The Himba (singular: OmuHimba, plural: OvaHimba) are an indigenous people with an estimated population of about 50,000 people[1] living in northern Namibia, in the Kunene Region (formerly Kaokoland) and on the other side of the Kunene River in southern Angola.[1] There are also a few groups left of the OvaTwa, who are also OvaHimba, but…

HistoryOral traditionOne telling of Hadza’s oral history divides their past into four epochs, each inhabited by a different culture. According to this tradition, in the beginning of time the world was inhabited by hairy giants called the akakaanebee “first ones” or geranebee “ancient ones”. The akakaanebee did not possess tools or fire; they hunted game…

Definition The term “Sann” has a long vowel and is spelled Sān (in Khoekhoegowab orthography). It is a Khoekhoe exonym with the meaning of “foragers” and was often used in a derogatory manner to describe nomadic, foraging people. Based on observation of lifestyle, this term has been applied to speakers of three distinct language families living between the Okavango River in Botswana and Etosha National…

Buganda, powerful kingdom of East Africa during the 19th century, located along the northern shore of Lake Victoria in present-day south-central Uganda. Buganda’s insistence on maintaining a separate political identity contributed to Uganda’s destabilization after that country reached independence in 1962. Buganda was one of several small principalities founded by Bantu-speaking peoples in what is now Uganda. It was founded in the…

The Ashanti Empire was a pre-colonial West African state that emerged in the 17th century in what is now Ghana.  The Ashanti or Asante were an ethnic subgroup of the Akan-speaking people, and were composed of small chiefdoms. The Ashanti established their state around Kumasi in the late 1600s, shortly after their first encounter with Europeans.  In some ways…

Zulu people refer to themselves as ‘the people of the heavens’ and they are the largest ethnic group of South Africa, with an estimated 10 million Zulu residents in KwaZulu-Natal.Zulu people refer to themselves as ‘the people of the heavens’ and they are the largest ethnic group of South Africa, with an estimated 10 million…

History[edit] The Maasai inhabit the African Great Lakes region and arrived via the South Sudan.[10] Most Nilotic speakers in the area, including the Maasai, the Turkana and the Kalenjin, are pastoralists, and are famous for their fearsome reputations as warriors and cattle-rustlers.[10] The Maasai and other groups in East Africa have adopted customs and practices from neighboring Cushitic-speaking groups, including the age set system of social organization, circumcision, and vocabulary terms.[11][12]