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The Nyamwezi (originally and also Wanyamwezi) are the second largest of over 120 ethnic groups in Tanzania. They live in the northwest central area of the country, between Lake Victoria and Lake Rukwa. The term Nyamwezi is of Swahili origin, and translates as "people of the moon". Lake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza (also known as Ukerewe and Nalubaale) is one of the Great Lakes of Africa. ...
Lake Rukwa is a lake in southwestern Tanzania. ...
This article is about the language. ...
It was only in the 19th century that the name could be found in literature; the term might include almost anyone from the western plateau. Travel taught them that others called them Nyamwezi, and almost all men accepted the name given to them by the coastal people indicating that the Nyamwezi came from the west.
A century later, their land is still called 'Greater Unyamwezi', about 35,000 square miles of rolling land at about an elevation of 4,000 feet. Their year is divided into two seasons, wet and dry, with consiserable variation depending on time and place. The Nyamwezi have close cultural ties with the Sukuma people. Their homeland is called Unyamwezi, and they speak the language (also known as Kinyamwezi), although many also speak Swahili and / or English. The Sukuma are one of the largest ethnic groups in Tanzania, representing about 13 percent of the total population. ...
Swahili (also called Kiswahili; see Kiswahili for a discussion of the nomenclature) is an agglutinative Bantu language widely spoken in East Africa. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
History There were five 'tribal' groups, all referring to themselves as Wanyamwezi to outsiders, Kimbu, Konongo, Nyamwezi, Sukuma, and Sumbwa, who were never united. All groups groups normally merged imperceptable with one another having broadly similar cultures. It was, however, an oversmplifacation to view them as a single group.
According to oral tradition, the Nyamwezi are thought to have settled in west central Tanzania (their present location) some time in the 1600s. The earliest evidence comes from the Galahansa, and confirms their presence there in the late 1600s. They were once fisherman and nomadic farmers due to the poor soil quality of the area. Their travels made them professional traders, and by 1800 they were taking caravans to the coast to trade in Katanga copper, wax, salt, ivory, and slaves. Arab and India Slave and ivory traders reached the Nyamwezi by 1825. They also started to acquire guns, and establish regular armies, with intra- tribal wars and some conflicts with Arabs on the coast throughout the 1800s. They could be considered an acquisitive society, often accused of thinking of nothing but how to earn money. Oral tradition or oral culture is a way of transmitting history, literature or law from one generation to the next in a civilization without a writing system. ...
1800 (MDCCC) was an exceptional common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. ...
Capital Lubumbashi Created June 1960 Dissolved January 1963 Demonym Katangan Currency Katanga franc Katanga is the southern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, regional capital Lubumbashi (formerly Elizabethville). ...
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The Arabs (Arabic: عرب) are a heterogenous ethnic group who are predominantly speakers of the Arabic language, mainly found throughout the Middle East and North Africa. ...
The Nyamwezi had long been a settled agricultural and cattle owning people, arriving on the western plateau in the 1500s and originally living in a mosaic of small and independent chiefdoms slowly carved out by ruling dynasties which according to a Catholic missionary may have numbered over 150, each with its own councelors, elders, and court slaves. In the 1800s, they were alreary recongnized as large slave-owners and on the coast were famous for the herds bu, while cattle were important they were not often part of normal life, their entire care often being left in the hands of professional herdsmen; the immigrant Tutsi.
From 1860-1884, the Nyamwezi were ruled by a military leader and Mtemi (king) named Mirambo who gathered considerable wealth from general trade and the collection of mahongo. Oscar Baumann considered them among Africas's finest agriculturalists, not being afraid to involve themselves in exchanging ivory for slaves to work their fields in their absence and found wildlife a source of profitable meat. Miramba (called the 'Napoleon of Central Africa' by Stanley blocked the Arab trade routes for a time, but his empire, a loose confederation of chiefdoms (centered on Urambe) broke up soon after his death from 'natural causes' in 1884, (cancer? and may have been ritually strangled). The confederacy then died, and once again became an area of small chiefdoms acting on their own. 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ...
1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...
Mirambo, leader of the Nyamwezi from 1860 to 1884, during European colonial expansion, regarded the Europeans as vehicles to his success. ...
German colonists controlled Tanzania from the late 1800s, calling it German East Africa. Britain took control after World War One, and conducted a campaign of forced relocation of Africans to make way for white farmers. German East Africa (German: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was Germanys colony in East Africa, including what is now Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanganyika, the mainland part of present Tanzania. ...
Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...
Demographics With the establishment of German East Africa in the 19th century, Moravian Church missionaries arrived in the Lake Malawi region of Tanganyika. Today, the Moravian Church In Western Tanzania (MCWT) has about 80,000 Nyawezi adherents and many continue to evangelize among the Sukuma people. A Moravian is a Protestant belonging to a religious movement that originated in Moravia, Czech Republic. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Flag of Tanganyika Tanganyika was an East African republic within the Commonwealth of Nations, named after Lake Tanganyika, which formed its western border. ...
As of 1989, there were about 1.5 million Nyamwezi. About 926,000 Nyamwezi speak a language of the Bantu phylum, classified as the Sukuma-Nyamwezi Group of Bantu. They are predominantly subsistence farmers and cattle herders. Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu (dull yellow) vs. ...
Culture The Nyamwezi are known for their humorous songs which are played on a stringed cowherd's harp. Their staple food is ugali, a porridge made from hominy and served with meat and vegetables. Coffee and tea are common, as are alcoholic drinks made from fermented corn or sorghum. Ugali is a staple starch component of many African meals, especially in East Africa. ...
Despite conversion attempts by Islam and Christianity, most follow a traditional religion. They believe in a powerful god called Likube (High God), Limatunda (Creator), Limi (the Sun) and Liwelolo (the Universe), but ancestor worship is a more frequent daily practice. Offerings of sheep or goats are made to ancestors, and the help of Likube is invoked beforehand. Spirits also play an active role in Nyamwezi religious life, with mfumu, witchdoctors, or diviners, playing the role of counsellor and medical practitioner. Bulogi (witchcraft) is a powerful force in Nyamwezi culture, with cults forming around (for example) possession by certain types of spirit. The Baswezi society recruits people possessed by the Swezi spirit. Ancestor worship, also ancestor veneration, is a religious practice based on the belief that ones ancestors possess supernatural powers. ...
Witchdoctor, A.K.A. EJ Da Witch Doctor is a founding member of the Atlanta Dungeon Family collective which includes Goodie Mob, OutKast, Cool Breeze, Killer Mike, Big Rube, and others. ...
Witchcraft, in various historical, religious and mythical contexts, is the use of certain kinds of alleged supernatural or magical powers. ...
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