|
Shambaa Kingdom
The Shambaa Kingdom or Usambara Kingdom also historically referred to as The Kingdom of Usambara ( ''Umweri ye Shambaai'' in Shambaa; ''Ufalme wa Usambara'', in Swahili) was a pre-colonial Bantu sovereign kingdom of the Shambaa people on the Usambara mountains in modern-day northern Tanga Region of Tanzania. The Kilindi dynasty ruled the kingdom for more than 232 years, enduring the slave trade, German invasion, and British occupation until the Tanganyikan government disbanded it in 1962. Early history The Shambaa kingdom was named after their homeland, ''Shambaai'', which translates to "where the bananas thrive" in Shambala language. The population of the Usambara Mountains includes groups claiming ancestral residence in the region since ancient times, while others assert a migration predating the arrival of the Kilindi. Many early clans from southern Usambara migrated to the fertile hills from Zigua during famines, particularly in Ngulu. These settlers benefited f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vugha
Vugha or Vuga (''Mji wa kale wa Vuga'' in Swahili ) is a historic village located inside Bumbuli District of Tanga Region in Tanzania. The settlement was established as the capital of the Kilindi dynasty's Shambaa Kingdom. Early history The Shambaa first established a number of small clan chiefdoms, but they were imperiled by Mbugu, an influx of Cushitic pastoralists whose tribal institutions clashed with the local cultivators' structure. Tradition holds that Mbegha, a traveling hunter from Ungulu, was the old culture's savior. He subdued the Shambaa by using force, guile, diplomacy, and marriage into powerful families. His empire was a living example of the previous way of life. Vugha, the royal capital, was created as a sizable Shambaa town and was thought to have 3,000 residents in 1857. The state was founded on kinship. The Shambaa monarchy at first aimed to undermine the strength and morality of the clans, but lineages arbitrated internal conflicts and assumed collectiv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bantu Peoples
The Bantu peoples are an Indigenous peoples of Africa, indigenous ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native Demographics of Africa, African List of ethnic groups of Africa, ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages. The languages are native to countries spread over a vast area from West Africa, to Central Africa, Southeast Africa and into Southern Africa. Bantu people also inhabit southern areas of Northeast African states. There are several hundred Bantu languages. Depending on the definition of Dialect#Dialect or language, "language" or "dialect", it is estimated that there are between 440 and 680 distinct languages. The total number of speakers is in the hundreds of millions, ranging at roughly 350 million in the mid-2010s (roughly 30% of the demographics of Africa, population of Africa, or roughly 5% of world population, the total world population). About 90 million speakers (2015), divided into some 400 ethnic or tribal groups, are found in the Democratic Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased death, mortality. Every inhabited continent in the world has experienced a period of famine throughout history. During the 19th and 20th centuries, Southeast Asia, Southeast and South Asia, as well as Eastern Europe, Eastern and Central Europe, suffered the greatest number of fatalities due to famine. Deaths caused by famine declined sharply beginning in the 1970s, with numbers falling further since 2000. Since 2010, Africa has been the most affected continent in the world by famine. As of 2025, Haiti and Afghanistan are the two states with the most catastrophic and widespread states of famine, followed by Palestine (confined to Gaza Strip ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zigua People
The Zigua or in some sources Zigula (''Wazigua'' in Swahili language, Swahili) are a Bantu peoples, Bantu Matrilineality, matrilineal ethnic and linguistic people inhabiting the southwestern Tanga Region and northern Pwani Region of Tanzania. In Tanga Region they are the majority in Handeni District and northern Kilindi District and also are a historically significant population south of the Pangani River in Pangani District. They speak the Zigula language. In 1993, the Zigua population was estimated to number 355,000 people, today they number 631,000 people. The Zigua are considered to be the parent tribe of the Shambaa people, and the Bondei people which today all live in north-eastern Tanzania. For instance, the king Mbegha, who was to become the leader of the Shambaa people and the grandfather of the Shambaa ruler Kimweri ye Nyumbai (†1862), was born among the Zigua. Population and geographic distribution Below 500 feet, the Eastern Zigula area is a low-lying coastal plai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Usambara Mountains
The Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania in tropical East Africa, comprise the easternmost ranges of the Eastern Arc Mountains. The ranges are approximately long and about half that wide, and they are situated in the Lushoto District of the Tanga Region. They were formed nearly two million years ago by faulting and uplifting, and are composed of Precambrian metamorphic rocks. They are split into two sub-ranges; the West Usambaras being higher than the East Usambaras, which are nearer the coast and receive more rainfall. The mountains are clad in virgin tropical rainforest which has been isolated for a long period and they are a centre of endemism. Historically they were inhabited by Bantu, Shambaa, and Maasai people but in the eighteenth century, a Shambaa kingdom was founded by Mbegha. The kingdom eventually fell apart after a succession struggle in 1862. German colonists settled in the area which was to become German East Africa, and after World War I it became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing them from dessert bananas. The fruit is variable in size, color and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a peel, which may have a variety of colors when ripe. It grows upward in clusters near the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible seedless ( parthenocarp) cultivated bananas come from two wild species – '' Musa acuminata'' and ''Musa balbisiana'', or hybrids of them. ''Musa'' species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia; they were probably domesticated in New Guinea. They are grown in 135 countries, primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make banana paper and textiles, while some are grown as ornamental plants. The world's largest producers of bananas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanganyika (1961–1964)
