Nyamwezi

The Nyamwezi inhabit the plateau of west-central Tanzania, a country from which merchants and porters traveled far across East Africa. By the beginning of the nineteenth century their caravans had established a major route to Bagamoyo on the Indian Ocean coast. They carried ivory and other goods through a network that also reached Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika, connecting the inland plateau with markets on both the coast and the great lake.