Dinka (people)

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A Dinka and his zebu cattle outside the city of Wau

The Dinka , their own name Muonjang (singular) and Jieng (plural: “the people of the people”), are an African ethnic group in South Sudan and populate most of the country's area; with an estimated 2.5 to 3 million members, they are the strongest ethnic group in the country. They mainly inhabit the wet savannahs of the states of Western Bahr el Ghazal and Western Equatoria in the south, northern parts of the state of Dschanub Kurdufan , the extensive marshland of the Sudd in the state of Jonglei and the northern state of Upper Nile in the east to the Ethiopian border.

The civil war in South Sudan since 2013 over the political leadership in South Sudan with around one million refugees in the region is the escalation of a long-running conflict between the Dinka and the Nuer people .

history

Dinka may have migrated south from the central Sudanese region of Gezira, fleeing drought and slave trade, from the 13th century . With cattle breeding as an economic basis, they were able to cover long distances, weather periods of drought better and thus assert themselves against the peoples of the south who exclusively farmed. Exact wandering movements can only be reconstructed on the basis of oral tradition in songs and on the basis of excavated pot shards. Accordingly, they initially followed along the main rivers of the Nile to Ethiopia and south to the Sobat River. In the 14th century they had reached the Sobat and directed the Shilluk who settled there further west. In the centuries that followed, the Dinka were oppressed from the north by the expanding Islamic empire of the Funj and migrated south via the Sobat and (in the 16th century) to Bahr al Ghazal in the west, where they waged wars against the Luel there. The last large ethnic group to immigrate from the south to the Equatoria region were the Azande at the end of the 18th century . Their settlement limit was determined in disputes with the Dinka. In the middle of the 17th century there was a temporary military alliance between the Shilluk and the Funj Sultanate against the Dinka, and trade relations with the Funj are reported for the end of the same century. Wars with the Shilluk continued until the early 19th century.

General information on the way of life

A round house ( tukul ) near Juba

There are five different Dinka languages that belong to the group of West Nilotic languages . Dinka belong to the northern group of Nilots who live here , to which the neighboring Schilluk and Anuak also belong. Traditionally, all Nilots are predominantly cattle breeders. There is a special cultural affinity with the Nuer , both are also connected in the dispute over scarce pastureland, the Nuer were rather pushed to the periphery. Disputes over grazing rights, which are often carried out armed, also regularly occur on the northern edges of the settlement with the local Islamic population (especially between Ngok-Dinka and Misseriya -Arabs around Abyei ).

Dinka live in widely scattered individual farmsteads ( baai ) made of round mud houses with grass-covered conical roofs, cattle stalls ( luak ) and some fields nearby. They traditionally follow a semi-nomadic way of life. When the soil is exhausted after ten to twelve years, the settlement is abandoned and rebuilt elsewhere. Before the British colonial era , there were no villages. Only the founding of individual administrative centers with which the British wanted to control the vast country was the starting point for small towns.

In the first place, sorghum millets are grown, which are staple foods in the form of porridge and millet beer ( Merisa ). In addition, cow's milk, green vegetables, fish, meat and, in some areas, rice are used for nutrition.

Dinka are tall, slim and self-confident as a people. Their own name in Bahr al Ghazal is Monijang ("the people") and Jieng in the Upper Nile province. All other peoples are referred to as Jur ("foreigner").

religion

Dinka religion

The in principle monotheistic religion knows an unquestionable high god Nhialic , who is mostly cultless and has receded into the background to the otherworldly powers who actually exert influence. After the African creation of the world and the subsequent separation of heaven and earth, Nhialic is raptured if he does not act as the rain god Deng . Since then, a large number of lower heavenly deities ( kuth nhial ), earth spirits ( kuth piny ) and venerated ancestors ( yat ) have determined the troubled world of mankind. These invisible forces are revered, feared and tried to be kept calm. The methods for this are not always difficult: Dinka make a knot out of tufts of grass ( thuic ) to influence the spirits or so that the food is kept ready until they return home.

