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The Nilotic people are people indigenous to South Sudan and the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan and the Gambela Region of Ethiopia, while also being a large minority in Kenya, Uganda, the northern area of Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania. The Nilotic people consist of the Dinka, the Nuer people, the Shilluk people, the Luo peoples, the Alur people, the Anuak people, the Ateker peoples, the Kalenjin people and the Karamojong people also known as the Karamojong or Karimojong, Ngasa people, Datooga people, Dinka people, and the Maa languages.
The Nilotes constitute the majority of the population in South Sudan while constituting a substantial minority in the countries of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. They make up a notable part of the population of North eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as well. Nilotic people are believed to number 50 million in the 21st century.
Physically, Nilotes are noted for their typically very dark skin color and lean, and occasionally tall bodies. They often possess exceptionally long limbs, particularly their distal segments (forearms, lower legs). (1991). 9780191544484, Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780191544484
The Nilotic people primarily adhere to Christianity and traditional beliefs, with the majority of them being Christians. A small minority of Nilotes practice the religion of Islam.
Nilotic and Nilote are now mainly used to refer to the various disparate people who speak languages in the same Nilotic language family. Etymologically, the terms Nilotic and Nilote (singular nilot) derive from the Nile Valley; specifically, the Upper Nile and its tributaries, where most Sudanese Nilo-Saharan-speaking people live.
Nilotic people in Uganda includes the Luo peoples (Acholi people, Alur people, Adhola people), the Ateker peoples (Teso people, Kumam people, Karamojong, Lango people who despite speaking a mixture of Luo words, have Atekere origins, Sebei people, and Kakwa people).
In East Africa, the Nilotes are often subdivided into three general groups:
Composed of varied distinct identities, they were commonly collectively referred to as the Nehesy (southerners) by the ancient Egyptians, by the Greeks and Cushi (Cushites or Kushites) by the Israelites, a term that possibly derived from their own name for themselves.
These communities likely contributed to the development of major civilizations such as the Kingdom of Kush—including Kerma, Napata, and Meroë—and the later Christian kingdoms of Makuria, Nobatia, and Alodia. Genetic and archaeological studies indicate that Nubians were originally a population closely related to Nilotic groups, who later received gene flow from Middle Eastern and East African populations. One of the earliest known archaeological sites associated with a pastoralist culture bearing Nilotic characteristics is Kadero, located about 48 km north of modern Khartoum, on the east bank of the Nile just upstream from the confluence with the Blue Nile. Dating to around 3000 BCE, Kadero reveals a cattle-herding society that also practiced seed cultivation and fishing. The site contains burial remains with distinct sub-Saharan African features and evidence of long-distance trade, artistry, and mixed subsistence strategies—an economic pattern still observed among later Nilotic groups.
The Nilotic migrations gained momentum in the 11th century, coinciding with the arrival of Arab traders in central Sudan. Although these later migrations significantly predate the collapse of the Christian Nubian kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia (around 1500 CE), they occur after early contact with Arabs (c.9-10 century), a contact that may have introduced new cultural and technological elements, such as humpless cattle breeds.
According to archaeologist Roland Oliver, this same period also marks the emergence of the Iron Age among Nilotic groups. The combination of declining older polities, incoming lifeways and technologies, and internal cultural developments may have created the conditions that allowed or perhaps forced Nilotic-speaking peoples to expand and adapt to regions further south.
Genetic studies of ancient remains from Kenya and Tanzania show that Pastoral Iron Age communities were distinct from their earlier Elmenteitan predecessors. The latter were composed of approximately 40% Nilotic-related ancestry (similar to the Dinka), 40% ancestry from northeastern Africa (likely from the Horn or Levant), and 20% from indigenous foragers. By contrast, Pastoral Iron Age individuals show up to 60% Nilotic-related ancestry, indicating a renewed demographic and cultural expansion by Nilotic-speaking groups during this period.
These developments are reflected archaeologically in the rise of the Sirikwa culture, a widespread agropastoral tradition centered on the Uasin Gishu plateau and surrounding western highlands. The Sirikwa economy emphasized dairying and seasonal herd mobility, supported by fortified settlements featuring distinctive cattle enclosures ("Sirikwa holes"), defensive gate systems, and irrigation features—pointing to a highly organized and sedentary pastoral society.
One theory is that pressure from the Cøllø drove the Funj people north, who would establish the Sultanate of Sennar. The Dinka remained in the Sudd area, maintaining their transhumance economy.
