HEHE TRIBE

Hehe Solidier stand for photo during world war II

The Hehe (Swahili collective: Wahehe) are an ethnic and linguistic group based in Iringa Region in south-central Tanzania, speaking the Bantu Hehe language. In 2006, the Hehe population was estimated at 805,000, up from the just over 250,000 recorded in the 1957 census when they were the eighth largest tribe in Tanganyika.

Historically, they are famous for vanquishing a German expedition at Lugalo on 17 August 1891 and maintaining their resistance for seven years thereafter—a war that left the Hehe shattered, culminating in their leading chief, Mkwawa, shooting himself

Young Hehe worries stand with Mkuki na Ngao as defence mechanism during figthing

The people who were eventually to be called Hehe by Europeans, lived in isolation on a highland in southwestern Tanzania, northeast of Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi), and had few ancestors who had been in Uhehe for more than four generations. With the exception of some pastoralists on the plains and some keeping a limited number of cattle and goats, the Wahehe were primarily an agricultural people. In the beginning they seemed to have lived in relative peace, although the various chiefs did quarrel with one another, raided each other for cattle and broke alliances. The population was probably small, with no chiefdom over 5,000 people. By the middle of the 19th century, however, Nguruhe, one of the more important chiefdoms led by the Muyinga dynasty, began to push its weight around and expand its influence and power

Hehe Warriors in the early 20th Century. Note the hide shields and facepaint or masks of the warriors in the foreground

tibazetuasili

Author & Editor

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