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150 deep profiles · 61 countries and territories · every kingdom and category.
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- Abagusii (Gusii/Kisii)CommunityNiger-CongoThe densely-settled highland farmers of southwestern Kenya — soapstone carvers of Tabaka, keepers of the egesa harvest dances and the ritual healer-diviners (abanyamoriogi), whose Ekegusii The Gusii highlands east of Lake Victoria — the cool, rainy 'Kisii highlands' around Kisii town, Tabaka and Nyamira
- AcholiCommunityNilo-SaharanThe Luo chiefdoms of the Uganda–South Sudan borderland — poets of the royal drum and the larakaraka courtship dance, whose mato oput reconciliation rite taught the world a justice Acholi (Leb Acoli), a Luo language Acholiland — the savanna between the Victoria Nile and the Imatong foothills
- AfarCommunityAfro-AsiaticThe salt-caravan nomads of the Danakil — one of the hottest places on earth — whose camel trains, sultanates and clan law have mastered a landscape of volcanoes and salt lakes that Afar (Qafar af) The Afar Triangle: Danakil Depression, Awash valley, Lake Assal and the Red Sea coast between Massawa and Djibouti
- Akan (Asante & Fante)CommunityNiger-CongoMatrilineal peoples of the Ghana–Côte d'Ivoire forest belt whose Asante Empire, Golden Stool, kente cloth and adinkra symbol system created one of Africa's most sophisticated court Akan (Twi dialects: Asante, Akuapem; Fante) and Baoulé/Anyi in Côte d'Ivoire Southern and central Ghana and southeastern Côte d'Ivoire — the historic gold-forest zone
- Amazigh (Berber)CommunityAfro-AsiaticThe indigenous peoples of North Africa — 'Imazighen', the free people — whose Tifinagh script, mountain and desert civilizations, and millennia of continuous culture long predate t Tamazight family: Tashelhit, Central Atlas Tamazight, Tarifit, Kabyle (Taqbaylit), Tamahaq/Tamashek (Tuareg), Siwi Atlas and Rif mountains (Morocco), Kabylie and Aurès (Algeria), Nafusa (Libya), Djerba (Tunisia), Siwa (Egypt), and the
- AmharaCommunityAfro-AsiaticHighland civilization of the Ethiopian plateau — heirs of Aksum's Ge'ez literacy, builders of Lalibela's rock churches and Gondar's castles, whose Orthodox Christian culture and Am Amharic (Amarəñña) — Ethiopia's federal working language, written in the Ge'ez fidel script The central-northern highlands: Gondar, Gojjam, Wollo, Shewa — the Amhara region of Ethiopia
- AzandeCommunityNiger-CongoThe 'great eaters of the forest edge' — a conquering Avongara-led nation spanning three borders, whose oracle-governed courts, throwing knives and Ture trickster cycles made them t Zande (Pazande) The Nile-Congo watershed's gallery-forest savanna — Zandeland spans Western Equatoria, the Uele basin and the Mbomou
- BagandaCommunityNiger-CongoThe kingdom people of the northern Lake Victoria shore — Buganda's Kabaka monarchy, 52 totemic clans, barkcloth craft and royal drum orchestras built one of Africa's most sophistic Luganda Buganda region: the crescent along Lake Victoria's northern shore around Kampala
- Bagisu (Bamasaba)CommunityNiger-CongoThe people of Mount Elgon — arabica coffee farmers whose imbalu circumcision festival every even year turns whole districts into a stage, and whose descent from the ancestor Masaba Lumasaba (Lugisu) Mbale, Sironko, Bududa, Manafwa and Bulambuli — the fertile volcanic slopes of Mount Elgon (Masaba)
- BakaCommunityNiger-CongoForest hunter-gatherers of the western Congo basin — whose yelli and water-drumming polyphonies are among the world's most admired music, whose Jengi forest spirit governs the hunt Baka (an Ubangian language, unlike most neighbouring 'Pygmy' groups who speak Bantu languages) The rainforests of the Dja, Boumba and Sangha basins — southeastern Cameroon around Lomié and Yokadouma, and adjacent fo