While the Dinka were protected and isolated from their neighbours, the Cøllø were more involved in international affairs. The Cøllø controlled the west bank of the White Nile, but the other side was controlled by the Funj sultanate, with regular conflict between the two. The Cøllø had the ability to quickly raid outside areas by war canoe, and had control of the waters of the Nile. The Funj had a standing army of armoured cavalry, and this force allowed them to dominate the plains of the sahel.
Cøllø traditions tell of Rädh Odak Ocollo who ruled around 1630 and led them in a three-decade war with Sennar over control of the White Nile trade routes. The Cøllø allied with the Sultanate of Darfur and the Kingdom of Takali against the Funj, but the capitulation of Takali ended the war in the Funj's favour. In the later 17th century, the Cøllø and Funj allied against the Dinka, who rose to power in the border area between the Funj and Cøllø.
The Cøllø political structure gradually centralized under the a king or reth. The most important is Rädh Tugø (son of Rädh Dhøköödhø) who ruled from circa 1690 to 1710 and established the Cøllø capital of Fashoda. The same period had the gradual collapse of the Funj sultanate, leaving the Cøllø in complete control of the White Nile and its trade routes. The Cøllø military power was based on control of the river.
Geographical barriers protected the southerners from Islam's advance, enabling them to retain their social and cultural heritage and their political and religious institutions. The Dinka people were especially secure in the Sudd marshlands, which protected them from outside interference, and allowed them to remain secure without a large armed forces. The Shilluk, Azande, and Bari people had more regular conflicts with neighbouring states.
Oral history and genealogical evidence have been used to estimate timelines of Luo expansion into and within Kenya and Tanzania. Four major waves of migrations into the former Nyanza province in Kenya are discernible starting with the people of Jok ( Joka Jok), which is estimated to have begun around 1490–1517.
Joka Jok were the first and largest wave of migrants into northern Nyanza. These migrants settled at a place called Ramogi Hill, then expanded around northern Nyanza. The people of Owiny' ( Jok'Owiny) and the people of Omolo ( Jok'Omolo) followed soon after (1598–1625).
A miscellaneous group composed of the Suba, Sakwa, Asembo, Uyoma, and Kano then followed. The Suba originally were Bantu-speaking people who assimilated into Luo culture. They fled from the Buganda Kingdom in Uganda after the civil strife that followed the murder of the 24th Kabaka of Buganda in the mid-18th century and settled in South Nyanza, especially at Rusinga Island and Mfangano Island islands. Luo speakers crossed Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria from northern Nyanza into South Nyanza starting in the early 17th century.
Many ethnic groups that had already formed settlements in the region were forcibly displaced by the incoming Maasai. Other, mainly Southern Cushitic groups, were assimilated into Maasai society. The Nilotic ancestors of the Kalenjin likewise absorbed some early Cushitic populations.
The Maasai territory reached its largest size in the mid-19th century and covered almost all of the Great Rift Valley and adjacent lands from Mount Marsabit in the north to Dodoma in the south. At this time the Maasai, as well as the larger Nilotic group they were part of, raised cattle as far east as the Tanga Region in Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania). Raiders used spears and shields but were most feared for throwing clubs (orinka) which could be accurately thrown from up to 70 paces (approx. 100 metres). In 1852, there was a report of a concentration of 800 Maasai warriors on the move in what is now Kenya. In 1857, after having depopulated the "Wakuafi wilderness" in what is now southeastern Kenya, Maasai warriors threatened Mombasa on the Kenyan coast.
Because of this migration, the Maasai are the southernmost Nilotic speakers.
The significance of tracing individual clan histories in order to get an idea of Kalenjin groups formation has been shown by scholars such as B.E. Kipkorir (1978). He argued that the Tugen first settled in small clan groups, fleeing from war, famine, and disease, and that they arrived from western, eastern, and northern sections. Even a section among the Tugen claims to have come from Mount Kenya.
The Nandi account on the settlement of Nandi displays a similar manner of occupation of the Nandi territory. The Kalenjin clans who moved into and occupied the Nandi area, thus becoming the Nandi tribe, came from a wide array of Kalenjin-speaking areas.
Apparently, spatial core areas existed to which people moved and concentrated over the centuries, and in the process evolved into the individual Kalenjin communities known today by adopting migrants and assimilating original inhabitants.
