The Nilotes are mainly pastoralists, more often leading semi-nomadic life. Their area of origin is the flat land of Sudan and so they are at times referred to as Sudanic peoples. The Maasai who live in the plains of much of north-eastern Tanzania is a well-known group of the Nilotes.

The other big group is the Barabaig who belong to the Tatog cluster of highland Nilotes. The Barabaig occupy the surroundings of Mt. Hanang and are traced to have trekked southwards into Tanzania from Western Kenya well before the Maasai.

The Nilotes are militaristic in attitude and their life is based on age-set organization. Their occupation is cattle rearing and so they mainly live on milk and meat. They socially own their grazing land and this has in the recent days cost them, as cultivators and land developers have taken the advantage of the free, undefined land to establish farms and other projects. In particular, the greatest loss of the Barabaig has been the conversion of the Basotu grazing fields into large wheat farms in the 1970s and 80s by NAFCO, the parastatal concerned with national farms. The Barabaig still regret this loss.

The Nilotes have withheld more of their traditional customs than the numerous Bantu. They are easily noticeable in their unique traditional attire, adornment and facial marks. Their traditional clothing is red, brown or orchred cloak-like tunics called rubega in swahili. The ones for Maasai women are more intact and long, with blue and black colours added to the common red, while the Barabaig women have unique tasseled skin dresses and orchred cloak-like tunics. Indeed the Nilotes are quite discernible in their culture and physical beauty.