The Zigua or in some sources Zigula are a Bantu 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 plain with a typical two-season wet climate with significant rainfall of around 50 inches. Compared to the nearby northern and western regions, the central and western Uzigula regions are over 1,000 feet high, with gently undulating hills, and have fewer streams and less reliable water supplies.
The Zigula had a population of about 134,406 in 1957. Western Pangani (5,048), southern Lushoto (1,722), eastern Handeni (64,703), southeastern Korogwe (19,145), and Tanga town (1,823) in the Tanga Region, as well as northern Morogoro (7,777) and western Bagamoyo (19,799) districts in the Eastern Region, are home to the majority of Zigula people. Over 4,500 square kilometres make up the Zigula tribal region. Although there is a dearth of precise demographic information, many Zigula people work as labourers and traders outside of their ancestral territories.
History Early history The Ngulu and Zigula are closely related; many people believe that the Ngulu are just Zigula who fled to mountainous areas to avoid raids. Additionally, some Zigula claim affinity with the Bondei and Shambala communities. Some Luguru and Shambala leaders are thought to have had ties to the Zigula in the past. The majority of Zigula claim to have come from the north and were led by a hero named Seuta, who was well-known for his bow.
Although its exact importance is unknown, Mntambo mentions a notable fight known as "Breaking the grinding stone," which is a typical origin mythology among many matrilineal cultures. Although it sounds unlikely, he proposes that the Zigula might have come from the northern Galla regions of Somalia, a theory that is backed by some authorities like Grottanelli. The Zigula moved northward in the 1850s and frequently engaged in combat with the Shambala.
Historically, the Zigula people resided in fortified towns with lengthy, alley-like entrances. These settlements ranged in size from tiny communities of around thirty huts to bigger ones with up to two hundred. Due to repeated raids, the majority of settlements were palisaded; however, those on islands in the Ruvu River lacked defences and were only connected to the mainland by tiny wooden or string bridges, some of which were big enough to hold herds of sheep and goats.
Traditionally, matri-clan kin groupings were the focal point of these settlements. The Maasai and Baraguyu raided the region heavily in the 19th century for cattle, while the Zigula returned the favour by invading neighbours for slaves and animals. To get weapons and powder for these expeditions, they engaged in coastal trade. Some short-lived leaders, referred to as chiefs or zumbe, came to power by raiding, but their hold on power was frequently reliant on their ability to successfully bribe. Villages in the Ruvu Islands, on the other hand, continued to be more remote and autonomous politically. No single chief had ultimate power over all of Zigula, although some chiefs, like as Bwana Heri, who vanquished Arabs in 1882, ruled over sizable regions.
By exchanging gifts and paying tribute, the Zigula established alliances and frequently used oxen-based communal feasts to resolve conflicts. Depending on kinship and the situation, bloodwealth payments were occasionally used to settle blood feuds. Clans had always held the land, but it was unclear how this might be changed to facilitate military operations.
Communities provided labour and tribute to leaders or chiefs, while some also acquired food, animals, and slaves from nearby villages. Although there were powerful elders in communities, their ability to influence those outside of their own village hinged on their military prowess and connections. In order to enable raiding and commerce, chiefs frequently forged alliances or blood covenants with nearby peoples, such as the Maasai, Baraguyu, and Arabs. Traditionally, leadership was inherited and passed down from father to son.
Chiefs were consulted in homicide cases and were crucial in resolving blood conflicts. The victim's family received compensation, sometimes known as bloodwealth, from the offender's relatives. This amount varied depending on the circumstances, such as self-defence or unintentional homicide. Court processes, wherein fines or corporal punishment may be enforced, might also be used to settle disputes. In addition to forming alliances with tribes like the Nyamwezi and Sukuma primarily for economic purposes, the Zigula clans also maintained social relationships with neighbouring clans through utani, a light-hearted cooperation.
Shambaa Influence
In the 1830s, the Zigua people acquired firearms, occupied the Pangani valley, and presented a danger to the mountain empire. In 1857, Burton declared that "the watch-fire never leaves the mountain" and "the war-horn is now silent." Kimweri was reluctant to recognize the importance of firearms, but his border chiefs embraced them and attracted supporters from outside the nation. Kimweri governed a conservative kingdom from a mountain capital remote from the trade routes.
