The Rutara peoples (endonym: Banyakitara, Abanyakitara) are a group of closely related Bantu ethnic groups native to the African Great Lakes region. They speak mutually intelligible dialects and include groups such as the Banyoro, Banyankore and Bahaya.
Total population | |
---|---|
14,606,000[1][2] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Uganda, Tanzania, the DRC and Rwanda | |
Languages | |
Rutara languages | |
Religion | |
Belief in Ruhanga | |
Related ethnic groups | |
other Great Lakes Bantu people |
Proto-Rutara people originated in the Kagera Region of Tanzania near Bukoba in the year 700AD. They then expanded northwestwards spreading Rutara language and culture into western Uganda and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, regions that would one day become Bunyoro, Mboga, Nkore, Mpororo, etc. This movement of ideas and practices is likely to have marked the inception of the eras of the Batembuzi and Bacwezi, a period only dimly and fabulously remembered in the later oral traditions, but one in which the key political ideas and economic structures of the later kingdoms first began to be put into effect. [3][4][5][6]