Holoholo people

Last updated
Holoholo
Regions with significant populations
Flag of Tanzania.svg  Tanzania 12,500
Flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.svg  DRC 28,000
Languages
Holoholo language
Religion
Majority: Islam
Minority: African Traditional Religion and Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Luba & other Bantu peoples
P3222033a Polychrome helmet mask, Holoholo, Tanzania (33453396351) P3222033a Polychrome helmet mask, Holoholo, Tanzania (33453396351).jpg
P3222033a Polychrome helmet mask, Holoholo, Tanzania (33453396351)
Holoholo statuette of a woman from the 19th century or early 20th century Statuette Holoholo-Musee ethnologique de Berlin.jpg
Holoholo statuette of a woman from the 19th century or early 20th century

The Holoholo also known as Kalanga (Wakalanga in Swahili) are a Bantu ethnic group that inhabit the shores of central lake Tanganyika. The majority of them live near Kalemie city on Lake Tanganyika in Tanganyika Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and on the opposite shore of the lake in Uvinza District of Kigoma Region in Tanzania.

Contents

Language

As of 2002, there were about 15,500 speakers of the Holoholo language. [1] The name "Holoholo" was given to them by the Belgians. It comes from the sound of their greeting, which outsiders found comical. The alternative name "Kalanga" simply means people who were there before the current population. [2]

History

The Holoholo are a matrilineal people. [3] They are descendants of Baguha people who fled from the Luba Empire when it was expanding eastward in the 18th century, settling around Kalemie where the Lukuga River leaves the lake. [4] During the period of Luba dominance that followed the eastward expansion under Luba king Ilunga Sungu around 1800, bambudye secret societies were introduced among the Holoholo and other peoples, propagating oral traditions of the Luba royal family. The Holoholo adopted and adapted the Luba genesis myth, in which they believed there was a mountain called Ilunga Sungu on the west side of the Lualaba towards the Luba heartland, This refers to the location of the court of Ilunga Sungu at Katende. [5]

The 1935 book Les peuplades du Congo belge shows the Holoholo living on both sides of the Lukuga. [6] They became middlemen in the Arab and African slave trade. With the suppression of this trade, the economy collapsed and disease and local warfare decimated the population. Today the economy is mostly agricultural-based on sorghum, maize, peanuts, and beans. Fish are caught with nets, dried and sold locally, the main source of cash in the area. Sorghum is used to make beer. [4]

The Holoholo who live in Tanzania around Kungwe Mountain has a tradition that their ancestors came from the Congo side by means of a long island that continued Kungwe Mountain into the lake. The lake level is highly variable, so it is conceivable that they crossed at a time when it was much lower than today when part of the ridge separating the northern and southern basins of the lake would have been exposed. [7]

Thousands of Holoholo had settled along the Tanganyikan side of the lake by 1915, having sailed over in canoes. A census in 1948 counted 4,410 Holoholo in Tanganyika. [8]

In 1987 the Holoholo people had an estimated population of 12,500 in Tanzania. They traditionally lived in the Mahale Mountains on the east shore of the lake opposite Kalemie. However, they were expelled from this area after 1979 to make way for the Mahale Mountains National Park created in 1985. [9]

Related Research Articles

Lake Tanganyika Rift lake in east-central Africa

Lake Tanganyika is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. The lake is shared between four countries—Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, and Zambia, with Tanzania (46%) and DRC (40%) possessing the majority of the lake. It drains into the Congo River system and ultimately into the Atlantic Ocean.

Lukuga River

The Lukuga River is a tributary of the Lualaba River in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that drains Lake Tanganyika. It is unusual in that its flow varies not just seasonally but also due to longer term climate fluctuations.

Kalemie Provincial capital and city in Tanganyika, DR Congo

Kalemie, formerly Albertville or Albertstad, is a town on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The town is next to the outflow of the Lukuga River from Lake Tanganyika to the Lualaba River.