The Sambaa king at Vugha was recognized by the British as their overlord or paramount chief. As a result, the Shamba native government annexed the once independent Zigua headman. But in the interim, the majority of the Zigua—who resided in different districts—were united in 1928 to form a tribal federation. One gleefully exclaimed, "It was not like in the olden days of our ancestors when they met with furious faces ready for war." "Let all the Zigua descendants return and enter into the unity and become a nation," the Zigua people said, "so that our fellow Zigua people in various countries will hear that now Zigua has united into one nation." The Zigua under Kilindi authority were thus motivated to establish an organization "to protect their interests in the country of their adoption."
They asked for the valley lands' restitution in 1943, arguing that they had been a part of Uzigua before the German invasion. The British dismissed the plea on the basis of history after receiving advice from a hardly impartial missionary in Mlalo.
The Zigua were completely correct because their ancestors had taken control of the valley during Kimweri ya Nyumbai's declining years. Responses to nationalism in this region in the 1950s would be significantly influenced by the persistence of Zigua irredentism. Old conflicts were thus brought into modern politics, as in Usambara and Bonde, while African political philosophy and organization acquired the framework of colonial administration.
Colonial era Firearms offered those who originally acquired them a short-term edge. The Zigua were the ones who initially acquired weapons and drove the Maasai from the lower Pangani valley by 1850, while the Arusha were the ones who did so in the upper valley. But as the First World War would demonstrate, muskets were primarily defensive weapons. With said weapons, Saadani was burned by the Zigua in the early 1850s.
The residents of the coastal hinterland were exposed to Islam. Many Segeju and Digo people converted to Islam. In the 1870s, missionaries discovered a sizable Islamic population in Bonde (Muheza). One person wrote that "there is a little mosque in almost every town" and "an Arab School in the larger ones." It is said that the Zigua converted the Bondei people to Islam in Bonde, and it is undeniable that Islam spread to Uzigua at this time.
One factor contributing to the German period's first widespread adoption of Islam by inland peoples was the fervor of Muslim teachers, particularly Qadiri Khulafa. In the past, there were Muslim communities in the country's commercial towns and among hinterland peoples like the Bondei and Zigua, and a few interior monarchs had converted to Islam or adopted an Islamic façade.
The three areas of deeper influence in German times were as follows: In the hinterland in the north, there was one breakthrough. By 1914, the Segeju were predominately Muslim, whereas the Bondei appeared to be split between Christians and Muslims, with the latter group being particularly prevalent in the east near the Tanga coast. As their position of power declined in Usambara, many Kilindi converted to Islam. Both coastal waalimu Islamic teachers and Shambaa were present there by 1913. Omari Mgaza, a Zigua Qadiri trained in Bagamoyo, is linked to the Zigua conversion. By 1914, the majority of Zigua were likely at least nominal Muslims, and the dhikr was said in a remote area that included migratory workers and traders. It embraces individuals who were becoming peasants due to their close proximity to the coast.
As Zigua claimed to be descended from Harun al-Rashid's warriors or, as some dynasties in the Southern Highlands claimed Arab ancestry, the adoption of Islam allowed people looking to connect their small-scale communities to the broader history of Islam. And it includes the political figures who were frequently Muslim pioneers because they interacted with the outside world the most and were therefore most exposed to its hazards. John Saidi, the Bondei apostle to the Zigua and a practicing Christian, was a former exorcist.
The land of the Zigua has been plagued by famines for most of its 19th century history due to the introduction of rinderpest by Europeans earlier in the century. "Great numbers of cattle have died in the last year or two from cattle disease, and I nowhere saw the vast herds which used to be such a striking feature of the Zigua country," wrote a missionary who was in Uzigua in 1907 while on a visit. Twenty years later, trypanosomiasis was endemic and cattle had all but vanished from Uzigua.
The German East African Company (DOG) sent out 18 trips to north eastern Tanzania between 1884 and 1886 to negotiate treaties with the powerful states there that would expand its territory. By April 1888, it had also built up 18 little trading and research stations on the mainland. These sparked a lot of animosity. The headman of Dunda, a village inland from Bagamoyo, requested that the Company close its outpost for fear that "at some point, white people will be masters of the land." At Korogwe, the Zigua protested against a station. Two stations at Uzaramo were assaulted in the beginning of 1887. Throughout 1886 and 1887, there was a lot of discussion about the prospect of resisting the Germans, especially by Saadani's monarch, Bwana Heri.