Dinka people

“ It is not difficult to understand how people like the Dinka should make their whole delight to centre in having thriving cattle-farms, but to us their profitless practice of emasculation must remain incomprehensible. ”

“ The western bank is everywhere swampy.
Inhabitants.The Nuers do not appear to extend south of the latitude of Shambe. Here the banks of the rivers are thinly populated by Dinkas. From a few miles north of the Mading junction to Tau is the Dinka district of Twi—it was with the people of this district that Mr. Grogan had some trouble in 1900. Sheikh Gurung of Pabek in the north of Twi seems, however, very friendly. South of Tau, Bor district commences, the Dinkas of which are said to be not on friendly terms with Twi. ”

“ As the girl walks about, this waistband gives forth a pleasant tinkling, of which the wearer is extremely proud. Such an ornament is extremely prized, and, as it is almost indestructible, it is handed down from mother to child, and so there is scarcely a Dinka maiden who does not possess one.
The pursuits of the Dinkas in time of peace are mostly limited to hunting and tending cattle. Agriculture is rather despised, and left to the women, and the consequence is, that the capabilities of the soil are never fairly developed. ”

“ The women usually drink milk flavoured with cow’s urine, but the men as a rule drink it unadulterated.
Religion.As is stated on p. 128, the Dinka believes in a Creator of the world and mankind known as Deng-Dit. It was only after man had learnt to sacrifice cattle and sheep to Deng-Dit that woman became fruitful and man was able to propagate his species.
The Dinkas have regular priests (Tieit) who are not, however, professional men, but live and work like the [146] ordinary individual. ”

“ Of a reddish black colour, fairer than the Dinka, they are well proportioned, with the hair short. Tattooing is not common, but when found is similar to that of the Dinka; they pierce the ears and nose, and in addition to the ornaments found among the Dinka (q.v.) wear a series of iron rings on the forearm covering it from wrist to elbow. They are mainly agricultural, but hunt and fish to a considerable extent; they are also skilful smiths, smelting their own iron, of which they supply quantities to the Dinka. They are a prosperous tribe and in consequence spinsters are unknown among them. ”

“ By their continual cattle-stealing, the Nubians have caused all the Dinka tribes to consider foreign interlopers as their bitter enemies; the intercourse, therefore, with the settlements in the Bongo and Dyoor countries, which are separated from the river by the Dinka district, can only be maintained at the expense of keeping an adequate number of armed men to protect the porters. Agriculture, although it is carried on to a certain extent, is quite a secondary consideration. The Dinka often possess large quantities of sheep and goats, but principally they are breeders of cattle. ”

“ Dinkas.The Dinka tribe thence occupy both banks of the river Sobat to about 32° 16′ east, villages of first Shilluks and then Dinkas being very numerous from the Sobat mouth up to this point, which is near the village of Lajak. They are shy and suspicious, but amenable to kindness and trade.
The Dinkas of the Sobat have been worsted in the frequent forays of the more powerful Nuers into their district. ”

“ DINKA CHARACTER.
Before we leave the Dinka we must not omit to recall their virtues, in order that we may fairly estimate the charge that has been laid against them of cruelty in war. It is affirmed that they are pitiless and unrelenting in fight, that they are never known to give quarter, and revel in wild [Pg 169] dances around the bodies of their slaughtered foes: a whole village will take their share in the orgies which one of the community will start, whenever, either by lance or club, he has prostrated an antagonist. ”

“ The Dinka community is largely autonomous under leadership of a chief or headman (bain) who is sometimes merely the local magician, but in one community in each tribe he is the hereditary rain-maker whose wish is law. "Cattle form the economic basis of Dinka society ”

“ A head man is generally succeeded by his eldest son; and in this respect the Dinkas are generally loyal. In character they are savage, deceitful, and treacherous, but their domestic ties are strong. Tending flocks and herds is the occupation of the Dinka. They are very lazy, and cultivate only small crops; but they levy taxes of corn and produce on the neighbouring Jurs and Golos.
The Dinkas are poor sportsmen. They do some fishing, chiefly with spears in the pools of rivers during the dry season, but are bad trackers and hunters of big game. ”

“ Yet in spite, or rather in virtue, of the high honour in which he is held, no Dinka rain-maker is allowed to die a natural death of sickness or old age; for the Dinka believe that if such an untoward event were to happen, the tribe would suffer from disease and famine, and the herds would not yield their increase. So when a rain-maker feels that he is growing old and infirm, he tells his children that he wishes to die. Among the Agar Dinka a large grave is dug and the rain-maker lies down in it, surrounded by his friends and relatives. ”

“ The Dinkas call the Nubians "women," because they wear clothing, although it is not much, and a true Dinka would allow himself to be frozen to death rather than put on a garment to keep his body comfortable. "But they do not consider it effeminate," continued the Doctor, "to seek the shelter of their huts when the cold wind blows, and in this way they get along without much suffering."
Abdul had been among the Dinkas, and said their herds of cattle would astonish the boys if they could see them. ”

“ The observation of Barth, [14] that many heathen tribes consider clothing more necessary for men than for women is not applicable to the Dinka or any of the natives of the river plains. According to Dinka notions of propriety, it is becoming for none but women to wear any covering; any attire, even of the most moderate description, is considered unworthy of the men. The Nubians, who are always called Turks, do not certainly belong to the most carefully clothed of the human race, yet the Dinka always term them women, a designation which in this sense is quite common. ”

“ The male Dinka, too, despises clothing and never puts any on except he is obliged, as, for instance, when accompanying a caravan such as ours. The females, on the other hand, are more scrupulously clothed than all the other black women of the interior, two aprons of untanned skin covering them, before and behind, from the hips to the ankles. ”

