In his books Peace Child and Eternity in Their Hearts , missionary writer Don Richardson proposed that God has placed within every culture certain concepts that find their fulfillment only in the gospel. As I have studied several scholarly works on the Dinka people of Sudan, it has become obvious to me that the Dinka culture displays many such bridges to the gospel. The Dinka people live in an area in south central Sudan along the White Nile River and its tributaries, from Renk in the north to Bor in the south and from Bor in the east to Awefl in the west. There are at least 2 million speakers of the Dinka language.
Cattle are integral to the Dinka way of life.
Cattle provide them with much of their worldly goods. The Dinka believe that cattle protect them from evil forces such as illness and death. The possession of cattle guarantees the continuation of the tribe through bride wealth payment. Cattle are also paid in compensation for wrongs. Even the grammatical structure of Dinka language reflects the importance of cattle.