In the present era, Fertit is a catch-all word for non-Dinka, non-Arab, non-Luo, non-Fur groups and tribes in Western Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan.
[1] Even though these groups often speak different languages and have a history of inter-tribal violence, they have become more unified over time, mostly out of opposition to the Dinka people.
[clarification needed] After that time, Egypt, then a domain of the Ottoman Empire, steadily expanded up the White Nile and then westwards, eventually annexing the region in 1873.
The Fertit also live in the northwestern part of Western Equatoria and in the northwesternmost corner of Northern Bahr el Ghazal.
[4] The name "Fertit", whose etymology has been lost to history, came to be applied to the populations living south of Dar Fur, and it signified non-Muslims, people who were legally enslavable.