08/01/2025
Rek Dinka
Definition
Rek Dinka is made up of closely related clans such as
Payii,/parek, Pahool [ pakuec,Pajook,panau etc]
PakuΙΙk, Padiang_Bar, Pagong Palual, Pajieng, Padhieu,
Padiany, Pakuein [Parum], Pagak, Paliec, paluetmiir,
pageu, pariath, pabuol, pakiir pacier, paceirmeith,
Padolmuot /Payom, pakam, pariaken, paken, pajing/Pareng, pamiath,panyier, pakuacadiem, paleu,Palou, paluiel, pariau, pajou, pacot , Patek ,paliir , payal ,payiit etc
Religion
As ,religion determine the way of life and identity of the people ,Rek Dinka are very religious people.
Rek Dinka is made of holy clans which make them to resist foreign religions and maintains thier Dinka Religion .
Prophet Ariath makuei who was witnessed by British administration in the Sudan was from malual section of Rek Dinka tribal group
Although Some Dinka Rek converted to Christianity, majority of Rek Dinka maintain thier Dinka religion till to date, and some who converted to Christianity still practice thier native religion by mixing it with Christianity while small portion abandon thier religious beliefs and converted to Christianity totally.
Holy shrines spread across the Rek Dinka areas which is evidence that they will not abandon thier religion to foreign religions, some Rek Dinka intellectuals who converted early to Christianity abandoned Christianity and rejoined thier religion after they realized that thier religion is the most spiritual one.
With the population of nearly four million people, Rek
Dinka tribal group is undoubtedly the largest among the Dinka tribal groups.
During the Turko_Egyptian rule and Anglo_Egyptian rule in the Sudan, the Territory inhabited by Rek Dinka was famously known as follow.
Eastern Rek land [Tonj]
Central Rek land [Gogrial]
Southern Rek land [wau]
Western Rek land [Aweil].
Rek Dinka people are currently found in three states of greater Bahr El ghazal namely, Warrap state, Western Bahr El ghazal state and Northern Bahr El ghazal state.
History
Back to 16th century AD when Dinka still in uppernile region particularly Current Jongeli, it was Rek Dinka people who brought up the plan to evacuated harsh environment of Jongeli . Rek Dinka was made up of Two major sections.
1 Kuei section.
2. lith section.
When the environment of Jongeli worsened due to deadly diseases of the vast swamps, All Dinka tribal groups decided to move away from that harsh environment and look for a better lands, Dinka historians and elders believe that cholera broke out by then and killed alot of people, so Dinka holy men known as' Bany biith' in Dinka were called to make riruals,offer sacrifices and invocation for the well being of the people but that action was in vain, so The Dinka gave the name to that disease [Cholera] "Jong _Alei" where the current Jongeli state derived it's name from.
Lastly, Dinka people decide to move away from that harsh environment and look for a better lands.
Migration /Conquest plan.
Ayuel jiel [Ayueldit] ,the father of longardit of Pagong
clan who was by then the most powerful Dinka spear master [Bany biith ] summoned all the Dinka elders and told them that for the Conquest to be successful, the survey of the lands to be Conquested must be made, All chiefs agreed and the survey team of energetic youth was made and dispatched ,survey team crossed the Nile river to the west bank of Nile river which is currently yirol, Eastern lakes state. The survey mission took several weeks if not months, when they got back to Ayueldit , they informed Ayueldit and Dinka elders that the west bank of Nile was very good land but inhabited by the cattle Herders known as Jur Luel who are believed to be in current CHAD Republic After Dinka expelled them from Bahr El ghazal areas.
Jur Luel.
Jur Luel are cattle Herders, reddish and short built people Dinka believed to be inhabiting the swamps of Bahr El ghazal from yirol to mading Aweil areas .
Ngok Dinka of Abyei called Jur Luel 'Girma ' ,they believed that they fought and expel them when they arrived in Abyei areas around 1730..
Dinka groups, Rek, Twic ,Duor who later become Agar Dinka, luac, Nyarweng ,Hol and Gok decided to leave the area. To Execute the plan, Dinka made age set group called 'Kiec manyiel' to cross the Nile and fought the inhabitants of West bank of the Nile [Jur luel].
Kiec manyiel
Kiec literally means bee in Dinka.
Kiec manyiel Was the age set group made up of very energetic youth numbering thousands to fight Jur Luel, it was named ' kiec' because of how densely and powerful they were since kiec means bee in Dinka , manyiel Was the colour of the bull slaughter during the age set formation.
That's where kiec manyiel Dinka of yirol got its name.
The famous Rek Dinka elders who were behind the Conquest plan were:
Ayueldit of Pagong clan and his son longar [Longardit]
Agoth cithiik of Pahool clan
Anei Awutiak of Payii/parek clan.
Anei Adiang_Bar of padiang_Bar/Pacieny clan.
Lual teek of Patek clan and among others.
When Kiec manyiel under the command of longardit jiel [Longardit] crossed the Nile river to the west, some elders instructed the whole Dinka to follow the kiec manyiel without orders from longar the leader of Conquest, this annoyed longar and he told Anei Awutiak to convince people not to cross unless orders from him, but Anei Awutiak refused and he let people go, tension emerged between longardit and Anei Awutiak which led longardit to spear the heads of people who crossed after him.
After longar killed alot of people who determined to cross the River without his orders, elders advised him to let people cross , the people crossed and some who feared of thier lives returned to their previous places.
Rek, Twic, Nyarweng, Hol Gok, Duor [later become Agar Dinka] and luac crossed the river.
The details of crossing cannot be easily narrated in this post so I stop here.
