Seuta

The Seuta are Bantu peoples of northeastern Tanzania, between the Pangani and Wami rivers, speaking closely related languages. Their traditions remember a bow-armed hero called Seuta, who led the ancestors of the Zigula south. The Zigula count themselves the parent stock of the Shambaa and Bondei; the Ngulu are said to be Zigula who took refuge in the hills from raiders.

The Zigula lived in palisaded towns, grouped around matrilineal clans under chiefs called zumbe, who came to power by raiding; none ruled all the Zigula.

In the first half of the 1700s a Zigula-born hunter, Mbegha, fled into the Usambara Mountains, united the Shambaa as their king and founded the Kilindi dynasty. His son Bughe built the hilltop capital at Vuga, and the Lion Kings grew powerful on the caravan trade passing up the Pangani valley.