The Rangi ( Rangi: Valangi;

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language officially used in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes. * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa. * Swahili culture, the culture of the Swahili p ...

: Warangi) are a

Bantu-speaking The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀), or Ntu languages are a language family of about 600 languages of Central, Southern, Eastern and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

ethnic group of mixed

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

and

Cushitic The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As of 2 ...

heritage in the

Dodoma Region Dodoma Region (''Mkoa wa Dodoma'' in Swahili language, Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative Regions of Tanzania, regions. The regional capital is the city of Dodoma, which is also the capital of Tanzania. Dodoma region is located in c ...

of central

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 t ...

. In 2022, the Rangi population was estimated to number 880,000.

Endonym & Exonym

The Rangi use the

endonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

''Valangi'' to refer to themselves, however the Swahili

exonym An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

''Warangi'' is more commonly used in Tanzania to refer to group. Likewise, the Rangi use the endonym '' Kilangi'' to refer to their language, but most people in Tanzania use the Swahili exonym of ''Kirangi'' instead. In

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

, the Swahili

plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...

of ''Wa'' and the Swahili artifact prefix of ''Ki'' are often dropped, resulting in both the people and language being referred to as Rangi.

History

Sources differ on when the Rangi became a distinct ethnic group, with some suggesting approximately 300 AD and others say around the range of 1500-1700. Despite being a Bantu ethnic group, most Rangi do not believe that their ancestors came from the West, and that they actually came from the North and East (

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

). Meanwhile, other Rangi believe that their ancestors originated from the West. This makes sense as the Rangi have both

(Northeastern) and Bantu (Western) heritage. When the Rangi arrived in the Dodoma region they began assimilating surrounding

Cushitic peoples Cushitic-speaking peoples are the ethnolinguistic groups who speak Cushitic languages natively. Today, the Cushitic languages are spoken as a mother tongue primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north ...

, primarily the Alagwa and Burunge. The Rangi also assimilated the neighboring Nyaturu people, another Bantu ethnic group.

References

*Fosbrooke, H.A. 1958 “Blessing the Year: a Wasi/Rangi Ceremony”, ''Tanganyika Notes and Records'' 50, 21-2 *Fosbrooke, H.A. 1958 “A Rangi Circumcision Ceremony: Blessing a New Grove”, ''Tanganyika Notes and Records'' 50, 30-36 *Gray, R.F. 1953 “Notes on Irangi Houses”, ''Tanganyika Notes and Records'' 35, 45-52 *Kesby, J. 1981 “The Rangi of Tanzania: An introduction to their culture”, HRAF: Yale *Kesby, J. 1982 “Progress and the past among the Rangi of Tanzania”, HRAF: Yale *Kesby, J. 1986 “Rangi natural history: The taxonomic procedures of an African people”, HRAF: Yale *Maingu, Yovin & Brunhilde Bossow, 2006 "Mazingira ya Warangi na Wajerumani wa Kale", Published by ''Heimat- und Kulturverein Gellersen'' (Society for History and Culture of the Gellersen villages, Germany) *Masare, A.J. 1970 “Utani Relationships: The Rangi”, unpublished manuscript, Dar es Salaam *Mung’ong’o, Claude G. 1995 “Social Processes and Ecology in the Kondoa Irangi Hills, Central Tanzania”, Stockholm University, Dept. of Human Geography, Meddlanden Series B 93 *Östberg, W. 1979 “The Kondoa Transformation”, research report no. 76, SIAS: UppsalaUppsala *It was made clear that all Rangi people came from Bahi district in the middle of 18890 Ethnic groups in Tanzania Indigenous peoples of East Africa {{tanzania-ethno-group-stub