Semboja
Shambaa · mortal · Shambaa traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Semboja is the son of Kimweri ye Nyumbai remembered in the traditions as the destroyer of the unity his father had built. Seated at Mazinde on the caravan routes of the Pangani valley, he grew rich in trade goods, firearms, and alliances, and after Kimweri's death he refused the authority of the young king Shekulwavu, his nephew. Mobilising Taita warriors, he burned the capital of Vugha and brought about Shekulwavu's death, opening the long civil war that shattered the kingdom in the later nineteenth century. In the memory of the Shambaa he stands as the figure whose ambition undid the sacred order of the realm.
Parentage
- parent: Kimweri ye NyumbaiSteven Feierman, The Shambaa Kingdom: A History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1974). (secondary)
Domains
- war
- sovereignty
Powers
- commands the caravan trade and its arms
Relations
- parent: Kimweri ye NyumbaiSteven Feierman, The Shambaa Kingdom: A History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1974). (secondary)
- enemy: ShekulwavuSemboja made war on his nephew the king Shekulwavu, burned Vugha, and brought about his death.Steven Feierman, The Shambaa Kingdom: A History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1974). (secondary)
Sources
- Semboja, son of Kimweri ye Nyumbai and chief of Mazinde, contested the succession after his father's death, drawing on the wealth of the caravan trade to make war on the king Shekulwavu, burning Vugha and precipitating the collapse of the kingdom.: Steven Feierman, The Shambaa Kingdom: A History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1974). (secondary); Steven Feierman, Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990). (secondary)