Juok

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Juok is the name of god for the tribes on the upper reaches of the Nile. For some including the Shilluk, Dinka and Nuer, he is the Creator God and is omnipresent. Nyikang, a legendary king, is often invoked as an intermediary. Other Nilotic tribes, for example the Acholi and Lango, use the possibly related term Jok only for local and/or ancestral spirits.^[1]

Description[]

The creator Juok moulded all people of earth. While he was engaged in the work of creation, he wandered about the world. In the land of the whites he found a pure white earth or sand, and out of it he shaped white people. Then he came to the land of Egypt and out of the mud of the Nile he made red or brown people. Lastly, he came to the land of the Shilluks, and finding there black earth he created black people out of it.

The way in which he modeled human beings was this. He took a lump of earth and said to himself, "I will make humans, but they must be able to walk and run and go out into the fields, so I will give each of them two long legs, like the flamingo." Having done so, he thought again, "They must be able to cultivate millet, so I will give each of them two arms, one to hold the hoe, and the other to tear up the weeds." So he gave humans two arms. Then he thought again, "They must be able to see the millet, so I will give them two eyes." He did so accordingly. Next he thought to himself, "They must be able to eat their millet, so I will give each a mouth." And a mouth he gave accordingly. After that he thought within himself, "They must be able to dance and speak and sing and shout, and for these purposes they must have tongues." And tongues he gave accordingly. Lastly the Deity said to himself, "They must be able to hear the noise of the dance and the speech of the great ones, and for that they need two ears." So two ears each he gave, and sent them out into the world as perfect humans.".^[1]

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