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Dinka spirituality is the traditional religion of the Dinka people (also known as Muonyjang), an ethnic group of South Sudan. They belong to the Nilotic peoples, which is a group of cultures in Southern Sudan and wider Eastern Africa. [1] The Dinka people largely rejected or ignored Islamic (and Christian) teachings, as Abrahamic religious beliefs were incompatible with their society, culture and traditional beliefs. [2]
The supreme, creator god, Nhialic(Pronounce as Nhialich), is the god of the sky and rain, and the ruler of all the other gods and spirits. He is generally seen as distant from humans. Nhialic is also known as Jaak, Juong or Dyokin by other Nilotic groups such as the Nuer and Shilluk. Nhialic created ex-nihilo and rarely involves itself with the affairs of humans. [3] [1]
There are several versions of the Dinka creation myth which mainly concerns itself with the creation of humans. The first humans are Garang and Abuk. In some cases Nhialic created humans by blowing them out of its nose, other accounts say humans originated from the sky and were placed in the river where they came as fully formed adults. Other accounts say that humans were molded as clay figures and placed to mature in pots. Garang and Abuk were made out of the clay of Sudan. [3]
Nhialic told them to multiply and that their children would die but would come back to life within 15 days. Garang protested that if nobody dies permanently then there would not be enough food. Nhialic then introduced permanent death. Nhialic commanded them to only plant one seed of grain a day or gave them one grain to eat a day. Being hungry, everyday Abuk made a paste with the grain to make the food last longer. However, when Abuk disobeyed and planted more Nhialic cut the rope that connected Heaven and Earth.
The Dinka have a pantheon of deities, [4] [1] [5] most notable:
The term "Jok" refers to a group of ancestral spirits and patron deities of tribes.[ citation needed ]
The Dinka address their prayers first to the Supreme Being Nhialic then invoke other deities. [6]
The Dinka offer prayers for receiving mild weather. They also pray for good harvest, protection of people, cattle recovery from illness, and good hunting. [6]
Sacrifices of a bull or ox are offered to Nhialic. The Dinka perform sacrifices along with prayers. The invokes all clan-divinities, free-divinities and ancestral spirits and at times Nhialic. Those who are saying the prayers hold a fishing spear in their hands. Short phrases expressing the need are chanted while the spear is thrust at the animal to be sacrificed. The participants repeat the words of the leader. At times of crisis or an important occasion the Dinka will continue to pray and sacrifice for long periods of time. [6]
Stages of sacrificial prayer. [6]
1. The Leader describes the issue the people are facing.
2. The Leader and all present Acknowledge past sins.
3. Praise is offered singing hymns of honor or ox-songs.
4. Expulsion of the misfortune to the sacrificial animal.
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The Dinka are also animists. They have a Pastoral lifestyle.[ citation needed ] The Dinka inherit a totem from both their parents. The faithful are expected to make offerings to their totem force and maintain positive relations with members. Eating or hurting your totem animal is a bad omen for those who share a totem. Some totems are believed to endow powers. The owl totem, for example, is believed to give the power of providence. Totems are not exclusively animals, although most are; some Dinka having as their totem a metallic ore or element.
In the Dinka language, a totem is known as a kuar. Dinka do not worship their totems but rather speak of being "related" to them.
Some Dinka people respect African puff adders. The most commonly respected snakes are Atemyath, Biar keroor, and Maluang. These snakes are given offerings of locally-made melted cheese to appease them, after which they are released into the forest. Killing snakes is believed to be a bad omen for the community or the individual, with the assumption that spirits may strike the killer.
As in other cultures, the Dinka practice a form of astrology: [7]
The Dinka name the stars—for example, “Orion” is called “Wathal Jook.” Orion is a hunter in Greek mythology but Wathal Jook (dogs) are hunters also. The constellation of the scorpion, in Dinka, is called Cuur, which is a type of fish that looks like a scorpion. We believe these mythologies may connect us with others in the east. In our religion the mythology of Ayueldit recounts he was looking for external life and said “the son is eternal.” So they looked for the food of the sun and sent his messengers west cautioning them “go where the sun is every evening.”
The Nilotic peoples are people indigenous to the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, the eastern border area of Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. Among these are the Burun-speaking peoples, Teso people also known as Iteso or people of Teso, Karo peoples, Luo peoples, Ateker peoples, Kalenjin peoples, Karamojong people also known as the Karamojong or Karimojong, Datooga, Dinka, Nuer, Atwot, Lotuko, and the Maa-speaking peoples.
Anthropology of religion is the study of religion in relation to other social institutions, and the comparison of religious beliefs and practices across cultures. The anthropology of religion, as a field, overlaps with but is distinct from the field of Religious Studies. The history of anthropology of religion is a history of striving to understand how other people view and navigate the world. This history involves deciding what religion is, what it does, and how it functions. Today, one of the main concerns of anthropologists of religion is defining religion, which is a theoretical undertaking in and of itself. Scholars such as Edward Tylor, Emile Durkheim, E.E. Evans Pritchard, Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, Clifford Geertz, and Talal Asad have all grappled with defining and characterizing religion anthropologically.
Traditional Sámi spiritual practices and beliefs are based on a type of animism, polytheism, and what anthropologists may consider shamanism. The religious traditions can vary considerably from region to region within Sápmi.
