 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 Uganda and Tanzania | |
| Languages | |
| Rutara languages | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly:Christianity Traditionally:Belief in Ruhanga | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| OtherRutara people andTutsi |
| Person | MuHima,MuHuma |
|---|---|
| People | BaHima,BaHuma |
TheHima orHuma are a pastoralist social class that is native to thegrasslands ofWestern Uganda andKaragwe, Tanzania.
Birgitta Farelius claims that the term "Hima" probably derives from the Bantu word for monkey (enkíma), which is a totem animal of some clans originating fromKaragwe andAnkole.[1]
The name "Bahuma" comes from the verb "okuhuma", which means the "cacophony of sound made by a herd of cattle on the move, lowing, thudding of hooves, and cries of herdsmen".[2]
According to data from 1969, the Hima andTutsi groups possessed the enzyme of milk sugar lactose tolerance, which is highly prevalent in European populations, but the other Bantu-speaking tribes were largely lactose deficient,[3] similar results and conclusions were reached by the geneticist Sarah A. Tishkoff in 2007.[4][3][5]
Excoffieret al. (1987) claimed that the Hima and Tutsi, despite being surrounded by other Bantu speakers, are "closer genetically toCushites andEthiosemites".[6][7]
According to observers, "The typical Muhima of pure descent is tall, with well proportioned body and limbs...his nose is longer, more prominent and finer, and the lower part of their face narrower than in the average negro. Some (Hima) are lighter in colour, a dark bronze, but all have woolly hair".[8]
The Ankole historian Samwiri Rubaraza Karugire states that "the much-publicized idea of the similar physical features of the Bahima and the Batutsi is of the very marginal relative validity since, even today, it very easy to pick out a Mututsi from any given number of Bahima and vice versa because their features and build are different."[9]
People are considered Hima or Iru according to which kingdoms they resided in. For example, the Bayango clan is considered Hima in theKingdom of Karagwe, but inAnkole, they are regarded as Iru farmers.[10]
Cattle form the center of Hima society, and pastoralism is pursued over all other forms of subsistence. Hunting is looked down upon and if given no other choice the Hima only hunt animals that resemble cattle such as "Buffalo, one or two kinds of antelope,Waterbuck andHartebeest".[11][12]
Samuel Baker describes the Bahuma ofBunyoro:[13]
There is a curious custom throughoutUnyoro; a peculiar caste are cattle-keepers. These people only attend to the herds and the profession is inherited from past generations. They are called Bahooma. If the herds are carried off in battle, the Bahooma, who never carry arms, accompany them to their new masters and continue their employment. Nothing but death will separate them from their cattle
The Bahuma loved their cattle so dearly thatGaetano Casati reports that after a Sudanese raid into Bunyoro that captured 10,000 cattle, the Bahuma preferred to serve the Sudanese as cattle keepers rather than be separated from their cows. Thus, the Bahuma willingly followed the raiders with their families.[14]
TheRunyankore language (and otherRutara languages) is filled with terms about cattle and verbs that describe the actions of people concerning cattle. Counting revolves around the experience of herding; their decimal system uses "engundi" for 10 and "igana" for 100, from a typical herd of one hundred cows. "Engundi ikumi" (ten bulls) means one thousand because ten bulls will each have a herd of one hundred cows.[15] A herd of 100 cows (ente igana), brings a special prestige to their owner. Whenever a Muhima managed to obtain 100 cows for the first time a special ceremony was performed, indicating he had moved to a new status.[16][17]
AllBanyankore, not only the Bahima, treasure certain types of cattle so highly that they almost worship them. An example of one such type of cattle are those born as twins (empasha). They are rare, and when they do occur, they are appreciated so much that they can never be sold or given as bride wealth because theBanyankore believe that they are signs of fortune and wealth. Due to their symbolic value of economic wellbeing for the family, it happens that owners of empasha cows allow them to grow old, die, and be buried.[18]
In Bahima society, Rites of passage are marked with cattle-focused ceremonies. When a boy reaches the age of four months, he is placed on a cow's back with a bow, arrow, and rope. He is said to be “put down on a cow” (okuteekwa aha nte). Symbolically, his life as a man begins as he takes up the tools of the herder and the weapon of the hunter.[19]
The Bahima have various superstitions regarding the health of their cattle. The Bahima do not wash themselves with water due to a belief that it would bring harm to their cattle. According to theSocial anthropologistJames George Frazer, "Neither men nor women wash, as it is considered to be detrimental to the cattle. They therefore use a dry bath for cleansing the skin, smearing butter and a kind of red earth over the body instead of water, and, after drying the skin, they rub butter well into the flesh. Water applied by a man to his own body is said to injure his cattle and also his family."[20]
Hima women were fed heavily on milk to gain weight as obese women were considered attractive partners among the Hima.
