Rek Dinka women's dance
59 x 55 mm | Negative film nitrate
Date of Print:
Unknown
Accession Number:
2005.51.175
Description:
A group of Rek Dinka women perfoming a dance in the centre of a homestead in the central Rek (Apuk Patuan) village of Lony Aker.
This dance, an image of which is published in Lienhardt's monograph, was connected with the arrival of a prophet in the form of a 'creator-goat' (nyong acic) in the homestead of an important elder, a master of the fishing-spear.
Photographer:
Godfrey Lienhardt
Date of Photo:
1947 - 1951
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Warab Lony Aker
Group:
Dinka Rek Apuk
PRM Source:
Estate of Ronald Godfrey Lienhardt, via Ahmed al-Shahi (literary executor)
Acquired:
Donated 2005
Other Owners:
Godfrey Lienhardt Collection
Class:
Religion , Dance , Clothing Skin
Keyword:
[Animal Goat]
Activity:
Dancing , Ritual Activity
Event:
Dance , Ceremony
Other Information:
Another image of this dance is published as Plate III (facing page 48) in Godfrey Lienhardt's Divinity and Experience: the Religion of the Dinka (OUP 1961), where the following description is given: '...a black goat, which appeared one day in spring, when the crops were a few inches high, in the central Rek (Apuk Patuan) village of Lony Aker.
I was told that a creator, or prophet (aciek), or creator-goat (nyong aciek), had arrived in the village, and I went to visit it where it was staying at the home stead of an important elder, a master of the fishing-spear.
A small party, mostly composed of women and girls, was in progress there, and they were dancing the women's dance and making the high-pitched quavering cries which mark the celebrations of women.
In the centre of the homestead were several bowls of flour and grain, and a little germinating grain laid out for future beer-making.
The 'prophet' was in a hut given to it for its stay...' [CM 22/7/2005]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 21/7/2005 [Southern Sudan Project]
