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The Basimba (alternatively BaShimba, Musimba, or MuShimba) are a Bantu languages community in Uganda. The name Basimba (Swahili language for big lion) is a label of shared identity that predates the 13th century. Basimba has been alternatively associated with the people or their place of origin. The early Ovambo people applied the name to the whole group of the leopard totem clan, known as Bena Ngo in Zambia and A be Ngo in Uganda.
Multiple kingship groups are recognized within the Basimba including the Leopard (Ngo) clan. The Basimba kingship group was often persecuted due to its royal links. Among the many Leopard clan branches, one was eligible for the throne. Reigning kings of Buganda would capture this group and execute most of its men to reduce the risk of being overthrown.
After the death of Kabaka Nakibinge of Buganda, his wife Nannono of the Leopard (Ngo) clan presided as Kabaka for eighteen months between 1554 and 1556 AD. After this event, the name Nabulya was introduced into the Leopard (Ngo) clan to remind other clans in Buganda that a woman from the Leopard totem clan once had power in Buganda Kingdom. "Nabuyla" means ‘I ate it,’ insinuating that the clan once took royal power.
Kyomba, a legendary ancestor of the Tabwa, lived on the eastern shores of Lake Tanganyika. Faced with Hamitic pressures in the north and other people from the south, Kyomba and his companions crossed Lake Tanganyika, migrating to the western shores of the lake after a conspiracy mounted and hatched against him reached the shores of Lake Kivu. Then they crossed the Ruzizi and arrived in Maniema on the banks of river Lualaba in the second half of the 16th century. Fanger, son of Kyomba, and his companions continued their migration up the river while others went elsewhere. The name Tumanya means “those that have followed the route by water,’’ and Bena Kilunga means “those who followed the path on land in their migration.” The Bena Kilunga group migrated to the eastern banks of the Lualaba River and Lukunga River together with Buanza, Mumba, and the Basimba people.
The Tumanya group migrated to Ankori, or the Nkole people, and eastwards, following the Luvua (Lualaba), while their companions followed the Lualaba River to back the lagoons in Upemba Depression. It was around the 17th century when the gradual arrival of people in the mountains from the plains of Lualaba Kamalondo was named the "Kundelungu" Mountains. Finally, Tanga and his father Kyomba migrated further across the Luapula at the current location of the position of Kasenga and settled in southern Tanganyika, where they were joined by members of the Zimba Clan, avoiding quarrels with Movwe who migrated to the Marungu highlands.
The Basimba or BaShimba immigrants seem to have come in under the leadership of Mambwe, Mauwe, Katunku, Ngulya, Mwati, Kaabya, Ntembe, Namuyonjo, Kabolesa, Kitembwa, and Kooli, among others. When these people reached Luapula Valley in the current Luapula Province in Zambia, Mwanza Region, Northern Tanzania, and Butambala in Uganda, they decided to settle, and the leader became the family or clan head. As the Basimba or BaShimba settlement grew the original leader, after several generations, became a mythical figure to his descendants.
Basimba or BaShimba people are recognized to be indigenous peoples because they were the first comers among the immigrants in Zambia or Northern Rhodesia by then and in Tanzania. According to local tradition, the original inhabitants were a clan called the Basimba who lived in the area of Busere on Ukara Island, in the southeast corner of Lake Victoria, but it is not known what language they spoke, and there are none of their descendants surviving. Tradition makes no mention of fighting between the Basimba immigrants and the people whom they found in Uhaya in Tanzania and at Butambala in Uganda. The Bashimba of the Leopard clan) successfully resisted Nkuba in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia).
The Basimba (Big Lion) people in Uganda maintain the Basimba Spiritual Stone, which represents the Chishimba spirit and is related to the institution of kingship. Its absence constitutes the absence of political power. According to traditional African religions, the Chishimba spirit is synonymous with kingship and similar to the Kintu cult practiced by the leopard (Ngo) Clan people in Buganda. The Chishimba is kept in a specially prepared basket called ichipe ca calothe basket of the nation or land. It is wrapped in bark cloth and kept in a specifically prepared shrine (ing'anda yaba Ba Chishimba or esawo lye ejjembe lya Basimba) dedicated to the spirit.
Basimba people worked with the Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom's priest in charge of the sacred pool of Muntebere. Each year, the Bunyoro king sent a young slave woman, two cows, and a white sheep to the priest. The slave woman was given as a wife to one of the Abasimba clan who was a servant of the priest.
The Basimba of Kisangani, who martyred Dr. Paul Carison of the Christ Church during the Congo Crisis of 1964–1965, participated in the Simba Rebellion, which was later defeated.
Examples of animal totems include Ngo/mbwili (Leopard), Leopard Cat, Genet Cat, which in the Lega language is known as Musimba and also known as Kasimba in the Luganda language and known as Zimba in the Luba language, Nshimba in the Bemba language, Lion (Mpologoma), Mbwa (Dog), Kikere (Frog) and Nkoko (Rooster). People of the same totem are the descendants of one common ancestor (the founder of that totem) and thus are not allowed to marry or have an intimate relationship. The totems cross-regional groupings and, therefore, provide a wall for the development of Ethnicity among the Basimba.
Basimba chiefs are required to be able to recite the history of their totem group, right from the initial founder before they can be sworn in as chiefs.
If a person initiates the burial of a person of a different totem, he runs the risk of being asked to pay a fine to the family of the deceased. Such fines were traditionally paid with cattle or goats, but nowadays substantial amounts of money can be asked for. If they bury their dead family members, they will come back at some point to cleanse the stone of the burial.
The BaShimba people living in Zambia's Northern Province, among the Lungu people and Bemba people tribes, speak the language that is most closely related to the Bantu languages, the Lungu language and Bemba language (in Zambia and the DRC), Haya language (in Tanzania), and Luganda of the Baganda and Lugwere of the Gwere people (in Uganda). In Uganda, Luganda is spoken in the central and eastern parts of the country and has become the most widely spoken language in the Country, although not always as a first language.
Some historians, , and sociologists, including David William Cohen, Ian George Cunnison, Hans Cory, Mwelwa Chambika Musambachine, Gideon Were, Stephen Kyeyune, Tausir Niane, Mary Douglas, M. Hartnoll, Dr. Schinz, and Fisher A. B., among others, have written books about Basimba people but have not stated the names of the Basimba ancestors who left the Luba people in Congo and migrated to places like Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Uganda. Some historians who have written histories of Africa use imprecise narrative documents to make estimates, which must be treated with caution. Societies such as the Anthropological Society of London and the Ethnological Society of London have also not yet published physical or cultural aspects of the Basimba people, due to the pronunciation of the name Basimba as Vazimba who migrated from East Africa and settled in Madagascar. The Vazimba are kinsmen of the Ba-Simba.
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