Tribes of Africa

The Songhai people (also Ayneha, Songhay or Sonrai) are an ethnolinguistic group in West Africa who speak the various Songhai languages. Their history and lingua franca is linked to the Songhai Empire which dominated the western Sahel in the 15th and 16th century. Predominantly a Muslim community, the Songhai are found primarily throughout Niger and Mali in the Western Sudanic region (not the coun...

Zulu, a nation of Nguni-speaking people in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. They are a branch of the southern Bantu and have close ethnic, linguistic, and cultural ties with the Swazi and Xhosa. The Zulu are the single largest ethnic group in South Africa and numbered about nine million in the late 20th century. Traditionally grain farmers, they also kept large herds of cattle on the lightly...

Mangbetu, also spelled Monbuttu, peoples of Central Africa living to the south of the Zande in north-eastern Congo (Kinshasa). They speak a Central Sudanic language of the Nilo-Saharan language family. The Mangbetu are a cluster of peoples who penetrated and now occupy the formerly Pygmy territory and who, in turn, subsequently absorbed waves of eastern peoples. The name Mangbetu refers, strictly...

The Chaga or Chagga are a Bantu-speaking indigenous Africans and the third largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They traditionally live the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and eastern Mount Meru in both Kilimanjaro Region and eastern Arusha Region. Their relative economic wealth comes from favourable fertile soil of Mount Kilimanjaro and successful agricultural methods, which include extensive irrigation...

The Karo tribe, Ethiopia Located in Southern Ethiopia, the Karo or Kara Ethnic group reside along the east banks of the Omo River, seemingly untouched by the outside world. It is the smallest tribe in South Ethiopia with an estimated population of about 2,000 people and for sustenance, they practice flood retreat cultivation, growing beans and maize, breeding cattle and goats and fishing. What you...

Isoko people are an ethnolinguistic group who inhabit the Isoko region of Delta State, and Bayelsa State Nigeria. They are people of southern Nigeria, near the northwestern Niger delta. Delta State and Bayelsa State are part of the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Isokos ethnic group is one of the smallest minority ethnic groups In the Niger Delta The Isokos speak the Isoko language,...

The Afars, also known as the Danakil, Adali, and Odali, are an ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They live in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, as well as the entire southern coast of Eritrea. The Afars principally reside in the Danakil Desert in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, as well as in Eritrea and Djibouti. There are over 2,276,867 people in Ethiopia of whom 105,55...

Somalis are an East Cushitic ethnic group belonging to the Cushitic peoples, native to Greater Somalia who share a common Somali ancestry, culture, and history. Constituting one tribe, they are segmented into various clan groupings, which are important kinship units that play a central part in Somali culture and politics. Clan families are patrilineal and are divided into clans, primary lineages,...

Ijaw people are people in Niger Delta in Nigeria, inhabiting regions of the states of Ondo, Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom, and Rivers state. The Ijaws were one of the first of Nigeria's people to have contact with the Westerners and were active as go-betweens in the slave trade between visiting Europeans and the people of the interior when West Africa was still known as the White Man's Graveyard....

The Chagas who are also called Chagga or Wachagga are Bantu-speaking indigenous Africans and the third largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They traditionally live on the southern and eastern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru and near. The people of Chaga descended from various Bantu groups who migrated from somewhere in Africa. The Chaga area is traditionally divided into a number of chiefd...

The Wodaabes, also known as the Mbororo or Bororo, are a small subgroup of the Fulani ethnic group. Traditionally, they are cattle-herders and traders in the Sahel. The Wodaabes speak the Fula language and don't use a written language. In the Fula language, woɗa means "taboo", and Woɗaaɓe means "people of the taboo". Wodaabe religion is largely Islamic as Islam became a religion of importance amon...

Rwanda, Burundi, and the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo is home to the Tutsi people. In the DRC, the Tutsi live near the city of Bukavu in the Mulenge region. Here, they are known as Ban-ya-mu-lenge. The Tutsi speak a Central Bantu language called Kin yar-wanda in Rwanda, and Kirundi in Burundi. Both are dialects of the same language. Like other Bantu languages, both use nou...

