Tangopori
JF-Expert Member
- May 11, 2012
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In Arusha/Arumeru the dominant groups are the Arusha and the Meru. The MERU, a Bantu speaking people came first, about three hundred years ago, arriving from the Usambara area together with the first Machame Chagga, whose Bantu language is very closely allied to Meru. They settled in the forest on the south eastern slopes of Mount Meru (still their homeland) which was at that time only inhabited by the Koningo, a hunter/gatherer people of small stature. The Meru are skilled agriculturists who have utilized their favourable environment over the centuries without depleting its fertility.
The Arusha were the next arrivals. In their original home, Arusha Chini, they were of Pare origin. About 1830 they were encouraged by the Maasai to settle in the Selian area, west of the present Arusha town. They absorbed earlier Maasai speaking people, became Maasai speakers themselves and received a big influx of the Maasai in the 1880'swhen many lost their cattle in the rinderpest epidemic. The Arusha, like the Meru, have as agriculturists made the most of a favourable environment, but their mode of life is more heavily oriented towards cattle, most understandable considering the Maasai elements in their origins
The Arusha were the next arrivals. In their original home, Arusha Chini, they were of Pare origin. About 1830 they were encouraged by the Maasai to settle in the Selian area, west of the present Arusha town. They absorbed earlier Maasai speaking people, became Maasai speakers themselves and received a big influx of the Maasai in the 1880'swhen many lost their cattle in the rinderpest epidemic. The Arusha, like the Meru, have as agriculturists made the most of a favourable environment, but their mode of life is more heavily oriented towards cattle, most understandable considering the Maasai elements in their origins
