Dinka

The Dinka are the largest ethnic group in South Sudan, a Nilotic people traditionally organized into numerous independent, decentralized sections rather than a single unified kingdom, and historically dependent on cattle herding along the Nile's tributaries and seasonal floodplains, alongside sorghum and millet cultivation. Cattle hold deep economic, social and spiritual significance in Dinka life, central to bridewealth payments, sacrifice and personal identity, and Dinka age-set and lineage systems structure much of traditional social organization. The Dinka speak a Nilotic language and were prominent participants in South Sudan's long civil wars and its 2011 independence, with the country's first president, Salva Kiir, himself Dinka.