“ The Bongo and the Niam-niam are alike greedy of bits of clothing, but the Dinka are utterly indifferent to anything of the sort. The women, on account of their proficiency in housekeeping, play a large part in the Khartoom slave-trade, but they give their masters infinitely more trouble than the slaves of any other race. ”

“ They differ in manners and customs and even in physique and are often at war with one another. One of the most obvious distinctions in habits is between the relatively powerful cattle-owning Dinka and the small and comparatively poor tribes who have no cattle and scarcely cultivate the ground, but live in the marshes in the neighbourhood of the Sudd, and depend largely for their sustenance on fishing and hippopotamus-hunting. Their villages, which are generally dirty and evil-smelling, are built on ground which rises but little above the reed-covered surface of the country. ”

“ At that time these Dyoor seem to have been brought by the Dinka to a similar state of vassalage as that in which they themselves now stand to the Nubians. The Bongo, although their land produces iron, were far too hostile to their neighbours to furnish them with a supply of iron in the way of commerce. The Dinka themselves, being exclusively occupied with their cattle-breeding, have no taste and find little time for any arduous work of the smithy; hence it happens that although their iron ornaments are numerous, the workmanship of them all is of the most primitive character. ”

“ The Dinka must be reckoned amongst the darkest of races, but the deep black of their complexion gives place to a manifest tint of brown when the ashes are washed off with which they delight in rubbing themselves. When they have smeared themselves with oil, or taken a bath, their skin shines like dark bronze. ”

“ Upon an average I should reckon that for every head of the population there would be found at least three of cattle; of course, there is no lack of the poor and the destitute, and these obviously are the slaves and dependents of the rich. So large are the numbers of the Dinka, and so extensive their territory, that it must be expected that they will long perpetuate their existence amongst the promiscuous inhabitants of Africa. ”

“ They come from the southern country, and are of the tribe of Dinka negroes. The Dinkas are greatly liked as slaves, and bring a higher price than those from other tribes.
"You see they are not tied together, or in any way restrained; but if they should try to run away they would get some sharp blows of the whip, and the Arabs that are loitering about would hinder their escape. The police would not interfere to assist either party. The slave has few friends, while all the Arabs are interested in keeping up the commerce, and are therefore the natural enemies of the captive. ”

“ In the Dinka or Denka nation, to the north-east of the Bongo, men who are supposed to be in close communication with spirits pass for omnipotent; it is believed that they make rain, conjure away all calamities, foresee the future, exorcise evil spirits, know all that goes on even at a distance, have the wild beasts in their service, and can call down every kind of disaster on their enemies. One of these men became the richest and most esteemed chief of the Ki tribe through his skill in ventriloquism. ”

“ The men do not go about in a condition so naked as either the Dyoor, the Shillooks, or the Dinka, but they wear an apron of some sort of skin, and recently have adopted a strip of stuff, which they fasten to the girdle that is never missing, allowing the ends to hang over before and behind. All the sons of the red soil, as the Bongo, the Mittoo, the Niam-niam, and the Kredy, are called “women” by the Dinka, because amongst them the females only are protected by any covering of this description. ”

“ The Pasha has much to say respecting the Dinkas. Proprietors of cattle among the Dinka tribe own from 300 to 1500 head. They rarely kill, their cattle being kept solely for their milk and blood. The latter they mix with sesamum oil, and then eat as a delicacy. At the death of a herd-owner his nearest kinsman invites his friends, and one or two beeves may be slaughtered for the funeral feast; otherwise one scarcely ever hears of a Dinka killing his cattle for meat. ”

“ Nowhere on the face of the earth is a country more surrendered to robbery and lawlessness than this district of Africa; but still, as ever, one form of mischief balances another: man is a match for man; and so it results that the stranger may find repose and security here as much as elsewhere. The natives, who occupy the entire land in a wide circumference from the Meshera, form a portion of the great Dinka family, whose extreme outposts extend eastwards towards the Egyptian borders of Upper Sennaar, and whose tribes are counted by the hundred. ”

“ In a general way the Dinka have no larger number of servants with them at their cattle-farms than is absolutely necessary, and, as I have mentioned, they leave their wives and children in outlying huts, so that these are very rarely exposed to the rapine of the invaders.
By the help of the negroes which they bring with them, the invaders soon make themselves masters of all the herds, and hurry back covered by the protection of the soldiers. To supply the requirements of a year it is necessary that they should secure by their raid at least 2000 head of oxen. ”

“ My men were natives of various tribes scattered over an immense extent of Central Africa. Each had a certain love of the country from which he had been originally stolen by the slave-traders when a boy, before he found his way into government service. I always endeavoured to keep up this feeling, and to create emulation among the men of different tribes; thus, a native of Pongo would assume a superiority over a Dinka, although the Dinka considered himself of a higher class than a Pongo. A Noba regarded himself as superior to all others. ”

“ The territory of the Dinka includes nearly the whole low ground, extending right away to the Gazelle. It is a vast plain of dark alluvial clay, of which the uniformity is not broken by a single hill or mass of rock, any tracts of forest being of very limited extent. As they approach the districts of the Bongo and the Dyoor, the Dinka steppes lose much of that park-like aspect which they here present. ”

“ White men had left their Indian wives, but had come back again, and for ever renounced the life of their own nations, and become great chiefs, teaching useful things to their adopted people, bringing up their children as tribesmen—bringing up their children! There it was, the thing which called them back, the bright-eyed children with the colour of the brown prairie in their faces, and their brains so sharp and strong. But here was no child to call Dingan back, only the eloquent, brave, sweet face of Mitiahwe. ”