Kpelle people

The Kpelle (also written Kpele, called in French Guerze ) are an ethnic group in West Africa, mainly in Liberia and Guinea in the Southwest (Region Forest Guinea) is established. In Liberia there are about 300,000 Kpelle, Guinea 100,000. Their share in the total population of Liberia is about 20 %.

Language and Culture

Their language, a Mande language is also called Kpelle and is divided into Guinean (northern ) and Liberian (southern ) Kpelle. For both the Kpelle dialects developed their own unified writing system, the Kpelle script.

There are among the Kpelle both Christians and followers of traditional religions and - especially in Guinea - Muslims. The Guinean Kpelle are called by the Liberian also " French Kpelle ".

Economy

The main food of the Kpelle is rice, which is grown in slash and burn economy and harvested once a year. The second most important food is cassava; beside other crops are grown, fishing, hunting and Sammlerei operated. Livestock, however, is rather rare. In the villages, craft operates. Since the 1960s there besides subsistence farming and the cultivation of cash crops such as sugar cane, cocoa and coffee to a modest extent. Many Kpelle now work as wage laborers in rubber plantations and iron mines.

Literature and sources

• Bledsoe, Caroline H.; Women and marriage in Kpelle society; Stanford, Calif.. 1980; ISBN 0804710198
• Westermann, Diedrich; The Kpelle: A negro tribe in Liberia; Göttingen 1921 ( Cambridge University Press )
• Kpelle
• Ethnologue.com / SIL International

• Ethnicity in Africa
• Ethnic group in Guinea
• Ethnic group in Liberia