Old Large Dinka Pendant – “Orphan Money” – South Sudan

Copper and zinc alloy. Cm. 17,7 high (6.97 Inches); grams 106,8 (3.77 oz.).

These large copper pendants have a raised vertical section at the center, while the outer edge is embellished with a decoration created with a series of raised hemispheres.

They were objects of social status: they were apparently worn around the neck as a distinctive sign of young people who had lost their parents. They are known among the Dinka as “orphan money” (The Perfect Form, by Roberto Ballarini, page 205).

The Dinka people are a Nilotic ethnic group native to South Sudan, but also having a sizable diaspora population. They mostly live along the Nile. They mainly live on traditional agriculture and pastoralism, relying on cattle husbandry as a cultural pride, not for commercial profit or for meat, but cultural demonstrations, rituals, marriage dowries and milk feedings for all ages.

m25