Bari is a member of a larger language family known as Nilotic spoken in six African countries, namely: the Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Basing his studies on recorded oral traditions as passed down from one generation to the next and with the help of historical comparative techniques, the author attempts to define who the Bari are, trace their ancestry and their migratory routes using oral tradition, language, religion, values, customs and institutions. George Bureng V. Nyombe is professor of linguistics in the Department of Linguistics and African Languages at the University of Nairobi.