Abuk

Gardens and Women (The Dinka and Nuer peoples of South Sudan and Ethiopia)

Pronounced as: “AH-buke”

Abuk is the primal woman of the Dinka, a cultural group residing in modern-day Sudan. She was revered in myth because she took up a hoe and started planting crops when the higher powers wanted humanity to have only one millet of grain per day. Note—they didn’t want this for any particular reason—they just wanted people to obey th…