The original mother Abuk, created by Nhialic, was responsible for the separation of heaven and earth with her long pounder, but at the same time founded the tradition of millet cultivation. Priests and warriors must fear their male partner Garang . The rain god Deng can also be a descendant of these two, then Abuk is the daughter of the earth god Apiny. Primitive man and ancestral souls, who often dwell in snakes, behave, like newer deities, generally equally hostile and friendly. Mascardite (“the big black one”) poses a particular threat , but it also brings fertility. This is a problem for missionaries trying to explain the difference between God and the devil. Wherever Jesus was accepted, he often joined the existing world of gods as a new force in times that had become even more uncertain. In the same way, technological achievements introduced during colonial times and the palpable violence of the governments from the north were perceived as supernatural threats and added to the powers of the other world.

The idea of ​​the evil deity Mascardit also shows that the awareness of sin cannot be particularly pronounced, since his deeds are inevitable, but quite arbitrary and cannot be explained with divine justice. Mascardite makes all things come to an end, sometimes very suddenly: misfortune as well as life.

Priests ( ban, "masters") act as mediators to the spirits, tracing back to Aiwel Longar, the founder of the Dinka society and common ancestor of all Dinka. The priests belong to the clan ( kic ) who accepted meat ( ring ) as a dead man . Other clans have tamarind , another tree, a particular bird, or termite as a totem. Aiwel Longar is a descendant of the river god Malek ( Malengdit, Maleng yath ) among the western Dinka . Together with another clan deity named Deng Garang, Aiwel Longar built a cowshed for the population, but left the doors off. When the village elders wondered where the door was, no one knew the answer except for Gargar, who was then chosen by Aiwel as his successor.

Dinka spearheads ( tong ) for everyday use. Length 44 cm. Total length with wooden shaft 180 cm. Ceremonial spears have the shape of the middle leaf, 50 cm long and correspondingly wider. They are about 2 m long with shaft. The top spearhead is specially designed for fishing. The starting material is melted down car scrap. Origin: Wau
Blacksmith's shop with charcoal fire. Left double-hose bellows: two goat bellows are tied to a Y-shaped piece of pipe. Right blanks. Place of manufacture of the spearheads shown above.

Priests speak to the spirits and are venerated if their actions are successful. Beyond their death, they can transfer power to their followers. The “master of the fish spear”, a title held by priests who are considered to be descendants of Aiwel Longar, has the greatest magical power. When he gave up his "power of the fish spear", he authorized other masters to look to land for their people in his place. Spears are always present in the traditional everyday life of the Dinka, in the past, carrying a spear was practically part of men's clothing: two long spears in case a lion should come. Fish spears are also used for fishing at certain times of the year, but basket pots and nets have been known for a long time. The religious significance does not lie in the practical value of the spear.

The basis of the traditional Dinka worldview is to be overwhelmed or carried away by natural and supernatural events that defy any reasonable prediction. Experiences made are juxtaposed with supernatural correspondences that must be controlled, but help to explain the experiences. According to Godfrey Lienhardt, this creates images of human passion. Control over the magical powers must not be lost. For example, it used to be necessary to check how the “master of the fish spear” died so that his strength could continue to exist. He was buried alive with his spears. Natural death would have contradicted his religious function as guardian of life. It was a sacrifice made to increase life force and to benefit the whole community. The ritual regicide that existed in other African societies worked in a similar way.

When the British colonial rulers could not find a wanted murderer in the 1940s, they "arrested" the clan's holy spears and took them to Khartoum . The Dinka associated the following civil war and floods with the lost spears. After the peace treaty in 1972, the then South Sudanese President, Dinka Abel Alier, had these spears fly to Juba and from there brought them by ship and in honor to Bor, where they were received with a great sacrificial ceremony. A woman who carries a spear gave birth to a boy.

In the magical rituals he observed, Lienhardt distinguished an element that only serves for expression, as a symbolic action, and an effective function; which means the realization that symbolic action has a control function over human experience. How this control works is described in a cult of the “divine flesh” that he observed in the late 1940s, which manifested itself in the form of a red light. Some masters of the fish spear began an incantation dance in which the muscles of the thighs began to tremble, a sign of the awakening of the divine flesh. While those possessed by a non-ritual spirit usually fall into a trance, the masters of the fish spear were able to control themselves better than some of the bystanders, who after a short time began to tremble violently. This ritual is considered the most important religious act of the Dinka. The called spirit comes when it wants, but is not called for a specific purpose, as is normally the case. The source of power for the masters of the fish spear, so their totem ring ("meat") means priestly power for the leopard skin priest among the Nuer.

