Many Bantu refugees can trace their origins back to ancestors in southeast African tribes who were enslaved in the 18th century by agents of the Sultanate of Zanzibar.
These ancestral tribes include, among others, the Makua and Yao of southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique; the Ngindo of southern Tanzania; the Nyasa of southern Tanzania, northern Mozambique, and northern Malawi; and the Zaramo and Zigua of northeast Tanzania.
Other southeast African tribes represented among the Bantu refugees include the Digo, Makale, Manyawa, Nyamwezi, and Nyika. The Bantu slated for resettlement, especially those who fled the once forested Juba River valley, are politely referred to as Wagosha ("people of the forest") or Jareer (term used to describe Africans with hard or kinky hair).
Derogatory terms to describe the Somali Bantu include adoon and habash, which translate as "slave." Some Somalis also call the Bantu ooji, which in Italian means "today" and refers to the Somali's perception of the Bantu as lacking the ability to think beyond the moment. The Bantu refugees generally refer to themselves simply as the Bantu.
Those who trace their origins to an east African tribe refer to themselves collectively as Shanbara, Shangama, or Wagosha. Those Bantu refugees with very strong cultural and linguistic ties to southeast Africa refer to themselves as Mushunguli or according to their east African tribe, such as Zigua.
In Bantu languages, such as Swahili, people from the Zigua tribe are called Wazigua, while a single person from that tribe is called Mzigua. The word Mushunguli may have evolved from the word Mzigua.
