Wau, South Sudan
Wau is a city in northwestern South Sudan, on the western bank of the Jur River, that serves as capital for Wau State. It lies 650 kilometres northwest of the capital Juba. A culturally and linguistically diverse urban center and trading hub, Wau is the former headquarters of Western Bahr el Ghazal. Wau was established as a zariba by slave-traders in the 19th century. During the time of condominium rule, the city became an administrative center. Burr and Collins in 1994 described Wau: as follows: No one has been "at home" in Wau, it is surrounded by a host of disorganized and diverse peoples... It was and remains a town belonging to no single ethnic group, deriving its importance only from its position as a commercial and administrative center... Located in the midst of the vast Nilotic plain hundreds of miles from nowhere, it was miserable under the best of circumstances... During the Second Sudanese Civil War, it was a garrison town of the Khartoum-based Sudanese Armed Forces, was the scene of extensive fighting in the spring of 1998.
Battles erupted again in the town in the spring of 2007. In 2010 the Ministry of Housing, Physical Planning and Environment proposed to reshape the city as a giraffe. Following the outbreak of the South Sudanese Civil War, the town has experienced numerous clashes and much destruction at the hands of anti-government as well as government forces. In April 2014, Nuer soldiers belonging to the local SPLA garrison mutinied after hearing of a massacre at Mapel, they clashes with SPLA loyalists, fled into the Bush, joining a long march of other deserters to Sudan. About 700 Nuer civilians subsequently sought protection at Wau's UNMISS base. In 2016, Wau experienced heavy clashes that displaced much of its Fertit population and led to widespread destruction. In April 2017, Dinka soldiers of the SPLA and Mathiang Anyoor militiamen carried out a massacre of non-Dinka civilians in the town, killing up to 50 people, displacing thousands; the population of Wau is ethnically diverse. Most of the inhabitants are Dinka and Fertit, as the town lies on the tribal boundary between these two peoples.
Furthermore, minorities belonging to the Luo, Jur Modo/Jur Beli, Balanda Boor/Balanda Bviri, Nuer peoples can be found in Wau. Due to its diversity, Wau has suffered from ethnic violence. In 2008, Wau was the third-largest city in South Sudan, by population, behind national capital Juba and Malakal, in Upper Nile State. At that time, the estimated population of the city of Wau was about 128,100. In 2011, the city's population was estimated at about 151,320, its Cathedral of St. Mary is the episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wau, which serves the province's religious majority. Wau is a vibrant economic center by the standards of the newly established Republic of South Sudan, serves as hub for trade between Darfur, Bahr al Ghazal, Equatoria; the major contributors to the local economy include: Buffalo Commercial Bank branch Equity Bank branch Ivory Bank branch Kenya Commercial Bank branch Catholic University of South Sudan, Wau campus University of Bahr El-Ghazal Wau Airport Wau County Government Wau state Government RCS - Radio & Satellite Communication Commercial Bank of Ethiopia expected shortly Wau Railway Station - is the terminus of a narrow gauge branch line of the Sudan Railways.
A plan exists, as of 2008. Through trains from Khartoum to Mombasa would be possible, its functionality would depend on post-conflict reconstruction. Wau Airport - The airport, has a single paved runway; the city hosts University of many secondary and primary schools. The Catholic University of South Sudan maintains a campus in the city. Wau Stadium - A soccer stadium in the middle of town The Cathedral of St. Mary in Wau was built between 1951 and 1956. There are five main roads out of town: B38-North leads directly north to Gogrial, South Sudan B43-South leads southeast to Tonj, South Sudan A44-South leads directly south to Tumbura, South Sudan B41-West leads west to Raga, South Sudan B43-North leads northwest to Aweil, South Sudan Southern National Park - Located about 100 kilometres, by road, south of Wau along A44-South Wau has a tropical savanna climate; the city has two seasons: a dry season from November to March, a rainy season the rest of the year, as depicted in the referenced box below: Some of the notable people from Wau include Luol Deng - NBA basketball player Longar Yak Jiel - National basketball player Khamis Leyano - South Sudanese footballer and captain Longar Longar - former University of Oklahoma basketball player and NBA D-League player Thon Maker – NBA basketball player Clement Mboro - veteran politician Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako - Retired archbishop of Khartoum archdiocese Prof Barri Arkanjelo Wanji - veteran Anya Anya /SPLM/A soldier and long serving politician Dan Samuel - National Basketball player and verteran construction manager Alek Wek - World model Joseph Ukel - veteran politician Bahr el Ghazal Wau Airport Western Bahr el Ghazal PSI South Sudan.
