Cultural Symbols

Jok

The supreme god of traditional Lango belief, and the places and objects that carry his name.

Although many Lango today are Christians or Muslims, traditional belief still plays a role in religious life. In traditional Lango thought every person has a guardian spirit and a soul, ancestors are honoured, and there is a supreme god, Jok.

Driberg met his name in everyday things:

  • the two-mouthed ceremonial pot, the dogaryo, is also called agulu jok, “the pot of god”;
  • a bare patch of soil in the grass is a laro jok, “god’s threshing-floor”, and some clans forbid women to walk across one.

Sources: Wikipedia, “Lango people” (CC BY-SA 4.0), reworded; J. H. Driberg, The Lango (1923), pp. 88–89 and 194–199; public domain. Elders are invited to add and correct.

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