Similar to their neighbouring tribes, the upstream Rubatab (الرباطاب) and the downstream Shaiqiyah (الشايقيّة), the Manasir are an indigenous Nile culture who adopted Islam and speak Arabic as their first language.

Unlike other riverine tribes of Sudan, a considerable part of their population lives as Bedouins in the adjacent Bayuda Desert.

The nomadic life of herding their stock of goats, sheep and camels in desert valleys is however limited for many to the rainy season, coinciding with the annual inundation of the Nile.

According to the current oral tradition of many Manasir, this person is called Mansur and belongs to the line of descendants of al-'Abbas, the uncle of Muhammad.

According to their self-presentation in a publication by a committee of Manasir responsible for relocation issues resulting from the Merowe Dam, which is going to affect all villages of Dar al-Manasir, multiple explanations of their origin are offered (LAGNAH 2005:2): Earlier travellers witnessed Beja and Bisharin influences from the Red Sea Hills among the Manasir (INNES 1931:187).

suggests that the current Manasir community should be viewed as a voluntary amalgamation throughout the centuries between indigenous mostly Nubian groups, descendants of emigrating Arabs and recruited tribal minorities living among them or in the adjoining areas.

LAGNAH 1969:3, TAIYEB 1969:2) The de facto population of the Manasir (in the Shiri Rural Council) in 1993 had been 30,000, according to data of The Federal Department of Statistics of Sudan cited and empirically verified by SALIH (1999:10-11).