With the Nilotic people of the Kakwa and then with the Dinka, the cult of the “mother brother water”, which was based on a similar expectation of salvation as the later East African Maji Maji cult , began at the end of the 19th century . The miracle water was allocated to the age group and also sold to outsiders. The medicine was supposed to protect against deadly diseases and punishments by the government, bring back deceased ancestors and dead cattle and protect against the bullets of the Europeans. The insurrectionary movement covered the entire south.

Christian mission

Most of the Dinka are followers of a traditional African religion , the number of converts to Christianity is in the single-digit percentage range. The first mission station in the Dinka area, "Heiligkreuz" (Angweyn) on the White Nile, was founded in 1854 by the Catholic missionary Ignaz Knoblecher . He had already traveled to Sudan with two other Jesuits in 1849 and first had to raise money for his further activities from the “Marien-Verein für Förderung der Catholic Mission in Central Africa” and the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph . The English sensed that the first missionaries were preparing for a Habsburg colony, the resident traders feared competition. By 1862 most of the missionaries died of epidemics, the survivors had left. Until the English victory over the Mahdi , any further mission was impossible. In 1898 Catholic Verona Fathers came to the Bahr el Ghazal area, in 1905 to the main town of Wau , and in 1906 British Anglicans were in the Bor region on the White Nile . There was also the American Presbyterian Church from 1902 . After the country gained independence in 1957, all mission schools were nationalized and in 1964 all missionaries in the south were expelled. In the 1970s, most were allowed to return.

In Bahr al Ghazal there are Catholic mission stations in larger towns such as Wau and Rumbek . Anglicans do missionary work on the White Nile north of Juba . Former South Sudanese rebel leader John Garang was Dinka and came from an Anglican family in the Bor region. Some Christian organizations combine mission with development aid, the organization Christian Solidarity International also pursued the goal of buying slaves kidnapped by northern Sudanese, mostly Dinka, with money.

The American missionary of the Episcopal Church , Marc Nikkel, noted an increasing success of Christian proselytizing since the 1980s. He estimated the number of church buildings in the Diocese of Bor to be 18 in 1984 and 120 in 1992.

Islam

Until Sudan's independence in 1956, there was no negative attitude towards Islam, but an indifferent one. The political, social and cultural structures associated with Islam were seen as incompatible with one's own way of life and were simply not adopted. This particularly applies to the role of women in the more egalitarian Dinka society, in which gender segregation is not practiced.

In the 19th century, at the time of the Turkish-Egyptian Sudan, some Dinka were involved in the Arab slave trade as intermediaries for Muslims . Many South Sudanese, including Dinka, fought on the side of the Muslim rebels during the Mahdi uprising of 1881–1899. Dinka of the Ngok and the Abialang, who belong to the group of the Dunghol-Dinka in the area north of Malakal , have partially converted to Islam and wear white Galabijas .

Economy and Mythology

In the real world, the invisible forces are opposed to the visible herds of cattle. The stables in which the cattle are housed during the rainy season also serve as a sleeping place for the men and a storage place for holy drums. Stables of priests can also be sanctuaries and pilgrimage destinations. Cattle are the Dinka's economic and social livelihoods. Humans and animals are on the same level, as the naming already shows: when children grow up, they give up their names. The men are given the name of a bull, the women a cow name. Certain dances are supposed to imitate cattle, the bride price is paid in cattle (15 cows and 5 oxen for an average rich family) and compensation payments for injuries are made by handing over cattle (10 cattle for a broken arm and 40 for a murdered person). Where there is no higher authority, a balance must always be created.

Theft of cattle quickly leads to war or feuds between individual clans. The enmity between Dinka and Nuer has to do with cattle raids and has a mythological origin. Dinka and Nuer were the names of the two sons of God. God wanted to give Dinka an older cow and Nuer a calf, but Dinka went to God's stable at night, imitated Nuer's voice and had the calf given to her. When God saw the deceit, he ordered Nuer to take revenge and to steal cattle from Dinka for all time.

A woman's residence is determined by that of a man. At marriage, the bride is exchanged for cattle. This increases the value of women in their new environment in the man's family in patrilocal society and the polygamy that is permitted in principle is restricted by the costs. Marrying as many women as possible was therefore considered prestigious, but requires an exogamous regulation. The husband's family will continue to be liable for the cattle they bring in should they become ill. The cattle are also compensation for the labor lost due to the girl's departure. The number of cattle in a herd changes constantly due to bride price payments, which helps to reduce overgrazing of individual areas.