Several early ethnographic accounts from the various Kalenjin sub tribes point to Tulwetab/Tulwop Kony (Mount Elgon) as their original point of settlement in Kenya. This point of origin appears as a central theme in most narratives recorded after the colonial period. One of the more famous accounts states:
... The Kalenjin originated from a country in the north known as Emet ab Burgei, which means, the warm country. The people are said to have traveled southwards passing through Mount Elgon or Tulwet ab Kony in Kalenjin. The Sabaot people settled around the slopes of the mountain while the others travelled on in search of better land. The Keiyo people and Marakwet people settled in Kerio Valley and Cherangani Hills. The Pokot people settled on the northern side of Mount Elgon and later spread to areas north of Lake Baringo. At Lake Baringo, the Tugen people separated from the Nandi and the Kipsigis. This was during a famine known as Kemeutab Reresik, which means, famine of the bats. It is said that during this famine a bat brought blades of green grass which was taken as a sign of good omen signifying that famine could be averted through movement to greener pastures. The Tugen moved and settled around Tugen Hills while the Kipsigis and the Lembus Nandi people moved to Rongai area. The Kipsigis people and Nandi people are said to have lived as a united group for a long time but eventually were forced to separate due to antagonistic environmental factors. Some of these were droughts and invasion of the Maasai people from Uasin Gishu.
While political centralization varies, leadership is often distributed among councils of elders, ritual specialists, and in some cases, divine or semi-divine kings (e.g., among the Shilluk). Kinship ties remain crucial, and exogamous marriage practices reinforce alliances between clans or sections.
The deep historical roots of Nilotic agriculture may extend much further back than commonly assumed. In one particularly evocative passage, Pliny the Elder (Naturalis Historia, ca. 77 CE) describes a people who "imbibe their drink through the stalk of the oat, which grows spontaneously and supplies them with its grain for food." This likely reflects a rudimentary form of wild grain exploitation or proto-cultivation—potentially one of the earliest Greco-Roman observations of forager-cultivators in eastern Sudan or South Sudan. While Nilotic traditions consistently emphasize sorghum as their ancestral grain, Pliny, unfamiliar with African cereals, likened it to the oat. His description—of a self-growing stalk used for both food and drink—closely matches sorghum, whose domestication and cultural significance are deeply rooted in Nilotic societies.
The Dinka (Jieng) of South Sudan are widely known for their cattle-centric culture, yet agriculture plays a significant, and often underappreciated, role in their livelihood. Sorghum is the staple crop, traditionally grown in family plots surrounding the homestead. Other crops include okra, sesame, pumpkin, cow peas, maize, cassava, groundnuts, beans, watermelons, millet, and tobacco. Both men and women engage in cultivation, with women often responsible for brewing sorghum beer and managing large gardens.
Among groups like the Jie of northeastern Uganda, sorghum is considered an ancient crop of divine origin. Elders maintain that "God created sorghum and cattle on the same day," underscoring its foundational role in Jie cosmology. Although other crops—such as maize, sim-sim (sesame), groundnuts, and sweet potatoes—are often regarded as more recent introductions (frequently attributed to contact with Lwo-speaking neighbors), they are cultivated to varying degrees, particularly by women. Scholars such as Gulliver and Dyson-Hudson have demonstrated that while agriculture and livestock are economically complementary, cattle dominate the ritual and sociopolitical spheres, which are traditionally controlled by men.
This pattern holds across other Nilotic groups. Evans-Pritchard, in his seminal ethnography of the Nuer, noted that "cattle are the thread that runs through Nuer institutions, language, rites of passage, politics, economy, and allegiances," yet he also documented their cultivation of millet and other crops during lean times.
The Kalenjin, a Southern Nilotic group of the Kenyan highlands, also practice a semi-pastoral lifestyle, with both livestock herding and agriculture playing central roles. Their body of folklore contains within it the narrative of how they discovered sorghum grain cultivation. Today they are noted for being among the largest grain producers in the country.
This dual economy is often gendered: men primarily manage cattle, which confer prestige, political status, and ritual authority, while women tend to the fields, ensuring food security for the household. The cultural primacy of cattle, however, has historically shaped external perceptions, often obscuring the agricultural dimension of Nilotic life.
The Dinka has a pantheon of deities includes a Supreme, Creator God, Nhialic, who is the God of the sky and rain, and the ruler of all the spirits. He is believed to be present in all of creation, and to control the destiny of every human, plant, and animal on Earth. Nhialic is also known as Jaak, Juong, or Dyokin by other Nilotic groups, such as the Nuer and Shilluk. Dengdit or Deng, is the sky God of rain and fertility, empowered by Nhialic.
Deng's mother is Abuk, the patron goddess of gardening and all women, represented by a snake. Garang, another deity, is believed or assumed by some Dinka to be a god suppressed by Deng. His spirits can cause most Dinka women, and some men, to scream. The term Jok refers to a group of ancestral spirits.
In the Lotuko mythology, the chief God is called Ajok. He is generally seen as kind and benevolent, but can be angered. He once reportedly answered a woman's prayer for the resurrection of her son. Her husband, however, was angry and killed the child. According to the Lotuko religion, Ajok was annoyed by the man's actions and swore never to resurrect any Lotuko again. As a result, death was said to have become permanent.
