Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Kipsigis
Kipsigis are the southernmost and most populous of the Kalenjin peoples of Kenya. The term "Kalenjin" (lit. "I say to you") was coined in radio broadcasts and at political rallies during the late colonial period, at a time when political...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Kikuyu
The Kikuyu, a major ethnic group of Kenya, numbered about 4.4 million in 1987, accounting for about 20 percent of Kenya's population of 25 million.The Kikuyu were originally hunter-gatherers, but they gradually adopted horticultural...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Fulani
The Fulani are found in twenty nations in a wide swath of Africa -- from Mauritania and Senegal to Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The Fulani form the largest pastoral nomadic group in the world. The Bororo'en are noted for the size of their...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Jacobites
The Jacobites, today numbering some half a million, adhere to a branch of Christianity that is most commonly known as the Jacobite church. They are to be found mostly in northern Iraq and southeastern Turkey. The Jacobites were one of...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Iteso
The Iteso comprise the second-largest ethnic group in Uganda and a significant portion of the non-Bantu-speaking minority in Kenya's Western Province. For the Iteso of Kenya, there are substantial studies of social organization, social...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Jews of Algeria Settlements
The Jews of Algeria are a very diverse cultural group, owing in part to Algeria's turbulent history. Now they constitute the most Westernized Jewish community originating from North Africa and are established mostly in France. Less than...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Jews, Arabic Speaking Settlements
Throughout their history, the vast majority of Jews have lived in large cities and market towns. They lived in neighborhoods that were largely Jewish, but in most cities they had neighbors who adhered to other religions. Preference was...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Hazara
Most Hazara live in central Afghanistan in an area known as the Hazarajat. Others live in areas north of the Hindu Kush. The Hazarajat and other Hazara territories are mountainous. The climate is severe in winter, with heavy snowfall;...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Hausa
The Hausa constitute the largest ethnic group in West Africa. The term "Hausa" actually refers to the language and, by extension, to its native speakers, of whom there are about 25 million. Agriculture is the main economic activity....
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Ganda
The Ganda are a group of people who live in the province of Buganda in Uganda. The Ganda are primarily an agricultural society; their staple crops are bananas and yams. Cotton was introduced as a market crop early in the twentieth...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Iraqw
The Iraqw are an agrico-pastoral people who live in north-central Tanzania. With the expansion of their territory, the Iraqw have come to interact and coexist with other ethnic groups. Maize is the staple crop of the Iraqw; it is...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Ibibio
The name "Ibibio" identifies the largest subdivision of people living in southeastern Nigeria, in Akwa Ibom State, and it is generally accepted and used for both ethnic and linguistic descriptions. Like their Igbo neighbors, the Ibibio...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Herero
The Herero are a Bantu group living today in Namibia and in the Republic of Botswana in southern Africa. The Herero speak a form of southwestern Bantu that is shared most closely by two other major groups. Cattle herding remains the...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Karamojong
The Karamojong are a pastoral group who inhabit the plateau region of Uganda. Linguistically, the Karamojong belong to the Central Group of the Nilote Language Family, which also includes several neighboring groups that speak a mutually...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Kanuri
The Kanuri are the dominant ethnic group of Borno Province in northeastern Nigeria. They number over 3 million in Nigeria, about 500,000 in Niger, 100,000 in Chad, and 60,000 in Cameroon. They are called "Beri-beri" by the Hausa, but...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Fali
The Fali belong to the vast paleonegritic group of people who are sometimes designated "Kirdi" (pagans), as opposed to the Islamized Peul or Fulbe, with whom they share the northern part of Cameroon. The Fali are farmers and...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Falasha
The Falasha are a northern Ethiopian highland population of Jewish belief. They are one of the dozens of small ethnic minorities in Ethiopia and have been recognized as a "nationality" in the Ethiopian constitution of 1986. More than...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Edo
"Edo" is the name that the people of the Benin Kingdom give to themselves, their language, and their capital city and kingdom. Renowned for their art of brass and ivory and for their complex political organization, the Edo Kingdom of...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Betsileo
The Betsileo (Bts) are one of approximately twenty "ethnies," or ethnic units, into which Madagascar divides its population. The Betsileo began to use that term for themselves after their conquest by the Merina in the nineteenth century....
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Berbers of Morocco
"Berber" refers to any native speaker of a dialect of the Berber language, although many Arabic speakers in North Africa are also Berber by descent, even if they have lost the language. Especially in Morocco, "Imazighen" is today the...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Chaldeans
Today the term "Chaldean" is used to refer to a branch of the Nestorian Orthodox church that became affiliated with Rome while preserving its liturgical language and ecclesiastical customs. For example, Chaldean priests, unlike their...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Chagga Kinship
In the nineteenth century the Kichagga-speaking people on Mount Kilimanjaro were divided into many small, autonomous chiefdoms. Early accounts frequently identify the inhabitants of each chiefdom as a separate "tribe." Although the...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Cape Coloureds
The term "Cape Coloureds" generally refers to those South Africans of mixed cultural and racial stock whose ancestors include Europeans, Khoi and other indigenous African people, and Asians. Today their descendants are found throughout...
Countries and Their Cultures
Countries and Their Cultures: Basseri
The Basseri are traditional pastoral nomads who inhabit the Iranian province of Fars and migrate along the steppes and mountains near the town of Shiraz. The Basseri are a clearly delineated group, defined by political rather than by...