The African linsangs[4] also known as oyans[5] are two species classified in the mammalian subfamily Viverrinae, in the family Viverridae.

The genus Poiana was erected by John Edward Gray in a paper read at the 8 November 1864 meeting of the Zoological Society of London and published the following year, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London relating to 1864.

[2][7] Both linsang genera (Poiana and the Asian Prionodon) were formerly placed in the subfamily Viverrinae (of Viverridae), along with several other genera, but recent research suggests that their actual relationships may be somewhat different; a 2020 checklist places them instead in the subfamily Genettinae.

[2] The linsangs are remarkable for their morphological resemblance to cats, family Felidae, which is greater than in the other viverrids.

As the relationship between linsangs and cats was thought to be rather distant (the two groups belonging to different families within the superfamily Feliformia), this was considered an example of convergent evolution.