Ha people

Last updated
Ha
Waha
Regions with significant populations
Flag of Tanzania.svg  Tanzania 1.5 Million
Languages
Ha
Tanzanian English [ broken anchor ]
Religion
Islam, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Hangaza, Jiji, Sumbwa & other Bantu peoples
Ali Kiba is a famous Tanzanian musician of Ha descent Ali Kiba 2017 (cropped).jpg
Ali Kiba is a famous Tanzanian musician of Ha descent
Geographic origins of the Ha people (approx.) Ha people Africa.png
Geographic origins of the Ha people (approx.)

The Ha, also called Abaha (Waha in Swahili), are a Bantu ethnic group found in Kigoma Region in northwestern Tanzania bordering Lake Tanganyika. [1] [2] In 2001, the Ha population was estimated to number between 1 and 1.5 million, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in ethnically diverse Tanzania. [1] [3] [4]

Contents

Their language is a Bantu language, [5] and is called the Ha language, also called Kiha, Ikiha or Giha. It is closely related to the Kirundi and Kinyarwanda spoken in neighbouring Burundi and Rwanda, and belongs to the Niger-Congo family of languages. [4]

Society and culture

The Ha people call the lake bordering the area they live in as Buha, and the region consists of grasslands and open woodlands. [1] The Ha people share the northwestern part of Tanzania with the Sukuma, the Haya, the Zinza, the Hangaza and the Subi ethnic groups. [6]

The Ha people grow sorghum, millet, corn (maize), cassava, yams, peanuts and other crops. [1] Wherever the tse tse fly problem is minor, the Ha people raise cattle, goats and other livestock that are highly valued in Ha society and gifted at marriage. In the northern parts of their territories, where the tse tse fly problem is significant, they hunt and gather honey. [7]

Kingdoms

Historically, the Ha were considered politically as one tribe, divided into the following small kingdoms based on two districts; Kasulu District: Heru, Kunkanda, Nkalinzi or Manyovu and Bushingo Kingdoms. Kibondo District: Muhambwe Kingdom and Banyingu Kingdom. They use a common language and have similar cultural customs. Bujiji was geographically separated from Kasulu District and became part of Kigoma District. According to the 1948 Tanganyika census, the Ha were the third largest tribe in Tanganyika Territory. [8]

Social structure

The Ha people live in dispersed homes, typically as a joint family whose male members are related by their lineage. Since about the 18th century, the Tutsi people have lived among the Ha people, but as a small minority (2%), but typically in an aristocratic role. The two ethnic groups substantially share language and culture and there is some intermarriage. [1] The Ha women share some cultural traditions with neighboring ethnic groups, such as wearing the Kitindi, or coiled bracelets made of copper wire worn near the elbow. [9]

The Ha people are animists who revere their ancestors as well as nature spirits. Their traditional religion includes Imana deity as their supreme being and creator. [1] They have witnessed Islamic missionary activity from the Arabs since the pre-colonial era and Christian missionary activity during the German and British colonial era thereafter from Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, and others. [1] [10]

In later years, many men from the Ha people have gone to the Tanzanian coast to work at sisal plantations there. [7]

Notable Ha people

Literature

See also

Related Research Articles

The modern-day African Great Lakes state of Tanzania dates formally from 1964, when it was formed out of the union of the much larger mainland territory of Tanganyika and the coastal archipelago of Zanzibar. The former was a colony and part of German East Africa from the 1880s to 1919 when, under the League of Nations, it became a British mandate. It served as a British military outpost during World War II, providing financial help, munitions, and soldiers. In 1947, Tanganyika became a United Nations Trust Territory under British administration, a status it kept until its independence in 1961. The island of Zanzibar thrived as a trading hub, successively controlled by the Portuguese, the Sultanate of Oman, and then as a British protectorate by the end of the nineteenth century.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kigoma Region</span> Region of Tanzania

Kigoma Region is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital is the city of Kigoma. Kigoma Region borders Kagera Region, Geita Region, Katavi Region, Tabora Region, DRC and Burundi According to the 2012 national census, the region had a population of 2,127,930, which was higher than the pre-census projection of 1,971,332. For 2002-2012, the region's 2.4 percent average annual population growth rate was tied for the fourteenth highest in the country. It was also the sixteenth most densely populated region with 57 people per square kilometer. With a size of 45,066 square kilometres (17,400 sq mi), the region is slightly smaller than Estonia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kasulu District</span> District of Kigoma Region, Tanzania

Kasulu District is one of the 8 districts of Kigoma Region, Tanzania. The Kasulu District is the rural district council to the Kasulu Town Council which separated from the Kasulu District Council in 2011. It is bordered to the north by Burundi, to the east by Kibondo District, to the south by Uvinza District, to the west by Kigoma District and to the northwest by Buhigwe District. The district consists of lowland forest, and highland grasslands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vinza people</span> An ethnic group in Kigoma Region, Tanzania

The Vinza are a Bantu ethnic and linguistic group based in Uvinza District of Kigoma Region, Tanzania. In 1987 the Vinza population was estimated to be 10,000. The Vinza people speak the Vinza language, also known as Kivinza, which belongs to the Central Bantu language family. Many Vinza people also speak the Swahili language. The Vinza are also sometimes called Binza and Mabinza.