When Kiec manyiel fought and expel Jur Luel, the division began among the Twic group and some Twic Dinka clans recrossed the Nile river and settled in the previous evacuated land they become known Present Twic east of jongeli, the other Twic , which is now Twic mayardit moved westerward fighting Jur Luel till they reached their present land , while Duor followed and they settled in current Rumbek and become Agar.
Nyarweng, Hol and Luac who are now found in pigi County of jongeli state [khorflous] returned to the eastern Nile by recrossing and now found in Jongeli state.
Gok Dinka also marched and settled in what is now Cueibet.
Rek Dinka marched westerward till they encamped in the current Tonj areas .
Battle of Buonglek.
This battle is very famous and still being told across the Rek Dinka areas.
It was believed that when Rek Dinka sections of Kuei and lith encamped in Tonj after they defeated Bongo and Jur Luel tribes, a certain woman known as ting bounglek, was bathing in the river and young man from parum clan came near her, ting Buonglek cried and said that young man r***d her, fierce fighting erupted between the owners of the woman and clans where young man hails. The battle took place in Angac area of current Lou ariik Tonj north, according to Rek Dinka oral stories and Dinka history by Anei Madut kuendit .
The battle killed hundreds of people that led some people to moved away from that area looking for another area to avoid any fighting again.
That's where Kuei and lith sections of Rek Dinka dispersed and broken into sub_divisons of Rek Dinka.
Some Rek Dinka of Kuei and lith clans left
Tonj and settled in Gogrial, wau and later mading Aweil areas [ malual Dinka].
Rek Dinka Dinka found currently in thier respective areas are components of Kuei and lith.
1..KUEI sections of Rek Dinka in Tonj for instance are , Awan parek, Lou paher, Lou Mawien, Jalwau,luac kuoth, Akook , Thiik, Nyan akoc ,Abuok, Noi, Kongor Abiem Mayar, Atok, leer
2.lITH sections of Rek Dinka in Tonj are , Apuk jurwiir and Apuk Padoc.
In Gogrial, Aguok kuei is purely of Kuei section And the Giant Apuk Giir thiik [Apuk pathuon] is purely made up of lith
Awan chan nyal and Awan mou ring Rek Dinka sections found in Gogrial west are mixed of Kuei and lith sections .
Kuac Agor section of Rek Dinka found in Gogrial west and true inhabitants of Kuacjok town, the capital of Warrap state are mixed up of Kuei and lith sections.
Waau Dinka, a small portion of Rek Dinka found in western Bahr El ghazal [Marial wau] was the expansion of Kuac Rek Dinka of Kuacjok is also a mixed of Kuei and lith.
Different between malual and Rek Dinka
Malual is Rek while Rek is not malual meaning that, when people talk about Dinka tribal groups, Malual falls under Rek Dinka group and when people talks about individual Dinka tribes within Dinka, Malual is a separate to talk about mading Aweil.
Malual Dinka.
In the middle of 18th century AD, Rek Dinka gave birth to it's new section known as malual _Bouth anyaar, Malual Giernyang or Malual Akot Tong.
Malual Dinka is a pure Rek Dinka and made up of Kuei and lith clans migrated from Rek Dinka lands around 1720 AD, it's believed that Bull malual in color owned by Akot tong from parek /Payii followed buffalo [Anyaar]to the current Aweil areas, this is where Malual Dinka got its name.
Malual Dinka encountered Jur Luel and they manged to expel them from the area .
Malual Dinka major two divisions
1. Pajook section of Malual Dinka has a two main sections ;
* Abiem, which is currently Aweil east with its ten sections.
* Malual Tueng, which is now Aweil north with its five sections.
2. Palieupiny section of Malual Dinka.
*Paliet, now Aweil south with its four sections.
*Palieupiny, currently Aweil west with its five sections.
Confusion about Rek Dinka and Malual Dinka.
Due to it's unique names, Malual Giernyang, Malual bouth
Anyaar and malual Akot tong, Some Dinka group except Dinka groups of lakes state see
Malual Dinka as a separate from Rek Dinka. Another confusion came from the dialect spoken by Malual Dinka and Rek Dinka, the language spoken by Rek Dinka and Malual is the same until recently particularly 2006, when around 1.2 million malual Dinka displaced people returned from western,Eastern and Northern Sudan returned with the dialect spoken very faster because of Arabic influence ,Due to that huge population of returnees, the language changed slightly but not much.
So today malual Dinka talk faster than thier kins in Warrap and western Bahr El ghazal states .
Malual Dinka people aged 50_90 still speak the language spoken by Rek Dinka of Gogrial, Tonj and Wau respectively, while younger generation speaks the modified Rek Dinka language but experts in Dinka language predicted that in coming three decades malual will develop a language not be easily understood by thier Rek kins due to its speedy growing population .
Malual Dinka.
In the middle of 18th century AD, Rek Dinka gave birth to it's new section known as malual _Bouth anyaar, Malual Giernyang or Malual Akot Tong.
Malual Dinka is a pure Rek Dinka and made up of Kuei and lith clans migrated from Rek Dinka lands around 1720 AD, it's believed that Bull malual in color owned by Akot tong from parek /Payii followed buffalo [Anyaar]to the current Aweil areas, this is where Malual Dinka got its name. The areas in which Akot Tong killed bull Malual were areas of Aweil West. Please read the above definition of Rek.
By: Ngor yai
The writer can be reached via [email protected] or +2011416122339
Sources.
Dinka religion by ustaz Lewis Anei madut kuendit.
Dinka history by ustaz Lewis Anei madut kuendit.
Sudan blood memory, the legacy of slavery in southern sudan by staphine beswick
Divinity and experience the region of the Dinka, by Lenard Godfrey, Oxford University Press 1962.
