[1][2][3] Among the Nuer, Deng is considered to be "a foreign deity" and "a bringer of disease".
In Dinka religion, he is a storm and fertility god bringing lightning, rain, and thunder.
[1] Among his followers, Deng is regarded as the intermediary between humans and the supreme being.
In some areas of Dinka country, Deng and Nhialic are "regarded as one and the same".
[3] He was an important sky god, to some clans an ancestor and creator god of the Dinka people, and he manifested himself in the fertilizing water that fell from the heavens.