SUKUMA TOUR

The Sukuma are a Bantu ethnic group from the southeastern African Great Lakes region. They are the largest ethnic group in Tanzania, with an estimated 10 million members or 16 percent of the country’s total population.

Sukuma means “north” and refers to “people of the north.” The Sukuma refer to themselves as Basukuma (plural) and Nsukuma (singular).

Person – Nsukuma

People – Basukuma,

Language – Kisukuma

Within the communities, healers are the ones who direct what and how each animal will be used. For example, pangolins are believed to be a sign for a good harvest year, so healers will sell pangolin scales to protect crops. Because snakes and porcupines are a danger to people and crops in Sukumaland, medicine men and healers captured them to be used as entertainment.

There is little information on the Sukuma tribes’ use of animals in their medicine because most of the research that has been done on the medicinal practices of this tribe has been plant based. A study was conducted in the Busega District of Tanzania, an area comprising the Serengeti Game Reserve and Lake Victoria, to determine which faunal resources healers use to treat illnesses within the community. Many of the traditional medicines, referred to as dawa, are no longer practiced, as many Sukuma tribe members rely more on Western-style medicine.

The biggest threat to conservation in Tanzania is the legal and illegal trafficking of wild animals for pets. There are also weak policies for regulating the census of endangered animals. Traditional healers do not pose as big of a threat to conservation efforts as commercial hunters do. Unlike the latter group, traditional hunters and medicine men only hunt what they need.Other than medicinal purposes, the Sukuma people use animal resources for things such as decoration and clothing. For example, animal skins are used for house decoration and bags.

Sukuma and NyamweziThe Nyamwezi (also called Dakama, or people of the South[citation needed]) and Sukuma (also called people of the North) are two closely related ethnic groups[10] that live principally in the region to the south of Lake Victoria in west-central Tanzania. When using ethnic names, they describe themselves as “Banyamwezi” (sing. Munyamwezi) and “Basukuma” (sing. Musukuma) respectively; they refer to their home areas as “Bunyamwezi” or “Unyamwezi,” and as “Busukuma.” The term “Sukumaland” is sometimes used for the Sukuma area. The name “Sukuma” literally means “north,” but it has become a term of ethnic identification.

The Nyamwezi and Sukuma region lies between 2°10′ and 6°20′ S and 31°00′ and 35°00′ E. The Nyamwezi “home” area is in the Tabora Region and western Shinyanga Region, and Sukumaland lies to the north and east, covering the eastern Shinyanga Region and the Mwanza Region. There has been much population movement in and beyond these areas, and members of both groups have also settled on the coast and elsewhere. Sukuma and members of other groups, such as the Tutsi and the Sumbwa, are often found in Nyamwezi villages, but Sukuma villages are ethnically more homogeneous. Sukuma took over the Geita area of Mwanza Region during the colonial period, and they have expanded farther west since then. They have also moved down into Nzega District and the neighboring Igunga District, and some have migrated into the southern highland areas of Tanzania, and even into Zambia. These Sukuma movements have stemmed from political factors, such as colonial cattle-culling policies, and from local overcrowding and deteriorating soil conditions. The two areas form a large and undulating tableland. There are several rivers in the region, but most of them do not flow during the drier months. The year can be broadly divided into a rainy season, from about November until April, and a dry season the rest of the year. Average annual rainfall for most of the Sukuma area, for Unyamwezi, but there is much variation from year to year and from place to place. Across the region, there is a regular sequence of soil and vegetation zones. The upper levels are dry woodland typified by trees of the Brachystegia-Isoberlinia association; these areas are often called miombo country, after one of these trees. Lower areas of grass and thornbush steppe are also common, and in Sukumaland there are large tracts of park steppe interspersed with baobabs