This first ever ethnographic survey of the Ma’d i people presents in a coherent form, and from within rather than from a distance, the customs,rituals and practices of the Ma‘d i people. The Ma’d i, with a population of about 390,000 occupy the southernmost part of South Sudan and the northern tip of Uganda. This study strives to deepen the explanatory range of Ma’d i culture and deepen its interpretive powers by exploring the hunting and land purification rites, the fading worlds of land priests and rainmakers, the enduring indigenous Ma’d i religious belief systems, the holistic approach to traditional medicine and education, the functional role of folklore and children’s games, the appraisal of heart throbbing traditional and contemporary songs and dances, the rituals associated with naming, birthing, marriage and burial. The articles are explicitly and implicitly linked together by an elastic thread of sustainability and the notion that – that which sustains us – Vu, or Mother Earth, must itself be sustained. Thus, while the article on courtship celebrates the continuity role of procreation, the essay on hunting rituals and practices celebrates the physical and spiritual modes of sustaining the community. If the article on poisoning warns of the dangers lurking at the next turn, the pottery and folklore articles attempt to re-establish the link between the community and its past.