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The Tanzanian Rift Valley Area – running from the northern border with Kenya through Arusha, Manyara, and southwards into Dodoma region – has been witness to the arrivals, movements, and exchanges of an incredible diversity of peoples, from prehistoric up to modern times. The Area stands out for its many layers of history, its array of interconnected cultures, and its myriad of distinct languages. The Rift Valley Network is an academic community dedicated to deepening our understanding of this place, and here, our website, is where we connect and share with you.

RVN Webinar Series

The Rift Valley Webinar Series includes talks on the languages and cultures of the Rift Valleys. Recordings can be found on the Rift Valley Network YouTube page and the Rift Valley Network Zenodo community.

Explore the languages of the Rift Valley

The Tanzanian Rift Valley is an area with great linguistic diversity. It has languages from all three of the largest language families in Africa—Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and Afro-Asiatic—as well as two isolate “click” languages, Hadza and Sandawe.

RVN Bibliography

The Rift Valley Bibliography is an open access bibliography of publications related to the languages of the Rift Valley Area and associated communities. Version 1.3 includes 939 entries and  a collection of PDF files available exclusively for members of the Rift Valley Network.

Mission

The Rift Valley Network aims to foster an academic community for deepening our understanding of the peoples of the Tanzanian Rift Valley Area, especially through histories, cultures, and languages.

The Tanzanian Rift Valley Area was – and continues to be – a crucible of dynamic, innovative, and complex societies. Because of this, the Area presents endless opportunities to learn about the nature of communication, cultural exchange, and the African past.
Knowledge is power, and it is our belief that collaborative knowledge creation is the single most powerful way to reframe existing narratives about the peoples of the Area, to valorize the work surrounding understanding the Area, and to build solidarity and shared agency between community members and outside researchers.

It is our intention to make the Rift a space for coming together: exploring what we know about its peoples (both from inside and outside perspectives), and enhancing exchange among researchers, dialogue between researchers and local stakeholders, and ultimately communication to Tanzanians at-large.
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