Haya

Buhaya lies west of Lake Victoria, a country of banana gardens and long-established ironworking traditions. Haya farmers grew bananas in household plots known as bibanja, alongside other crops. Coffee too had a place in local life: its beans were prepared with spices and offered to honoured guests, and they featured in ritual as well as exchange.

Haya oral traditions trace the founding of several kingdoms to the sixteenth century, including Kyamtwara and Kiziba. The Bankango clan is associated with the former, and the Bakama with the latter. Their rulers governed neighbouring communities around the western shore of the lake. The Haya country remained linked to other Great Lakes kingdoms by ties of trade and political allegiance; coffee was among the goods valued beyond its gardens.

The later city of Bukoba lies here.