Bayei

The Yeyi, also known as Bayeyi or Mayeyi, are a Bantu-speaking people of southern Africa. Oral tradition recounts that a group led by the fisherman and hunter Hankuzi moved from the north into Ngamiland in the eighteenth century, with other migrations following.

In Ngamiland the newcomers encountered communities already living along the waterways and learned fishing techniques from them. Yeyi traditions also credit them with bringing canoe-building skills to the region. Links with the Lozi farther north supported exchanges of tobacco for iron, used for tools and spearheads. In the early nineteenth century, after the arrival of the Tawana, many Yeyi became attached to Tawana households.