The ethnic groups of Africa number in the thousands, with each population generally having its own
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
(or
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...
of a language) and
culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
. The ethnolinguistic groups include various
Afroasiatic,
Khoisan,
Niger-Congo, and
Nilo-Saharan populations.
The official population count of the various ethnic groups in Africa is highly uncertain, both due to limited infrastructure to perform censuses and due to the rapid population growth. There have also been accusations of deliberate misreporting in order to give selected ethnicities numerical superiority (as in the case of Nigeria's Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo peoples).
A 2009 genetic clustering study, which genotyped 1327 polymorphic markers in various African populations, identified six ancestral clusters. The clustering corresponded closely with ethnicity, culture and language. A 2018
whole genome sequencing study of the world's populations observed similar clusters among the populations in Africa. At K=9, distinct ancestral components defined the
Afroasiatic-speaking populations inhabiting
North Africa and
Northeast Africa; the
Nilo-Saharan-speaking populations in Northeast Africa and
East Africa; the
Ari populations in Northeast Africa; the
Niger-Congo-speaking populations in West-Central Africa,
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali ...
, East Africa and
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...
; the
Pygmy populations in
Central Africa
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Co ...
; and the
Khoisan populations in Southern Africa.
Lists
By linguistic phylum
As a first overview, the following table lists major groups by
ethno-linguistic affiliation, with rough
population estimates (as of 2016):
Major ethnic groups
The following is a table of major ethnic groups (10 million people or more):
See also
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:African Ethnic Groups
Ethnic groups
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
de:Liste afrikanischer Sprachen