702 



NILOTIC NEGROES 





/ 



From a linguistic point of view these people fall into at least four 

 divisions (not to mention other forms of speech used by Nilotic Negroes 

 to tlic westward of the region under consideration), three of which — the 

 Nilotic (TMnka-Aeholi), the Nandi, and the Masai— axe. distantly related, 



while the fourth — Madi— has little in common 

 with the Nilotic languages, but betrays some- 

 what West African affinities in its phonetics. 

 vocabulary, and grammar, and even offers a 

 very faint, perhaps disputable, resemblance to 

 the Bantu family. The languages spoken by 

 the Dinka, Shiluk, Acholi, Aluru, Lango, and 

 Ja-luo are all closely allied. The sub-group, 

 indeed, of the Acholi (with its dialects of 

 Aluru. Lango, and Ja-luo) is practically one 

 language. According to native tradition, the 

 Acholi section of the Nile peoples swept down 

 on the equatorial sections about the great 

 lakes at no very remote period. It is, per- 

 haps, an open question which came first, the 

 Bantu Negroes from the north-west or the 

 Acholi Nile people from the north. I think, 

 on the whole that the Bantu preceded the 

 Nile Negroes in these regions. Another problem 

 is the relationship between the Nile Negroes 

 and the Nandi and Masai tribes. The Masai 

 group of languages — which comprises the very 

 distinct tongues of Bari. Latuka. Karamojo, 

 Turkana, Siik, Elgumi ("Wamia), and Masai— 

 and the Nandi and a few broken dialects 

 in the north of Ugogo, have an indisputable 

 relationship in vocabulary and numerals with 

 'r Ml . ^ ' i= | the Nilotic tongues. Yet the differences be- 



tween the two stocks are considerable, and the 

 differences, again, between the Bari sub-group, 

 the Karamojo-Siik dialects, the Nandi, and 

 the Masai, are almost equal to the difference 

 between German and Russian. In the Bari we find a people of typical 

 Nilotic physique speaking one of the languages of the Masai group. In 

 the Masai we see a race which is negroid rather than Negro, and offers 

 I nit little resemblance physically to the Nile Negroes, though the Masai 

 Language is remotely related- to Acholi and Dinka. Again, in the Karamojo 

 people we have a race which, according to Dr. Shrubsall, is that of the 



40.^. A DINKA NILE NEGRC 



