Native inhabitants of the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages are known as the Nilotic peoples. They reside in Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo‘s eastern border region, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, South Sudan, and Sudan.
These include the peoples who speak Burun; Teso; also called Iteso or people of Teso; Karo; Luo; Ateker; Kalenjin; Karamojong; sometimes called the Karamojong or Karimojong; Datooga; Dinka; Nuer; Atwot; Lotuko; And the peoples who speak Maa.
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In South Sudan, where they are thought to have originated, the Nilotes make up the majority of the population. They are the second-most numerous group of people living in the African Great Lakes region around the East African Rift, behind the Bantu peoples. They also constitute a sizable portion of the populace in southwest Ethiopia. There were 7 million nilotic people in the late 20th century.
The majority religions practiced by the Nilotic peoples include Christianity and indigenous faiths like Dinka. Additionally, some Nilotic people follow Islam.
History Of The Nilotes or Nilotic people
By 3000 BC, a proto-Nilotic unity is thought to have split off from an earlier undifferentiated Eastern Sudanic unity.
The domestication of livestock may have contributed to the collective development of the proto-Nilotes. It is likely that the unity of the Eastern Sudanic people occurred much earlier, maybe in the fifth millennium BC. The Upper Paleolithic, around 15,000 years ago, is when the projected Nilo-Saharan unity would have originated.
It is likely that the early Nilotic speakers originally lived in what is now South Sudan, east of the Nile. The proto-Central Sudanic peoples were primarily agriculturalists, in contrast to the pastoralist Proto-Nilotes of the third millennium BC.
Nilotic people practised a mixed economy of cattle pastoralism, fishing, and seed cultivation. Some of the earliest archaeological findings on record, that describe a similar culture to this from the same region, are found at Kadero, 48 m north of Khartoum in Sudan and date to 3000 BC. Kadero contains the remains of a cattle pastoralist culture and a cemetery with skeletal remains featuring sub-Saharan African phenotypes. It also contains evidence of other animal domestication, artistry, long-distance trade, seed cultivation, and fish consumption.
Genetic and linguistic studies have demonstrated that Nubian people in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt are an admixed group that started off as a population closely related to Nilotic people. This population later received significant gene flow from Middle Eastern and other East African populations. Nubians are considered to be descendants of the early inhabitants of the Nile valley who later formed the Kingdom of Kush, which included Kerma and Meroe and the medieval Christian kingdoms of Makuria, Nobatia, and Alodia. These studies suggest that populations closely related to Nilotic people long inhabited the Nile Valley as far as southern Egypt in antiquity.
What is a Nilotic person?
Speaking Nilotic languages, the Nilotic peoples are native inhabitants of the Nile Valley. They live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s eastern border region, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania.
Which tribes are Nilotes?
Nilotic ethnic groups include the Luo, Masai, Turkana, Samburu, and the Kalenjin. The Luo are the second largest ethnic group in Kenya and they live for the most part on the shores of Lake Victoria. The Luo migrated from the Nile region of the Sudan around the 15th century.
What countries are Nilotic people?
Nilotic peoples, who are the native speakers of the languages, originally migrated from the Gezira area in Sudan. Nilotic language speakers live in parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