Agriculture is not valued by society. The fields in the vicinity of the settlements are planted by the women with millet , sorghum , peanuts , vegetables and tobacco (which is smoked in pipes by both sexes). The seeds are sown into the soil, loosened only a few centimeters with a flat, wide hoe ( maloda ).

During the dry season the men move around with their herds and live in cattle camps, where the main social activities take place. The few women traveling with us have the task of making millet porridge and beer.

Society and Mythology

Dinka with scarification , around 1910

In love poems, the young men praise their bull (of the same name) and actually speak of themselves. For initiation , the boys are given a castrated ox, with which they remain personally connected and which they care for and decorate. The initiators are made several painful cuts horizontally in the forehead skin on both sides above the eyebrows, whereby they are required to exercise self-control. As everywhere, this practice aims to discipline and integrate young people into the hierarchy. When the boys come back to the cattle camp about two weeks later after the wounds have healed, they are considered men and given the named ox.

The ox must suffer as well. Similarly, his horns are trimmed with a spearhead. Filing is generally used to give the horns of cattle a special shape. The selection of cattle is not based on the milk yield, which is perhaps half a liter a day, but on the shape of the horns and the color and pattern of the fur. In the Dinka language there is a separate name for each pattern-color combination. The young men get their new names after the fur of their ox.

In the Dinka society, there are two classes as a cultural subdivision: a superior layer of the Bany (also Koc tong ) with inherited religious power, which is symbolized by the Bany priest by carrying the sacred fish spear - possibly the first immigrants in the area - and the class of the common people with no inherited religious or political power ( Kic or Koc bith ). It is accordingly important for the Dinka to know the lineage of their own family and the clan totem. The patrilineal society is dependent on male descendants for the continued existence of the clan. Dinka have often been described as egalitarian, as they normally have no state authority above the family and clan level, but they still have a strict ancestral social hierarchy.

By rubbing ashes on the cow's hindquarters, one's own burden of sins can be passed on to the animal in a symbolic act. Just as perishable forces can be transferred from humans to cattle, conversely the vital force is transferred from cattle to humans. Rubbing in ashes is also considered beneficial for humans; the shepherds use it to protect themselves against mosquitoes in the evenings.

Because of the veneration of cattle, the religious, plaintive "ox songs" belong to the most important category of traditional music. Other songs tell of wars, are hymns to gods, spirits and ancestors, others are only sung by women, in the evening or at school. Fast-paced songs are popular, and a solo part is often accompanied by a choir. For war dances there is the big drum loor , a small drum is called leng . The only stringed instrument used to be the three-stringed tortoise lyre tom , whose arms were made of cow horns and whose strings were made of tendons or intestines. The word tom is widespread in Nilotic languages ​​and still denotes lyres played by the Schilluk ( tom ) and the Luo (thum) .

Traditional weapons

Above u. below: stick sign
middle: "arch sign"

In the 19th century the armament consisted of spears , clubs and fighting sticks. The Dinka used two shield shapes to parry opposing club and stick blows: on the one hand stick shields with a hollow handle in the middle to protect the hand, some were wrapped in leather. On the other hand, there were signs similar to a bow , whereby the " bowstring " was supposed to absorb the force of the opposing club.

Wooden clubs were the only weapons allowed in clashes within the clans. Spears, however, were used in armed conflicts. Both parties formed a front line and threw spears at each other. A javelin thrower had several helpers who handed him spears and distracted the opponent by throwing wooden sticks.

Changes due to the civil war

The civil war in South Sudan , the second outbreak of which lasted from 1983 to 2005, destroyed numerous villages and displaced the population. In 1991, an SPLA Nasir faction under Nuer Riek Machar split off from the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) of Dinka John Garang . Garang's main faction in the SPLA has been called SPLA-Torit since then . The tensions between the two ethnic groups increased as a result. The SPLA, dominated by Nuer, controlled the northeastern state of Upper Nile, while the Dinka SPLA controlled the west and the southern state of Equatoria . The invasion of Nuer units, which had been supplied with weapons by the Sudanese government, into the Dinka settlement areas around Bor and Kongor (both in Jonglei province ) resulted in numerous deaths and destruction of large areas. Human rights violations were committed by both ethnic groups. The respective leaders promoted and used the ethnic tensions for their power struggle. Riek Machar declared himself the mythological savior of his people and justified the herds of cattle stolen by the Dinka as compensation for cattle thefts that Dinka had committed against the Nuer in earlier centuries. The theft of cattle between the two peoples was part of everyday life, but it was not until 1991 that the fighting began to this extent with modern weapons. Discussions to resolve the conflict took place between Nuer and Dinka elders and church leaders in June 1998 in Lokichoggio , Kenya . They were the preliminary stage for the West Bank Peace and Reconciliation Conference , which took place a year later in Bahr al-Ghazal and at which both sides wanted an end to the seven-year conflict. The conference concluded with an agreement ( Wunlit Agreement ).

