Bamana
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Bamana peoples are the largest ethnic group in the Republic of Mali. Primarily farmers, these Mande-speaking peoples of the Niger savannah strongly resisted Islam and were known as bambara, or pagans, by the Muslim invaders.
Bamum
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Cameroon Grasslands is home to the Bamum peoples; their capital, Foumban, is in the Northwest Province of Cameroon. The 100,000 Benue-Congo-speaking Bamum are farmers and herders who live in villages presided over by hereditary headmen. They are among the few African peoples to have developed their own system of writing, which is largely ideographic or pictographic.
Bamileke
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Bantu-speaking Bamileke peoples live within the Cameroon Grasslands, a mountainous region in western Cameroon made up of many different kingdoms. Although the Bamileke peoples share artistic traditions with the Bamum and Kom neighbors, they produce works with distinct characteristics. Much of the art created by the Bamileke is for the king or ruler.
Asante
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The south-central forest of Ghana is home to the Twi-speaking Asante peoples, who number about two million. Their expansive territory has three distinct regions, each organized into a kingdom. An agrarian peoples, the Asante make art that varies widely in both subject and form.
Amazigh (Berbers)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Amazigh peoples (Imazighen, "the free people", also known as Berbers), who live in North and West Africa, comprise between 40 to 60 percent of Morocco's population. The Ida ou Nadif and the Ida ou Zeddoute live around Igherm village in the central region of the Anti-Atlas mountain range, which extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Sahara, and speak the Chleuh dialect.
Baule
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In the savannah between the Bandama, and N'zi rivers (the "Baule V") in Central Côte d'Ivoire, the Baule peoples raise crops and animals to sell at markets run by the village women. Today, the Baule number 1.5 million. Their villages are ruled by notables, some of whom are descended from those who left Ghana in the 18th century. Baule artists work in wood and brass to create anthropomorphic masks and figures related to the afterlife.
The Toraja of Sulawesi
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The whole of the Indonesian archipelago is characterized by an astounding cultural diversity, and Sulawesi, whose peoples speak sixty-two distinct languages, is no exception. Those of South Sulawesi, with whom we are mainly concerned, are broadly divisible into three groups: the Bugis and Makassar of the lowland areas and the Toraja of the mountainous north.
Lampung Culture
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The term “Lampung” is actually a generic term and refers to three ethnic groups: the Abung, a people that inhabited the mountains in the north of the province; the Pubian, from the eastern lowlands; and the Paminggir, who lived along the southern coasts. Paminggir people have also settled outside of Lampung
The Batak of Sumatra
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The Batak live mainly in the mountainous region of northern Sumatra, the largest of Indonesia’s roughly seventeen thousand islands. Estimated as numbering around six million, they constitute one of the largest ethnic minorities in this multiethnic nation, with its now almost two hundred fifty million inhabitants.