The Kwere also known as Ngh'wele (''Wakwere'' in

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

) are a matrilineal ethnic and linguistic group native to

Bagamoyo District Bagamoyo is one of the six districts of the Pwani Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the north by the Tanga Region, to the west by the Morogoro Region, to the east by the Indian Ocean and to the south by the Kibaha District. The district c ...

and Chalinze District in Pwani Region of coastal Tanzania. The primary language spoken is Ngh'wele, called Kikwere in

. The most famous person of Kwere descent is former President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete.

History

In 1987, the Kwere population was estimated to number 98,000. The government of Tanzania released data for the 2012 census, but it was not by ethnic group and such detail may not be published in the near future. In the country's 1967 population census, 48,132 people on the mainland identified themselves as belonging to the Ngh’wele ethnic group. The overwhelming majority of them lived in their traditional residential areas in Bagamoyo district (35,404 people), with another 3,857 people living in neighboring Kisarawe district. In addition, small groups of Ngh’wele people were said to be residents of the Morogoro Region (3,764) and

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

(2,902). Reliable census data since 1967 are not available, as subsequent government demographic collections no longer record ethnicity. The total population of the Pwani Region for 2012 was 1,098,668. In the past, the overwhelming majority of the Kwere lived in their traditional residential areas in Bagamoyo district on the coast.

Culture

The pervasive dominance of the Swahili language in coastal affairs throughout East Africa for many centuries have led to most peoples indigenous in the area to be at least bilingual, the Ngh'were are no different. This was confirmed in 2002 by Bagamoyo elders who attended a conference held in the city championing its nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage site. In 2011, Bagamoyo was reported as the recipient of Tanzania’s seventh world heritage site. What impact this award will have on Ngh'were residency in the city is not yet known, but the tour handlers are advertising globally.World Heritage tours to Tanzania
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References

Ethnic groups in Tanzania Indigenous peoples of East Africa {{Tanzania-ethno-group-stub