This ended the open fighting, but not the mutual aversions. A certain rapprochement has always been achieved through the occasional marriage between the two peoples. Captured children of the other ethnic group were also raised in the family and were free as adults. Despite family relationships and cultural similarities, hostilities persist beneath the surface. At John Garang's funeral in 2005, Nuer were not allowed as guests.

During the civil war, thousands of Dinka fled to neighboring countries or to the USA, Europe or Australia. The war damage particularly affected the Bahr al-Ghazal region. Some of the livestock was destroyed, so that many impoverished Dinka are working on the fields of their non-Dinka neighbors. The revered cattle are now even used for agricultural production. Nevertheless, the highest bride price is still paid to the neighboring peoples, but the system of economic security for the woman no longer works if her husband died in the war and she is taken in with a relative of the husband without a bride price. According to traditional belief, only Dinka who have killed someone with a spear have to fear the spirit of the deceased and therefore provide compensation. The conclusion that killing by rifles at a distance must therefore have no consequences was confirmed by the leaders of the civil war.

As of May 2008, Ngok-Dinka were evicted from the Abyei area due to ongoing fighting over oil between the government and the South Sudanese SPLA . On July 22, 2009, the Permanent Court of Arbitration issued its final and binding judgment on the borderline between north and south, which was accepted by both parties. The disputed area north of the Abyei River inhabited by the Ngok-Dinka was assigned to the north in the award. Shortly before the planned declaration of independence for South Sudan , the North Sudanese army occupied the city of Abyei on May 22, 2011, forcing around 100,000 Ngok-Dinka to flee south. Around 15 to 20 percent of their houses were also burned.

common law

In addition to state law, customary law ( Dinka Customary Law ) plays a significant role in the law of obligations and family law as well as in criminal law. The Sudanese state had recognized the validity of traditional legal systems of South Sudanese ethnic groups in certain areas. The Restatement of Bahr El-Ghazal Region Customary Law Act (CLA) , which was written down in 1984 and respected by the SPLM in the areas under its control during the civil war, became relevant for the formal recognition of the Dinka customary law, which had previously been passed down orally . Dinka common law was unreservedly recognized in the New Sudan Penal Code , a 2003 reform of the SPLM's law. Subsequent efforts to harmonize customary law as a whole were, however, made more difficult by the sometimes different regulations of the individual tribal groups. The Restatement of Bahr El-Ghazal Region Customary Law Act 1984 was incorporated into the legislation of the Republic of South Sudan.

In the Dinka Criminal Customary Law , retaliation, upbringing or deterrence is not the goal of punishment, but rather the restoration of the social order that has been disturbed by an act subject to sanctions. The legal consequences determined by tribal courts are therefore more in the nature of compensation than punishment. The focus is on killing and bodily harm as well as rape and adultery. The Dinka criminal law does not recognize corporal punishment or imprisonment. As a rule, offenders found guilty have to transfer cattle to the victims or their relatives. Alternatively, cash benefits can be considered. For manslaughter, compensation of 30 cows is customary in many cases. Anyone who commits marriage with a married woman can expect six cows and one ox.

