Shilluk people

The Shilluk (Collo), Luo Nilotes of South Sudan's Upper Nile, farm and fish the White Nile's western bank, third nation of the young republic after Dinka and Nuer. They speak Dhok Collo and hold Africa's most theatrical kingship: the reth, divine king, embodies the hero Nyikang, and village regiments serve in rotation at the royal capital Fashoda. Cattle, dura sorghum and river fish feed dense riverside villages; age-sets and rain priests order the year. Slave raids of the Turco-Egyptian era and the Mahdist wars bloodied the kingdom, and British rule shrank it to a chiefdom; Sudan's civil wars then drowned it twice over. Dinka and Nuer neighbours share the Upper Nile fisheries. White Nile floods still set the Shilluk farming year. Dhok Collo radio still reads the news on market days. Upper Nile state counts the Shilluk third after two greater nations. Malakal markets, Fashoda rites and the Nyikang songs keep the riverside kingdom remembering itself.