South Sudan's Dinka Tribe: The Tallest People in Africa

The Dinka, also known as the Jieng, are a Nilotic ethnic group of about 4.5 million people living around the central marshes of the Nile Basin, mainly distributed in South Sudan. In addition, the Dinka people are known for their amazing height. Along with the Tutsis of Rwanda, they are considered the tallest people in Africa and possibly worldwide.

The Dinka mainly live along the Nile, from Bor to Renk, in the Bahr el Ghazal area, the Upper Nile (two of the three provinces formerly located in southern Sudan) and the Abyei area of ​​Ngok Dinka in South Sudan.

According to a study done in 1953-1954, the average height of the Dinka people is about 182cm. This was quite a height compared to the rest of the world at the time. Today, however, the stature of Dinka men appears to be slightly lower, which may be the result of prolonged undernutrition and frequent conflicts.

They number about 4.5 million people, according to the 2008 Sudan census, accounting for about 18% of Sudan's population and are the largest ethnic group in South Sudan.

Accordingly, in the scientific community there has been much debate about why the Dinka people can be so tall. However, to date, the explanations have not been agreed. The most common explanation is the diet - a high-calorie diet rich in dairy products, grains and meat that made them so tall.

The Dinka people mainly make a living from agriculture and pastoralism, and they rely on cattle raising for milk and by-products similar to nomads around the world.

According to the collected data, the Dinka people originated from Gezira in what is now Sudan. In the Middle Ages, the region was ruled by the kingdom of Alodia, a multi-ethnic Christian empire dominated by the Nubians. From the 13th century, with the breakup of Alodia, the Dinka began to migrate out of Gezira, fleeing slave-gathering raids and other military conflicts as well as drought.

The Dinka people call their language Dinka or "Thuɔŋjäŋ" (Thoŋ ë Muɔnyjäŋ), which is one of the Nilotic languages ​​of the East Sudanese language family. They write in Latin letters with some additional characters.

Like many other tribes in Africa, the Dinka also have to go through a rite of passage. At a certain age, boys will have on their foreheads a "V"-shaped sign that symbolizes the transition from adolescent to male. Men of the Dinka tribe in South Sudan have scars on their faces with three parallel lines on their foreheads to show bravery to the tribe. This is usually done by the tribe's sorcerer.

Around 3000 BC, in southern Sudan, on the Nile, more than three groups of herders and fishermen settled in this largest marshy area. The Dinka tribe is one of three tribes that evolved gradually from the original settlers.

Symbolically and practically, cattle are of great importance to the Dinka people. These animals form the basis of the Dinka people's livelihood, religion and social structure. The Dinka tribes did not slaughter cattle just for meat. They consider it a sacrifice to the gods. Another major reason cattle are important to the Dinka tribes is the product they get from livestock.

The Dinka people have a very clear division of duties between men and women in the family. The wife usually takes care of the cooking, and raising the children. Men do housework and take care of livestock. It was rare for a Dinka man to milk a cow, but if he had to, he would not be allowed to drink that milk and all his livestock would die.

Before the arrival of the British, the Dinka people did not live in villages, instead they lived nomadic nomads in family groups, living in makeshift homes with their livestock. Houses can be organized into clusters of one or two, sometimes up to 100 families.

Traditionally, the Dinka tribe would live in round clay huts with conical thatched roofs. These houses are usually surrounded by gardens, separated by an open grassy forest. Normally, garden soil only maintains its fertility for 10 to 12 years. After that, the area will be burned and new houses built nearby.

Like some tribes in the world, the Dinka people consider the native cows to be as sacred as their source of life. Large bulls with long horns have attached a part of the soul of each individual in the tribe. They also have the custom of using cow urine to wash their hair and face. Young children have the habit of sucking cow's udder directly to drink milk, while adults express milk as the main source of nutrition.