South Sudan is home to more than 60 ethnic groups speaking different languages, with the Dinka and Nuer being the largest. Both are Nilotic peoples — tall, dark-skinned, cattle-herding pastoralists with ancient traditions and a complex relationship with the land and with each other. The civil war since 2013 has largely followed the fault line between these two groups, though the reality of the conflict is far more tangled than any ethnic summary can capture.
Cattle are the heart of Dinka and Nuer culture in a way that is difficult to explain to outsiders. Cattle are not simply livestock — they represent wealth, social standing, and spiritual connection. They are the currency of bride-wealth, the subject of poetry and song, the reason young men fight. A man may have a personal name but also an ox-name, taken from the color of a favorite animal.
Scarification is practiced by many ethnic groups, particularly among the Dinka and Nuer, as a mark of identity and coming-of-age. The patterns are specific to group and family. For young men, the process is painful and deliberate — a test as much as a decoration.
South Sudan's population has been profoundly disrupted by decades of war. Roughly two million people died in the pre-independence civil war with Sudan. The post-independence conflict since 2013 has killed hundreds of thousands more and displaced millions internally and as refugees. Despite this, visitors consistently remark on the warmth and openness of the people they meet — a resilience that is real, not a tourism cliché.
If you are visiting, be respectful about photography. Ask before pointing a camera at anyone. In some areas, photographing people or government buildings without permission can cause serious problems.