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Shungwaya
Shungwaya (also Shingwaya) is an origin myth of the Mijikenda peoples. Traditions known collectively as the "Shungwaya myth" describe a series of migrations of Bantu peoples dating to the 12th-17th centuries from a region to the north of the Tana River. These Bantu migrants were held to have been speakers of Sabaki Bantu languages. Other Bantu ethnic groups, smaller in number, are also suggested to have been part of the migration. From Shungwaya, the Mount Kenya Bantu ( Kamba, Kikuyu, Meru, Embu, and Mbeere) are then proposed to have broke away and migrated from there some time before the Oromo onslaught. Shungwaya appears to have had its heyday as a Bantu settlement area between perhaps the 12th and the 15th centuries, after which it was subjected to a full-scale invasion of Cushitic-speaking Oromo peoples from the Horn of Africa. From the whole corpus of these traditions, it has been argued that Shungwaya comprised a large, multi-ethnic community. The "Zhongli" (中理) of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mijikenda Peoples
Mijikenda ("the Nine Tribes") are a group of nine related Bantu ethnic groups inhabiting the coast of Kenya, between the Sabaki and the Umba rivers, in an area stretching from the border with Tanzania in the south to the border near Somalia in the north. Archaeologist Chapuruka Kusimba contends that the Mijikenda formerly resided in coastal cities, but later settled in Kenya's hinterlands to avoid submission to dominant Portuguese forces that were then in control. Historically, these Mijikenda ethnic groups have been called the Nyika or Nika by outsiders. It is a derogatory term meaning "bush people." The nine Ethnic groups that make up the Mijikenda peoples are the Chonyi, Kambe, Duruma, Kauma, Ribe, Rabai, Jibana, Giriama, and Digo. The Digo are southern Mijikenda while the others are northern Mijikenda. The Digo are also found in Tanzania due to their proximity to the common border. Culture Each of the Mijikenda groups has a sacred forest, a ''kaya'', which is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhu Fan Zhi
''Zhu Fan Zhi'' (), variously translated as '' A Description of Barbarian Nations'', ''Records of Foreign People'', or other similar titles, is a 13th-century Song Dynasty work by Zhao Rukuo. The work is a collection of descriptions of countries and various products from outside China, and it is considered an important source of information on the people, customs and in particular the traded commodities of many countries in South East Asia and around the Indian Ocean during the Song Dynasty. Background The author Zhao Rukuo (1170-1231) was a member of the Song Dynasty imperial clan. He was posted to Fujian as a supervisor of the maritime trade in Quanzhou. While working in Fujian, he had the opportunity to meet merchants from various countries from whom he gathered information on various countries around the world. He also took note of the various products traded, studied the maps of the period, and together with the information he had learnt he wrote the book which was finis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myth Of Origins
An origin myth is a myth that describes the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the creation or cosmogonic myth, a story that describes the creation of the world. However, many cultures have stories set in a time after a first origin - such stories aim to account for the beginnings of natural phenomena or of human institutions within a preexisting universe. In Graeco-Roman scholarship, the terms etiological myth and ''aition'' (from the Ancient Greek αἴτιον, "cause") are sometimes used for a myth that explains an origin, particularly how an object or custom came into existence. Nature of origin myths Every origin myth is a tale of creation: origin myths describe how some reality came into existence.Eliade, p. 21 In many cases, origin myths also justify the established order by explaining that it was established by sacred forces (see section on "Social function" below). The distinction between cosmogonic myths and origin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constitution, (; ), is a country in the Horn of Africa. The country is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, and Kenya to the southwest. Somalia has the longest coastline on Africa's mainland. Its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains, and highlands. Hot conditions prevail year-round, with periodic monsoon winds and irregular rainfall. Somalia has an estimated population of around million, of which over 2 million live in the Capital city, capital and largest city Mogadishu, and has been described as Africa's most culturally homogeneous country. Around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis, who have historically inhabited the country's north. Ethnic minoritie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Language
Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the world's population) speak a variety of Chinese as their first language. Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be variants of a single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered separate languages in a family. Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin (with about 800 million speakers, or 66%), followed by Min (75 million, e.g. Southern Min), Wu (74 million, e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhao Rukuo
Zhao Rukuo (; 1170–1231), also read as Zhao Rugua, or misread as Zhao Rushi, was a Chinese historian and politician during the Song dynasty. He wrote a two-volume book titled ''Zhu Fan Zhi''. The book deals with the world known to the Chinese in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; the first volume is a list of foreign places with descriptions of each place and the customs of its local people. The second volume is a catalog of trade goods. Biography Zhao was a member of the Song Dynasty imperial clan, an eighth-generation descendant of Emperor Taizong in the lineage through the younger brother of Emperor Zhenzong. He was born in Tiantai County in Taizhou, Zhejiang in 1170. He began his career as a bureaucrat in 1190, and rose through the rank. In 1224, he was appointed the supervisor of maritime trade (市舶司, ) in Quanzhou, Fujian province. He also held the posts of prefect for Quanzhou as well the southern administrator. He died in 1231 and was buried in Linhai County ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mbeere People
