The Lele (or Leele), also known as Bashilele or Usilele, are a Bantu ethnic group closely related to the Kuba people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[1] They traditionally live in the Kasai River region,[2] but since the 1950s many have migrated to Kinshasa.[3] There are currently about 30,000 Lele, of which 26,000 speak the Lele language.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Encyclopedia of African Peoples (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago and London, 2000), s.v. Lele (p. 125).
  2. ^ Mary Douglas, The Lele of the Kasai (1963), ch. 1.
  3. ^ Mary Douglas, "Sorcery Accusations Unleashed: The Lele Revisited", in Implicit Meanings (2nd ed., Routledge, 1999), pp. 78-80.
  4. ^ Lele at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)