Chapters › Christian Nubia · South Sudan – Upper Nile
Dinka (Jieng) communities
1500 CE – present Arabic under review
Approximate area of control
Research in progress No sourced map of this era's territory yet, so no area is drawn.
Dating note
UNSOURCED START (1500 = display placeholder). No source found giving a datable emergence; Nilotic presence long predates it. Not a state.
Key events
- Group of tribes without central kingship, mostly in Bahr al-Ghazal floodplains, some east of the White Nile (Holt & Daly)
- Cattle pastoralism; culturally close to the Nuer, together a Nilotic subdivision (Evans-Pritchard 1940)
Capitals / sites
Research in progress We have not yet read a source for this section. It will be added once one is checked; nothing is filled in by guesswork.
Geopolitics
Occupy 'a much more extensive territory' than the Shilluk 'but lack their unity: they are a group of tribes' (HD2011, intro p.3).
Culture
Ogot links the Recent Iron Age of the Nilotes to the arrival of humped cattle on the Bahr al-Ghazal and 'the full development of transhumance, especially among the Jieng' (GHA V ch.7, p.193). The Jieng, Naath and Luo are 'Jii-speaking' peoples, all using the term 'jii' for 'people' (p.196 fn.59). From about 1630 the Jieng expanded into the southern Gezira (p.196). He notes that ethnic identity on this frontier was fluid, with people 'becoming Arabs, Fur, Funj, Shilluk, Naath or Jieng according to political and economic circumstances' (p.171). No Dinka ethnography (e.g. F.M. Deng) was read.
Economy
Cattle herders; most live 'in the grassy flood-plains of the Bahr al-Ghazal, where they herd their cattle', others on the east bank of the White Nile (HD2011, intro p.3).
Regional power
Research in progress We have not yet read a source for this section. It will be added once one is checked; nothing is filled in by guesswork.
Open data flags
- regional_power: no actors scored
- Pass 13 text: Arabic is a working translation; needs native review
- Pass 20 text: [WORKING TRANSLATION – needs native Arabic review] for every Arabic field
- SINGLE-SOURCE – GHA V ch.7 (Ogot); no Dinka ethnography read
Sources
- P.M. Holt & M.W. Daly (2011) A History of the Sudan: From the Coming of Islam to the Present Day Routledge (Pearson/Longman) link [en]
- Y.F. Hasan and B.A. Ogot (1992) The Sudan, 1500–1800, ch.7 (General History of Africa V) UNESCO / Heinemann / University of California Press link [en]
- E.E. Evans-Pritchard (1940) The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People Clarendon Press link [en]