614 



BANTU NEGROES 



Speke and Stanley always 

 write the name " Huma," 

 and this appears to he 

 the variant common in 

 Unyoro, though the pre- 

 sent writer is obliged to 

 confess he has never 

 heard any one speak of 

 " Bahuma." (It is quite 

 incorrect to write " Wa- 

 hunia." as is done by 

 the earlier explorers, lie- 

 cause " Wa-" is only the 

 degenerate Swahili form 

 of the plural prefix "Ba-," 

 which is used almost 

 throughout the Bantu 

 provinces of the Uganda. 

 Protectorate.) Speke 

 states that the Hinia 

 aristocracy in Unyoro 

 styled themselves the 

 " Bawitu " * (" -witu " 

 being the root of this 

 name) . In Karagwe, and 

 as far to the south-east, 

 as the Businja country 

 on the shores of the 

 Victoria Nyanza, the local 

 name given to the Hand tic 

 aristocracy is '' Bahinda " 

 or " Earuhinda " (the root being "-hinda"). Descendants of the same race 

 are said to go by the name of lt Batusi" in the vicinity of Tanganyika. 



Lieutenant Paul Kollmann, who wrote an excellent book on the 

 Victoria Nyanza some three years ago. states that the" Bahinda "were a tribe 

 of Hamitic descent independent of the Bahima, and only one among 

 several tribes of Gala origin which invaded the western parts of the 

 Uganda Protectorate in ancient times. As already mentioned, in Unycro- 

 the traditional name of these Hamitic invaders is " Bachwezi." (The root 

 would he "-chwezi.") In Ankole, which has long been the nucleus of the 



* George Wilson writes this more correctly " Babitu,'' and gives a legendary 

 origin to the name. 



339. A Ml'HlMA OF MPORORO 