Pre-Harvest Anthropome
United States Army Infantry School
The United States Army Infantry School is located at Fort Benning, Georgia, is a school dedicated to training infantrymen for service in the United States Army. The school is made up of the following components: 198th Infantry Brigade 1st Battalion, 19th Infantry 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry 1st Battalion, 50th Infantry 2nd Battalion, 54th Infantry 2nd Battalion, 58th InfantryFor new recruits specializing in infantry, the ITB conducts fourteen weeks of One Station Unit Training consisting of both Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training; the mission of the Infantry Training Brigade is to transform civilians into disciplined infantrymen that possess the Army Values, fundamental soldier skills, physical fitness, confidence and the Warrior Ethos to become adaptive and flexible infantrymen ready to accomplish the mission of the infantry. 199th Infantry Brigade HHC, 199th Bde Maneuver Captains Career Course International Student Training Detachment Officer Candidate School 1st Battalion, 11th Infantry 2nd Battalion, 11th Infantry 3rd Battalion, 11th Infantry 2nd Squadron, 16th Cavalry Regiment 3rd Battalion, 81st Armor Regiment Henry Caro Non-Commissioned Officers AcademyManeuver Senior Leaders Course Advanced Noncommissioned Officer Course Advanced Leaders Course Basic Noncommissioned Officer Course Warrior Leader Course Primary Leadership Development Course Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade 4th Ranger Training Battalion Ranger School 5th Ranger Training Battalion Ranger School 6th Ranger Training Battalion Ranger School 1st Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment Airborne School Jumpmaster School Pathfinder School Silver Wings Combined Arms and Tactics Directorate Directorate of Operations and Training/G-3 Training Support Center Office of Infantry Proponency "Warrior Ethos" program, launched in 2003 by the United States Army.
Infantry officers who have completed commissioning and the Basic Officer Leadership Course attend the Infantry Officer Basic Leadership Course in 2nd battalion. This is a course of instruction, as the name implies, in basic infantry skills, including marksmanship, machine gunnery and planning; the brigade conducts specialized training for soldiers in Basic Airborne and Jumpmaster Courses. For many years the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 29th Infantry Regiment provided branch specific programs of instruction as part of the Infantry school. In July 2007 the 29th Infantry Regiment was reflagged into the 197th Infantry Brigade as part of the Army's transition to a Brigade focused structure; this organization continued until 12 December 2013. Shortly thereafter the programs of instruction provided by the 29th Infantry Regiment were consolidated under 1st Battalion 29th Infantry Regiment, reflagged as part of the 316th Cavalry Brigade, the 2nd Battalion 29th Infantry Regiment was deactivated. Under the purview of the Maneuver Center of Excellence, as part of the 316th Cavalry Brigade, 1st Battalion 29th Infantry Regiment continues to teach combat skills and support MCoE training, the Infantry School, Infantry Soldiers and leaders by providing the following courses: Bradley Leaders Course Bradley Master Gunner Course Combatives Course Dismounted C-IED Tactics Master Trainer Heavy Weapons Leader Course Reconnaissance and Surveillance Leader Course Simulations Training Managers Course Stryker Leader Course Stryker Master Gunner Course Small Unmanned Aircraft System Master Trainer Sniper Course The Chief of Infantry is the proponent of the school and its commandant.
