The Bembe (''Babembe'') are an ethnic and linguistic group based in the eastern
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
and western
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...
. It is a sub-ethnic group of the
Mongo ethnic group. In 1991, the Bembe population of the DRC was estimated to number 252,000 and around 1.5 million in 2005.
[Bembe, ethnologue.com](_blank)
Cultural traditions
A semi-nomadic people, who often settled in forest environments, the Bembe tended to abandon their small villages as the soil became less fertile. The women cultivated the crops and the men hunted and fished.
See also
*
List of ethnic groups in Tanzania
There are more than 100 distinct ethnic groups and tribes in Tanzania, not including ethnic groups that reside in Tanzania as refugees from conflicts in nearby countries. These ethnic groups are of Bantu origin, with large Nilotic-speaking, mode ...
References
External links
Works by Bembe artists at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (Beware, some of the objects could be Beembe of Congo-Brazzaville!)Bembe art at the University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art (Beware, some of the objects could be Beembe of Congo-Brazzaville!)Works by Bembe artists at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Beware, some of the objects could be Beembe of Congo-Brazzaville!Anamongo, their tribes and their regions)
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Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Ethnic groups in Tanzania
Indigenous peoples of East Africa