Dinka Sparring Shield

The Dinka are a large ethnic group with numerous clans and subgroups with sometimes complex relationships between them.  To settle disputes, to defend oneself and one’s cattle, the Dinka carried kuerr, poles of varying lengths and design with a protective cup halfway up the shaft to protect the supporting hand. Kuerr often have a narrow gutter running up the inner face which assisted in securing a spear or smaller club supported in the same hand. Being pastoralists rather than hunters, the Dinka did not use bows and arrows. Instead, they typically armed themselves with a brace of clubs and lances of which the kuerr was the most distinctively Dinka. For much of their history, Dinka adversaries were mostly other Dinka and similarly armed pastoralists of other ethnic groups plus lions, leopards and hyenas.  Combat would have been universally on foot and at close quarters where sparring shields would have been effective in both delivering and defending against paws, clubs, teeth and spears. For larger engagements the Dinka also had broad, all concealing hide shields.

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