Basic Officer Leaders Course United States Army branch insignia Guidon Combat Infantryman Badge Blue Infantry Cord Infantry School homepage U. S. Army Infantry School Official site of the Infantry Training Brigade
Agricultural economics
Agricultural economics is an applied field of economics concerned with the application of economic theory in optimizing the production and distribution of food and fiber. Agricultural economics began as a branch of economics that dealt with land usage, it focused on maximizing the crop yield while maintaining a good soil ecosystem. Throughout the 20th century the discipline expanded and the current scope of the discipline is much broader. Agricultural economics today includes a variety of applied areas, having considerable overlap with conventional economics. Agricultural economists have made substantial contributions to research in economics, development economics, environmental economics. Agricultural economics influences food policy, agricultural policy, environmental policy. Economics has been defined as the study of resource allocation under scarcity. Agricultural economics, or the application of economic methods to optimizing the decisions made by agricultural producers, grew to prominence around the turn of the 20th century.
The field of agricultural economics can be traced out to works on land economics. Henry Charles Taylor was the greatest contributor with the establishment of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Wisconsin in 1909. Another contributor, 1979 Nobel Economics Prize winner Theodore Schultz, was among the first to examine development economics as a problem related directly to agriculture. Schultz was instrumental in establishing econometrics as a tool for use in analyzing agricultural economics empirically. One scholar summarizes the development of agricultural economics as follows: "Agricultural economics arose in the late 19th century, combined the theory of the firm with marketing and organization theory, developed throughout the 20th century as an empirical branch of general economics; the discipline was linked to empirical applications of mathematical statistics and made early and significant contributions to econometric methods. In the 1960s and afterwards, as agricultural sectors in the OECD countries contracted, agricultural economists were drawn to the development problems of poor countries, to the trade and macroeconomic policy implications of agriculture in rich countries, to a variety of production and environmental and resource problems."Agricultural economists have made many well-known contributions to the economics field with such models as the cobweb model, hedonic regression pricing models, new technology and diffusion models, multifactor productivity and efficiency theory and measurement, the random coefficients regression.
The farm sector is cited as a prime example of the perfect competition economic paradigm. In Asia, agricultural economics was offered first by the University of the Philippines Los Baños Department of Agricultural Economics in 1919. Today, the field of agricultural economics has transformed into a more integrative discipline which covers farm management and production economics, rural finance and institutions, agricultural marketing and prices, agricultural policy and development and nutrition economics, environmental and natural resource economics. Since the 1970s, agricultural economics has focused on seven main topics, according to a scholar in the field: agricultural environment and resources. In the field of environmental economics, agricultural economists have contributed in three main areas: designing incentives to control environmental externalities, estimating the value of non-market benefits from natural resources and environmental amenities, the complex interrelationship between economic activities and environmental consequences.
With regard to natural resources, agricultural economists have developed quantitative tools for improving land management, preventing erosion, managing pests, protecting biodiversity, preventing livestock diseases. While at one time, the field of agricultural economics was focused on farm-level issues, in recent years agricultural economists have studied diverse topics related to the economics of food consumption. In addition to economists' long-standing emphasis on the effects of prices and incomes, researchers in this field have studied how information and quality attributes influence consumer behavior. Agricultural economists have contributed to understanding how households make choices between purchasing food or preparing it at home, how food prices are determined, definitions of poverty thresholds, how consumers respond to price and income changes in a consistent way, survey and experimental tools for understanding consumer preferences. Agricultural economics research has addressed diminishing returns in agricultural production, as well as farmers' costs and supply responses.
Much research has applied economic theory to farm-level decisions. Studies of risk and decision-making under uncertainty have real-world applications to crop insurance policies and to understanding how farmers in developing countries make choices about technology adoption; these topics are important for understanding prospects for producing sufficient food for a growing world population, subject to new resource and environmental challenges such as water scarcity and global climate change. Development economics is broadly concerned with the improvement of living conditions in low-income countries, the improvement of economic performance in low-inc
Animism
Animism is the religious belief that objects and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals, rocks, weather systems, human handiwork and even words—as animated and alive. Animism is used in the anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many indigenous peoples in contrast to the more recent development of organised religions. Although each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, "animism" is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives; the animistic perspective is so held and inherent to most indigenous peoples that they do not have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism". Due to such ethnolinguistic and cultural discrepancies, opinion has differed on whether animism refers to an ancestral mode of experience common to indigenous peoples around the world, or to a full-fledged religion in its own right; the accepted definition of animism was only developed in the late 19th century by Sir Edward Tylor, who created it as "one of anthropology's earliest concepts, if not the first".
