Sanga is the first ntemi (chief) of the Sukuma in the royal tradition of Usukuma. The son of Minza and sister's-son of the Babinza leader Nkanda, he was appointed to rule the place where the migrating Babinza had rested and was enthroned — by the traditional reckoning in 1504 — at Sukumalaha (Nsukumale), the resting-place whose name the Sukuma people themselves came to bear. From this first chiefdom the chiefdoms of Usukuma multiplied, ultimately to the fifty-two chiefdoms of recent times, and Sanga stands at the head of the line of batemi whose burial, election and enthronement rites, and whose magical powers, Hans Cory described in his study of the Sukuma chiefship. The title he inaugurated, ntemi, is traditionally derived from kutema, 'to cut', that is, to clear the bush for settlement.