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All Khoisan languages but two are indigenous to southern Africa and belong to three languages families. The Khoe family ...
21/07/2026

All Khoisan languages but two are indigenous to southern Africa and belong to three languages families. The Khoe family appears to have migrated to southern Africa not long before the Bantu expansion. Ethnically, their speakers are the Khoikhoi and the San (Bushmen). Two languages of east Africa, those of the Sandawe and Hadza, originally were also classified as Khoisan, although their speakers are ethnically neither Khoikhoi nor San.
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Before the Bantu expansion, Khoisan languages, or languages like them, were likely spread throughout southern and Eastern Africa. They are currently restricted to the Kalahari Desert, primarily in Namibia and Botswana, and to the Rift Valley in central Tanzania.
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Khoisan languages are best known for their use of click consonants as phonemes. These are typically written with characters such as ! and ≠. Clicks are quite versatile as consonants, as they involve two articulations of the tongue which can operate partially independently. Consequently, the languages with the greatest numbers of consonants in the world are Khoisan. The Jul’hoan language has 48 click consonants among nearly as many non-click consonants, strident and pharyngealized vowels, and four tones. The !Xòõ and ≠Hõã languages are even more complex.
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Barnard, A (1988). “Kingship, language and production: a conjectural history of Khoisan social structure.” Africa: Journal of the International African Institute. 58 (1): 29–50. doi:10.2307/1159869. JSTOR 1159869.

As of the 7th century BCE the African peoples who lived in the Yorubaland were not initially Yoruba, although they share...
16/07/2026

As of the 7th century BCE the African peoples who lived in the Yorubaland were not initially Yoruba, although they shared a common ethnicity and language group. By the 8th century, a powerful kingdom already existed in Ile-Ife, one of the earliest in Africa. It is said to be Ile-gbo (capital of the realm of humanity, based on the oldest pre-dynastic traditions of its being associated with Oba Tala, Oro-gbo (Sango) and Otete (Oduduwa).
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The historical Yoruba develop in șitu, out of earlier Mesolithic Volta-Niger populations, by the first millennium BCE. Oral history recorded under the Oyo Empire derives the Yoruba as an ethnic group from the population of the older kingdom of Ile-Ife. The Yoruba were the dominant cultural force in southern and Northern, Eastern Nigeria as far back as the 11th century.
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Ojuade, J. ‘Sina. “THE ISSUES OF ODUDUWA’ IN YORUBA GENESIS: THE MYTHS AND REALITIES”. Transafrican Journal of History, vol. 21, 1992, pp. 139–158. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24520425.

The girls in the above photo belong to the Torajan ethnic group of Indonesia. The Torajan are located in a mountainous r...
16/07/2026

The girls in the above photo belong to the Torajan ethnic group of Indonesia. The Torajan are located in a mountainous region in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Majority of the Torajan population are adherents of Christianity; while considerable number of the population is Muslim. Traditional beliefs are also practiced amongst the Torajan which can be defined as animistic. An example of one of the traditional beliefs systems of the Torajan is a tradition referred to as aluk meaning (“the way”). The government of Indonesia recognizes this belief system by the name (“way of the ancestors).
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Bigalke, Terance (2005). Tana Toraja: A Social History of an Indonesian People. Singapore: KITLV Press.

The Kru or Kroo are a West African ethnic group who are indigenous to eastern Liberia and migrated and settled along var...
17/06/2026

The Kru or Kroo are a West African ethnic group who are indigenous to eastern Liberia and migrated and settled along various points of the West African coast, notable Freetown, Sierra Leone, but also the Ivorian and Nigerian coasts. The Kru were famous for their skills in navigating and sailing the Atlantic. Their maritime expertise evolved along the west coast of Africa as they made livings as fishermen and traders. Knowing the in-shore waters of the western coast of Africa, and having nautical experience, they were employed as sailors, navigators and interpreters aboard slave ships, as well as Americans and the British warships used against the slave trade.
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Juang, Richard M.; Morrissette, Noelle, eds. (2008). Africa and Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: a multidisciplinary encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc. p. 674.