Personalities

The Dinka include the President of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit , the model Alek Wek , the former slave and current human rights activist Francis Bok and James Aguer Alic , who founded the Dinka Committee for the Liberation of Enslaved Dinka, and the two basketball players Manute Bol and Luol Deng .

literature

  • Jeffery L. Deal: A Land at the Center of the World. An Ethnography of the Dinka Agaar of South Sudan. Markoulakis, Nottingham 2011, ISBN 978-0-9557-4746-5 .
  • Francis Mading Deng: The Dinka of the Sudan. Holt Rinehart & Winston, New York 1972.
  • Francis Mading Deng: The Dinka and their Songs. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1973.
  • Francis Mading Deng: Dinka Folktales. African Stories from the Sudan. Holmes and Meiers, New York 1974.
  • Oswald Iten: Black Sudan. The tribes of the Nuba, Ingessana, Schilluk, Dinka, Nuer, Azande and Latuka. Neptun, Kreuzlingen 1978.
  • Irene Leverenz: God's cowshed. A ritual of the Agar-Dinka (= Sudanese marginalia. Volume 6). Trickster, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-923804-55-5 .
  • Godfrey Lienhardt : Divinity and Experience. The Religion of the Dinka. Emphasis. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-19-823405-8 (original 1961; excerpt in Google book search).
  • Godfrey Lienhardt: The Western Dinka. In: John Middleton, David Tait (Eds.): Tribes Without Rulers. Studies in African Segmentary Systems. Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, 1970, pp. 97-153 (Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2004, ISBN 0-415-32997-3 ).
  • Marc R. Nikkel: Aspects of Contemporary Religious Change among the Dinka. In: Journal of Religion in Africa. Volume 22, No. 1, 1992, pp. 78-94.
  • Marc R. Nikkel: The Origins and Development of Christianity among the Dinka of Sudan. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh 1993 (doctoral thesis).
  • John Ryle: Warriors of the White Nile. The Dinka In: Peoples of the Wild. Time-Life Books, Amsterdam 1982, ISBN 0-7054-0700-4 .
  • Bernhard Streck : Sudan. Stone graves and living cultures on the Nile. DuMont, Cologne 1982, ISBN 3-7701-1232-6 , pp. 255-266 and 319.

