Dinka people

The Dinka (Jieng), 4.5 million people and two-fifths of South Sudan, are the Nile's great cattle nation, living from Mangalla-Bor to Renk across Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile and Abyei. Tallest of African peoples on average, they measure wealth in long-horned oxen: bridewealth, sacrifice, poetry and law all move on hooves. Age-sets rise together through scarification and service; spear masters and rain priests order war and weather. The Dinka fought Turco-Egyptian slavers, Mahdist armies and Khartoum governments in turn, and led the southern struggle to independence, supplying presidents and generals. Cattle camps with ash and song, wrestling matches and the ox-songs of individual beasts carry the republic's largest nation through its wars. Mangalla-Bor cattle camps stretch for a hundred miles. Bahr el Ghazal pastures feed the greatest herds. Abyei's Ngok Dinka still graze the contested borderland. Forty percent of South Sudan speaks Jieng dialects. Renk traders still buy Dinka cattle for northern markets.