Their economy is based on subsistence mixed farming; their domestic livestock (small and large) are mainly raised for supplementing food, but mostly as a socio-economic and financial investment.

Notably, livestock are exchanged as gifts in marriages, and other social functions or sacrificed in celebrations, and funerals; and whenever the need arises they are sold for cash.

Generally, the Bari have co-existed well with the neighboring ethnic groups but have had to pick up arms to defend their land against slave traders and plundering warriors.

There is documentation of Bari resistance against invasion by Dinka, Azande (Zande), and numerous encounters with Turkish slave traders.

The girls, in addition got scarifications: around the belly area, the flank, the back, and the face (on the temple) in the form of arrow shapes, or simple flowers.

Along the banks of the Nile, in the heart of the Bari land, lies the historical villages of Mongalla, Lado, Gondokoro (Kondokoro), and Rejaf (Rageef).

The lui were the chiefs and the fathers of the land (soil) while the lower caste, dupi, were people captured during a war from other tribes.

Diodours Siculus (1st century AD) mentions the Megabari as part of the Trogodytes and says they use round shield and clubs with iron knobs.

Oral history recounts that when they arrived in their present homeland from the north they found a group, the Pari people, there, and drove them away.

And for a decade the Bari freely sold ivory tusks and other artefacts to the traders without intimidation, and no incidents of slavery were reported by that point.

Subsequent to this the Bari became defensive and less friendly, and the traders (mostly Arabs, and Turks) resorted to violent means to procure ivory tusks, but also started taking people (young men and women) as slaves.

When the Turks army returned, taking a huge number of captured people to Gondokoro to be shipped to Khartoum, they beheaded Gubek and his son, 'Doggale.

in the region, indicate that in the market of Cairo (Egypt), the number of slaves to be sold to Europe from the White Nile area increased from 6,000 between 1858 and 1862, to approximately 12,000-15,000 per annum.

Bari folklore tells us of how long ago the land flanking the Nile was full of strings of villages spread out to the horizon, as far as the eye could see.

On our return to the station, I took a snider [rifle], and practically explained to the rascals in the village on the knoll what long range meant, sending several bullets into the midst of a crowd that scattered them like chaff.

The large village, about 700 yards distant, which I had raked with the fire of a few sniders, while Abd-el-Kader descended the slope to the attack, was soon a mass of rolling flames.

In an hour's time volumes of smoke were raising in various directions.Ever since then, recovery has been difficult, considering also the fact that the civil wars in 1955-1973 and 1983-2005 have further taken their toll on the Bari.

After a period of courtship, the male suitor usually declares his intent to marry (nyara in Bari) by presenting himself at the house of the girl's parents, accompanied by a few close relatives and friends.

When the use of animals is too difficult, such as in the case of drought or natural disaster, bride prices in the form of cash may also be acceptable.

Behaviors considered disrespectful may increase the bride price during negotiations (though it is also possible for civil courts to get involved); these can include premarital sex, eloping, and aggression towards in-laws.

While the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) declaration opened the door for adaptation of some African traditional practices into the church, this has not yet led to the formation of a single wedding ceremony for Bari Christians.

[9] When the Bari visited members of another tribe, there would be a ceremony that took place that involved singing and chanting and swinging back and forth on hammocks.