Bor as a region & as a Dinka tribe Bor is a region in Jonglei state, Southern Sudan. Bor town is the Jonglei state Capital. Jonglei is part of the Greater Upper Nile Region in Southern Sudan. Madingbor (currently known as Bor town) was the target town for the rebels, when the Sudan People Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) took up arms against the injustice Arabs dominated government in Khartoum, Sudan. During the course of the war, Bor town (Madingbor) has been a tactical theatre of war for the last three decades. The civil war in Sudan is among the longest running wars in the world. As from 1983 all through the war in Sudan, there have been estimated losses of two million lives. To highlight the fact about Bor region, Bor has a significant historical attachment to the people of Southern Sudan. It was in Malek, about 20 km south of Bor where the first mission was established by Archibald Shaw in December 1905. Bor became the initial region to host a Church missionary society station in 1905. Malek was turned as the missionaries' stronghold in the upper Nile states. Bor occupy the region around the city along its twelve payams, from Kolnyang in the South to Duk in the far north. Bor is one of the Dinka's tribe in Southern Sudan. Who are Dinkas? Dinkas, known as Muonyjang are group of tribes in southern Sudan, inhabiting the swamplands of the Bahr el Ghazal region of the Nile basin, Jonglei and parts of southern Kordufan and Upper Nile regions. They are mainly agro-pastoral people, relying on cattle herding at riverside camps in the dry season and growing millet and other varieties of grains in fixed settlements during the rainy season. They number around 1.5 million people, constituting about 4% of the population of the entire country, and constitute the largest ethnic tribe in South Sudan. Dinka are among the branches of the River Lake Nilotes (mainly sedentary agri-pastoral peoples of East Africa who speak Nilotic languages, including the Nuer and Maasai) (Seligman 1965). They are dark African people, differing markedly from the Arabic speaking ethnic groups inhabiting northern Sudan. Dinka are sometimes noted for their height, most of them are very tall. Their language called Dinka is one of the Nilotic family languages, belonging to the Chari-Nile branch of the Nilo-Saharan family. The name means "people" in the Dinka language. It is written using the Latin alphabet with a few additions. Before the coming of the British, the Dinka did not live in villages, but traveled in family groups living in temporary homesteads with their cattle. The homesteads might be in clusters of one or two all the way up to 100 families. Small towns grew up around British administrative centers. Each village of one or more extended families is led by a leader chosen by the group. Dinka are good people, very honorable towards their neibourhoods. Dinka traditional homes were made of mud walls with thatched conical roofs, which might last about few years. Only women and children sleep inside the house, while the men sleep in mud-roofed cattle pens. The homesteads were located to enable movement in a range allowing year-round access to grass and water. Permanent villages are now built on higher ground above the flood plane of the Nile but with good water for irrigation. Women and older men tend crops on this high ground while younger men move up and down with the rise and fall of the river. Polygamy is the ideal for the Dinka, though some men may have only one wife. The Dinka must marry outside their clan (exogamy), which promotes more cohesion across the broader Dinka group. A "bride wealth" is paid by the groom's family to finalize the marriage alliance between the two clan families. Levirate marriage provides support for widows and their children. All children of co-wives are raised together and have a wide family identity. Co-wives cook for all children, though each wife has a responsibility for her own children. Girls learn to cook, but boys do not. Cooking is done outdoors in pots over a stone hearth. Men depend upon women for several aspects of their life, but likewise the division of labor assigns certain functions to the men, such as fishing and herding, and the periodic hunting. After initiation to adulthood, the social spheres of the genders overlap very little. The basic food is heavy millet porridge, eaten with milk or with a vegetable and spice sauce. Milk by itself, in various forms, is also a primary food. More details on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinka. Dinka tribes have ten subdivisions: Atuot, Aliab, Bor, Chiej, Agar, Gok, Rek, Twij, Malual, and Ngok! Women & the local custom In Bor tribes and some other tribes of Dinka, with their custom, a woman's value is measured in cows, not education. An educated girl doesn't get as high a marriage dowry, or what's called a "bride's price." It is nearly always paid in cows. A father who has a girl child is a wealthy man in most of the Dinka tribes including Bor. And wealthier yet, if he is able to keep his daughters isolated, uneducated and close to home. The reason for that is girls who are less exposed to the centre of the population are considered more innocent and a greater value for a husband. And girls who go to school are considered more independent, possibly promiscuous, exposed to ideas that make them disobedient and overall less valuable as a wife. These are concepts that have no doubt contributed to an illiteracy rate of nearly 95 percent for women and girls in the region. In fact, that just seems to be one of the many injustice they suffer. Local customs, traditions and even laws seem to keep women locked into a constant state of servitude and child bearing. It's against the local laws in Dinka community for a husband and a wife to laugh together in public, because a woman is considerate as not an equal individual to the man. And also a man who kills his wife will have to make restitution with a fine of some number of cows. Then his debt to society is considered paid. A man has a right to discipline a woman with physical beatings when she gets out of line, even if she is not his wife. And also a woman whose husbands died is expected to be inherited by a member of her husband's family. If she refuses she can lose everything: her home, children and belongings. She is left with no alternative but to return to her own family, who are not typically enthusiastic about another mouth to feed with no future marriage potential. Marriage in most of the Dinka tribes, including Bor, it is men who have the most options, as long as they have the cows to pay for women. A man can have as many wives as he wants. It is rare for someone to have at least one wife. And the richer the man is, the more wives he is likely to have. With no doubt, polygamy has been and is continuous to contribute to a cycle of domestic cruelty, especially if a woman feels she is not getting enough attention or resources from her husband, this rise the potential for argument and physical violence within most families! |
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