-
The continent of Afrika overall contains nearly 2,000 ethnic groups, this is the largest number of diverse ethnic groups of any continent. Many of the ethnic groups of Afrika are larger than European nations. For example, the Hausa population of Northern Nigeria is larger than the population of the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Portugal or Norway.
Each ethnic group traces it’s origin to a single female or male ancestor, some groups are related to others through lineage. The Akan of Ghana and the Ivory Coast for instance, is connected to seven founding sisters. Each group of Akan has the same set of “abusua” as all the others. Some Afrikan people trace their ancestry to only one ancestor. For example, an ethnic group such as the Ijaw of Nigeria traces its ancestry to “Woyengi”, a female deity.
Of the hundreds of ethnic groups on the continent, less than 20 is said can be considered major groups in terms of population. Thus, the Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa, Wolof, Mandinka, Congo, Chokwe, Akan, Kikuyu, Hutu, Oromo, Zulu, Xhosa and Shona are among the ethnic groups that are considered significant in their countries. In some modern states, how these groups are treated and how they treat others determines the fate of natiional politics.
A major source of internal political conflict in Afrika has been the rivalry between ethnic groups, such as the war between the Hutu and Tutsi in East Afrika. The Hutu and Tutsi populations share the same language and the same ancestors, but they have had devastating wars. One reason for the animosity is that of the colonial era European powers, mainly the Germans and the French who created distinctions between groups of East Afrikans in order to have a buffer population devoted to the colonial masters.
Afrikan ethnic groups are no different from ethnic groups on other continents in their relatedness to ancestry. Just as there are Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English ethnic groups in the United Kingdom, there are various ethnic groups in Afrikan countries. These groups as we are insructed by scholars must never be referred to as “tribes”, as this is a perjorative term related to a notion of Afrikans as “uncivilised, primitive and backward.” Afrikan ethnic groups represent culture, customs and traditions.
