ABOUT

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The Songora or Shongora (pl. Basongora, sing. Musongora) also known as BaChwezi and also as BaHuma, are a traditionally a pastoralist community of the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa located in Western Uganda and Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Basongora have distinctive customs and speak RuSongora, an African language that originates from Proto-Kordofanian. Daughter-languages of Rusongora include RunyaNkore, RuNyoro and RuToro. 

The Basongora population was reported as numbering 11,000 in 2006 in the two counties of Kasese District in Uganda, but this is most certainly an underestimate. Many Basongora also live in Shema district, Kibale district, Kyegegwa district, Bulemeezi, and in other parts of Uganda and Congo.

The colonial and neo-colonial governments in central and east Africa instituted programs to encourage the BaSongora to abandon their traditional lifestyle, and most of the territory traditionally owned by the BaSongora community has been appropriated for use as national parks or has been settled and occupied by other communities. Moreover, BaSongora territory has been partitioned into several districts and is distributed across Uganda and Congo.