During marriage ceremonies, Hima couples would spit milk at each other.[19]
The diet of the Hima is largely based on Milk. The Hima drink so much milk that a significant number of children would develop "Bahima disease", which was anemia, caused by feeding children a diet strictly of milk.[21][22]
The Bahima forbid the use of iron as vessels to store milk, only wooden bowls, gourds, or earthen pots. They believe the use of other kinds of vessels would harm their cattle and cause them to become ill.[23]
The historianChristopher Ehret believes that the Hima mainly descend from speakers of an extinct branch ofSouth Cushitic he calls "Tale south Cushitic." The Tale southern cushites entered the Great Lakes region sometime before 800BC and were pastoralists par excellence, relying only on their livestock and conceivably growing no grains themselves; they did not even practice the hunting of wild animals, and the consumption of fish was taboo, and heavily avoided. The Tale Southern Cushitic way of life shows striking similarities to the Bahima, who exclusively rely on the milk, blood, and meat of their cattle and traditionally shun the cultivation and consumption of grains, and who look down on hunting and avoid eating fish. A number of words related to pastoralism in the Rutara languages areloanwords from south Cushitic languages, such as "cow dung" and "lion" (a livestock predator).[24][25][26][27]
This late continuation of Southern Cushites as important pastoralists in the southern half of the lacustrine region raises the intriguing possibility that the latter-day Tutsi and Hima pastoralism, most significant in the southern half of the region, is rooted in the Southern Cushitic culture and so derived from the east rather than the north.
— Christopher Ehret, UNESCO General History of Africa: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century,[28]
TheSog Eastern Sahelians (or Sog Eastern Sudanic) are an extinctNilo-Saharan group that also contributes to Hima ancestry. The Sog were agro-pastoralists who entered the Great Lakes region in 2,000 BC and had an immense influence on the eastern Bantus. According toChristopher Ehret They spoke aKir-Abbaian language which was related toNilotic andSurmic languages (but still distinct from them). TheRutara languages spoken by the Hima have many Sogloanwords such as the word for cow (ente), showing their contribution to Hima pastoralism.[29][26]
Central Sudanic peoples likely form another part of the ancestry of the Bahima. Central Sudanic farmers and herders formerly lived in the lands that the Hima reside in now, and some of their cultural practices have stayed on after their assimilation by the Bantu. For example, inCentral Sudanic-speaking societies, women are kept away from cattle. Among the Bahima (and the neighboring Tutsi to the south), women are strictly forbidden to milk cows.[30][31][32][33]
Bantu peoples (especially theWest Nyanza-speakingRutara people) are also a part of Hima ancestry. The languages spoken by the Hima are Bantu and their religion (Ruhanga) is alsoBantu derived. Between 1000 and 1450 AD, Bantu pastoralists innovated over 19 different words for cattle colors and horn shapes, withRutarans in particular innovated nine color terms and a noun meaning "large cow with long horns" (theAnkole cattle breed).Christopher Ehret notes that "the Tale southern cushites did not attribute any esthetic or special social valuation to cattle. Few words of the kinds indicative of a special cultural status of cattle, such as words for cattle colors or horn shapes, trace back before the last 1,000 to 1,500 years. Only the everyday breeding distinctions—such as bull, heifer, calf, and the like." proving it as an independent Bantu innovation. The Bahima are very meticulous in noting the color of each cow as well as any distinguishing features.[34][35][36][37]
During the northwardRutara migrations from their homeland in theKagera Region and into the grasslands of western Uganda in search of new pasturelands in 1200 AD; David Lee Schoenbrun says, "it is conceivable that groups ofTale Southern Cushites,Central Sudanic orSog Eastern Sudanic-speaking herders took up Bantu speech" and moved into these grasslands alongside theRutara speaking Bantu peoples.[38][39][40]
According to Birgitta Farelius, the Bahima probably descend from a specific clan who monopolized the designation for “noble herder”.[41]
The Bahima have been influential and regarded as having high status in some of theAfrican Great Lakes Kingdoms. Hima kings ruled the kingdoms ofAnkole,Karagwe, andMpororo. Although the Bahuma claimed and were accorded high status, they have always, as Bahuma, lacked major political importance, and they have never been rulers inBunyoro-Kitara but were herdsmen who "attached themselves to the great chiefs as custodians of their herds." The Bahuma were servants for the Bachwezi rulers in theEmpire of Kitara, herding and tending to their cattle.[42]
The founder of theKingdom of Rwanda and of its ruling Nyiginya dynasty was a Hima and not a Tutsi. He was from Uganda and his name was Ruganzu Ndori. Eventually, the Nyiginya dynasty claimed Tutsi origins for itself, increasing the prestige attached to the label as their power grew in the region.[43][44]
The Hima were not always high-status people. In theKingdom of Burundi, the Bahima were regarded as less prestigious than both the Tutsis and the Hutus. While theGanwa dynasty of Burundi intermarried with Tutsis and Hutus, they would not take Hima spouses. Hima were considered impure and were kept far from the court and away from the kingdom's public affairs.[45][46]
The Hima lived inBuganda as a kind of outcasts on the fringes of the kingdom, herding cattle owned by Ganda chiefs.[47][48]Their pastoralism confers no particular symbolic advantage, since cattle have no great ritual significance inBuganda.[49] Farmers had high status inBuganda and so theBaganda regarded (and regard) the Hima as menial people (the Bahima were frequently called slaves by the agriculturalBaganda and looked down upon as being culturally inferior[50]).[51]
Even in Ankole, the Hinda rulers looked down on the nomadic Hima away from the court, derisively calling them uncivilized and "tick eaters".[52][53]
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