There are more than 100 distinct ethnic groups and tribes in Tanzania, not including ethnic groups that reside in Tanzania as

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

from conflicts in nearby countries. These ethnic groups are of

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle * Black Association for Nationa ...

origin, with large Nilotic-speaking, moderate indigenous, and small non-African minorities. The country lacks a clear dominant ethnic majority: the largest ethnic group in Tanzania, the Maasai, comprises only about 16 percent of the country's total population, followed by the Wanyakyusa and the Chagga. Unlike its neighbouring countries, Tanzania has not experienced large-scale ethnic conflicts, a fact attributed to the unifying influence of the

Swahili language Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Sw ...

.Ethnic groups of Tanzania
/ref> The ethnic groups mentioned here are mostly differentiated based on ethnolinguistic lines. They may sometimes be referred to together with noun class prefixes appropriate for

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and us ...

s: this can be either a prefix from the ethnic group's native language (if Bantu), or the Swahili prefix ''wa''.

References

Ndwewe ; from morogoro, Tanzania. Malinyi, ulanga and Kilombero

Ethnologue
{{Tanzania topics *

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 ...

Ethni