The peoples speaking Bantu to be met with south of Kilima Njaro, on the Iramba table-land, the Wakamba, Wataita, Wakaguru, and Wagogo, are Hamito-Bantus who have adopted the manners and customs of the Masai. These “Bantus of recent immigration” have come from the north-east, from the country of the Gallas, where their remaining fellows are still to be found under the name of Wapokompo in the upper valley of the Tsana, and Watakosho, speaking Galla, near Lake Rudolf. Among the eastern Bantus are provisionally classed the Wavira, who perforate the lips like the western Bantus; the Wahuma, who are of Ethiopian type; and the other tribes who dwell between the middle Congo and the lakes, from the equator to 5° lat. S., who are also called Waregga (People of the Forest). These are cannibals who have come from the south-west; their language differs from that of their neighbours, the Manyuema, who are of Ethiopian type. The tribes living to the south of the Ituri valley, the Wambuba, the Wallessi, etc., appear to be a hybrid of Negrilloes and Bantus.
The group of Southern Bantus[537] is composed of Kafir-Zulus to the east, of Bechuana to the centre, and of Herrero to the west. The Zulus (Fig. [47]), of which the most southern tribe or “Ama,” the Amaxosa or Kafirs (Fig. [135]), live in the eastern part of Cape Colony, and have of recent times advanced towards the north, far from the country of their origin, up to the region of Usagara. Among the chief Zulu tribes should be noted the Banyai, the Bakalaka, the Baronga, the Swazi (Fig. [142]), and the Tonga, between Delagoa Bay and the Transvaal; the “Ama” Mpondo of Pondo, the “Ama” Tembu of Kafirland; the Makong, neighbours of the Shinia (Foa) on the banks of the middle Zambesi, etc. Except these Kafirs, who have a special language, all the other Zulus speak the Takesa tongue.
The Bechuana, separated from the Zulus by the chain of the Drakensberg Mountains, are infused more or less with Hottentot blood; they are divided into Eastern Bechuana or Basuto, among whom Bantu traits predominate, and the Western Bechuana or Bakalahari, who show a more marked intermixture of Hottentot elements. To the north of the Bechuanas, in the upper basin of the Zambesi, live the Barotsé, a people related to the Zulus, of which one tribe is known as the Mashona. Finally, two other Bantu tribes extend to the south of the Kunene, surrounding the table-land inhabited by the Hill Damaras or Haw-Koîn (see below); these are the Ovambo or Ovampo, tillers of the soil (over 100,000), to the north between 16.30° and 20° lat. S., and the Ova-Herrero or Damara shepherds, of a fine Bantu type, to the west and south.
FIG. 142.—Swazi-Bantu woman and girl.
(Coll. Anthr. Inst. Great Britain.)
Physically the Zulus are of high stature (1 m. 72, according to Fritsch) and dolichocephalic (average ceph. ind. of 86 skulls 73.2, according to Fritsch, Hamy, and Shrubsall). They have these traits in common with the Nigritians,[538] but they are not so dark as the latter, and are less prognathous. The face also is square and the nose prominent, although somewhat coarse.
FIG. 143.—N’Kon-yui, Bushman of the
region of Lake Ngami; 40 years old;
height, 1 m. 44; ceph. ind., 77.2;
nas. ind., 97.5.
(Phot. Coll. Anthr. Soc., Paris.)