Routledge is proud to be re-issuing this landmark series in association with the International African Institute. The series, originally published between 1950 and 1977, collected ethnographic information on the peoples of Africa, using all available sources: archives, memoirs and reports as well as anthropological research which, in 1945, had only just begun.

Concise, critical and (for its time) accurate, the Ethnographic Survey contains sections as follows:

• Physical Environment




• Linguistic Data




• Demography




• History & Traditions of Origin




• Nomenclature




• Grouping




• Cultural Features: Religion, Witchcraft, Birth, Initiation, Burial




• Social & Political Organization: Kinship, Marriage, Inheritance, Slavery, Land Tenure, Warfare & Justice




• Economy & Trade




• Domestic Architecture

Each of the 50 volumes will be available to buy individually, and these are organized into regional sub-groups: East Central Africa, North-Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, West Central Africa, Western Africa, and Central Africa Belgian Congo.

The volumes are supplemented with maps, available to view on routledge.com or available as a pdf from the publishers.