The Kara are a Nilotic

Nilotic

Nilotic people or Nilotes, in its contemporary usage, refers to some ethnic groups mainly in South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and northern Tanzania, who speak Nilotic languages, a large sub-group of the Nilo-Saharan languages...

 ethnic group inhabiting South Sudan

South Sudan

South Sudan , officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country located in the Sahel region of northeastern Africa. It is also part of the North Africa UN sub-region. Its current capital is Juba, which is also its largest city; the capital city is planned to be moved to the more...

. They speak the Gula language

Tar Gula language

The Gula language, or Tar Gula, of the Central African Republic, commonly known as Kara, is a Central Sudanic language or dialect cluster...

, which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan

Nilo-Saharan languages

The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers , including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of Nile meet...

 language family.

The Kara practice animism

Animism

Animism refers to the belief that non-human entities are spiritual beings, or at least embody some kind of life-principle....

 and shamanism

Shamanism

Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...

. As a population, they exceed 100,000 members. They mainly live in South Sudan's Western Bahr el Ghazal state.

Daily life

The Kara are a semi nomadic people. They live in round huts made up of a framework of tree branches plastered with mud and the conical roof thatched with local grasses. A typical Kara village has 20 to 30 huts around a meeting place and also enclosures of branches to keep cattle and goats. The Kara tribe grow Sorghum,corn, beans, pumpkins and peanuts. The staples are Sorghum, made into a porridge either with milk or water, the latter eaten with a spicy stew of vegetables, and milk, meat and blood. Meat is eaten on special occasions and milk and blood are drunk freely. Sorghum is also fermented to make beer. Men wear only a piece of cloth wound around the waist, knee high with a extra cloth slung over the shoulder, men always shave their head while women plait their hair into many braids and decorate them with beads. Women wear only a pleated cowskin skirt. Both sexes wear jewellery.