Animism encompasses the beliefs that all material phenomena have agency, that there exists no hard and fast distinction between the spiritual and physical world and that soul or spirit or sentience exists not only in humans, but in other animals, rocks, geographic features such as mountains or rivers or other entities of the natural environment, including thunder and shadows. Animism may further attribute souls to abstract concepts such as words, true names or metaphors in mythology; some members of the non-tribal world consider themselves animists. Earlier anthropological perspectives, which have since been termed the "old animism", were concerned with knowledge on what is alive and what factors make something alive; the "old animism" assumed that animists were individuals who were unable to understand the difference between persons and things. Critics of the "old animism" have accused it of preserving "colonialist and dualist worldviews and rhetoric"; the idea of animism was developed by the anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor in his 1871 book Primitive Culture, in which he defined it as "the general doctrine of souls and other spiritual beings in general".
According to Tylor, animism includes "an idea of pervading life and will in nature". That formulation was little different from that proposed by Auguste Comte as "fetishism", but the terms now have distinct meanings. For Tylor, animism represented the earliest form of religion, being situated within an evolutionary framework of religion which has developed in stages and which will lead to humanity rejecting religion altogether in favor of scientific rationality. Thus, for Tylor, animism was fundamentally seen as a mistake, a basic error from which all religion grew, he did not believe that animism was inherently illogical, but he suggested that it arose from early humans' dreams and visions and thus was a rational system. However, it was based on unscientific observations about the nature of reality. Stringer notes that his reading of Primitive Culture led him to believe that Tylor was far more sympathetic in regard to "primitive" populations than many of his contemporaries and that Tylor expressed no belief that there was any difference between the intellectual capabilities of "savage" people and Westerners.
Tylor had wanted to describe the phenomenon as "spiritualism" but realised that would cause confusion with the modern religion of Spiritualism, prevalent across Western nations. He adopted the term "animism" from the writings of the German scientist Georg Ernst Stahl, who, in 1708, had developed the term animismus as a biological theory that souls formed the vital principle and that the normal phenomena of life and the abnormal phenomena of disease could be traced to spiritual causes; the first known usage in English appeared in 1819. The idea that there had once been "one universal form of primitive religion" has been dismissed as "unsophisticated" and "erroneous" by the archaeologist Timothy Insoll, who stated that "it removes complexity, a precondition of religion now, in all its variants". Tylor's definition of animism was a part of a growing international debate on the nature of "primitive society" by lawyers and philologists; the debate defined the field of research of a new science: anthropology.
By the end of the 19th century, an orthodoxy on "primitive society" had emerged, but few anthropologists still would accept that definition. The "19th-century armchair anthropologists" argued "primitive society" was ordered by kinship and was divided into exogamous descent groups related by a series of marriage exchanges, their religion was the belief that natural species and objects had souls. With the development of private property, the descent groups were displaced by the emergence of the territorial state; these rituals and beliefs evolved over time into the vast array of "developed" religions. According to Tylor, the more scientifically advanced a society became, the fewer members of that society believed in animism. However, any remnant ideologies of souls or spirits, to Tylor, represented "survivals" of the original animism of early humanity. In 1869, the Edinburgh lawyer
Fort Benning
Fort Benning is a United States Army post straddling the Alabama–Georgia border next to Columbus, Georgia. Fort Benning supports more than 120,000 active-duty military, family members, reserve component soldiers and civilian employees on a daily basis, it is a power projection platform, possesses the capability to deploy combat-ready forces by air and highway. Fort Benning is the home of the United States Army Maneuver Center of Excellence, the United States Army Armor School, United States Army Infantry School, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, elements of the 75th Ranger Regiment, 3rd Brigade – 3rd Infantry Division, many other additional tenant units, it is named after Henry L. Benning, a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. Since 1909, Fort Benning has served as the Home of the Infantry. Since 2005, Fort Benning has been transformed into the Maneuver Center of Excellence, as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Commission's decision to consolidate a number of schools and installations to create various "centers of excellence".
