HERERO, a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting the central parts of South West Africa. Predominantly a pastoral people, they practise a little agriculture. They live in small household groups which are scattered irregularly over the tribal territory. They have a double clan system, one set (oruzo) with patrilineal descent, the other (eanda) with matrilineal. The former is as sociated with religious observances, the latter with economic life. Both are totemic and exogamous. The kinship system is classi ficatory, and cross-cousin marriage is preferred. Ancestor worship is the main religious cult, and each household keeps permanently alight a sacred fire upon which the welfare of its members is sup posed to depend.
See I. Irle, Die Herero, 1906.