Ngasa people

Last updated
Ngasa
Wangasa
Regions with significant populations
Flag of Tanzania.svg  Tanzania 4,285 (2000)
Languages
Ngasa & Chaga
Religion
Unknown
Related ethnic groups
Maasai & other Nilotic peoples

The Ngasa or Ngas also known as Ongamo (Wangasa, in Swahili) are an ethnic and linguistic group based on the northeastern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in Rombo District, Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. In 2000 the Nilotic ethnic Ngasa population was estimated to number 4,285, with only 200 to 300 members continuing to speak the Ngasa language . Speakers have shifted to Chagga, a dominant regional Bantu language.


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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Kilimanjaro</span> Africas highest peak, located in Tanzania

Mount Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano located in Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest single free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: 5,895 metres (19,341 ft) above sea level and about 4,900 metres (16,100 ft) above its plateau base. It is the highest volcano in Africa and the Eastern Hemisphere.

Masai may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chaga people</span> An ethnic group from Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania

The Chaga or Chagga are Bantu-speaking indigenous Africans and the third-largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They traditionally live on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and eastern Mount Meru in both Kilimanjaro Region and eastern Arusha Region. Their relative economic wealth comes from favorable fertile soil of mount Kilimanjaro and successful agricultural methods, which include extensive irrigation systems, terracing, and continuous organic fertilization methods practiced for thousands of years.

Karanga may refer to:

Central Kilimanjaro, or Central Chaga, is a Bantu language of Tanzania spoken by the Chaga people.

The Maa languages are a group of closely related Eastern Nilotic languages spoken in parts of Kenya and Tanzania by more than a million speakers. They are subdivided into North and South Maa. The Maa languages are related to the Lotuko languages spoken in South Sudan.

Ongamo, or Ngas, is a probably extinct Eastern Nilotic language of Tanzania. It is closely related to the Maa languages, but more distantly than they are to each other. Ongamo has 60% of lexical similarity with Maasai, Samburu, and Camus. Speakers have shifted to Chagga, a dominant regional Bantu language.

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

Arusha Region is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions and is located in the north of the country. The region's capital and largest city is the city of Arusha. The region is bordered by Kajiado County and Narok County in Kenya to the north, the Kilimanjaro Region to the east, the Manyara and Singida Regions to the south, and the Mara and Simiyu regions to the west. Arusha Region is home to Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The region is comparable in size to the combined land and water areas of the state of Maryland in the United States.

Chaga, also Kichaga or Kichagga, is a Bantu dialect continuum spoken by the Chaga people of northern Tanzania, south of Mount Kilimanjaro. They also speak 9 dialects: Kivunjo, Kimarangu, Kirombo, Kimachame, Kisiha, Kikibosho, Kiuru, Kioldimoshi and Kingassa.

The Rombo language, or Kirombo, is a Bantu language of Tanzania spoken by the Chaga people, in the Chaga area of the Kilimanjaro region. Rombo forms a dialect continuum with other Chaga languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pare people</span> Ethnic group in northern Tanzania

The Pare people are members of an ethnic group indigenous to the Pare Mountains of northern Tanzania, part of the Kilimanjaro Region. Historically, Pareland was also known as Vuasu and Vughweno to its inhabitants. The location lies on one of the northern routes of the historic East-African long-distance trade, connecting the hinterland with the coast of the Indian Ocean.

The Kahe are an ethnic and linguistic group based southeast of Moshi in Kilimanjaro Region Tanzania. The Kahe language, or Kikahe, is in the Chagga cluster of Bantu languages. Three dialects are recognized: Kimwangaria, Msengoni and Kichangareni. Kikahe is spoken by 9,130 people, and is one of the smaller language communities in Tanzania.

Gweno is a Bantu language spoken in the North Pare Mountains in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. The people known as the Gweno are a Chaga ethnic and linguistic group. Since the Chaga people are Bantu speakers, the adopted language contains dialects similar to that of the Kenyan language Kamba. Gweno shares about 54% to 56% of its vocabulary with other Chaga dialects and 46% with Taita dialects. However, a large percentage of its vocabulary is not seen in the other dialects. Also at the start of the 11th century, the Chaga people descended and migrated from the Bantu group in which they migrated to the foothills of mount Kilimanjaro. The Gweno language is today spoken mostly by older adults, with younger generations having shifted to Asu and Swahili. Ethnologue considers Gweno to be moribund; the language is not being passed down because children have not been exposed to Gweno since the 1970s. The generational shift from Gweno to either Asu or Swahili has certainly created shifts in dialect, however Gweno speakers do not see this as a threat.

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

The Arusha people are a Bantu ethnic and indigenous group based in the western slopes of mount Meru in Arusha District of Arusha Region in Tanzania. The Maasai regard the Arusha people as related as they were once a part of the immigrant Maasai society that arrived in Arusha in the 18th century from Kenya. The Arusha people are not to be confused by Arusha residents who are Tanzanian people of different ethnic backgrounds that are born and reside within the borders of the Arusha Region.

Mrisho Khalfani juma Ngasa is a Tanzanian professional footballer who plays for Tanzanian Championship League club Ndanda. He is the Tanzania national team most-capped player and top goalscorer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Tanzania</span> Languages of the country and its peoples

Tanzania is a multilingual country. There are many languages spoken in the country, but no one language is spoken natively by a majority or a large plurality of the population. Swahili and English, the latter of which was inherited from colonial rule, are widely spoken as lingua francas. They serve as working languages in the country, with Swahili being the official national language. There are more speakers of Swahili than of English in Tanzania.

The Rusa (Rusha) language, also known as Arusha-Chini, is one of the Bantu languages of Tanzania spoken by the Chaga people. It is spoken in the Chaga area of the Kilimanjaro region, and forms a dialect continuum with other Chaga languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wameru</span> Ethnic group

The Meru, also known as the Va-Rwa, are a Bantu ethnic group native to the slopes of Mount Meru in Arusha Region. The Meru people share the same name with the Meru people of Kenya, but they are completely different ethnic groups each with their own unique history and identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peopling of the Kilimanjaro Corridor</span>

The boundaries of this corridor can be defined within the Maasai territory. The corridor stretches from the Arusha Region, through the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania to the Taita-Taveta County of Kenya. To varying degrees, the people in this corridor are essentially a mixture of similar Bantu, Nilotic and Cushitic branches of the African people. The groups were dynamic, fluid and flexible. They shared a common history characterised by constant movement between the different areas for trade, battles, migration as well as social reasons. They were categorised arbitrarily by Europeans into the following culturally, linguistically and/or genetically related groups: