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African Ethnicities
Please note that I have a separate page available on African
languages.
A number of Web pages have been produced by members of indigenous minority and majority
ethnic groups world-wide. Rather than primarily serving as academic, encyclopedic, or
anthropological resources, they are often self-promotional, but several provide excellent
information and rigorous documentation. This is a small collection of such pages produced
primarily by Africans, along with some material produced by others.
Most often, these African ethnic group home pages are a direct
expression of individual members of the group, but in several cases represent an academic,
official, or institutional point of view. If you are looking for an "objective"
presentation, these links may not be the best sources for your work. Nevertheless, most
have very good cultural, historical, and other background information, and many provide
links to related sites that you may also find useful. Below the list, there is a
collection of Other sites with information on African ethnic groups
with different kinds of resources, for example, with a national, cultural anthropological,
or linguistic focus. Finally, because this is an area that is not well represented on the
web, a Bibliography of print sources is included for those who wish
to pursue further research in their local library.
The site descriptions below are all quoted from the sites themselves.
- Buganda
- "Buganda is located in the south-central region of the country known today as
Uganda [...]. This is right in the heart of Africa, astride the equator, and at the source
of the great river Nile. The people of Buganda are referred to as Baganda (the singular
form is Muganda), their language is referred to as Luganda, and they refer to their
customs as Kiganda customs. Sometimes the generic term Ganda is used for all the above
(especially by foreign scholars). Buganda is home to the nation's political and commercial
capital, Kampala; as well as the country's main international airport, Entebbe."
- Bura culture
- "BuraWeb's goal is to publish--via the internet--as much information on Nigeria's
Buraland and the Bura people as possible. It will feature items from Buraland's
great past, as well as material on Buraland's present. Much of this material will have
been previously published (often by Westerners), but Bura-authored content is especially
desired." Includes sections on geography, language, folktales, and history as well.
- Hausa
- "Hausa is spoken by an estimated 22 million native speakers, plus an additional 17
million second language speakers (information from Ethnologue). The largest
native speaking population is in northern Nigeria, where Hausa is the native language of
the majority of the population and a universal lingua franca regardless of a speaker's
first language. Likewise, in Niger Republic, Hausa is the majority language and is spoken
by nearly all non-Hausa Nigeriens. In addition to this contiguous area where Hausa is the
first or second language of everyone, Hausa features prominently on the linguistic scene
across West Africa. In Ghana, in particular, there is a large native Hausa speaking
population, and indeed Hausa is one of six "Ghanaian" languages used in daily
radio broadcasts from the Ghana Broadcasting Company. Hausa is a lingua franca in Muslim
populations in much of West Africa, particularly south of Mali (where Bambara is the main
lingua franca) and east of Senegambia (where Wolof is the main lingua franca). Every city
of any size in West Africa has a large centralized Hausa community, usually referred to as
zango or zongo, a term which originally referred to the stopping point for trade caravans.
In cities outside primarily Islamic areas the zango will usually be the center of
organized Islamic activities, such as Koranic schools and sites for the major Islamic
festivals."
- Jóola
(Note: common alternate spellings include Diola and Jola).
- "J. David Sapir made the twenty two photographs in this exhibition in the course of
anthropological field work with the Kujamaat Jóola in 1960-61, 1964-66 and 1970. The
Kujamaat Jóola live in the region north of the Casamance River in southern Senegal; the
approximately 85,000 Kujamaat join with other regional groups to form the Jóola, together
numbering about 250,000. The Jóola live in small villages and practice subsistence wet
rice cultivation. Along with the Balant and the Manjak to the south, the Jóola are among
the few groups in Africa practicing wet rice cultivation. Since the 1940's the Jóola have
also cultivated peanuts as a cash crop. These are propositions presenting facts about the
Kujamaat Jóola. Sapir's photographs also present facts about the Kujamaat Jóola. They
are, however, something much more than facts. These photographs entail a visual poetics,
attending to the nuances of gesture and bodily expression that slip through the net of
texts. They are attentive to their human referents as an other to be regarded with a
circumspection and reserve based on respect." (From exhibit statement for "J.
David Sapir: Photographs of the Kujamaat Jóola" by David Newman, Brookhaven College Center
For the Arts Studio Gallery).
To view J. David Sapir's Fixing Shadows
site, use this link.
