Kimweri ye Nyumbai
[3] According to legend, Mbegha was a hunter who was cast out from the Nguu to live in the Usambara rain forest, where he killed wild pigs for food.
[5] He conquered the Wazigua country to the south in the lower Pangani River valley, and of the eastern Usambara mountains, nearer to the coast.
[6] The expanding East African slave trade in the 19th century was controlled by the Omani Arabs, whose sultan had moved his capital to the island of Zanzibar.
[10] After the death of Kinyashi, Kimweri ye Nyumbai ascended to power in Usambara, ruling from the early nineteenth century until the 1860s.
He is regarded as the greatest Kilindi ruler, known for maintaining centralized authority and presiding over a long period of stable and benevolent governance.
During Kimweri's reign, foreign interactions with the Shambaa kingdom increased, introducing external influences that would ultimately undermine traditional institutions.
[11] Although it is often stated that Kimweri's sons were the first to rule most chiefdoms in Usambara, many areas retained memories of earlier lines of chiefs or royal graves from the "ancient Kilindi."
Kimweri practiced appointing his sons to various chiefdoms, with Vugha and Mshihwi being the only locations with a continuous lineage traced back to the earliest rulers.
[13] Despite the internal order and peace that characterized Kimweri's reign, the Shambaa kingdom began to fragment following his death, as rival factions engaged in a protracted period of conflict lasting twenty years.
While a Zanzibari scribe was present at the court in Vugha and Kimweri engaged in trade for firearms and textiles with Arab merchants, commoners were discouraged from establishing regular foreign connections.
Notable European visitors to West Usambara during this period included Krapf (1848 and 1852), Burton and Speke (1857), and Kersten and von der Decken (1861).
[9] In 1852 Krapf saw Kimweri's collectors extracting tribute from the loosely controlled coastal region, then taking them back to Vugha where the spoils were divided.
[8] Starting in the 1840s there was a dramatic rise in the number of flintlock muskets and gunpowder imported into the region, and Kimweri was actively competing for these weapons with other local rulers.
Erhardt recorded the repulse of a Maasai raid in 1853 at Mazinde by an allied army of Shambaa under Semboja, Kimweri's son, and of Wazigua, Parakuyo and "Arabs" (most likely Swahili).
[26] By the 1850s the caravans from the coast were avoiding the lower Pangani basin, which was unsafe due to Zigua raiders, and were taking a route to the north of the Usambaras.
"[27] The explorers Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke visited Vuga in 1857, passing through local markets where villagers traded their produce.
His head was shaved, his face beardless, and wrinkled like grandam's; his eyes were red, his jaws disfurnished, and his hands and feet were stained with leprous spots.
The hut appeared that of a simple cultivator, but it was redolent of dignitaries, some fanning the Sultan, others chatting, and all holding long-stemmed pipes with small ebony bowls.
[30] After Kimweri ye Nyumbai died a civil war broke out over the succession, fueled by competition for the new wealth that the caravan trade in the Pangani valley had brought to the region.
