Manyema

Many Manyema, like many Nyamwezi, are the descendants of porters who emerged during the height of the Swahili-Arab trade in the Sultanate of Utetera.

[3] During the early to mid-1800s, many Manyema traversed, back and forth, across Lake Tanganyika towards the Swahili coast in larger numbers as caravan porters, merchants, mercenaries, war refugees (emphasised in Manyema memories), slaves (emphasised by missionaries and colonial officials), and to some extent as slave traders (emphasised by explorers like Henry Morton Stanley, David Livingstone and John Speke).

The New York Times reported that the Manyema “allied themselves with the Arabs”,[5] a misnomer applied to Waungwana.

However, a female Manyema would often give birth to a child of various ethnicities, such as Swahili, Zaramo, Shihiri, or Arab.

[7] In Tanzania, the Manyema include various smaller ethnic groups of Congolese origin of which are independent culturally but with some resemblance due to intermarriages.