Ubantu:Contents:Peoples

An Overview of the Races and Sentients of Ubantu

From an outsider's eye, it is easy to divide the races of Ubantu into human and nonhuman. This conflicts strongly with the native viewpoint that our-people are humans and everyone else is a cannibal, an idea that is nearly universal in preliterate cultures. The most widespread peoples are the ten tribes descended from the Waokoka: the Wakoka themselves (not the slight spelling change for the modern people), the Wachomba, the Wamugombe, the Walangwa, the Wakomoga, the Wangumbi, the Watsimba, the Wasakara, the Wadingiswayo, and the Wakayesa. All of these are Bantu peoples with similar languages and roughly similar religious practices, though their cultures vary greatly.

In addition there are three other groups that seem to be trasported tribes from the same regions in east and southern Africa - the Masai, the Bushmen and the Twafwe Pygmies. All of these have changed and developed in the thousand years of separation. Of the three, the Masai are the most similar their Earthly relations. The Bushmen are a mixture of people from pre-Bantu Southern Africa. There are three distinct Bushmen groups, the Khoinama pastoralists, the Dxekwe peoples in the //Tane Swamp and the Tsan hunter-gatherers in the Xang/a Desert, which they share with the People-who-sit-on-their-hands (aka the !Tshab). The Twafwe are also an amalgam of several groups, particularly the Mbuti, the Twa and the Aka (all Pygmies) who developed in isolation whereas their Earthy counterparts mixed and merged with their Bantu neighbors.

There is another type of human that has made significant gains in the transition to Ubantu - albinos. In Earthly East and Southern African, albino humans are oddly common, around 1 in 5000, and suffer greatly from discrimination and prejudice, not to mention skin cancer. In modern times the particular the belief that raping an albino woman will cure HIV is widespread. In Ubantu, however, the powers of Wazeru are quite real. Wazeru are antipsi "screamers" who block and disrupt witchcraft (and Uyombe), though they have the touch only limitation. They cannot actively detect witchraft, but it is well known that witches avoid Wazeru. As a consequence they have become symbols of good luck - women will even hold out their babies to be kissed. In Ukoka they have formed their own clan/society and are rather wealthy, though they have a strong ethic of humility and public service. Twins, especially identical ones, also have magical powers in the form of a link and are considered lucky and fortuitous. They have their own organization, the Sudikambambi Society.

There are three commonly known humanoid races in Ubantu: the !Tsharg//hauim/goab, the People-who- sit-on-their-hands, the Wakonyingo Heavenpeople and the Wazimwi ogres. The !Tsharg (for the sake of brevity) are sentient baboons who originally shared the Xang/a desert with the Tsan and now are found throughout Milikyunjovu as slaves. The Wazimwi are native to the Ipori badlands but are also now found in large cities in Ukoka and Uchomba areas, being tolerated for their great strength and general utility. The Wakonyingo, on the other hand, are deeply admired and even venerated. Their generousity saved the Waokoka from famine and their occasional visits are cause for great celebration. There is a fourth race of gnomelike beings, the Ngojama or Utuchekulu, small in stature with iron claws and a fondness for poison darts, but these are very reclusive and more properly considered monsters.

The Wajovu are a class of beings all their own. Elephants are the living embodiment of nobility. They are wise beyond human understanding, they have memories and minds that literallly dwarf those of mankind and are throughly benign, kind and uncorruptable beings. Elephants are telepathic and telekinetic. They have joined with human in the Milikyunjovu to form a civilization more capable of resisting the corruption of witchcraft, and young bulls now are found wandering throughout civilized area, visiting human villages and "blessing" children.

While all elephants are sentient, talking animals are the exception rather than the rule. It is not a cause for alarm, but they do tend to be remembered in legends. All Bantu languages treat nonfood animals as people, and it generally assumed that they talk to each other. Animals that learn human speech are often the embodiment of ancestors and are thus accredited wisdom. Such animals are called "nyamazimu", and they have their own Society of protectors. In the Ukoka lands, each clan has a totem animal and clan temple where representatives of the totem species are kept as pampered pets with dedicated priests who consult them.

There is another class of sentient being beyond mankind: the Amazimu. The best translation of "Amazimu" is "unpeople". The best known Amazimu are the Irimu (pl Amarimu) shapechangers. In modern Kikoka, "irimu" has become a suffix meaning something like "were-" with the important distinction that Irimu are animals that can change into humans, not the other way around. There are leopard (Churimu), hyena (Fisrimu) and lion (Simbrimu) lycanthropes. All are maneaters, but Simbrimu at least are honorable and, in their own fashion, noble. Churimu are assassins and murderers who hunt and kill humans for fun, whereas Fisrimu are wicked and vile beyond description and universally witches. There are villages of these monsters in the Ipori and the Simbrimu have their own kingdom. All are also known to infiltrate human cities. There is fourth type of cannibal montser of this type, the Chiwandrimu, which has a mouth in the back of its head, one designed to bite through bones. Except for this feature, which is easily hidden, Chiwandrimu are very handsome and notoriously charming.

Like many things in Ubantu, the definition of Amazimu is blurred. There is another class of being, not properly a race, which may or may not be Amazimu. The Matebele are half-men, and while certainly horrific in appearance, they are not always malicious and not generally considered cannibals. Matebele are victims of witchcraft, a particularly nasty hex that steals half a man's soul and thereby causes half of his body to rot away. The same hex that destroys their bodies also renders them immortal, and they often outlive their creators. While enslaved they must do the will of their masters, of course, but once freed they often become the tireless enemies of witches everywhere. They often voluntarily serve those who kill their witch creators. Others simply become insane, which is perhaps understandable. There are legends of giant Matebele, probably made from Mzimzi, and even dwarfish ones of unknown origin. Matebele can leap great distances and often choose to flee rather than fight.