Bushi is mainly a traditional region and an African ethnic group in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire); mainly located in the South Kivu province. It lies along the Mitumba Mountains and includes the administrative territories of Walungu, Kabare, Kalehe, Mwenga, Idjwi and Uvira surrounding Bukavu, which is its main city. There are about 7-12 million inhabitants in the region speaking the Mashi or Shi language. The Bushi is also a kingdom that is organized into many localities or sub-chiefdoms.
The Shi people, also known as Bashi, Banyabungo or Banyindu; are exactly close neighbours of Lega; Fuliiro, Bavira and Bembe people in the southern part of South Kivu; the Banyarwanda/Barundi people in the neighboring countries, and are close neighbours of Bahunde and Banyanga people who are located in the North Kivu province.
The inhabitants of Bushi are the Shi people (Shi: Bashi, singular: Mushi)[1] and their language is the Shi language (Mashi), a Central (Zone J) Bantu language. People are mainly farmers in this chiefdom; but there are more and more distinguished businessmen; politicians and other intellectuals from this important ethnic group of the South-Kivu region. The Mwami Désiré Kabare is the King of these people.
History
Bushi Kingdom
According to local tradition, the Bushi Kingdom, centered around the city of Kabare, was founded somewhere before the year 1388, and remained independant until the Belgiancolonialisation of the Congo in the late 19th century.[2] Controlling a region of high interest, the Bushi Kingdom was often attacked, and its people's rich oral tradition tells of victories against, among others, invaders from the neighbouring Kingdom of Rwanda and the Belgian colonists.[3][4]
Kabare Chiefdom
From the late 19th century onwards, Belgium colonised the area, and with the establishment of Bukavu in 1901, the local kingdoms, including Bushi, were reduced to chiefdoms. Local kings were usually exiled.[5] As of 2024, the Kabare Chiefdom, the main remnant of the kingdom, still exists as a part of the DRC, but doesn't hold much real power. Other successor chiefdoms also still exist.
Rulers of Kabare and other chiefdoms
Bushi Kingdom and Kabare Chiefdom
The Kingdom of Bushi was ruled by bami (singular mwami). These bami have, ever since the kingdom's establishment circa 1380, been from the same dynasty, and have all carried the name Nnabushi (Kabare), supplemented by a third name. There may have been up to 31 bami since the Bushi Kingdom was established, but the sources are doubtful.
The following bami ruled the Bushi Kingdom. Note that older names are traditional and doubtful and the list may be outdated:[2]
Nnabushi Kabare Ngabwe (? –?) (first mwami according to tradition)
Nnabushi Albert Kabare I (Ntayitunda I) (1936 – 1979)
Nnabushi Alexandre Kabare I (Rugemaninzi I) (1979)
Kazi (regentess 1979 – 1990)
Nnabushi Mamimami (disputed) (1981 – 1986)
Nnabushi Albert Kabare II (Ntayitunda II) (disputed) (1986 – 1990)
Nnabushi Désiré Kabare (Rugemaninzi II) (1990 –)
Other Bushi chiefdoms
Not only the Kabare Chiefdom, but also many other successor chiefdoms exist in the Bushi region. Some of these are formed by a different branch of the same dynasty as Kabare, while some others have different dynasties altogether.
The following list lists several Bushi successor chiefdoms, their bami and predecessors, if they are known. Note that information might be outdated:[6][2]
↑ (in French) Paul Masson. Trois siècles chez les Bashi [Three centuries among the Bashi]. Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren. (Ethnographical Archives, 1), 1960
↑ Antecedents to Modern Rwanda: The Nyiginya Kingdom. Karthala Editions, 2012.
↑ Ntanda Nkere, Feudalism in the Bushi and the Modern State in Congo, American Literary Press, Incorporated, 2003, 192 p. ISBN9781561678204
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