Listen Now

anda, also called Baganda, or Waganda, people inhabiting the area north and northwest of Lake Victoria in south-central Uganda. They speak a Bantu language—called Ganda, or Luganda—of the Benue-Congo group. The Ganda are the most numerous people in Uganda and their territory the most productive and fertile.

Mpondo, also spelled Pondo, group of Nguni-speaking peoples who have for several centuries occupied the area between the Mtata and Mtamvuna rivers in Eastern province of South Africa. The Mpondo homeland formed one of the largest parts of the former Transkei (until 1994), an independent republic that was established under the South African government’s policy of apartheid but was dissolved and reincorporated (in part) into the new province in 1994.

Nuba, inhabitants of the Nuba Hills in the Kordofan region of central-southern Sudan. This region is studded with rugged granite hills that rise sharply from a wide clay plain and vary considerably in size and content. The Nuba peoples live on or near the hills (the plains being mainly occupied by Baqqārah Arabs); the many groups differ in physical type and culture. They all speak Nubian languages, which are Eastern Sudanic languages of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Kinship descent among the Nuba is, broadly speaking, matrilineal in the south and patrilineal elsewhere

Unlike other Zambian tribes which claim to have descended from the Luba-Lunda Kingdom in present day Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, the exact origin of the Tonga tribe is still unknown. Iron Age settlements from as early as the 7th century have been found in various parts of the Southern Province, with the most popular being Ingombe Ilede which is translated as ‘the sleeping cow’ due to the large fallen baobab tree in the vicinity of the site. It is believed that the Mbara people who settled at the site were ancestors of the Tonga due to the similarity of their pottery to that of the existing Tonga.

The Annang people are a peculiar cultural group within the Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria. This tribe occupies some part of southwestern Cameroon, which used to be part of the present-day Akwa Ibom State and Cross River State.

Etsakọ people are the majority ethnic group in the northern region of Edo State, Nigeria. They are historically linked to the ancient Benin kingdom. Administratively, they presently occupy three local government areas of Edo State; these are Etsako East, Etsako West and Etsako Central, with Agenebode, Auchi, and Fugar, as their administrative headquarters, respectively

The social world of Zezuru, the Shona-speaking peoples who live in the Harare region of Zimbabwe, is divided into various categories. Mwari, or God, heads the whole world, which is then divided up into two elements: Shona, consisting of the various clans which are linked to the hero spirits and are further divided into lineages, linked to the ancestors; and non-Shona, made up of the observable world and of the shave spirits (spirits that are not concerned with morality as such but are generally responsible for inoffensive individual differences between people).

The Hutu, also called Bahutu or Wahutu, Bantu-speaking people of Rwanda and Burundi. Numbering about 9,500,000 in the late 20th century, the Hutu comprise the vast majority in both countries but were traditionally subject to the Tutsi , warrior-pastoralists of Nilotic stock. When the Hutu first entered the area, they found it inhabited by the Twa, Pygmy hunters whom they forced to retreat. Hutu life centered on small-scale agriculture, and social organization was based on the clan, with petty kings (bahinza) ruling over limited domains. The Tutsi in turn entered the area in the 14th or 15th century and gradually subjugated the Hutu, forcing them into a lord–vassal relationship.

Hambukushu or the ‘rainmakers of Okavango’ (believed to perform rituals that make rainfall), whose language is called sembukushu, are a tribe found in the Okavango, which is in north-western parts of Botswana. Their origins are rooted in Angola and Namibia where there are some traces to date, but are also traced to the tribe of Barotse in Zambia, a language that bears similarities with sembukushu

The Kalanga or Bakalanga are a southern Bantu ethnic group mainly inhabiting Matebeleland in Zimbabwe, northeastern Botswana and Limpopo Province in South Africa. They are historically related to the Nambya, Karanga and Venda.

Basarwa are the first and oldest inhabitants of southern Africa who have lived in Botswana for over 30 000 years. The name Basarwa has been used extensively by the Tswana to refer to the Bushmen. However, they are also called the Khoisan. They were initially hunter gatherers and have gradually transitioned because of their interactions with other tribes where they settled.

The Luhya tribe, also known as Abaluhya, Baluhya, or Abaluyia, are a bantu tribe living in the agriculturally fertile Western region of Kenya. They are neighbors to some of the nilotic tribes including Luo, Kalenjin, Maasai and Teso (Iteso).

The Aembu, are a Bantu tribe closely related to the Kikuyu and Meru. They majorly inhabit Kenya’s Embu district, which is a fertile agricultural region located at the foothills of Mount Kenya. They speak the Embu language.

The Kamba or Akamba people are a Bantu ethnic tribe or group who live in the semi-arid formerly Eastern Province of Kenya which stretches east from Nairobi to Tsavo and north up to Embu, Kenya. This land is called Ukambani which constitutes of Machakos County Makueni County and Kitui County.

The largest of Kenya’s tribes, the Kikuyu tribe live in area around Mount Kenya where, at the dawn the colonial era, they came into violent conflict with the European settlers, to whom large tracts of Kikuyu people homeland had been apportioned by the colonial government. They number more than three million

Mandinka, also called Maninka,Malinke, Mandingo, or Mandingo, a West African people occupying parts of Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau. The make up the largest ethnic group in The Gambia and They speak a Mandekan language of the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo family.

Tumbuka, also spelled Tumboka, also called Kamanga, orHenga, a people who live on the lightly wooded plateau between the northwestern shore of Lake Nyasa (Lake Malaŵi) and the Luangwa River valley of eastern Zambia. They speak a Bantu language closely related to those of their immediate neighbours, the lakeside Tonga, the Chewa, and the Senga.

The Kavango people, also known as the vaKavango or haKavango, are a Bantu ethnic group that resides in the Kavango region of Northern Namibia on the Angolan border along the Kavango River, which is named after them. They are mainly riverine living people, but about 20% reside in the dry inland. The river is pivotal to their survival and they grow crops on the narrow strip of fertile soil alongside it, graze their cattle on the flood plains, fish the river extensively and hunt the wild animals that live there.

The Ovambo people, also called Aawambo, are a Southern African tribal ethnic group. They are found in Namibia’s northern regions and more often called Ovambo. The Ovambo people are synonymous with Namibia and are the largest cultural sector found in this country, representing over a third of Namibia’s total population. Concentrated mostly in the north, the Ovambo consist of eight tribes, namely the Ndonga, Kwambi, Ngandyela, Mbalanhu, Nkolonkadhi and Unda tribes.

Twa, also called Batwa, one of the best-known of the many Pygmy groups scattered across equatorial Africa. Like all other African Pygmies, the Twa, averaging about 5 feet (1.5 m) in height, are a people of mixed ancestry, probably descendants of the original inhabitants of the equatorial rainforest.