Included in this transformation was the move of the Armor School from Fort Knox to Fort Benning. Camp Benning was established in October 1909, after President Woodrow Wilson called for a special session of Congress, culminating Congressional work in the creation of the Revenue Act of 1913, reintroducing an income tax which lowered tariffs, assigning permanent status in 1909. Providing basic training for World War I units, post-war Dwight D. Eisenhower served at Benning from December 24, 1918, until March 15, 1919, with about 250 of his Camp Colt, tankers who transferred to Benning after the armistice. On December 26, 1918, a portion of the Camp Polk tank school was transferred to Camp Benning "to work in conjunction with the Infantry school". Camp Benning tank troops were moved to Camp Meade from February 19–21, 1919. In February 1920, Congress voted to declare Camp Benning a permanent military post and appropriated more than $1 million of additional building funds for the Infantry School of Arms, which became the Infantry School.
By the fall of 1920, more than 350 officers, 7,000 troops and 650 student officers lived at Camp Benning. The post was renamed to Fort Benning in 1922, after Henry L. Benning, a general in the army of the Confederate States of America. In 1924, Brig. Gen. Briant H. Wells became the fourth commandant of the Infantry School and established the Wells Plan for permanent construction on the installation, emphasizing the importance of the outdoor environment and recreation opportunities for military personnel. During Wells' tenure, the post developed recreational facilities such as Doughboy Stadium, Gowdy Field, the post theater and Russ swimming pool. Doughboy Stadium was erected as a memorial by soldiers to their fallen comrades of World War I. One of the Doughboys' original coaches was a young captain named Dwight D. Eisenhower. Lt. Col George C. Marshall was appointed assistant commandant of the post in 1927 and initiated major changes. Marshall, who became the Army Chief of Staff during World War II, was appalled by the high casualties of World War I caused, he thought, by insufficient training.
He was determined to prevent a lack of preparation from costing more lives in future conflicts. He and his subordinates revamped the education system at Fort Benning; the changes he fostered are still known as the Benning Revolution. In his life, Marshall went on to author the Marshall Plan for reviving postwar Europe and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. During World War II Fort Benning had 197,159 acres with billeting space for 3,970 officers and 94,873 enlisted persons. Among many other units, Fort Benning was the home of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, their training began in December 1943 and was an important milestone for black Americans, as was explored in the first narrative history of the installation, Home of the Infantry; the battalion expanded to become the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, was trained at Fort Benning but did not deploy overseas and never saw combat during World War II. During this period, the specialized duties of the Triple Nickel were in a firefighting role, with over one thousand parachute jumps as smoke jumpers.
The 555th was deployed to the Pacific Northwest of the United States in response to the concern that forest fires were being set by the Japanese military using long-range incendiary balloons. The 82nd Armored Reconnaissance Battalion was activated July 15, 1940, trained at the Fort; the 17th Armored Engineer Battalion became active and started training July 15, 1940. The 4th Infantry Division, first of four divisions committed by the United States to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and completed its basic training at Fort Benning from October 1950 to May 1951, when it deployed to Germany for five years; the Airborne School on Main Post has three 249-foot drop towers called "Free Towers." They are used to train paratroopers. The towers were modeled after the parachute towers at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Only three towers stand today. During the spring of 1962 General Herbert B. Powell, Commanding General, U. S. Continental Army Command, directed that all instruction at the Infantry School after July 1 reflect Reorganization Objective Army Division structures.