Tanganyika ( ; ) was a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania, that existed from 1961 until 1964. It first gained independence from the United Kingdom on 9 December 1961 as a Commonwealth realm states headed by Queen Elizabeth II, headed by Queen Elizabeth II before becoming a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations a year later. After signing the Articles of Union on 22 April 1964 and passing an Act of Union on 25 April, Tanganyika officially joined with the People's Republic of Zanzibar to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar on Union Day (Tanzania), Union Day, 26 April 1964. The new state changed its name to the United Republic of Tanzania within a year. History Tanganyika originally consisted of the Tanganyika Territory—the British share of German East Africa—which the British took under a League of Nations mandate in 1922, and which was later transformed into a United Nations Trust Territory after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the English overseas possessions, overseas possessions and trading posts established by Kingdom of England, England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and colonisation attempts by Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland during the 17th century. At its height in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it became the List of largest empires, largest empire in history and, for a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, of the world population at the time, and by 1920, it covered , of the Earth's total land area. As a result, Westminster system, its constitutional, Common law, legal, English language, linguistic, and Culture of the United Kingdom, cultural legacy is widespread. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German East Africa
German East Africa (GEA; ) was a German colonial empire, German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Portuguese Mozambique, Mozambique. GEA's area was , which was nearly three times the area of present-day Germany and almost double the area of metropolitan Germany at the time. The colony was organised when the German military was asked in the late 1880s to put down a revolt against the activities of the German East Africa Company. It ended with German Empire, Imperial Germany's defeat in World War I. Ultimately the territory was divided amongst Britain, Belgium and Portugal, and was reorganised as a League of Nations mandate, mandate of the League of Nations. History Like other colonial powers, the Germans expanded their empire in the Africa Great Lakes region, ostensibly to explore the region's rich resources and its people. Unlike other imp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Slavery
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery, and the person is called a slave or an enslaved person (see ). Many historical cases of enslavement occurred as a result of breaking the law, becoming indebted, suffering a military defeat, or exploitation for cheaper labor; other forms of slavery were instituted along demographic lines such as race or sex. Slaves would be kept in bondage for life, or for a fixed period of time after which they would be granted freedom. Although slavery is usually involuntary and involves coercion, there are also cases where people voluntarily enter into slavery to pay a debt or earn money due to poverty. In the course of human history, slavery was a typical feature of civilization, and existed in most socie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kilindi Dynasty
The Kilindi dynasty (c. 1730s – 1962), (''Mwene Kilindi'' in Shamabaa), (''Ufalme wa Kilindi'', in Swahili) was a pre-colonial, Shambaan royal house that has reigned over the Shambaa Kingdom of the Usambara Mountains of north-west Tanga Region for most of the 18th to 20th centuries in modern-day Lushoto District and Bumbuli District. The dynasty was founded by king Mbegha, who settled in the Usambara Mountains and united the Shambaa people in the first half of the 18th century. Its most prominent member was king Kimweri ye Nyumbai (died 1862). The Kilindi kings of the Shambaa were known as ''Simba Mwene'', which means Lion King. The last Lion King to be recognized as having authority was Kimweri Mputa Magogo (1914–2000). The Kilindi District of Tanga was named after the famous ruling dynasty. Prior to the establishment of the Kilindi dynasty, the most notable Moanrch in the Usambara region was King Tuli, who ruled in Vugah, located in the West Usambaras. The arrival ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tanzania
Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. According to a 2024 estimate, Tanzania has a population of around 67.5 million, making it the most populous country located entirely south of the equator. Many important hominid fossils have been found in Tanzania. In the Stone and Bronze Age, prehistoric migrations into Tanzania included South Cushitic languages, Southern Cushitic speakers similar to modern day Iraqw people who moved south from present-day Ethiopia; Eastern Cushitic people who moved into Tanzania from north of Lake Turkana about 2,000 and 4,000 years ago; and the Southern Nilotic languages, Southern Nilotes, including the Datooga people, Datoog, who originated fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
