of Africa.  Unfortunately for the Dinka, this left them as a non-Muslim minority in a nation whose government was led by a Muslim majority with little interest in their welfare.

Cultural differences have extended to government structures as well.  Whereas northern Sudanese are more modernized, the Dinka are a traditional people.  And while poverty is widespread in Sudan, the Dinka, who live as farmers and cattle herders, are particularly poor by Western standards.

Dinka tribes are organized at the village level.  Men occupy the leadership positions, and each village traces its ancestry through male leaders.  Women generally perform household and farming tasks while young men herd cattle.  Because of cultural differences, most Dinka have viewed Sudan’s civil wars as invasions from the north rather than internal conflicts.  The tribe’s reliance on village-by-village governance, along with its widespread poverty, has hampered the organization of antigovernment insurgent groups among the Dinka.  More than 1 million Dinka, Nuer, and Equatorians have been killed during the country’s internal upheavals.  Many more have fled to nearby countries such as Kenya and Uganda, which have large populations of Dinka refugees.

From The Lost Boys of Sudan by Jeff Burlingame, p. 17