The Dinka people are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan. The Dinka mostly live along the Nile, from Bor to Renk, in the region of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile, and the Abyei Area of the Ngok Dinka in South Sudan.
A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world.
Animal worship is an umbrella term designating religious or ritual practices involving animals. This includes the worship of animal deities or animal sacrifice. An animal 'cult' is formed when a species is taken to represent a religious figure. Animal cults can be classified according to their formal features or by their symbolic content.
Georgian mythology refers to the mythology of pre-Christian Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group native to Georgia and the South Caucasus. The mythology of the Kartvelian peoples is believed by many scholars to have formed part of the religions of the kingdoms of Diauehi, Colchis and Iberia.
Abuk is the first woman in the myths of the Dinka people of South Sudan and the Nuer of South Sudan and Ethiopia, who call her Buk or Acol. She is the only well-known female deity of the Dinka. She is also the patron goddess of women as well as gardens. Her emblem or symbols are, a small snake, the moon and sheep. She is the mother of the god of rain and fertility (Denka). The story from her birth to marriage and child-birth is:
She was born very small, when placed in a pot, she swelled like a bean.
Abuk and her mate, called Garang, were given one corn each to eat per day, by the creator god. This happened at the time when Abuk had finished growing.
The whole of all human people would have become famished if not for the fact Abuk went to steal the food the people needed.
The rain god, called Deng, was joined to Abuk in order that there might be an abundance in the land.
A daughter (Ai-yak) and two sons were born to them.
Snakes are a common occurrence in myths for a multitude of cultures. The Hopi people of North America viewed snakes as symbols of healing, transformation, and fertility. Snakes in Mexican folk culture tell about the fear of the snake to the pregnant women where the snake attacks the umbilical cord. The Great Goddess often had snakes as her familiars—sometimes twining around her sacred staff, as in ancient Crete—and they were worshipped as guardians of her mysteries of birth and regeneration. Although not entirely a snake, the plumed serpent, Quetzalcoatl, in Mesoamerican culture, particularly Mayan and Aztec, held a multitude of roles as a deity. He was viewed as a twin entity which embodied that of god and man and equally man and serpent, yet was closely associated with fertility. In ancient Aztec mythology, Quetzalcoatl was the son of the fertility earth goddess, Cihuacoatl, and cloud serpent and hunting god, Maxicoat. His roles took the form of everything from bringer of morning winds and bright daylight for healthy crops, to a sea god capable of bringing on great floods. As shown in the images there are images of the sky serpent with its tail in its mouth, it is believed to be a reverence to the sun, for which Quetzalcoatl was also closely linked.
The beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse, including various ethnic religions. Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural and are passed down from one generation to another through folk tales, songs, and festivals, and include beliefs in spirits and higher and lower gods, sometimes including a supreme being, as well as the veneration of the dead, and use of magic and traditional African medicine. Most religions can be described as animistic with various polytheistic and pantheistic aspects. The role of humanity is generally seen as one of harmonizing nature with the supernatural.
Deng, also known as Denka, is a sky, rain, and fertility god in Dinka mythology for the Dinka people of Sudan and South Sudan. He is the son of the goddess Abuk.
According to classical sources, the ancient Celts were animists. They honoured the forces of nature, saw the world as inhabited by many spirits, and saw the Divine manifesting in aspects of the natural world.
Ronald Godfrey Lienhardt was a British anthropologist. He took many photographs of the Dinka people he studied. He wrote about their religion in Divinity and Experience: the Religion of the Dinka.
South Sudan is home to around 60 indigenous ethnic groups and 80 linguistic partitions among a 2021 population of around 11 million. Historically, most ethnic groups were lacking in formal Western political institutions, with land held by the community and elders acting as problem solvers and adjudicators. Today, most ethnic groups still embrace a cattle culture in which livestock is the main measure of wealth and used for bride wealth.
Jok is a term for a class of spirits in the traditional belief system of the Acholi people of Uganda and South Sudan. Jok are believed to be the cause of illness, misfortune, and death, as well as the source of power, protection, and prosperity. Traditional healers first identify the Jok in question and then make an appropriate sacrifice and ceremony to counter them. Alternatively if such an approach was unsuccessful the person possessed by the Jok could go through a series of rituals to gain some level of control over the Jok and then themselves become ajakwa. Jok can be ancestral or non-ancestral, and can be attached to specific clans, chiefdoms, natural phenomena, or historical events. Jok was believed to be the supreme god, who is the creator and ruler of the universe.
The Dinka–Nuer West Bank Peace & Reconciliation Conference of 1999 was held in what was then the Southern part of Sudan. It is commonly called the "Wunlit Peace Conference" after Wunlit, the village where it was held in eastern Tonj County in Bahr El Ghazal. The conference brought together Nuer from Western Upper Nile and Dinka from Tonj, Rumbek, and Yirol. It is the most prominent and comprehensively documented case of a people-to-people peace process in what is now the Republic of South Sudan.
Nhialic is the supreme creator god of the Dinka pantheon, whose people now dwell in South Sudan. When used in the context of Dinka language, the term also can refer to the entirety of the gods within the Dinka pantheon. In some accounts, Nhialic is also known as Deng Dit.