Luba people

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Mahale Mountains

The Mahale Mountains are a mountain range in western Tanzania, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. They rise to 2,462 metres (8,077 ft) atop Mount Nkungwe.

Albertine Rift Western branch of the East African Rift

The Albertine Rift is the western branch of the East African Rift, covering parts of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania. It extends from the northern end of Lake Albert to the southern end of Lake Tanganyika. The geographical term includes the valley and the surrounding mountains.

MV <i>Liemba</i>

MV Liemba, formerly Graf Goetzen or Graf von Goetzen, is a passenger and cargo ferry that runs along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The Marine Services Company Limited of Tanzania sails her, with numerous stops to pick up and set down passengers, between the ports of Kigoma, Tanzania and Mpulungu, Zambia.

Mahale Mountains National Park National park in Tanzania, Africa

Mahale Mountains National Park lies on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika in Kigoma Region, Tanzania. Named after the Mahale Mountains range that is within its borders, the park has several unusual characteristics. First, it is one of only two protected areas for chimpanzees in the country. Mahale Mountains National Park harbours the largest known population of eastern chimpanzees and due to its size and remoteness, the chimpanzees flourish. It also a place where chimpanzees and lions co-exist. Another unusual feature of the park is that it is one of the very few in Africa that must be experienced by foot. There are no roads or other infrastructure within the park boundaries, and the only way in and out of the park is via boat on the lake.

Index of Democratic Republic of the Congo–related articles Wikipedia index

Articles related to the Democratic Republic of the Congo include:

Battle for Lake Tanganyika Mzalendo

The Battle for Lake Tanganyika was a series of naval engagements that took place between elements of the Royal Navy, Force Publique and the Kaiserliche Marine between December 1915 and July 1916, during the First World War. The intention was to secure control of the strategically important Lake Tanganyika, which had been dominated by German naval units since the beginning of the war. The British forces – consisting of two motor boats named HMS Mimi and Toutou – were under the command of the eccentric Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson. The boats were transported to South Africa and from there by railway, by river, and by being dragged through the African jungle, to the lake.

HMS <i>Fifi</i>

HMS Fifi was an armed screw steamer, captured from the Germans by Royal Navy units during the Battle for Lake Tanganyika, and used to support Anglo-Belgian operations on the lake and its surrounding areas. She had previously been operated by the Germans under the name Kingani named after the river Kingani.

Kingdom of Luba Pre-colonial (1585–1889) Central African

The Kingdom of Luba or Luba Empire (1585–1889) was a pre-colonial Central African state that arose in the marshy grasslands of the Upemba Depression in what is now southern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Holoholo is a Bantu language of DR Congo and formerly in Tanzania spoken by the Holoholo people on either side of Lake Tanganyika. Classification is uncertain, but it may belong with the Takama group.

Katende, or Sungu-Katende, was a royal sacred village of the Kingdom of Luba. It was adjacent to the village of Kabondo. Katende is on the upper Lomami in the Lualaba region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ilunga Sungu was a ruler (Mulopwe) of the Kingdom of Luba in what is now the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Based on oral records, he ruled from some time around 1780 to around 1810.

The Hemba people are a Bantu ethnic group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The Tumbwe people are a Bantu ethnic group living mostly in Tanganyika District of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Sanga people are an ethnic group that lives mostly in the Katanga Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The people who currently identify themselves as Basimba or BaShimba for many and Musimba or MuShimba for singular are a Bantu speaking community in Uganda. Before the 13th century they maintained a shared identity as Basimba, also defined in Swahili as "big lion," associated with either these people or the place which they came from.

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. ↑ Holoholo A language...
  2. ↑ Roberts 1991, p. 193.
  3. ↑ Reefe 1981, p. 124.
  4. 1 2 Holoholo Information.
  5. ↑ Reefe 1981, p. 127.
  6. ↑ Roberts 1991, p. 208.
  7. ↑ Clark 1969, pp. 35–36.
  8. ↑ Foden 2006, p. 235.
  9. ↑ Finke 2002, p. 537.

Sources

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