The dancing begins just after sunrise as the thump of a drum splits the cool morning air in the Mangalatore camp in the vast savannah of the southern Sudan, Africa. A bull's horn wails. A swell of song fills the air. Young men run and leap, legs splayed - this is a traditional Dinka dowry dance. During the dance, men try to jump the highest to impress the women and family of the new bride-to-be. This impressive sight is augmented by their very distinctive appearance - The Dinka are very tall and have deep coloured dark skin, narrow square shoulders, almond-shaped eyes piercing below tribal scars on their foreheads. The Dinka are the south's richest and proudest tribe in Africa's largest country. They are split into twenty or more tribal groups which are further divided into sub-tribes, each occupying a tract of land large enough to provide adequate water and pasture for their herds. Still today, the Dinka lifestyle centres on their cattle: the people's roles within the groups, their belief systems and the rituals they practice, all reflect this. Cattle give milk (butter and ghee); urine is used in washing, to dye hair and in tanning hides. Dung fuels fires from which ash is used to keep the cattle clean and free from blood-sucking ticks, to decorate their bodies and as a paste to clean teeth. Skins are used for mats and drum skins, and belts, ropes and halters are also made from it. Horns and bones are used for a range of practical and aesthetic items.