Shambaa people

The Shambaa people, also called the Sambaa, Shambala, Sambala or Sambara (Wasambaa, in Swahili), are a Bantu ethnic group. Their ancestral home is on the Usambara Mountains of Lushoto District, Bumbuli District. They are native to the valleys and eastern Usambara Mountains of Korogwe District, Korogwe Urban District and western Muheza District of northern Tanga Region of Tanzania.[1][2] The word Shamba means "farm", and these people live in one of the most fertile Tanzanian region. Shambaai in Kisambaa means "where the banana's thrive".[3] In 2001, the Shambaa population was estimated to number 664,000.[4][1]

Bundesarchiv Bild 105-DOA0787, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Waschambaapaar
Sambaa
Wasambaa
Sambaa family during the German occupation
Regions with significant populations
 Tanzania664,000
Languages
Shambala
Religion
Majority: Islam
Minority: African Traditional Religion, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Pare, Chaga, other Bantu peoples
a Shambaa elder, early 20th century

Language

The Shambaa people speak the Shambala language, also known as Kisambaa, Kishambaa, Kishambala, Sambaa, Sambala, Sambara, Schambala, Shambaa.[4][1]

Kishambaa is the Sambaa word for the Shambala language, Wasambaa are the people (Msambaa for a person), and Usambaa or Usambara is used for Sambaa lands. The Shambaa call their lands Shambalai.[1]

They are related to the Bondei and Zigua people, and the Shambala language is mutually intelligible with Bondei and Zigua, with the three groups sharing significant overlap in territory and a long history of intermarriage.[1] The similarity between them has prompted some to refer to themselves as "Boshazi" (the first syllable from each of the three groups).

Sambaa belongs to the North East Coastal Bantu languages. This is a group which includes Swahili; however, Swahili is not mutually intelligible with Sambaa.[4]

History

The WaSambaa were ruled by the Kilindi dynasty from the mid-18th century to the end of the 19th century. The founder of the dynasty was Mbegha,who was from Ngulu and his son Bughe established the hilltop capital at Vuga in the Usambaras.[5] The kingdom reached its greatest extent under Kimweri ye Nyumbai. After he died in 1862 a civil war broke out over the succession, fueled by competition for the new wealth that the caravan trade in the Pangani valley had brought to the region.[6]

The Shambaa king was served by a council of commoners. He alone held the power to determine life and death. He possessed the power to take both females without bridewealth and things without paying for them. He gathered tribute and distributed it to his agents. Only he had mastered the art of producing rain. At his official coronation, the people screamed out, "You are our King, but if you don't treat us right, we will get rid of you." However, without him, there would be no distinction between Shambaa and stranger, hill and plain, farm and forest, or civic society. Intercultural mingling produced the Shambaa's monarchy, which represented the apex of Bantu-speaking Tanganyika's civilization.[7]

Smallpox and slave trading contributed to the disintegration of the kingdom, and in 1898 a fire destroyed Vuga. The Germans took control.[8] Under colonial rule the dynasty continued to have some authority, but in 1962 the Tanzanian government removed all power from the hereditary chiefdoms.[9] Kimweri ye Nyumbai's descendant Kimweri Mputa Magogo (died 2000) was the last Lion King.[10]

The sub-chief of Mlalo, who had achieved nearly sovereignty during the instability of pato, welcomed Bethel missionaries to Usambara. It was noted that "Rev. Doring" prayed for peace in Ushambaa, an increase in population, and the independence of Mlalo. In contrast, the missionaries were led back to Mlalo by the monarch after their visit to Vugha. Of the 867 Lutherans who had been baptized in Usambara by 1906, Mlalo had 468. A ritual authority gave Shambaa kings a lot of power, and the character of preexisting religious organizations affected how people generally reacted to Christianity.[7]

The Usambara area was the early colonial headquarters for German East Africa during the hot season. Tanganyika, the name for the German colony, and later for the republic and eventually for the mainland portion of Tanzania is itself from Sambaa: Tanga means farmed land, and nyika is brushy land.

References
  1. David Lawrence (2009). Tanzania and Its People. New Africa Press. pp. 121–122. ISBN 978-1-4414-8692-9.
  2. Katariina Vainio-Mattila (2000), Wild vegetables used by the Sambaa in the Usambara Mountains, NE Tanzania, Annales Botanici Fennici, Vol. 37, No. 1 (2000), pages 57-67
  3. Iliffe, John (1979). A Modern History of Tanganyika. Cambridge: Cambrige University Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780511584114.
  4. Ethnologue 2001.
  5. Murless 2013, p. 1.
  6. Conte 2004, p. 33.
  7. Iliffe, John (1979). A Modern History of Tanganyika. Cambridge: Cambrige University Press. p. 22. ISBN 9780511584114.
  8. Murless 2013, p. 2.
  9. Feierman 1990, p. 229.
  10. Feierman 1990, p. 172.

Bibliography
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.