Therefore, the Infantry School asked for permission to reorganize the 1st Infantry Brigade under a ROAD structure. Instead, the Army Staff decided to inactivat
Sudan
Sudan or the Sudan the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea to the east, Ethiopia to the southeast, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, it has a population of 39 million people and occupies a total area of 1,886,068 square kilometres, making it the third-largest country in Africa. Sudan's predominant religion is Islam, its official languages are Arabic and English; the capital is Khartoum, located at the confluence of the White Nile. Since 2011, Sudan is the scene of ongoing military conflict in its regions South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Sudan's history goes back to the Pharaonic period, witnessing the kingdom of Kerma, the subsequent rule of the Egyptian New Kingdom and the rise of the kingdom of Kush, which would in turn control Egypt itself for nearly a century. After the fall of Kush the Nubians formed the three Christian kingdoms of Nobatia and Alodia, with the latter two lasting until around 1500.
Between the 14th and 15th centuries much of Sudan was settled by Arab nomads. From the 16th–19th centuries and eastern Sudan were dominated by the Funj sultanate, while Darfur ruled the west and the Ottomans the far north; this period saw Arabization. From 1820 to 1874 the entirety of Sudan was conquered by the Muhammad Ali dynasty. Between 1881 and 1885 the harsh Egyptian reign was met with a successful revolt led by the self-proclaimed Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad, resulting in the establishment of the Caliphate of Omdurman; this state was destroyed in 1898 by the British, who would govern Sudan together with Egypt. The 20th century saw the growth of Sudanese nationalism and in 1953 Britain granted Sudan self-government. Independence was proclaimed on January 1, 1956. Since independence, Sudan has been ruled by a series of unstable parliamentary governments and military regimes. Under Gaafar Nimeiry, Sudan instituted Islamic law in 1983; this exacerbated the rift between the Islamic north, the seat of the government and the animists and Christians in the south.
Differences in language and political power erupted in a civil war between government forces influenced by the National Islamic Front and the southern rebels, whose most influential faction was the Sudan People's Liberation Army concluding in the independence of South Sudan in 2011. In April 2019, following contentious protests that faced fierce resistance from the Omar al-Bashir regime, the Sudanese military, under the command of Ahmed Awad Ibn Auf, took control of the nation and established a Transitional Military Council; this move dissolved the constitution. The country's place name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa; the name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān, or "the lands of the Blacks". The name is one of several toponyms sharing similar etymologies meaning "land of the blacks" or similar meanings, in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants; the term "Sudanese" had a negative connotation in Sudan due to its association with black African slaves.
The idea of "Sudanese" nationalism goes back to the 1930s and 1940s, when it was popularized by young intellectuals. By the eighth millennium BC, people of a Neolithic culture had settled into a sedentary way of life there in fortified mudbrick villages, where they supplemented hunting and fishing on the Nile with grain gathering and cattle herding. During the fifth millennium BC, migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture; the population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed a social hierarchy over the next centuries which became the Kingdom of Kush at 1700 BC. Anthropological and archaeological research indicate that during the predynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were ethnically, culturally nearly identical, thus evolved systems of pharaonic kingship by 3300 BC; the Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, the Atbarah River and the Nile River.
It was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan all the way to the Sinai. Pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East, but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II; the Kingdom of Kush is mentioned in the Bible as having saved the Israelites from the wrath of the Assyrians, although disease among the besiegers was the main reason for the failure to take the city. The war that took place between Pharaoh Taharqa and the Assyrian king Sennacherib was a decisive event in western history, with the Nubians being defeated in their attempts to gain a foothold in the Near East by Assyria.
Sennacherib's successor Esarhaddon went further, invaded Egypt itself, deposing Taharqa and driving the Nubians from Egypt entirely. Taharqa fled back to his homeland. Egypt became an Assyrian colony.
