We have been studied by a “certain group of people” for a very VERY long time.
Meet Joseph Harold Greenberg, American JEWISH scientist credited with classifying and designating African languages!
Greenberg grouped the hundreds of African languages into four families, which he dubbed Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger–Congo, and Khoisan.
During the course of his work, Greenberg invented the term "Afroasiatic" to replace the earlier term "Hamito-Semitic", after showing that the Hamitic group, accepted widely since the 19th century, is not a valid language family.
Another major feature of his work was to establish the classification of the BANTU LANGUAGES, which occupy much of sub-Saharan Africa, as a part of the Niger–Congo family, rather than as an independent family as many Bantuists had maintained.