The Hehe (also Wahehe) began as a number of independent chiefdoms made up of mixed people who were in some instances related to one another. They are a Bantu tribe, who live primarily in the Iringa Region of Tanzania. They number around 192,000, with no chiefdom over 5,000 people, sharing a common language (Kihehe) and culture. The Wahehe had no political unity until the mid-1800s, when they were unified by Chief Munyigumba of the Muyinga dynasty and became the dominant tribe in the region. They become famous for their remarkable success in war. Under the rule of Munyigumba's son, Chief Mkwawa, they encountered and fought fiercely with the colonizing German Schutztruppe forces but had little bureaucracy, rituals, myths, or institutions of a civil nature (see German East Africa). They were ultimately defeated, and in 1898 Mkwawa committed suicide rather than suffer capture.

Ethnic groups in Tanzania | Indigenous peoples of Africa | Indigenous peoples of East Africa | Iringa Region

Hehe | Hehe | Hehe