Web links

Commons : Dinka  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stephanie F. Beswick: Sudan's Blood Memory. The Legacy of War, Ethnicity and Slavery in South Sudan. University of Rochester Press, Rochester 2004, ISBN 1-58046-151-4 , pp. 29-42, Chapter 4: Slave Raids, Wars and Migrations ( full text in the Google book search).
  2. ^ Godfrey Lienhardt : Divinity and Experience. The Religion of the Dinka. Emphasis. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, p. 282 (original 1961; side view in Google book search).
  3. ^ Godfrey Lienhardt: Divinity and Experience. The Religion of the Dinka. Emphasis. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, p. 100 (original 1961; side view in the Google book search).
  4. ^ Bernhard Streck : Sudan. Stone graves and living cultures on the Nile. DuMont, Cologne 1982, p. 258.
  5. ^ Godfrey Lienhardt: Divinity and Experience. The Religion of the Dinka. Emphasis. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, p. 81 ff. (Original 1961; page views in the Google book search).
  6. Lexicon entry: Aiwel. In: Encyclopaedia of Myths. Advameg, 2014, accessed July 8, 2014.
  7. ^ Godfrey Lienhardt: Divinity and Experience. The Religion of the Dinka. Emphasis. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, p. 102 (original 1961; side view in the Google book search).
  8. Note: Lienhardt introduced the Latin term passiones as a basic form of religious experience.
  9. ^ Oswald Iten: Sudan. Silva, Zurich 1983, p. 120.
  10. ^ Godfrey Lienhardt: Divinity and Experience. The Religion of the Dinka. Emphasis. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, p. 172 (original 1961; side view in the Google book search).
  11. ^ Mary Douglas : Ritual, Taboo and Body Symbolism. Social anthropological studies in industrial society and tribal culture. Fischer, Frankfurt 1986, p. 32.
  12. ^ Godfrey Lienhardt: Divinity and Experience. The Religion of the Dinka. Emphasis. Clarendon Press, Oxford 2003, pp. 136 ff. (Original 1961; page views in the Google book search).
  13. ^ Mary Douglas: Ritual, Taboo and Body Symbolism. Social anthropological studies in industrial society and tribal culture. Fischer, Frankfurt 1986, pp. 114-116 and 137.
  14. ^ Orville Boyd Jenkins: People Profile. The Dinka of the Sudan. In: Strategy Leader Resource Kit (SLRK). The Virtual Research Center, March 1, 2013, accessed July 8, 2014: “It is estimated that various Dinka groups are 4–8% Christian. [...] Evangelical sources report that 2% of the Dinka are Evangelical believers. "
  15. Entry: Dr. Ignaz Knoblecher. In: Adventure East Africa. The share of Austria-Hungary in the exploration of East Africa. Catalog of the Burgenland State Exhibition in Halbturn Castle from May 11 to October 28, 1988. Office of the State Government of Burgenland, Eisenstadt 1988, p. 262 ( online at uni-klu.ac.at).
  16. ^ Marc R. Nikkel: Aspects of Contemporary Religious Change among the Dinka. In: Journal of Religion in Africa. Volume 22, No. 1, 1992, pp. 78-94, here p. 79
  17. ^ Stephanie F. Beswick: Non-Acceptance of Islam in the Southern Sudan. The Case of the Dinka from the Pre-Colonial Period to Independence (1956). In: Northeast African Studies, New Series. Volume 1, Nos. 2-3: Conference Proceedings of the 12th Annual Sudan Studies Association Conference: April 15-17, 1993. Michigan State University, East Lansing 1994, pp. 19-47, here p. 21.
  18. ^ Bernhard Streck: Sudan. Stone graves and living cultures on the Nile. DuMont, Cologne 1982, p. 262. Note: The numbers were measured according to the wealth of the families and can be considerably higher.
  19. Compare Francis Mading Deng: The Dinka and their Songs. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1973.
  20. ^ Stephanie F. Beswick: Sudan's Blood Memory. The Legacy of War, Ethnicity and Slavery in South Sudan. University of Rochester Press, Rochester 2004, ISBN 1-58046-151-4 , pp. 182-183 ( page views in Google book search).
  21. ^ Artur Simon : Sudan. In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Volume 4, Macmillan, London 2001, p. 657.
  22. ^ Anton Kaufmann: The White Nile Valley and its Inhabitants. In: Elias Tonioli, Richard Hill (Ed.): The Opening of the Nile Basin. Writings by Members of the Catholic Mission to Central Africa on the Geography and Ethnography of the Sudan, 1842–1881. Hurst, London 1974, ISBN 0-903-983-29-X , pp. 140–195, here p. 159 ( side view in Google book search).
  23. Christopher Spring : African Arms and Armor. British Museum Press, London 1993, ISBN 0-7141-2508-3 , p. 118
  24. Manfred A. Zirngibl , Alexander Kubetz: panga na visu. Handguns, forged cult objects and shields from Africa. HePeLo-Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-9811254-2-9 . Pp. 237, 318
  25. Georg Schweinfurth : In the Heart of Africa , Volume 1, FA Brockhaus, 1874, p. 166f ( at Internet Archive )
  26. ^ John Petherick : On the Arms of the Arab and Negro Tribes of Central Africa, Bordering on the White Nile . RUSI Journal, Vol. 4, No. 2, October 1860, pp. 173f
  27. Dinka Shields. University of Kent
  28. ^ Helmut Nickel: Arms and Armor in Africa . Atheneum, 1971, ISBN 9780014091430 , p. 25
  29. Christopher Spring : African Arms and Armor. British Museum Press, London 1993, ISBN 0-7141-2508-3 , pp. 118-119
  30. ^ Announcement: Sudan: Dinka going home to an uncertain future. In: IRIN, Humanitarian News and Analysis . February 20, 2007, accessed July 8, 2014 (on problems returning to Jonglei for Dinka who fled to Equatoria ).
  31. Jok Madut Jok, Sharon Elaine Hutchinson: Sudan's Prolonged Second Civil War and the Militarization of Nuer and Dinka Ethnic Identities. In: African Studies Review, Volume 42, No. 2, September 1999, pp. 125–145, here pp. 127–128.
  32. Naglaa Elhag: A Tale of Two Wars. The Militarization of Dinka and Nuer Identities in South Sudan. In: Jon Abbink, André van Dokkum: Dilemmas of Development. Conflicts of Interests and their Resolution in Modernizing Africa. African Studies Center, Leiden 2008, pp. 164-188.
  33. ^ Stephanie F. Beswick: Sudan's Blood Memory. The Legacy of War, Ethnicity and Slavery in South Sudan. University of Rochester Press, Rochester 2004, ISBN 1-58046-151-4 , p. 208.
  34. James Gatdet Dak: SPLM Chairman declares acceptance of Abyei ruling. In: Sudan Tribune. July 23, 2009, accessed July 8, 2014.
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