The Lugbara live in the highlands on an almost treeless plateau that forms the watershed between the Congo River and the Nile. The Madi live in the lowlands to the east. The two groups both speak nearly identical languages and have strong cultural similarities. Both groups raise millet, cassava, sorghum, legumes, and a variety of root crops. Chicken, goats, and, at higher elevations, cattle are also important.
Corn is grown for brewing beer, and tobacco is an important cash crop.
Roughly 10,000 Ugandans of Sudanese descent are classified as Nubians in reference to their origin near the Nuba Mountains in Sudan. They are descendants of Sudanese military recruits who entered Uganda in the late nineteenth century as part of the colonial army employed to quell popular revolts. Their ethnic identities are various, but many spoke Western Nilotic languages similar to that spoken by the Acholi people, their closest relatives in Uganda. Many Nubians also speak a variant of Arabic, and are Muslims. The 1969 census numbered the Asian population in Uganda at about 70,000.