ABSTRACT
Geographically, the Nilotes are widely distributed, stretching, with gaps, from about Lat. 12 N. to the North-eastern part of Tanganyika. The original homeland of the Nilotes is a difficult historical problem which, like the homeland of the Bantu, has so far defied any satisfactory solution. But it appears that by about a.d. 1000 the Nilotes were living as a small backward group in the open grass plains of the present eastern Equatoria and the eastern parts of the Bahr el Gahal Province of the Republic of Sudan. Linguistically and culturally the Nilotes may be divided into two groups: the Dinka-Nuer group and the Lwo-speaking group. The history and traditions of the Nilotes tend to confirm this division. The Dinka-Nuer group has moved least from its original homeland, and hence is least diversified culturally and ethnically through contact with non-Nilotic peoples.
