Haya

The Haya, or Bahaya, are a Bantu people of the Kagera Region of Tanzania, on the western shore of Lake Victoria, where fishing and banana groves shaped their economy. They inherited the ancient Urewe iron-working tradition: iron-smelting settlements appeared in Buhaya around 200 BC, and Haya smelters produced carbon steel nearly two thousand years ago in pre-heated furnaces.

Between 800 and 1500 incoming Bantu groups brought new cattle breeds and banana varieties, and the Haya began fertilising their groves with cattle manure. Land had earlier been held by totemic clans, which then founded the kingdoms of Kyamtwara and Kiziba. In the seventeenth century the Bahinda royal clan took power in Kyamtwara under King Rugomora Mahe.

In the late eighteenth century Kyamtwara fragmented into four smaller kingdoms. Haya kingship rested on sacred royal drums and the burial of the king's jawbone.