Sanga (the first ntemi of the Sukuma)
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.
Parentage
Domains
- kingship
- dynastic foundation
Powers
- to rule as the first ntemi of the Sukuma from the stool of Sukumalaha
Sources
- 'Sukuma Chiefs and Royal History', Sukuma Museum (Bujora Cultural Centre, Mwanza, Tanzania), sukumamuseum.org
- Buluda Itandala, 'The Establishment of the First Four Babinza States in Usukuma' (History Department seminar paper, University of Dar es Salaam, 1975)
- Buluda A. Itandala, 'Ilembo, Nkanda and the Girls: Establishing a Chronology of the Babinza', in J. B. Webster (ed.), Chronology, Migration and Drought in Interlacustrine Africa (London: Longman; New York: Africana Publishing Company, 1979), 145-173