ABSTRACT
Many centuries ago, perhaps before the birth of Christ, a Negroid people entered the Nile Valley from the west, probably bringing with them the Sudanic agricultural complex. West of the Nilotes of the Baḥr al-Ghazāl live the Njangulgule and the Shatt who speak a language of the Eastern Sudanic subfamily but not of the Nilotic branch. The Kreish and the Bongo of the Baḥr alGhazāl and the Moru-Madi group in Equatoria all speak Central Sudanic languages. The first of the Azande waves probably reached the Mbomu River sometime in the sixteenth century and were followed by yet other waves of Azande migrants moving eastwards. "Chinese" Gharles George Gordon came to Africa in 1873 after a brilliant career in China followed by a period of withdrawal from the limelight to build forts at Gravesend and to meditate on God and man. The Mahdist revolt officially began on June 29, 1881, when Muḥammad Aḥmad declared himself to be the Mahdī.
