The Goma ( Swahili: Wagoma,

Kigoma Kigoma is a city and lake port in Kigoma-Ujiji District in Tanzania, on the northeastern shores of Lake Tanganyika and close to the border with Burundi and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. It serves as the capital for the surrounding Kigoma R ...

: Bahoma, Ebembe: Bakyobha), who also refer to themselves as ''Al ghamawiyyun'' in Arabic, are a tribe in the

Kigoma Region Kigoma Region (''Mkoa wa Kigoma'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital is the city of Kigoma. Kigoma Region borders Kagera Region, Geita Region, Katavi Region, Tabora Region, DRC and Burundi According ...

in western

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 ...

. They are a contingent of the

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 ...

tribe who are more commonly found in

and present-day

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

who migrated from the western shore of the

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. ...

in Democratic Republic of Congo with origins from

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

. They are the first group of the Bantu tribe to ever cross the

and also the first group to reside in the Urban District of

as its inhabitants. Following the

Wagoma The Goma ( Swahili: Wagoma, Kigoma: Bahoma, Ebembe: Bakyobha), who also refer to themselves as ''Al ghamawiyyun'' in Arabic, are a tribe in the Kigoma Region in western Tanzania. They are a contingent of the Bantu tribe who are more commonly found ...

were Niakaramba (Kwalumona) from

Cape Karamba A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

and then Wabwari from Ubwari peninsula. The Kwalumona merged within Wabwari, identified themselves as Bwaris and settled north of Wagoma in Kigoma before resettling in

Ujiji Ujiji is a historic town located in Kigoma-Ujiji District of Kigoma Region in Tanzania. The town is the oldest in western Tanzania. In 1900, the population was estimated at 10,000 and in 1967 about 41,000. The site is a registered National His ...

and its environs, where they formed a tribal Confederacy in

known as

Wamanyema Manyema (WaManyema) (Una-Ma-Nyema, eaters of flesh), are a powerful and, in the past, warlike Bantu people in the southeast of the Congo basin in Nyangwe ( Kasongo) in Maniema, Democratic Republic of Congo and in the city of Kigoma, Kigoma regio ...

. The Wagoma crossed the lake early due to their invention of dug-out canoes ''mitumbwi ya mti mmoja'' curved from ''Mivule'' trees of Ugoma mountains from western shore of the Lake.

History

In Goma history the villages and hamlets were many before the emigration and wars and the traditional states comprised several number of them before the immigration of bembe people with significant numbers of chiefdoms or sultanates sometimes under the suzerainty of Uguhha Kingdom the southernmost goma state under the Bakwamamba Dynasty in modern Kalemie in Tanganyika district of Katanga Region in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Political Organization

Politically Bahoma arrived in north-western shores of Lake Tanganyika in D.R.C with their centralized political institutions that had based on the recognition of autonomous rulers of their village groups with both temporal and spiritual powers vested on single individuals who had the power of life and death over their subjects. The traditional title of Bahoma Sultans and other related tribes is

Kolo Kolo may refer to: Places Poland *Koło *Koło, Łódź Voivodeship * Koło, Lublin Voivodeship * Koło, Lubusz Voivodeship Other places * Kolo, Bosnia and Herzegovina * Kolo, Central African Republic * Kolo (Tanzanian ward), Kondoa district, Dod ...

. In Tanzania prior and during colonialism the Gomas were politically included with other Manyemas mainly by indirect rule under the local authority of the Arab-Swahili Liwalis of Ujiji with local representatives to the town council with their old dynasties being disregarded and remained active ritually within their respective clans. Until recently in 2017 that the old Bene Mbonwe dynasty was restored at Ujiji by its senior members of the royal clan in Agnatic succession as the

Mwene Mbonwean Sultanate of Ujiji Mwene Mbonwean Sultanate of Ujiji is a subnational Monarchy in Ujiji town, Kigoma Region, western Tanzania. The seat of the local Sultanate is Busaid which was called so from the name of the dynasty of both the Zanzibar Sultanate and Oman whic ...

and became the first Goma and Manyema traditional authority to have Ujiji as its royal seat.

References

Sources

* * {{authority control Ethnic groups in Tanzania