Mangbetu | |
|---|---|
 Mangbetu woman, [1928-1938], photo by Kazimierz Zagórski | |
| Total population | |
| 1,807,000 [1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | |
| Languages | |
| Mangbetu language | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Central Sudanic peoples |
The Mangbetu are a Central Sudanic ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, living in the northeastern province of Haut-Uele.
The Mangbetu are known for their highly developed art and music. One instrument associated with and named after them is the Mangbetu harp or guitar. See the National Music Museum and the Hamill Gallery for images. One harp has sold for over $100,000. [2]
Musicologists have also sought out the Mangbetu to make video and audio recordings of their music. [3]
The Mangbetu stood out to European colonists because of their elongated heads. Traditionally, babies' heads were wrapped tightly with cloth in order to give them this distinctive appearance. The practice, called Lipombo, began dying out in the 1950s with the arrival of more Europeans and westernization. Because of this distinctive look, it is easy to recognize Mangbetu figures in African art.[ citation needed ]
The Mangbetu originally came from South Sudan and migrated south to their current location in CE 1000. When they arrived into their current location with its new climate and environment (which was different from the much drier lands in south Sudan) they came to be so heavily indebted to Bantu teachers that they borrowed almost their whole vocabulary relating to their new habitat from Bantu languages. [4]
By the early 18th century the Mangbetu had consisted of a number of small clans who, from southward migrations, had come in contact with a number of northward-migrating Bantu-speaking tribes among whom they lived interspersed. In the late 18th century a group of Mangbetu-speaking elites, mainly from the Mabiti clan, assumed control over other Mangbetu clans and unified them into a kingdom. It is likely that their knowledge of iron and copper forging, by which they made weapons and fine ornaments, gave them a military and economic advantage over their neighbors. [5]
After the unification of Mangbetu clans, King Nabiembali began expanding Mangbetu influence in the early 19th century into other tribes, namely the Madi, Bangba, Mayogo, Mayvu, Makango, and Barambo. Nabiembali legitimized his conquests by marrying many local wives of these peoples, allowing his sons to be accepted as rulers among their mothers' peoples. However, because his sons sought to extend their own power and influence of their maternal clans they ruled, they became resistant to Nabiembali, and in 1859, they revolted and killed him, establishing their own independent kingdoms. [6] These kingdoms would later be subject to Egyptian rule in the late 19th century, regaining independence briefly after the Mahdist takeover of Sudan until their colonization in 1892 by the Congo Free State. [7]
The Azande are an ethnic group in Central Africa speaking the Zande languages. They live in the south-eastern part of the Central African Republic, the north-eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the south-central and south-western parts of South Sudan. The Congolese Azande live in Orientale Province along the Uele River; Isiro, Dungu, Kisangani and Duruma. The Central African Azande live in the districts of Rafaï, Bangasu and Obo. The Azande of South Sudan live in Central, Western Equatoria and Western Bahr al-Ghazal States, Yei, Maridi, Yambio, Tombura, Deim Zubeir, Wau Town and Momoi.
The Luo, are several ethnically and linguistically related Nilotic ethnic groups that inhabit an area ranging from Egypt and Sudan to South Sudan and Ethiopia, through Northern Uganda and eastern Congo (DRC), into western Kenya, and the Mara Region of Tanzania. Their Luo languages belong to the western branch of the Nilotic language family.
The Beja people are a Cushitic ethnic group native to the Eastern Desert, inhabiting a coastal area from southeastern Egypt through eastern Sudan and into northwestern Eritrea. They are descended from peoples who have inhabited the area since 4000 BC or earlier, although they were Arabized by Arabs who settled in the region. They are nomadic and live primarily in the Eastern Desert. The Beja number around 1,900,000 to 2,759,000.
Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Middle Africa is an analogous term used by the United Nations in its geoscheme for Africa and consists of the following countries: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, and São Tomé and Príncipe. These eleven countries are members of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Six of those countries are also members of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) and share a common currency, the Central African CFA franc.
The Mbuti people, or Bambuti, are one of several indigenous pygmy groups in the Congo region of Africa. Their languages are Central Sudanic languages and Bantu languages.
The Kongo people are a Bantu ethnic group primarily defined as the speakers of Kikongo. Subgroups include the Beembe, Bwende, Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Dondo, Lari, and others.
