The Nile River played a large role in the country’s development as many groups migrated to the area to profit from its fertile soil and rich resources. As a matter of fact, Sudan is an extremely heterogeneous country, being home to over 500 different tribes with their own distinctive ethnicity and language. During the 1500s a people called the Funj conquered much of Sudan along with several black African groups settling in the south. Later on, Egyptian scripture labeled the area as “Kush”, speaking of great economic ties as well as conflicts due to attempts of invasion. The Kingdom of Kush eventually evolved into the Kingdom of Meroe (witnessed by the Pyramids of Meroe) and became extremely powerful, overcoming both the Egyptians and the Romans’ efforts to conquer the region. Only at the beginning of the 19th century, Egypt managed to take over the kingdom. Afterward, Britain occupied Egypt and they ruled in conjunction with the area that was then known as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Since independence, Sudan has been ruled by a series of military coups and weak parliamentary governments. Under Maj. Gen. Gaafar Mohamed Nimeiri, Sudan instituted fundamentalist Islamic law and worsened the disruption between the Arab north, seat of the government, and the black African animists and Christians in the south, erupting in a crude civil war from which the country is slowly starting to recover. Nevertheless, the country’s culture, and especially the country’s music, has managed to survive these years of turmoil.