Language groups in Kenya

Language groups in Africa

A language group is a group of people who speak similar or related languages. This means that when they speak, they are able to understand one another to some extent.

Africa has many different groups of people living in it. We shall cover this section by dividing the continent into the following regions;

• The peoples of Western Africa
• The peoples of Northern Africa
• The peoples of Southern Africa
• The peoples of Central Africa
• The peoples of Eastern Africa

Some of the Major Language Groups of Africa

People of Southern Africa

People	Country
Swazi	Swaziland
Xhosa	Republic of South Africa
Zulu	Republic of South Africa
Sotho	Lesotho
Herero	Namibia
Tswana	Botswana

 

 

People of Central Africa

People		Country
Shona	Ndebele	Zimbabwe
Bamileke		Cameroon
Yao	Makua	Mozambique
Bemba	Lozi	Zambia
Nyanja	Chewa	Malawi
Bakongo	Balunda	Democratic Republic of Congo
Mbundu		Angola

 

 

Bantus

Bantus are believed to have originated from the basin of River Congo, Cameroon and parts of West Africa. Their main economic activities include crop cultivation, livestock farming and trade.

Kenya	Uganda	Tanzania
Kikuyu Kamba Abagusii Abaluhya Abakuria Aembu, Wadawida Mijikenda Ameru Mbeere	Baganda Bagisu Basoga Bachiya Batoro Bakiga Banyankole Banyoro Basamia	Nyamwezi Chagga Hehe Yao Bena Washamba Sukuma Ngoni Ha Bahaya Makonde Sangu

 

 

Nilotes

Nilotes are believed to have originated from the Nile Valley. Nilotes are mainly found in the Southern half of Sudan, Northern Uganda, the lake regions of Kenya and Tanzania.

Nilotes are divided into three sub-groups;

1. The River Lake Nilotes
2. The Highland Nilotes
3. The Plain Nilotes

The River Lake Nilotes

They are mainly found in Kenya, Uganda and Sudan. Their main economic activities include livestock farming and fishing.

 

Kenya	Uganda	Sudan	Tanzania
Luo	Acholi Alur Langi Labwor	Dinka Nuer Shiluk Anuak	Luo

 

 

Highland Nilotes

They are mainly found in Kenya. Their main economic activities include crop cultivation and livestock farming.

 

Kenya	Uganda	Tanzania
Nandi Kipsigis Pokot Keiyo Tugen Sabaot Marakwet	Sebie Suk	Dadog

 

 

Plain Nilotes

They are mainly found in Kenya and Tanzania. Their main economic activities include livestock farming.

Kenya	Uganda	Sudan	Tanzania
Maasai Iteso Njemps Samburu Turkana	Iteso Jie Karamjong	Jive Kuku Donviro	Maasai

 

 

Cushites

They are mainly found in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti. They are believed to have migrated into Eastern Ethiopia across the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula before 2 000 BC. Their main economic activity is livestock farming.

Kenya	Tanzania	Ethiopia
Somali Rendile Orma Galla Gabbra Boran	Hawa Burungi Iraqw Sandawe	Bilin Bedawiye Afar Salas Boran Sindano

Semites

Semites have Jewish, Arabic and African blood.

Their main economic activity was trade.

They include; 

• Tigreans
• Arabs
• Amhara
• Falasha
• Eritrea
• Issa
• Bagarra
• Affar
• Nubians

Other communities

Other communities found in Africa are;

Asians: These people first came to Africa from India and Pakistan as traders along the coast.

More Asians came into the country during the construction of the Kenya-Uganda Railway.

Today, many Asians live in urban areas where they work as traders and business people.

Europeans: Europeans first came to Africa as explorers, traders and missionaries. Later, some Europeans came into the country as farmers and colonial administrators. Most of them came from Britain, France, Germany, Denmark and Italy.

Some Europeans came into Africa just for adventure but they settled there.

Some of them are citizens of different African countries.

Reasons for migration of the main language groups into Eastern Africa

In the past, communities in Africa migrated from one place to another because of the following reasons:

• Population increase led to overcrowding. This made people to move to less crowded areas.
• An increase in population sometimes led to disagreements and wars over land and other resources.
• An area which had frequent droughts and famine, forced people to move away from it.
• Areas that had common epidemics such as malaria and bilharzia forced people to move to safe areas.
• An increase in livestock numbers forced members of a community to migrate to larger areas in search of grazing land.