Dinka (redirected from Dinka tribe)

Dinka

Dinka village on the Nile River in the southern Sudan.

(credit: Henriette Grindat)

Cattle-herding people of the Nile basin in southern Sudan. They speak an eastern Sudanic language of the Nilo-Saharan family and are closely related to the Nuer. Numbering about four million, they are divided into independent groups of 1,000–30,000 persons. Leadership is provided by priest-chiefs. In recent years they have been involved in civil war. See also Nilot.

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Dinka 

(self-designation, Jang), a people living in the southern part of the Republic of the Sudan, on both banks of the White Nile and in the basin of the Mountain Nile (Bahr al Jabal). The language of the Dinkas belongs to the northwestern group of the Nilotic languages. Population, approximately 1.8 million (1970, estimate). Most Dinkas have preserved their ancient traditional beliefs; some are Christians. Their chief occupations are livestock raising (cattle, sheep, and goats) and, to a lesser extent, hoe farming (durra, vegetables, and tobacco). A small number of Dinkas work on plantations and in industrial enterprises.

REFERENCE

Butt, A. The Nilotes of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Uganda. London, 1952.

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Dinka 

the language of the Dinka people. It is related to the northwestern group of the Nilotic languages. It is spoken in the southern part of the Sudan by approximately 1.8 million people (1970, estimate).