Ritual specialists, including prophets, diviners, and rainmakers, mediate between the community and the spiritual realm. Ceremonies mark key transitions in life—birth, initiation, marriage, and death—and often involve songs, dance, animal sacrifice, and invocation of ancestral spirits.
Christianity and Islam have had a significant impact on many Nilotic communities since the 19th century, leading to religious pluralism and hybrid practices in contemporary settings.
Artistic expression is visible in body adornment, scarification, beadwork, and wood carving. Dance and music are central to communal life, with drums, horns, and vocal polyphony featuring prominently in ceremonies.
Through lengthy interaction with neighbouring peoples, the Nilotes in East Africa have adopted many customs and practices from Southern Cushitic groups. The latter include the age set system of social organization and also the practice of circumcision as a form of initiation.
Haplogroup B is another characteristically Nilotic paternal marker. It was found in 22% of Luo samples, 8% of Maasai, and 50% of Nuer peoples. The E1b1b haplogroup has been observed at overall frequencies around 11% among Nilo-Saharan-speaking groups in the Great Lakes area, with this influence concentrated among the Maasai (50%). This is indicative of substantial historic gene flow from Cushitic-speaking males into these Nilo-Saharan-speaking populations. 67% of the Alur samples possessed the E2 haplogroup.
The Y-DNA of populations in the Sudan region were studied, with various local Nilotic groups included for comparison. The signature Nilotic A and B clades were the most common paternal lineages amongst the Nilo-Saharan speakers, except those inhabiting Darfur. There, a prominent North African influence was noted.
Haplogroup A was observed amongst 62% of Dinka, 53.3% of Shilluk, 46.4% of Nuba, 33.3% of Nuer, 31.3% of Fur people, and 18.8% of Masalit people. Haplogroup B was found in 50% of Nuer, 26.7% of Shilluk, 23% of Dinka, 14.3% of Nuba, 3.1% of Fur, and 3.1% of Masalit. The E1b1b clade was also observed in 71.9% of the Masalit, 59.4% of the Fur, 39.3% of the Nuba, 20% of the Shilluk, 16.7% of the Nuer, and 15% of the Dinka. Balemi (2018) found that a sample of 50 Nuer carried e1b1b-M78 (32%), A-M13 (28%), B-M60 (24%) and F-M89 (4%).
Solomon Balemi (2018) Genetic Study of LCT- Enhancer, Y chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Variation in Some Ethnic Groups in Ethiopia.
The atypically high frequencies of the haplogroup in the Masalit was attributed to either a recent population bottleneck, which likely altered the community's original haplogroup diversity, or to geographical proximity to E1b1b's place of origin in North Africa. The clade "might have been brought to Sudan ... after the progressive desertification of the Sahara around 6,000–8,000 years ago". Similarly, Afro-Asiatic influence was seen in the Nilotic Datog of northern Tanzania, 43% of whom carried the M293 subclade of E1b1b.
Overall, Nilotic people and other Nilo-Saharan groups are closely related to Afro-Asiatic speakers of North and East Africa. Both groups are inferred to have diverged from a common ancestor around 16,000 years ago. Nilotic people and other Nilo-Saharan groups are also closely related to Niger-Congo speakers of West and Central Africa. Both groups are inferred to have diverged from a common ancestor around 28,000 years ago, perhaps somewhere in the Sahel. Most Nilotic peoples have predominant to exclusive West/East African ancestry, although some groups display varying degrees of West-Eurasian admixture, mostly mediated indirectly through pastoralists from the Horn of Africa.
In terms of facial features, the nasal profile most common amongst Nilotic populations is broad, with characteristically high index values ranging from 86.9 to 92.0. Lower nasal indices are often found amongst Nilotes who inhabit the more southerly Great Lakes region, such as the Maasai, which is attributed to genetic differences.
Additionally, the Nilotic groups presently inhabiting the African Great Lakes region are sometimes smaller in stature than those residing in the Sudan region. Measurements of and were found in a sample of agricultural Turkana in northern Kenya, and of and in pastoral Turkana. A height of was seen for Maasai in southern Kenya, with an extreme trunk/leg length ratio of 47.7.
Many Nilotic groups excel in long- and middle-distance running. This sporting prowess may be related to their exceptional running economy, a function of slim body morphology and very long, slender legs (particularly lower legs, i.e., calf muscles and ankles.). For 404 elite Kenyan distance runners, 76% of the international-class respondents identified as part of the Kalenjin people ethnic group and 79% spoke a Nilotic language.
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