61 1 



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 (juite 

 incorrect- to write " Wa- 

 huma," as is done by 

 the earlier explorers, be- 

 cause " Wa-" is only the 

 degfenerate Swahili form 

 of the plural prefix "Ba-/' 

 which is used almost 

 throughout the *-Bantu 

 provinces of the Uganda 

 Protectorate.) Speke 

 states that the Hima 

 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 Hamitic 

 aristocracy is '■ Bahinda " 

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

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



Lieutenant Paul KoUmann, who wrote an excellent book on the 

 Victoria Nyanza some three years ago, states that the " Rahinda" were a tribe 

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

 several tribes of Gala origin which invaded the western })arts of the 

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

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

 would be ' -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. 



335. A MUHIMA OF MPOEOKO 