- Mongo
- "The archives under study in this research
project are the archives collected and managed by the Centre
Æquatoria, a linguistic, ethnological and historical research center,
with library and guesthouse, connected to the mission post of the
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (Missionnaires du Sacré-Coeur, MSC) in
Bamanya (near Mbandaka, capital of the Equateur Province, Democratic
Republic of Congo). Strictly speaking, the Centre Æquatoria was founded in
1980, but its origins date back to 1937, when Fathers Edmond Boelaert and
Gustaaf Hulstaert started the periodical 'Æquatoria' (discontinued in
1962). The web
site of the Æquatoria
Archives Research Project provides
more detailed information on its history and activities, including the old
journal 'Æquatoria' and its current journal 'Annales Æquatoria'."
- Sukuma
- "Specifically, the site offers visitors a glimpse into the world of the Sukuma
people. The Sukuma are Western Tanzania's largest culture and live to the east and south
of Lake Victoria. Ideally, when computer technologies are more readily accessible in
Tanzania, the site would be used to help educate museum visitors as well as school groups,
college students and a wider community throughout Africa."
"The Sukuma Museum is a community-based organization that promotes and celebrates the
traditional and contemporary arts of the Sukuma culture. The Museum provides an
interactive and educational environment where Sukuma elders teach younger generations
traditional history and arts, and younger generations are encouraged to develop and expand
creative voices and new Sukuma artistic trends."
- Yoruba (National Association of Yoruba
Descendants in North America)
- "Our Mission: To cherish, uphold, and project the honor and dignity of Yoruba
culture, language and tradition in Africa and the Diaspora. To promote the cultural,
social, economic and political welfare of Yoruba. To work with other organizations inside
and outside Nigeria to promote peace, stability, justice, and unity while working actively
for the promotion of Yoruba interests."
Other sites with information on African ethnic groups
- A wide range of African country-specific
pages is provided by the University of Pennsylvania African Studies site. These
include maps, state department travel notices and country reports, embassy addresses, fact
books, information on Internet access, and other sources where available. While ethnic
groups are not the focus of these sources, basic demographic, linguistic, and geographical
information may be available.
- The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) provides
background information on many languages via their Ethnologue resource on the
Web. This may be a helpful resource for those looking for information on ethnic groups.
- "Human Relations Area Files, Inc. (HRAF) is
an internationally recognized organization in the field of cultural anthropology. Founded
in 1949, HRAF is now a non-profit consortium of universities, colleges, and research
agencies in more than 30 countries. The HRAF Collection currently contains nearly one
million pages of information on the cultures of the world--past and present." Their
Encyclopedia of World
Cultures is an excellent source of information about the peoples of Africa and the
world.
- "The CSAC Ethnographics Gallery
is for the use of anthropologists and others to promote wider access to information. The
Gallery contains information on research at CSAC, reference resources of special use to
anthropologists, and a range of resources useful in the teaching and learning of
anthropology. It is maintained by the Centre for Social Anthropology and Computing,
University of Kent at Canterbury."
- "NativeWeb's indexed and searchable
database contains hundreds of links concerning Native, Aboriginal, and Indigenous internet
resources on all seven continents." Unfortunately, it appears that very little
African information is available.
- The Fourth World Documentation Project section on African Documents focuses on conflicts between
African states and minority groups, and indigenous people's rights. Includes texts related
to the Great Lakes crisis, Morocco and the Western Sahara, the Nuba people of Northern
Sudan, the Ogoni of Southeastern Nigeria, the Rehoboth of Namibia, and the Tuareg of
Niger.
Bibliography
- Gonen, Amiram, ed. 1993.
- The Encyclopedia of Peoples of the World. New York: H. Holt.
- Human Relations Area Files.
- Electronic HRAF Computer File. New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files, Inc.
- -----.
- Human Relations Area Files (microform). Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms
International.
- -----.
- Index to the Human Relations Area Files: Supplement. New Haven, CT: Human
Relations Area Files, Inc.
- Middleton, John and Amal Rassam, eds. 1991.
- Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Volume 9: Africa and the Middle East. Boston:
G.K. Hall.
- Murdock, George Peter. 1981.
- Atlas of World Cultures. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
- -----. 1983.
- Outline of World Cultures. Sixth Revised Edition. New Haven, CT: HRAF, Inc.
- Olson, James Stuart. 1996.
- The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistoric Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood
Press.
- Price, David H. 1990.
- Atlas of World Cultures: A Geographical Guide to Ethnographic Literature. Newbury
Park, CA: Sage Publications.
- Wente-Lukas, Renate. 1985.
- Handbook of Ethnic Units in Nigeria. Stuttgart, Germany: F. Steiner Verlag
Wiesbaden.
- World Bibliographic Series
- Any of the books for Africa in this series will provide specific sources for a given
country. For example:
- Munro-Hay, S. C. 1995.
- Ethiopia. World Bibliographic Series ; vol. 179. Santa Barbara, CA: Clio Press.
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