To Radio Katwe readers, much talk has been going on for the last decade after the talk of the infamous meeting held at Rwakitura to plan 50 years of Bahima rule, and more recently, the debate has drawn in people said to be Bahororo.

I took it upon myself recently to get to the bottom of what these controversial and sometimes unclear terms refer to. In seeking the true or original meanings and identity of Bahima, Bahororo etc, I spoke to 5 elders from Rukungiri district all of whom are over 80 years. All were interviewed independent of each other. I bring you a synthesis of what I gathered from them and other related research, my findings about what these terms refer to.

THE BAHIMA

Most people may be surprised to find that the term Bahima does not indeed refer to one ethnic group of people but rather is a term that refers to succesful cattle keepers of our time. The reason "Bahima" almost exclusively refers to the people of Cushitic orign (Nilo-Hamites) is not by coincindence but it from the fact that these Nilo-Hamites whose original home was in the Cushitic region in current Ethiopia, came with large numbers of cattle and settled in the vast savannah grasslands of Ankole about 500 years ago.

These Nilo-Hamites whose livelihood depended on rearing cattle, found the local people in places like Buganda who were mainly agriculturalists and then continued their journey southwards. At that time these Nilo-Hamites were speaking their own language which they soon abandoned and started to speak Runyankole which was the predominant language spoken by the native agriculturalists.

Among the native agriculutalists, some decided to take up the lifestyle of the newcomers by also engaging in cattle keeping and they were also in turn referred to as "Bahima" or the cattle keepers.

In this new social class, the more cattle you owned, the more respect you commanded among the people, and that is why the new comers or the Nilo-Hamites who had come with a lot of cattle soon became the nobility and eventually the ruling class among the majority natives (Banyankole) that they found.

A smaller group of these Nilo-Hamites who were not having so many cattle would not stay in Ankole but decided to continue southwards ending up in the current Rwanda/Burundi (roughly) where they settled and turned to agriculture. These are the people we refer to today as Batutsi (Tutsi). They settled among the local Bantu people (Bahutu) of that area and the rest as they say is history.

WHERE DID THE BAHORORO COME FROM?

When the Nilo-Hamites (now known as Tutsi) decided to move southwards towards Rwanda it did not of course take one day, mass migrations in those days were slow. So in their exodus to the new base, along the way they interracted with the Bantu group of people known as the Bakiga in Kigezi. As expected there were alot of intermarriages resulting in a new "cross breed" of people who were later to be recognised as Bahororo.

When the Nilo-Hamites finally established their dynasty in current Rwanda they wanted their Nilo-Hamites folks who had remained in the then Kigezi and Ntungamo areas to join them, and took them to Rwanda by force. This brought alot of family seperations among the Bakiga and their new spouses of Nilo-Hamitic origin creating so much bad blood that a war almost broke out.

What was disturbing was that the Nilo-Hamites from Rwanda refused to take with them any offspring that were a result of marriage between the Nilo-Hamites and the Bakiga. This led to even very young children being left behind in Kigezi as their (Nilo-Hamitic) mothers were taken by force to Rwanda. Unfortunately, to make matters worse, the Bakiga felt distate for the children that had been thus left behind. They were discriminated against and neglected, and in some cases even exiled to Ankole where they ended up as servants of the cattle keepers (Bahima).

As they herded cattle for their Bahima masters in Ankole, some of these herdsmen were paid in kind (with cattle) and when they also accunulated enough animals, they moved south towards Rukungiri district to look for cattle grazing grounds. Those who excelled in multiplying their herds in their new home Rukungiri came in turn to be referred to as Bahima. Examples of their descendants include Jim Muhwezi, Henry Tumukunde, Aronda Nyakirimas and so on.

Those descendants of unions between Bakiga and Nilo-Hamites who did not excel in cattle keeping (an accepted way to climb the social ladder) resorted to agriculture and they are the people referred to as Bahororo. The Bahororo occupy areas of present day Ntungamo district, areas of Rukungiri and Bushenyi. Because these Bahororo were shunned by their Bakiga ancestors, they could not learn the Rukiga language so ended up speaking Runyankole instead.

People like Eriya Kategaya are desecendants of Bahororo servants and their Nilo-Hamite (Bahima) employers. If a Muhororo girl who would be a servant in a Nilo-Hamite kraal was attractive to her employer, then they would lead a sexual relationship that resulted in the great grand parents of people like Kategaya. The social identity of the offspring could sometimes be a matter of debate but these days they can comfortably call themselves Bahima without much controversy.

THE BAIRU FACTOR

Briefly, Bairu was a term used by the cattle keepers (Bahima) to refer to those who had few or no cattle and were mere agricultualits. This term had no ethnic overtones. One would be called a Mwiru whether you are a Munyankole, Muganda, Mukiga or even Nilo-Hamite (Tutsi) as long as you were "poor" in cattle terms.

 25 Jul 2008