The Dinka people are a group of tribes living along the streams and small rivers in the Upper Nile region of South Sudan and South West Ethiopia. Traditionally nomadic, the Dinka settled in villages after colonization by the British. During the Sudanese civil war, these communities were scattered, and their semi-pastoral way of life was completely disrupted. In a vote held in 2011, the people of South Sudan chose overwhelmingly to secede from the country’s north. Independence was celebrated in July of the same year. The church in South Sudan grew exponentially during the hardship of the civil war, from about 5% of the population identifying themselves as Christians at the beginning to nearly 85% today.