Culture

Peoples of Sudan

Sudan is home to several hundred ethnic groups and sub-clans, speaking well over a hundred languages and dialects. This is a growing, sourced starting set of major, well-documented peoples — not a complete record. Each entry links to where its facts came from.

Southern Darfur and southern Kordofan, extending into Chad

Baggara

Also: Baqqara; "cattle Arabs"

"Baggara" (cattle-herders) describes a group of related Arabic-speaking tribes — including the Rizeigat, Messiria, Habbaniya, Ta'isha and Hawazma — who settled …

Red Sea Hills and Eastern Desert, eastern Sudan

Beja

Also: Bedawi; Bidhaawyeet speakers

A Cushitic-speaking people of the Red Sea Hills, traditionally organized into four main divisions — the Hadendowa, Amarar, Bisharin and Beni Amer. Though they a…

Blue Nile region and formerly Sennar, central Sudan

Funj

The Funj founded one of Sudan's most significant precolonial states: in 1504 the leader Amara Dunqas established the Sultanate of Sennar — also called the Funj …

Jebel Marra and the Darfur region, western Sudan

Fur

The people after whom Darfur ("land of the Fur") is named, traditionally centred on the mountainous Jebel Marra massif. The Fur built a sultanate that, by the l…

Nile valley between Khartoum and Shendi, northern Sudan

Ja'alin

Also: Ja'aliyin; Ja'al

The Ja'alin trace their descent to an Abbasid ancestor, Ibrahim Ja'al, and are counted among the three major Nile Arab tribes of northern Sudan. Oral tradition …

Dar Masalit, around Geneina, West Darfur

Masalit

The Masalit are centred on Dar Masalit in far western Darfur, with Geneina as their traditional capital. Before the 1870s they were divided among regional power…

Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan

Nuba peoples

Also: Jibal Nuba

Not one people but around fifty distinct groups sharing the hill country of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, each with its own language and traditions — so…

Nile Valley, far northern Sudan and southern Egypt

Nubians

Also: Nile Nubians — distinct from the unrelated Nuba Mountains peoples

One of Sudan's oldest documented peoples, native to the Nile valley stretching from southern Egypt to northern Sudan. The main riverine groups include the Kenzi…

Nile valley around Dongola and Merowe, northern Sudan

Shaigiya

Also: Shaiqiya; Shawayga

An Arabic-speaking riverine people of likely Nubian origin, the Shaigiya were subjects of the Funj Sultanate before breaking away around 1690 to rule their own …

Northern Darfur, Sudan, extending into eastern Chad

Zaghawa

Also: Beri (self-name)

Known to themselves as the Beri, the Zaghawa are a historically nomadic and trading people whose homeland straddles the Sudan–Chad border in northern Darfur. Ea…