During the eighteen and 19th centuries, the principal caravan route between the Lake Tanganyika and the Indian Ocean travelled via Ukagura, following the Kinyasungwe and Mkondoa rivers.
In the German Sergeant Bauer's time only a few of its mountains were, and remain today, thickly wooded, for most were already deforested because of the iron smelting industry with its intense need for charcoal and the severe agricultural clearing.
After the coming of the Germans much land was preserved as woodland reserved and can be considered beautiful semitropical forestland of great density and abundant rain.
The steep terrain had a network of valleys ideal for refugees escaping raids, particularly from the Hehe of the south and the Maasai of the north and is considered the 'heartland'.
The word 'Kaguru' refers to the highlands with heavy rain (100 inches on the peaks) that was cool and capable of the regular production of vegetables, and some rice, millet, and plantains.
During Captain Bauer's era, the Kaguru continued to reside in big, fortified settlements on the highland, where there were enough men to defend against raids for food, livestock, grains, slaves and metal goods.
The earliest European accounts of the Kaguru gave them various names and seem to be only vaguely aware of them (the Germans with Sergeant Bauer and Charles Stokes make no mention of them).
A small group of leaders would spring up and form a network of connections on the major caravan trading points.
It was also where caravans were given the duties of law and justice in exchange for recognition, ammunition, cash and trade goods, and it was also where these leaders were accused of exaggerating their power and influence and attempting to claim special status and privileges.
While the Germans, British and Arabs, were all too glad to conceive a unified ‘tribal’ area ruled by cooperating kings, some rulers actually carried out their promises.
Alcohol consumption, clothes, Kaguru songs and music, dancing, haircuts, ear-piercing, native jewelry, red ocher for beauty products, as well as numerous aspects of etiquette were all condemned.
They needed to establish broad and diverse relationships since their society was organized around relatives and household groups containing people who could be called upon for support and were a major resource for security and prosperity.
The Kagura negotiate rights to land, to rituals, bridewealth, fines and inheritance as part of kin membership determined through birth and marriage.
Their society existed of about one hundred matrilineal clans with a wide variety of names such Cat, Goat, Messengers, Spoiled Beer, Rain, Beads, Ravines, Criw, etc., with each containing thousands of members.
Most Kagura marriages were not considered complete until the birth of children, which only then complicated the varying interplay of loyalties over time.
Men monopolized all ritual and official public life, but women were also essential, whether or not they were married, and had total rights of control over their children.
A childless woman's greatest concern is finding kin to care for her after she becomes old, with brewing, prostitution, and midwifery becoming her most likely means for added income.
Male circumcision (initiation) is performed at puberty by men in a bush camp (not in a settlement) where the youth remains until he recovers, and consists of removing the foreskin of the penis with a knife.
Women inside the initiation house enjoyed singing obscene songs, laughing loudly at jokes, and dancing, it was good excuse to travel and visit.
After a night of singing and dancing the girl was taken into the nearby bush, held seated on a hide and cut by an old woman.
The Kagura did not remove any part of the clitoris, and the female initiate, after receiving gifts of new clothing and masses of beads from her kinswomen, was now ready for suitors and marriage.
In an orderly world the two dimensions are expected to be separate and not interfere with one another, though the misdeeds of the living do upset the ghosts and they wish to be remembered with sacrifices and hear their names called out.
Serious and continuing problems are blamed on angry, disturbed, or confused ghosts for whom rites are then held to placate, cool or quiet them.