Zande
/ˈzæn.di/noun
A member of a Central African people chiefly living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic, or their language.
Did you know?The Zande are widely known through anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard’s classic study of Azande witchcraft beliefs, published in 1937.
Etymological Timeline
Precolonial period
Zande
Zande / Azande
“An indigenous ethnonym used for the Central African people; the original semantic meaning is not securely established.”
19th Century
European records
Azande
“European explorers and administrators recorded the people under forms such as Azande and Zande.”
Late 19th Century
French
Zandé
“French colonial and ethnographic writing used Zandé for the people and their language.”
20th Century
English
Zande
“English adopted Zande as an ethnonym and linguistic name, alongside the form Azande.”
Modern English
English
Zande
“A standard English noun or adjective referring to the people, their language, or their culture.”
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