The Mbeere or Ambeere people are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting the former Mbeere District in the now-defunct Eastern Province of Kenya. According to the 2019 Kenya National census, there are 195,250 Ambeere who inhabit an area of 2,093 km². They speak Kīmbeere language, which is a dialect very similar to the one spoken by their neighbours, the Kamba, Embu and Kikuyu. Mbeere hosts the famous seven folks dams, which include: Masinga dam, Kamburu dam, Gitaru dam, Kindaruma dam, and Kiambere dam. The dams are a part of Tana River. Other local places of interest include the Mwea National Reserve, and Kiangombe hill, which peaked at 1804 meters stands out compared to adjacent topography, although is not as spectacular as the Mount Kenya located less than 100 kilometers northwest. History The Mbeere are of Bantu origin.Joseph Bindloss, Tom Parkinson, Matt Fletcher, ''Lonely Planet Kenya'', (Lonely Planet: 2003), p.35. Like the closely related Kikuyu, Embu, Meru and Kamba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Embu People
The Embu are a Bantu people inhabiting Embu county in Kenya. They speak the Embu language as a mother tongue. To the south of Embu are to be found their cousins, the Mbeere people. In essence Embu county encompasses the ethnic Kîembu dialect (Embu proper), from whom the Embu county's name derives, and the Kimbere dialect spoken by their Mbeere counterparts who inhabit the lower reaches of the county. Historically, both were just referred to as the Embu people. To the west, Embu neighbours are the closely related Kikuyu in Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Kiambu, Muranga and Nyandarua counties. The Meru people border the Embu to the East. Origin The Embu are of Bantu origin.Arnold Curtis, ''Kenya: a visitor's guide'', (Evans Brothers: 1985), p.7. They inhabit the southern windward slopes and farmlands of Mount Kenya. Along with their closely related Eastern Bantu neighbors the Kikuyu, Mĩĩrũ, Mbeere and Kamba the Embu are believed to have entered their present habitat from the coast o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wameru
The Meru (''Wameru'' in Swahili), also known as the ''Va-Rwa'' (''Rwa'' being the root word), 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. The Meru people are said to have arrived to the slopes of the great mountain around 800 years ago coming from the Usambara Mountains in Tanga Region. According to the inhabitants, migration occurred back and forth throughout the region, and the Meru people should be viewed as a part of the bigger population inhabiting the entire Kilimanjaro Corridor. Upon arriving at the southeastern slopes of Mount Meru they were met by the hunter-gatherer group called the Koningo whom they absorbed into Meru society. The waMeru are known for their intensive agricultural practises. Today many descendants of Meru people still live in their homeland and Mount Meru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kikuyu People
The Kikuyu (also ''Agĩkũyũ/Gĩkũyũ'') are a Bantu ethnic group native to Central Kenya. At a population of 8,148,668 as of 2019, they account for 17.13% of the total population of Kenya, making them Kenya's largest ethnic group. The term ''Kikuyu'' is derived from the Swahili form of the word Gĩkũyũ. is derived from the word mũkũyũ which means sycamore fig (''mũkũyũ'') tree". Hence ''Agĩkũyũ'' in the Kikuyu language translates to "Children Of The Big Sycamore". The alternative name ''Nyũmba ya Mũmbi'', which encompasses ''Embu'', ''Gikuyu'', and ''Meru'', translates to "House of the Potter" (or "Creator"). History Origin The Kikuyu belong to the Northeastern Bantu branch. Their language is most closely related to that of the Embu and Mbeere. Geographically, they are concentrated in the vicinity of Mount Kenya. The exact place that the Northeast Bantu speakers migrated from after the initial Bantu expansion is uncertain. Some authorities sugge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kamba People
The Kamba or Akamba (sometimes called Wakamba) people are a Bantu ethnic group who predominantly live in the area of Kenya stretching from Nairobi to Tsavo and north to Embu, in the southern part of the former Eastern Province. This land is called ''Ukambani'' and constitutes Makueni County, Kitui County and Machakos County. They also form the second largest ethnic group in 8 counties including Nairobi and Mombasa counties. Origin The Kamba are of Bantu origin.Joseph Bindloss, Tom Parkinson, Matt Fletcher, ''Lonely Planet Kenya'', (Lonely Planet: 2003), p.35. They are closely related in language and culture to the Kikuyu, the Embu, the Mbeere and the Meru, and to some extent relate closely to the Digo and the Giriama of the Kenyan coast. Kambas are concentrated in the lowlands of southeast Kenya from the vicinity of Mount Kenya to the coast. The first group of Kamba people settled in the present-day Mbooni Hills in the Machakos District of Kenya in the second half ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northeast Bantu Languages
The Northeast Bantu languages are a group of Bantu languages spoken in East Africa. In Guthrie's geographic classification, they fall within Bantu zones E50 plus E46 (Sonjo), E60 plus E74a (Taita), F21–22, J, G60, plus Northeast Coast Bantu (of zones E & G).Derek Nurse, 2003, ''The Bantu Languages'' Some of these languages (F21, most of E50, and some of J) share a phonological innovation called Dahl's law that is unlikely to be borrowed as a productive process, though individual words reflecting Dahl's law have been borrowed into neighboring languages. The languages, or clusters, are: *Kikuyu–Kamba Thagiicu (primarily E50): ** Sonjo (E40) ** Cuka ** Meru (incl. Tharaka, Mwimbi-Muthambi) **South *** Kamba, Daisu *** Gikuyu, Embu *Chaga–Taita ** Taita (Dawida; E70) – Sagalla ** Chaga languages (E60) * Northeast Coast Bantu (G10-G40): Swahili (E70), ''etc.'' *Takama: Sukuma– Nyamwezi (+ Konongo–Ruwila), Kimbu (F20), Iramba– Isanzu, Nyaturu (Rimi) (F30), ?Hol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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