Sudanese culture melds the behaviors, practices, and beliefs of about 578 tribes, communicating in 145 different languages, in a region microcosmic of Africa, with geographic extremes varying from sandy desert to tropical forest.

Sudan is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world, It has nearly 400 ethnic groups speaking over 200 languages and dialects, though some of Sudan's smaller ethnic and linguistic groups have disappeared,^{[citation needed]} especially in the 1980s and 1990s. Migration of various groups played a part, as migrants often forget their native tongue when they move to an area dominated by another language. Some linguistic groups were absorbed by accommodation, others by conflict.^{[citation needed]} In all of this, however, due to the strong Arabic cultural influence in the country, particularly in the northern part of the country, the Sudanese dialect of Arabic is the lingua franca spoken amongst Sudanese peoples,^{[citation needed]} though the English language may be spoken among the Sudanese elite and portions of the Sudanese populace.^{[citation needed]} Many Sudanese are multilingual.

Sudan (ⁱ/suːˈdæn/ or /suːˈdɑːn/;Arabic: السودان‎, as-Sūdān), officially the Republic of the Sudan (Arabic: جمهورية السودان‎, Jumhūrīyat as-Sūdān), sometimes called North Sudan, is an Arab state in North Africa (sometimes also considered to be part of the Middle East). It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest. The population of Sudan is a combination of indigenous inhabitants of Nile Valley, and descendants of migrants from the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the process of Arabisation common throughout the rest of the Arab World, today Arab culture predominates in Sudan. The majority of the population of Sudan adheres to Islam. The Nile divides the country between east and west sides.

The people of Sudan have a long history extending from antiquity which is intertwined with the history of Egypt. Sudan suffered seventeen years of civil war during the First Sudanese Civil War (1955–1972) followed by ethnic, religious and economic conflicts between the Muslim Arab northern Sudanese and the mostly animist and Christian Nilotes of Southern Sudan. This led to the Second Sudanese Civil War in 1983. Because of continuing political and military struggles, Sudan was seized in a bloodless coup d'état by colonel Omar al-Bashir in 1989, who thereafter proclaimed himself President of Sudan. The civil war ended with the signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement which granted autonomy to what was then the southern region of the country. Following a referendum held in January 2011, South Sudan seceded on 9 July 2011 with the consent of Sudan's President al-Bashir.