Fathers of the Aka tribe spend more time in close contact to their babies than in any other known society. Aka fathers h...
14/06/2026

Fathers of the Aka tribe spend more time in close contact to their babies than in any other known society. Aka fathers have their infant within arms’ reach 47% of the time and make physical contact with them five times as often per day as fathers in some other societies. The men also help the women, by feeding their children. It is believed that this is related to the strong bond between Aka husband and wife. Throughout the day, couples share hunting, food preparation, and social and leisure activities.
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📸 Woman with baby in southern Central African Republic
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Barry Hewlett (1991). Intimate Fathers: The Nature and Context of Aka Pygmy Paternal Infant Care. University of Michigan Press.

Because of the high desert climate in the region where they live and their seclusion from outside influences, the OvaHim...
13/06/2026

Because of the high desert climate in the region where they live and their seclusion from outside influences, the OvaHimba have managed to maintain and preserve much of their traditional lifestyle. Members live under a tribal structure based on bilateral descents that helps them live in one of the most extreme environments on earth. Under bilateral descents, every tribe member belongs to two clans: one through the father (a patriclan, called oruzo) and another through the mother (a matriclan, called eanda).
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Crandall, David P. (2000). The Place of Stunted Ironwood Trees: A Year in the Lives of the Cattle-Herding Himba of Namibia. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.

The first human presence in Ivory Coast has been difficult to determine because human remains have not been well preserv...
19/05/2026

The first human presence in Ivory Coast has been difficult to determine because human remains have not been well preserved in the country’s humid climate. However, newly found weapon and tool fragments (specifically polished axes cut through shale and remnants of cooking and fishing) have been interpreted as a possible indication of a large human presence during the upper Paleolithic period (15,000 to 10,000 BC), or at the minimum, the Neolithic period.
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Rougerie, Gabriel (1978), L’Encyclopédie générale de la Côte d’Ivoire (in French), Abidjan

Papel are an ethnic group established in Casamance (Senegal), Guinea Bissau and Guinea. Most Papel people today are Chri...
19/05/2026

Papel are an ethnic group established in Casamance (Senegal), Guinea Bissau and Guinea. Most Papel people today are Christians, usually Catholic, but some still adhere to traditional beliefs, Ancestor veneration amongst traditional spiritual practitioners is central to Papel culture.
Papel people live traditionally around the city of Bissau, in the Biombo Region. They are linguistically and culturally close to mankagnes and Manjack or Manjacas. They are traditionally farmers. So, they have one of the most suitable land for rice cultivation.
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Photo of NahĂŠs (Papel) by Serra. 1962
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Einarsdóttir, Jónina (2024). Tired of Weeping: Mother Love, Child Death, and Poverty in Guinea–Bissau. University of Wisconsin Press.

The Wodaabe culture is one of the 186 cultures of the standard cross-cultural sample used by anthropologists to compare ...
26/04/2026

The Wodaabe culture is one of the 186 cultures of the standard cross-cultural sample used by anthropologists to compare cultural traits. One interesting custom of the Wodaabe is parents are not allowed to talk directly to their two first born children, who will often be cared for by their grandparents. During daylight, husband and wife cannot hold hands or speak in a personal manner with each other.
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Photographer
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Carol Beckwith, Niger’s Wodaabe: “People of the Taboo”. National Geographic, 1983, vol. 164, no4, pp. 483-509

The Lango people live in north central Uganda. The region covers the area formerly Lango District until 1974, when it wa...
24/04/2026

The Lango people live in north central Uganda. The region covers the area formerly Lango District until 1974, when it was split into the districts of Apac and Lira, and subsequently into several additional districts. The current Lango Region now includes the districts of Amolatar, Alebtong, Apac, Dokolo, Kole, Lira, Oyam, and Otuke.
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A Lango chief with elaborate headdress. Photo published in 1902.
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Tarantino, A (1949). Lango clans. Makerere University Library: The Uganda Journal.

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