It reaches from Nile to Lake Chad, lying west of the Northern moat portions of the East Africa Cattle Area.It coversthe southern part of the sudanese Republic,The republic of chad and the Northern part pf Central African Republic, while its extreme westerly extension touches on northern Nigeria.It moves from the savannah country of its quasi-agricultural and quasi-herding people,and full bloomomands.This areais heterogeneous.Anthropologist have described the area to be too heterogenous to permit descriptive generalization for the area as a whole.
Camel is aa important as cattle in this area.According to Reid 1930 in the North,it is the ambition of every Arab who has presentation of birth and position to own one or more herds of camel whilst in the South among the Baggara you are not a real gentlemen until you have acquired a nice bunch of cattle.
The main means of livelihood in the Nuba Mountain is agriculture.Animal husbandry and hunting though well organized and common everywhere,play only a secondary part.Handicrafts are of little importance more of especially, blacksmith work, weaving and wood carving are mostly of recent origin and limited to afew individuals in the ethnic groups which adopted these craftfrom their more advanced neighbouring Arabs.Livestock are used to repay kinship obligations,for bride wealth payments and for slaughtering at special ceremonies as well as a means by which individuals attain a higher status.
Among the Nuer people of southern Sudan,the groom must pay between 20 and 40 cattle amd the marriage is completed only after the wife has given birth to two children.If the wife only bears one child and the husband asks for a divorce,he can also for either the return of the cattle or the first child.divorce therefore is very difficult in this Area.Another interesting fact is that,if the husband dies,then the husband's family must provide a brother to the widow and any child born to the brother are considered the deceased's children.