The primary archaeological survey of Nubia, conducted between 1907 and 1910, reveals that Nubia has possessed an advanced culture since the Predynastic period. Nubians are an ethno-linguistic group of people who are indigenous to the region which is now present-day Northern Sudan and southern Egypt. They originate from the early Sub-Saharan African inhabitants of the central Nile valley. This area...

They are believed to have first emigrated to the Great Lake region from Central Africa in the great Bantu expansion. However, various theories have emerged to explain the purported physical differences between them and their fellow Bantu-speaking neighbors, the Tutsi.  This is the story of the Hutus. They are the largest of the four main population divisions in Burundi and Rwanda. According to the...

They are the last remaining hunter-gatherer tribe in Africa, living in Northern Tanzania around the central rift Valley and in the neighboring Serengeti Plateau in the shadow of Ngorongoro crater.  The Hadza people, also known as Hadzabe, are believed to be the oldest tribe the world has known.  Their home range is also close to Oldvai gorge, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the worl...

The Xhosa nation are a Bantu ethnic group from Southern Africa whose homeland is primarily within the modern-day Eastern Cape. There is a small but significant Xhosa-speaking community in Zimbabwe, and their language, isiXhosa, is recognised as a national language. The name "Xhosa" comes from that of a legendary leader and King called uXhosa. There is also a fringe theory that, in fact the King's...

The traditional Hajj route north and east of the Sahara is where most Hausas are found. They are the largest ethnic group in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hausas are a diverse but culturally homogeneous people based primarily in the Sahelian and the sparse savanna areas of southern Niger and northern Nigeria. A good number of Hausa's are also found in Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Chad, Sudan, and Central A...

The Berbers, who call themselves Amazigh, are the indigenous people of Northern Africa. There is evidence that the Berbers have existed in the Maghreb region of Africa since the beginning of recorded history in the area. It is believed that modern Berbers are the descendants of the pre-Arab inhabitants of North Africa. One of the earliest groups of Berbers were the Caspians, who lived in the regio...

The Yoruba people, or Ìran Yorùbá, are an ethnic group that inhabits western Africa, mainly Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. The vast majority of Yoruba's are from Nigeria, where they make up 16% of the country's population, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which - according to the Encyclopadia Britanica - is the Niger-Congo la...

Population: between 10 and 13 million The Zulu people are the largest ethnic group in South Africa. They are descended from East African origins and over centuries, migrated south during what is a called the great Bantu migration. The Zulu rose into a formidable empire under the leadership of Shaka in the early 19th century. Under his leadership, the Zulu kingdom expanded and played an important r...

Efik people inhabit the lower Cross River in Cross River State, Nigeria. They also occupy southwestern Cameroon including Bakassi. Their language is the main dialect and language of the Efik-Ibibio group of the Benue-Congo branch of Niger-Congo languages.  The Efik, who are culturally and linguistically related to the Ibibio, migrated down the Cross River during the first half of the 17th century....

The desolate Kunene region of northwest Namibia is home to a resilient people called the Himba. Hunter-gatherers and pastoralists, the Himba descend from the southward migrating Herero of Angola. Life for the Himba revolves around the holy fire called Okuruwo. Okuruwo, via the smoke,  symbolizes a connection with their ancestors, who are in direct communication with their God Mukuru. The fire burn...

The Fula or Fulanis are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. They inhabit many countries, mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa but also in South Sudan, Sudan, and regions near the Red Sea coast. They make up the largest ethnic group in Guinea. Major concentrations of Fulani people exist in the Fouta Djallon highlan...

The San people are one of the world’s oldest tribes and very probably the first inhabitants of southern Africa. They have lived as hunters for thousands of years. An integral part of the hunter culture is the healing dance. This tradition carries on through the night. The village elders and healers dance around the fire as they chant and take deep breaths, until they reach a trance-like state. The...

Akan are a meta-ethnicity living in the southern regions of present-day Ghana. Akans who migrated from Ghana also make up the plurality of the ethnic population in Ivory Coast. The Akan language, also known as Twi or Fante, is a group of dialects within the Central Tano branch of the Potou–Tano subfamily of the Niger–Congo family. Subgroups of the Akan people include: Ashanti, Fante, Akuapem, Bono...