Fipa - Orientation

Identification. The Fipa are a Bantu-speaking people of southwestern Tanzania in East-Central Africa. The name "Fipa" appears to have been bestowed on them by nineteenth-century traders and means "people of the escarpment." It was later adopted by German and British colonial administrators as a convenient label for this people.

Location. Ufipa (the country of the Fipa) is located between 7° and 9° S and 30°15′ and 32°15′ E. Most of the country consists of a plateau about 1,800 meters in elevation, with some adjacent territory in the Rukwa Valley to the east and along the Lake Tanganyika shore to the west. The total land area of Ufipa is about 65,000 square kilometers. The climate alternates between a six-month wet season, beginning in November, and a six-month dry season, beginning in April.

Demography. The present population of Ufipa is estimated at 200,000, with an average density of more than 8 per square kilometer. At the last tribal census, in 1967, ethnic Fipa constituted two-thirds of the then-total population of 150,000. Other numerically significant ethnic categories of the population of Ufipa are the Lungu, Nyika, Mambwe, Nyamwanga, and Wanda, all of whom are the actual or reputed descendants of Bantu immigrants.

Linguistic Affiliation. The Fipa language clearly belongs, through its grammatical structure and vocabulary, to the great family of Bantu languages whose speakers inhabit two-thirds of the African continent. Fipa is classified by linguists as belonging to a subgroup that includes Bemba, most of whose members are to be found to the south and southwest of Ufipa, in northern Zambia. Fipa itself is divided into a number of dialects, of which the most important is called Sukuuma (with no apparent connection to the people and language of a similar name in northeastern Tanzania). Most Fipa are also fluent in Swahili, the national language of Tanzania.