Shilluk people

Shilluk

Cøllø
Two Shilluk men, photographed 1936 near Malakal, South Sudan
Total population
500,000-700,000[citation needed]
Languages
Shilluk, English
Religion
Christianity African traditional religion
Related ethnic groups
Other Luo peoples, other Nilotic peoples

The Shilluk (Shilluk: Chollo) is a major Luo Nilotic ethnic group that resides in the northeastern Upper Nile state of South Sudan on both banks of the Nile River in Malakal. Before the Second Sudanese Civil War, the Shilluk also lived in settlements on the northern bank of the Sobat River, close to where the Sobat joins the Nile.

The Shilluk are the third-largest ethnic group of southern Sudan, after the Dinka and Nuer.

Their language is called Dhøg Cøllø, dhøg being the Shilluk word for language and mouth. It belongs to the Luo branch of the Western Nilotic subfamily of the Nilotic languages.