In the 1830s, the Zigua people acquired firearms, occupied the Pangani valley, and presented a danger to the mountain empire.

Kimweri was reluctant to recognize the importance of firearms, but his border chiefs embraced them and attracted supporters from outside the nation.

[2] One factor contributing to the German period's first widespread adoption of Islam by inland peoples was the fervor of Muslim teachers, particularly Qadiri Khulafa.

By 1914, the majority of Zigua were likely at least nominal Muslims, and the dhikr was said in a remote area that included migratory workers and traders.

[2] The German East African Company (DOG) sent out 18 trips to north eastern Tanzania between 1884 and 1886 to negotiate treaties with the powerful states there that would expand its territory.

The headman of Dunda, a village inland from Bagamoyo, requested that the Company close its outpost for fear that "at some point, white people will be masters of the land."

The British dismissed the plea on the basis of history after receiving advice from a hardly impartial missionary in Mlalo.

The Zigua were completely correct because their ancestors had taken control of the valley during Kimweri ya Nyumbai's declining years.

The fall of the Pangani valley to Shambaa rule and the split of Uzigua among multiple British districts as the third factor gave Zigua tribalism a significant irredentist component.

Moyo not only embraced Zigua and Ngulu—two distinct "tribes" on British lists—but also claimed kinship with the Bondei and Shamba, who are also thought to be decedents of Seuta.

At the offices of the native administration, the provincial commissioner unveiled a clay statue of Seuta, the Zigua national hero in 1951.

[2] When Moyo first opened its doors to Seuta's descendants, it also pushed for the return of the lost Pangani valley, or Tambarare as it was known locally, from Shambaa to Zigua authority.

In 1954, the Zigua established the Tambarare Citizens Union on the advice of counsel in order to "protect the interests of the people of the plains as against those of the hills."