The Hema people or Bahema (plural) are a Bantu ethnic group who are concentrated in parts of Ituri Province in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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The Bemba belong to a large group of Bantu peoples, primarily in the Northern, Luapula, Muchinga and the northern Central Province of Zambia. The Bemba entered Zambia before 1740 by crossing the Luapula River from Kola. Several other ethnic groups in the northern and Luapula regions of Zambia speak languages which are similar to Bemba, but have different origins. The Bemba people are not indigenous to Copperbelt Province; they arrived there during the 1930s due to employment opportunities in copper mining.
In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the use of music is not limited to entertainment: it serves a purpose to the local community and helps in the conduct of daily routines. Traditional African music supplies appropriate music and dance for work and for religious ceremonies of birth, naming, rites of passage, marriage and funerals. The beats and sounds of the drum are used in communication as well as in cultural expression.
South African Bantu-speaking peoples represent the majority ethno-racial group of South Africans. Occasionally grouped as Bantu, the term itself is derived from the English word "people", common to many of the Bantu languages. The Oxford Dictionary of South African English describes "Bantu", when used in a contemporary usage or racial context as "obsolescent and offensive", because of its strong association with the "white minority rule" with their Apartheid system. However, Bantu is used without pejorative connotations in other parts of Africa and is still used in South Africa as the group term for the language family.
The Lunda are a Bantu ethnic group that originated in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo along the Kalanyi River and formed the Kingdom of Lunda in the 17th century under their ruler, Mwata Yamvo or Mwaant Yav, with their capital at Musumba. From there they spread widely through Katanga and into Eastern Angola, north-western Zambia and the Luapula valley of Zambia.
The Nguni people are a linguistic cultural group of Bantu cattle herders who migrated from central Africa into Southern Africa, made up of ethnic groups formed from hunter-gatherer pygmy and proto-agrarians, with offshoots in neighboring colonially-created countries in Southern Africa. Swazi people live in both South Africa and Eswatini, while Ndebele people live in both South Africa and Zimbabwe.
African Harps, particularly arched or "bow" harps, are found in several Sub-Saharan African music traditions, particularly in the north-east. Used from early times in Africa, they resemble the form of harps in ancient Egypt with a vaulted body of wood, parchment faced, and a neck, perpendicular to the resonant face, on which the strings are wound.
The Pende people also known as the Phende people, are an ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Pende are divided into two cultural groups: the Eastern Pende and the Western Pende who are distinct but consider themselves part of the same ethnic group. The number of people who consider themselves to be ethnically Pende is estimated at over 250,000.
The Bantu peoples are an ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native African ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. The languages are native to 24 countries spread over a vast area from Central Africa to Southeast Africa and into Southern Africa.
The Mangbetu is African tribe part of Democratic Republic of the Congo, living in the Orientale Province. The people of this tribe produced a large variety of highly developed art and music, such as harps, guitars, pots, and other crafts. Their pots are still prominent in today's art spectrum, and ones that have been constructed in the early days of the tribe are sold to collectors and people alike for high prices.
The Bafumbira, are a Bantu ethnic group from Kisoro District in South Western Uganda. They are of three indigenous groups: Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa.
The Basimba are a Bantu-speaking community in Uganda. The name Basimba is a label of shared identity that predates the 13th century. Basimba has been alternatively associated with the people or their place of origin. The early Ovambo people applied the name to the whole group of the leopard totem clan, known as Bena Ngo in Zambia and Abe Ngo in Uganda.
The Goma, who also refer to themselves as Al ghamawiyyun in Arabic, are a tribe in the Kigoma Region in western Tanzania. They are a contingent of the Bantu tribe who are more commonly found in Tanzania and present-day Democratic Republic of Congo who migrated from the western shore of the Lake Tanganyika in Democratic Republic of Congo with origins from Sudan. They are the first group of the Bantu tribe to ever cross the Lake Tanganyika and also the first group to reside in the Urban District of Kigoma as its inhabitants. Following the Wagoma were Niakaramba (Kwalumona) from Cape Karamba and then Wabwari from Ubwari peninsula. The Kwalumona merged within Wabwari, identified themselves as Bwaris and settled north of Wagoma in Kigoma before resettling in Ujiji and its environs, where they formed a tribal Confederacy in Ujiji known as Wamanyema. The Wagoma crossed the lake early due to their invention of dug-out canoes mitumbwi ya mti mmoja curved from Mivule trees of Ugoma mountains from western shore of the Lake.
Media related to Mangbetu people at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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