Makua people
A Makua mother and child in Mozambique. | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 8,486,103 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| East Africa | |
| Mozambique | 8,486,103 (26.1%)[1][a] |
| South Africa | 18,000[2] |
| Comoros | 14,000[3] |
| Languages | |
| Makhuwa, Portuguese, English (Tanzania) | |
| Religion | |
| Traditional African religions, Islam (Sunni), Christianity (Roman Catholic) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Sotho-Tswana, Eastern Shona peoples, Venda people, Somali Bantus, Afro-Arabs | |
| |
The Makua people, also known as Makhuwa or Wamakua, are a Bantu ethnic group found in northern Mozambique and the southern border provinces of Tanzania such as the Mtwara Region.[4][5] They are the largest ethnic group in Mozambique, and primarily concentrated in a large region to the north of the Zambezi River.[6]
They are studied by sociologists in four geographical and linguistic sub-divisions: the lower or Lolo Makua, the upper or Lomwe Makua, the Maua and the Niassa Makua or Medo.[6][7] They speak variants of the Makua language, also called Emakua, and this is a Bantu-group language.[8] The total Makua population is estimated to be about 3.5 million of which over 1 million speak the lower (southern) dialect and about 2 million the upper (northern, Lomwe) version; given the large region and population, several ethnic groups that share the region with the Makua people also speak the Emakua.[8][9]
- ^ "Mozambique", The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 2022-01-18, retrieved 2022-01-31
- ^ https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/18875
- ^ https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/18875
- ^ Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (2010). Encyclopedia of Africa: Kimbangu, Simon - Zulu, Volume 2. Oxford University Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-19-533770-9.
- ^ Godfrey Mwakikagile (2013). Africa at the End of the Twentieth Century: What Lies Ahead. New Africa Press. pp. 136–137. ISBN 978-9987-16-030-3.
- ^ a b M. D. D. Newitt (1995). A History of Mozambique. Indiana University Press. pp. 62–65. ISBN 0-253-34006-3.
- ^ Hilary C. Palmer; Malyn D.D. Newitt (2016). Northern Mozambique in the Nineteenth Century: The Travels and Explorations of H.E. O'Neill. BRILL Academic. pp. 154–158 with footnotes. ISBN 978-90-04-29368-7.
- ^ a b Andrew Dalby (1998). Dictionary of Languages: The Definitive Reference to More Than 400 Languages. Columbia University Press. pp. 386–387. ISBN 978-0-231-11568-1.
- ^ Lomwe, MAKHUWA-MACA, MAKHUWA-MAKHUWANA, MAKHUWA-METTO, MAKHUWA-SHIRIMA, Ethnologue