South Sudan Marriage Culture

Dinka Tribe of Sudan culture

Dinkas are the people of southern Sudan and inhabit the swamplands of the Bahr el Ghazal region of the Nile basin, Jonglei and parts of southern Kordufan and Upper Nile regions.

The population of Dinkas is around 4-5 million people, constituting about 48% of the entire country’s population, making them the largest ethnic tribe in Sudan.

The Dinka are primarily transhumant pastoralists, moving their herds of cattle to riverine pastures during the dry season (December to April) and back to permanent settlements in savanna forests during the rains, when their food crops, principally millet, are grown.

They speak a Nilotic language classified within the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan languages and are closely related to the Nuer. 

Dinka Marriage Traditions

Marriage among the Dinka is seen as the merging of two families that broadens and strengthens communities; therefore, parents’ approval of the couple is essential. Many factors are considered when choosing prospective partners. Primarily, people are concerned with their family’s ethnicity and mode of living (e.g. cattle herders, merchants, etc.). 

Marriage among the Dinka is traditionally defined through the exchange of bride-wealth in the form of cattle. The ideal number of cattle to pay bride-wealth varies in different regions of Dinka country, but a number between thirty and forty cattle is standard. 

After marriage, a woman is let off by custom not to perform house chores like cooking and sweeping for four years. This period is called Anyuuc, meaning generous welcoming.

According to elders in the tribe, this period of generous welcoming is meant for a wife to relax and study her husband’s homestead values. During this period, the husband’s sister does all domestic activities like cooking, fetching firewood, and cleaning the house.

After completing these years, the husband organizes a large party called that where three cows and five goats are slaughtered to initiate his wife to cook. Within these four years, the bride can decide to leave her husband and doesn’t have to pay back the dowry.

Ghost Marriage

In addition to a woman’s marriage to a man, the Dinka also practice some of the other forms of marriage that have been reported as ghost marriage. This Dinka tradition allows a family to maintain its name from generation to generation.

A woman is made to have a ghost marriage for several reasons; one of the most popular reasons is that her husband-to-be suddenly died before the set marriage date.

In such cases, the ghost marriage will happen when both families have been introduced to each other, and the union has been made official.

During the wedding ceremony, the brother of the dead represents the dead partner and the wedding ceremony proceeds like many other regular wedding ceremonies.

Amazingly, after marrying the dead, such women are not labelled as widows but regarded as married women, and when it comes to childbearing, she is likely to have kids with the brother of their dead husband.

Once married, the dead partner’s brother is left with the responsibility of taking up the role of a proper husband; however, when officially counting his wives, the wife of his ghost brother is not considered or recognized as his.

Although a substantial part of their tradition and culture, the ghost marriage ceremony has declined over the years. The drastic decline has been due to Western education and modernization.

Conclusion

Divorce is rare as marriage generally solidifies a lifelong merging of two families. Furthermore, the custom of the dowry complicates the process. The man usually gets automatic custody in compensation for the high price he originally paid for his bride.

This can deter women from seeking a divorce. Sometimes, if the couple has had no children, it may be more feasible to return the dowry to the groom’s family and split.