Photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher captured the everyday life of the Dinka tribe, which is a Nilotic ethnic group in Southern Sudan. The following photos featured on the Tekey website offered this tidbit about a most fascinating civilization:
The Dinka are a Nilotic ethnic group from South Sudan. They live from the tenth century on both sides of the Nile River and speak a language belonging to the Nilo-Saharan group. They are about three million and are divided into about 21 groups, each with its own legitimate leader.
Although farming has always been its main economic resource, there has never missed an important agricultural and fishing activity that allowed them to be self-sufficient in food. Their trade and light industry are increasingly gaining importance.
dinka women remove their clothing before entering the river, revealing their beaded jewelery.their belts and bracelets have been worn since puberty, while the necklaces were given by their husbands at the time of marriage.
Young Dinka boys enjoy playing in the water after fishing. occasionally during the spearing of fish, monitor lizards or even pythons may be accidentally caught.
A young woman abandons herself to the pleasure of dancing. she wears the highly valued blue beads given to her as a present by her husband at their marriage.
At the end of the dry season when pastures are scarce, the dinka return with their cattle to their village homesteads on higher ground.women carry all of their possessions balanced on their heads, while men drive the herds.
Courtship begins for dinka men at 20 years old, and for girls at 17. a man, however, may not marry until he is 30 years old, as he must raise the sufficient number of cattle to pay the bride price.
At 17 to 18 years a girl is ready for marriage, and is fattened up by her family to look attractive.a beaded bodice veils and subtly enhances her femininity. a valued gift from her mother, the bodice is passed on to her younger sister after marriage.
Have you heard of the Dinka tribes?
I’ve heard of the Dinka and they look so calm, peaceful and majestic.
But, whoa those cattle are amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Those cattle look like some of the ones in Egyptian tomb paintings.
Ancient Dinka are dated back to around 3000 B.C.E. in the Sahara Desert, where hunter-gatherers settled in the largest swamp area in the world, the southern Sudan. Dinka society spread out over the Sudan region in recent centuries, from around 1500 C.E.
The Dinka fought and defended their homeland against the Ottoman Turks in the mid-1800s and dismayed and devastated the violent attempts of slave merchants to convert them to Islam.
Yeeeeey!! Thats my tribe. Thanks for posting BGLH, now i like this site even more.
You may ask me questions about the Dinka’s you are curious! 🙂 Xx
Are they always naked?
Hey, Tanash, The married women and elder men no. But the young boys herding the cows are or naked, or have on only shorts, and also the young unmarried girls in the village.(on display in a not bad western way.) The Dinkas in the citys (the president and a large member of the parlement are all Dinka’s) have western style clothes on Or in the North of Sudan, arab style dresses. So the Dinka born and raised in the village are living the same as around 3000 B.C and the ones born and raised in the towns have a more… Read more »
Y’all are beautiful. ????
Sooo, there are absolutely no overweight Dinka’s. Everyone is fit and perky…????. Beautiful people. I have always wondered how I could get a hold of the traditional beaded corsets. That’s art.
Considering they have to use their bodies all day, it’s unlikely they would have overweight people and those beads are gorgeous!
Yes ma’am. I have read that wearing bras actually causes our breasts to sag more with age than they would otherwise, because the muscles that would naturally support our breasts don’t get to do their job. (Also, a lot of us are carrying extra fat.)
Beautiful!
They are beyond beautiful! I definitely have heard of the Dinka’s before. Not sure if it’s true, but I heard that supermodel Alek Wek is Dinka.
it’s very true, Alek Wek is Dinka 🙂 .… They are truly beautiful people!
Ajak Deng and Ataui Deng are Dinka too. Absolutely gorgeous.
Are they related?
Not that I know of. But Ataui Deng is Alek Wek’s niece according to Google!
I really love the women and her kid in the river. Nice Pic
Beautiful people and photographs! More features like this please.
I’m speechless.…INCREDIBLE. The women look like supermodels. I have to get this book.
Forgot to add.…..THANK YOU *BGLH* FOR THIS FEATURE AND ALL YOU DO. I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH IT MEANS AND IT IS REALLY VERY MUCH APPRECIATED.
Got me thinking I need to hit the gym harder! these people have no fat on them and beautiful skin.
These people eat very little amounts of food and live outdoors. The pictures are of children, teenagers and young men and women, not of mature or old people. Nature and living outdoors aren’t friends of a fresh and rinkle-free complection…;)
You mean they have a very healthy diet and walk most of the times. There are many older people from the Dinka tribe lol. Just not pictured here.
Their black and black dont crack, black people look young for years compared to white ppl.
Visually stunning.
These women are stunning. I appreciate the knowledge of this tribe of women.
Wow. Just stunning. What I love most is how as a people group they are a true representative of not just surviving but thriving. That woman in the river with her baby is a straight up super model. This was great!
As a Dinka, I’m so glad that BGLH posted these pictures. So proud of my heritage.
These are some beautiful people.…the images are absolutely stunning!
I never comment, but I must say these pictures are marvelous and beautiful. Ever since I did my DNA ancestry testing and found out I am Nilo-Saharan I’ve been learning more about my ancestry. So for me as a African American female learning about my ancestry this icing on my cake. Thanks BGLH????????????
These images are amazing, I’d love some prints.
Im curious.. Do they shave? Because none of them have any pubic hair. The older ones of course. Im 18 but i have plenty of pubic hair lol
yes they do
Absolutely amazing!
And FYI dabbing originated from the Dinka tribe!
i love how surreal it seems to look at another side of “what is beautiful” other than the western ideal of beauty, it’s so gorgeous, the lack of inhibition and “this is what the body is supposed to look like” mentality is so refreshing. loove it
Their body jewelry is everything
this was beautiful. Thank you.
So beautiful i love the beauty and the atmosphere it seems very cool.….I like it
amazing photos. truly captures the culture and life.