Nilotic peoples

File:Maasai tribe.jpg

The Maasai are nilotic

Nilotic is a word that refers to a number of people who speak Nilotic languages. Today they live in Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Most of them are farmers, raising cattle.

Occupation and Lifestyle

They live by farming, fishing, and hunting. They mostly eat milk, grain, and milk products. They don't just kill cows for meat. Instead, they use cows as payment or gifts, and having many cows shows how rich and important someone is. They have many words for cows and spend a lot of time taking care of them. They build big shelters for the cows called kraals. Some people even train their favorite cow and give it a name. Cows are important in their religious ceremonies, where they are offered as gifts or sacrifices to ancestors or spirits.

During the rainy season, they stay in villages that are always there, built above where floods can reach. They grow crops and take care of cows near their strong, round houses. In the dry season, they move to temporary camps with their cows near water and fields. They live in shelters to block the wind and spend their time taking care of cows and fishing.

Physical appearance

Nilotic people are usually thin/skinny and have very dark skin. The Nilotic people in Sudan are among the tallest groups of people.

Nilotic Tribes

• Acholi
• Anywa
• Dinka
• Luo
• Nuer
• Shilluk

Nilotic Peoples Media

• Shanqella.jpg

  Ethiopian painting on cotton cloth depicting a battle between the "Amhara and the Shanqella," British Museum, 1920

• Nilotic languages.png

  Areas where Nilotic languages are spoken

• Ngorongoro, Tanzania - Maasai people.jpg

  Maasai men in Ngorongoro, Tanzania

• Nile Map Sudan.png

  Map of Nile tributaries in modern Sudan

• A group of Shilluk, ca 1860.jpg

  A group of Shilluk in around 1860

• Luo warrior in Kenya, c. 1902

• Mount Elgon-2.jpg

  Mount Elgon, referred by Kalenjin as Tulwop Kony, a common Kalenjin point of origin

• Campamento de ganado de la tribu Mundari, Terekeka, Sudán del Sur, 2024-01-27, DD 27.jpg

  Cattle-herder in South Sudan