The Bena are Bantu ethnolinguistic group based in the
Njombe Region
Njombe Region (''Mkoa wa Njombe'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers a land area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of El Salvador. Njombe Region is bord ...
of south-central
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
who speak the Bantu
Bena language
Bena is a Bantu language spoken by the Bena people of the Iringa region of Tanzania.
Phonology
Consonants
Voiceless sounds almost always occur as aspirated stops; Ê°, tÊ°, kÊ°
* /v/ can be realized as ‹intervocalically.
* –can occur ...
. In 2001, the Bena population was estimated to number 670,000.
[ ]
Clans include the Wabena of Njombe highlands and its offshoot, the Wabena of Ulanga.
See also
*
Nena people
The Nena people are an African tribe first encountered in the last quarter of the 19th century in the north-east Livingstone Mountains in what is now Tanzania by two different European travellers. The Scottish explorer Joseph Thomson stumbled a ...
*
List of ethnic groups in Tanzania
There are more than 100 distinct ethnic groups and tribes in Tanzania, not including ethnic groups that reside in Tanzania as refugees from conflicts in nearby countries. These ethnic groups are of Bantu people, Bantu origin, with large Nilotic l ...
References
Ethnic groups in Tanzania
Indigenous peoples of East Africa
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