- Bambara (Bamana)CommunityNiger-CongoMali's largest people — farmers of the upper Niger whose Segou kingdom, chi wara antelope crests and the six graded komo initiation societies made Bamanankan the nation's lingua fr Bamanankan (Bambara) The upper Niger valley and Beledougou plateau of central-southern Mali — Segou, Bamako, Koulikoro, Sikasso
- BamilekeCommunityNiger-CongoThe dynamic chiefdom civilization of Cameroon's western Grassfields — beaded elephant masks, towering bamboo palaces, sacred forests and a famed entrepreneurial spirit rooted in to Bamileke languages (Ghomala', Fe'fe', Yemba, Medumba and others) The Grassfields highlands of western Cameroon — Bafoussam, Bandjoun, Dschang, Bafang and over 100 chiefdoms
- Bamoun (Bamum)CommunityNiger-CongoThe kingdom that wrote itself — Sultan Njoya invented an original script, drew maps and chronicles, founded schools and a new religion, and built Foumban's palace into one of Afric Shüpamom (Bamum) The Bamoun plateau east of the Noun river — Foumban the royal capital — in Cameroon's Grassfields
- BanyankoleCommunityNiger-CongoThe cattle nation of Uganda's southwest — whose Ankole longhorn cattle with their vast lyre-shaped horns are among the world's most striking breeds, and whose Bahima herders and Ba Runyankole The rolling grass hills of Ankole — Mbarara, Bushenyi, Ntungamo, Kiruhura — between Lake Edward and the Tanzanian border
- BanyarwandaCommunityNiger-CongoThe people of Rwanda — one language, one religion, one culture across Hutu, Tutsi and Twa, whose royal court produced the intricate imigongo art and the towering intore dance, and Kinyarwanda (one of Africa's most widely shared single-nation languages) Rwanda — the land of a thousand hills — and adjacent eastern DRC (North and South Kivu) and southwestern Uganda
- Banyoro (Bunyoro-Kitara)CommunityNiger-CongoHeirs of Kitara — the empire of the Bacwezi legends whose Babiito kings ruled from Hoima, whose royal fire never died from crowning to crowning, and whose king Kabalega fought the Runyoro (Runyoro-Rutooro) Western Uganda between Lake Albert and the Victoria Nile — Hoima (royal capital), Masindi, the oil-rich Albertine rift s
- BaouléCommunityNiger-CongoThe people of Queen Abla Pokou's sacrifice — an Akan nation that crossed the Comoé into the Ivorian heartland, whose spirit-spouse figures, goli masks and gold-weight heritage made Baoulé (Baule), a Tano (Akan) language The central 'V Baoulé' savanna-forest mosaic — Bouaké, Yamoussoukro, Dimbokro — between the Comoé and Bandama rivers
- Bariba (Baatombu)CommunityNiger-CongoThe horsemen of Borgu — whose Wasangari nobility rode against every empire that approached, whose Nikki and Parakou courts still hold the Gaani festival, and whose kingdom Islam, S Baatonum (Bariba) Borgu — the savanna of northeastern Benin around Nikki, Parakou, Kandi and Banikoara, extending into Nigeria's Kwara and
- BasogaCommunityNiger-CongoThe people between the lake and the Nile — Busoga's federation of chiefdoms under the Kyabazinga, whose bigwala gourd-trumpet royal music is UNESCO-safeguarded, and whose land at t Lusoga Busoga — between Lake Victoria, Lake Kyoga and the Victoria Nile — Jinja, Iganga, Kamuli and Bugiri
- BasothoCommunityNiger-CongoThe mountain nation forged by Moshoeshoe I at Thaba Bosiu — refuge-builders of the Maloti highlands whose blankets, conical hats and horsemen made a kingdom in the sky that outlast Sesotho (Southern Sotho) The Kingdom of Lesotho — the Maloti-Drakensberg highlands entirely above 1,400 m — and the surrounding Free State plains