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The Shambaa people, also called the Sambaa, Shambala, Sambala or Sambara, are a Bantu ethnic group. Their ancestral home is on the Usambara Mountains of Lushoto District, Korogwe District and 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. 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". In 2001, the Shambaa population was estimated to number 664,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mwera people</span> Ethnic group from Lindi Region of Tanzania

The Mwera people are a Bantu ethnic and linguistic group. They are native to Kilwa District in southeast Lindi Region. However they have also settled in northern Mtwara Region and eastern Ruvuma Region of Tanzania, as well as along the Ruvuma River between Tanzania and Mozambique.

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The Rangi are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group of mixed Bantu and Cushitic heritage in the Dodoma Region of central Tanzania. In 2022, the Rangi population was estimated to number 880,000.

Jiji people also known as Bajiji are a Bantu ethnic and linguistic group based in Kigoma Region, Tanzania. If tribes are classified by language and not by race, Bajiji are part of Baha since their language is the same. Traditionally they were organized into a separate kingdom, Bujiji, and formed part of Buha with other kingdoms: Heru, Bushingo (Ushingo), Ruguru (Luguru), Muhambwe and Buyungu, all of them in Kigoma Region, Tanzania.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arusha people</span> Tanzanian ethnic group

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uvinza</span> District of Kigoma Region, Tanzania

Uvinza is one of the eight administrative districts of Kigoma Region in Tanzania. Uvinza is bordered to the northwest by Kigoma District and Kigoma-Ujiji District. North of the district is bordered by Kasulu District. Lake Tanganyika borders the district on the west. Mpanda District in Katavi Region boders the district to the south and Kaliua District in Tabora Region borders the district to the east. The district is named in honor of the Vinza people whom the western part of district was their historic kingdom. Southern Uvinza District is home to the Mahale Mountains National Park. A unique park that is home to both Chimpanzees and lions in the same habitat.

Ha, also known with the Bantu language prefix as Giha, Igiha, or Kiha, is a Bantu language spoken by the Ha people of the Kigoma Region of Tanzania, spoken on the eastern side of Lake Tanganyika up to the headwaters of the Mikonga. It is closely related to the languages of Rwanda and Burundi; neighboring dialects are reported to be mutually intelligible with Kirundi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holoholo people</span> Ethnic group from Kigoma Region, Tanzania

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kasulu</span> District & City in Kigoma, Tanzania

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan Cornelius van Sambeek</span>

Jan Cornelius van Sambeek, M.Afr. was a Dutch White Fathers missionary who was the Vicar Apostolic of Tanganyika (1936–1946), and then Bishop of Kigoma (1946–1957), in the former British-administered Tanganyika Territory, now Tanzania.

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The Goma, who also refer to themselves as Al ghamawiyyun in Arabic, are a tribe in the Kigoma Region in western Tanzania. They are a contingent of the Bantu tribe who are more commonly found in Tanzania and present-day Democratic Republic of Congo who migrated from the western shore of the Lake Tanganyika in Democratic Republic of Congo with origins from Sudan. They are the first group of the Bantu tribe to ever cross the Lake Tanganyika and also the first group to reside in the Urban District of Kigoma as its inhabitants. Following the Wagoma were Niakaramba (Kwalumona) from Cape Karamba and then Wabwari from Ubwari peninsula. The Kwalumona merged within Wabwari, identified themselves as Bwaris and settled north of Wagoma in Kigoma before resettling in Ujiji and its environs, where they formed a tribal Confederacy in Ujiji known as Wamanyema. The Wagoma crossed the lake early due to their invention of dug-out canoes mitumbwi ya mti mmoja curved from Mivule trees of Ugoma mountains from western shore of the Lake.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ha people, Tanzania
  2. ↑ David Lawrence (2009). Tanzania and Its People. New Africa Press. pp. 25, 102–104. ISBN   978-1-4414-8692-9.
  3. ↑ James Stuart Olson (1996). The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Greenwood. p. 215. ISBN   978-0-313-27918-8.
  4. 1 2 Languages of Tanzania
  5. ↑ Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (2010). Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. p. 546. ISBN   978-0-19-533770-9.
  6. ↑ James Clagett Taylor (1963). The Political Development of Tanganyika . Stanford University Press. pp.  31–32. ISBN   978-0-8047-0147-1.
  7. 1 2 "Ha - folkegruppe". Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian). Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  8. ↑ Scherer, J. H. “The Ha of Tanganyika.” Anthropos, vol. 54, no. 5/6, 1959, pp. 841–904. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40453639. Accessed 9 Jun. 2022.
  9. ↑ John E. Flint (1977). The Cambridge History of Africa. Cambridge University Press. p. 302. ISBN   978-0-521-20701-0.
  10. ↑ Frieder Ludwig (1999). Church and State in Tanzania: Aspects of Changing in Relationships, 1961-1994. BRILL Academic. pp. 175–176. ISBN   90-04-11506-4.
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