If I can recommend a Sub-Saharan cultures, I can tell of the Zulu people. They have a decently extensive data about them online, importantly MADE and kept by themselves. There's also the San that roam the Kalahari Desert. Their civilization is arguably the longest lasting one, 30,000 years, which is potentially quite interesting for a character. The caveats is that there many misconceptions about them in "official" researches, also, due to their unique lifestyle, they are functionally unreachable.
While I can't say on the character's species (maybe a African wild dog or something?) I'd like to cautiously advise against him being a Djinn. If there's something that differentiates Northern and Southern African cultures it's the religious import. North Africa's peoples's had major contact with Islamic culture while South got most of it's religion from later European colonialism, ergo Christianity (not disregarding native beliefs, however those are poorly documented). Though I can't attest to it, having a mythological figure rooted in Islamic tradition like the Djinn being put to represent Southern African cultures could be seen as tone-deaf.
I know you'll do a good job regardless, so I await whatever decision you make.