Dinka people
The Dinka people are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan, but having a sizable diaspora population. They live along the Nile, from Mangalla to Renk, in regions of Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile and Abyei Area of the Ngok Dinka in South Sudan; the Dinka live on traditional agriculture and pastoralism, relying on cattle husbandry as a cultural pride, not for commercial profit or for meat, but cultural demonstrations, marriages' dowries and milk feedings for all ages. The Dinka cultivate food crops and cash crops; the food crops are grains sorghum and millet. The cash crops include groundnuts and gum-arabic. Cattle are confined to riversides, the Sudd and grass areas during the dry season, but are taken to high grounds in order to avoid floods and water during the rainy season, they number around 4.5 million people according to the 2008 Sudan census, constituting about 18% of the population of the entire country, the largest ethnic tribe in South Sudan. Dinka, or as they refer to themselves and jieng, make up one of the branches of the River Lake Nilotes.
Dinka are sometimes noted for their height. With the Tutsi of Rwanda, they are believed to be the tallest people in Africa. Roberts and Bainbridge reported the average height of 182.6 cm in a sample of 52 Dinka Agaar and 181.3 cm in 227 Dinka Ruweng measured in 1953–1954. However, it seems the stature of today's Dinka males is lower as a consequence of undernutrition and conflicts. An anthropometric survey of Dinka men, war refugees in Ethiopia, published in 1995 found a mean height of 176.4 cm. Other studies of comparative historical height data and nutrition place the Dinka as the tallest people in the world; the Dinka people have no centralised political authority, instead comprising many independent but interlinked clans. Some of those clans traditionally provide ritual chiefs, known as the "masters of the fishing spear" or beny bith, who provide leadership for the entire people and appear to be at least in part hereditary, their language, called Dinka or "Thuɔŋjäŋ", is one of the Nilotic languages of the eastern Sudanic language family.
The name means "people" in the Dinka language. It is written using the Latin alphabet with a few additions. According to oral traditions the Dinka originated from the Gezira in. In medieval times this region was dominated by the kingdom of Alodia, a Christian, multi-ethnic empire dominated by Nubians. Living in its southern periphery and interacting with the Nubians, the Dinka absorbed a sizable amount of the Nubian vocabulary. From the 13th century, with the disintegration of Alodia, the Dinka began to migrate out of the Gezira, fleeing slave raids and other military conflicts as well as droughts; the Dinka's religions and lifestyle have led to conflict with the Arab Muslim government in Khartoum. The Sudan People's Liberation Army, led by late Dr. John Garang De Mabior, a Dinka, took arms against the government in 1983. During the subsequent 21-year civil war, many thousands of Dinka, along with fellow non-Dinka southerners, were massacred by government forces; the Dinka, led by Salva Kiir Mayardit, have engaged in a separate civil war with the Nuer and other groups who accuse them of monopolising power.
On November 15, 1991 the event known as the "Dinkas Massacre" commenced in South Sudan. Forces led by the breakaway faction of Riek Machar deliberately killed an estimated 2,000 civilians in Dinkas of Hol, Twic and others in villages and wounded several thousand more over the course of two months, it is estimated. Jieng People killed in 1991 tribal massacre were people of Khorfulus and Ngok Lual Yak where about 500 people were killed, over 7000 herds of cattle taken, thousand of houses burnt; the area however remained under the control of SPLA under the command of late General George Athor Deng who defeated Riek Machar's forces in Panyagor when he reinforced Wuor Mabior of Duk. Southern Sudan has been described as "a large basin sloping northward", through which flow the Bahr el Jebel River, the Bahr el Ghazal River and its tributaries, the Sobat, all merging into a vast barrier swamp. Vast Sudanese oil areas to the south and east are part of the flood plain, a basin in the southern Sudan into which the rivers of Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia drain off from an ironstone plateau that belts the regions of Bahr El Ghazal and Upper Nile.
The terrain can be divided into four land classes: Highlands: higher than the surrounding plains by only a few centimeters. Vegetation consists of open thorn open mixed woodland with grasses. Intermediate Lands: lie below the highlands subject to flooding from heavy rainfall in the Ethiopian and East/Central African highlands. Toic: land seasonally inundated or saturated by the main rivers and inland water-courses, retaining enough moisture throughout the dry season to support cattle grazing. Sudd: permanent swampland below the level of the toic. Ecology of large basin is unique; the Dinka'