- BejaCommunityAfro-AsiaticThe camel lords of the Red Sea Hills — Africa's ancient 'Blemmyes', sword-bearing clans of the Hadendowa, Bisharin and Ababda whose crossed-swords dances, coffee ceremonies and des Beja (Bidhaawyeet / To Bedawie); Tigre among some sections The Red Sea Hills and Atbai desert from Aswan's latitude to the Eritrean lowlands — Port Sudan, Suakin, Kassala's Taka m
- BembaCommunityNiger-CongoThe crocodile-clan kingdom of Zambia's northern plateau — whose paramount Chitimukulu still reigns, whose chisungu girls' initiation is a masterwork of ritual pedagogy, and whose m Chibemba (Icibemba) Northern Zambia's high plateau — Kasama, Mungwi, Chinsali — with the Copperbelt cities as the great modern diaspora
- BeromCommunityNiger-CongoThe plateau farmers of Jos — tin-country people of the Nzem festival and the mado initiation, whose terraced highland farms and stone-walled compounds held the cool heart of Nigeri Berom (Birom) The Jos Plateau of central Nigeria — Jos South, Riyom, Barkin Ladi and the highland farmland around the city of Jos
- Beta IsraelCommunityAfro-Asiatic — Agaw (Cushitic) historically, Ethiopian Semitic in later useThe Jews of Ethiopia — who kept a Torah-observant faith in Ge'ez without the Talmud for centuries in the Semien mountains, whose monks and Kessoch led a community through isolation Historically Qwara and Kayla (Agaw languages), then Amharic and Tigrinya; Ge'ez as liturgical language; Hebrew today Historically the Semien mountains, Gondar and Tigray regions of northern Ethiopia; today overwhelmingly in Israel
- Beti (Ewondo & Bulu)CommunityNiger-CongoThe people of Cameroon's southern plateau and its capital — Ewondo, Bulu and Eton communities whose mvet epics, bikutsi rhythm and cocoa farms shaped the nation's centre, politics Ewondo, Bulu, Eton and related Beti dialects (mutually intelligible) The southern plateau of Cameroon — Yaoundé (the capital), Mbalmayo, Sangmélima, Ebolowa and the forest-savanna transitio
- BetsileoCommunityAustronesianThe rice-terrace engineers of Madagascar's southern highlands — whose hillsides are carved into staircases of paddy, whose famadihana reburials are the island's most elaborate, and Malagasy (Betsileo dialect) The highlands around Fianarantsoa, Ambositra and Ambalavao — south of the Merina country
- BijagóCommunityNiger-CongoThe island people of the Bijagós archipelago — a matriarchal-leaning society where women choose husbands and own houses, where men are initiated as 'cows' in the vaca bruto masquer Bidyogo (Bijagó) The eighty-eight islands and islets of the Bijagós archipelago off Guinea-Bissau — Bubaque, Orango, Canhabaque, Formosa
- BoranaCommunityAfro-AsiaticGuardians of the gadaa — the Oromo generation-grade democracy in its most intact form, whose Gumi Gayo assembly revises the law every eight years, and whose singing wells lift wate Borana (a dialect of Oromo/Afaan Oromoo) The Borana plateau of southern Ethiopia (Yabelo, Moyale) and northern Kenya (Marsabit, Isiolo) — semi-arid cattle countr
- ChaggaCommunityNiger-CongoThe banana-grove people of Kilimanjaro whose ancient irrigation channels, coffee cooperatives and terraced kihamba gardens turned Africa's highest mountain into one of its most pro Kichagga dialects (Kimachame, Kivunjo, Kirombo and others); Swahili universal The southern and eastern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro — Moshi, Machame, Marangu, Rombo — between forest line and plain
- ChewaCommunityNiger-CongoThe Maravi heirs who gave Malawi its name — a matrilineal farming civilization whose Nyau secret society dances the Gule Wamkulu, 'the Great Dance', where masked spirits of the dea Chichewa (Chinyanja) — Malawi's national language The Lake Malawi plains and central plateau — Lilongwe, Kasungu, Dedza — spilling into Zambia's Katete/Chipata and Mozamb