Tanzania is home to more than 120 different tribes, most of them belonging to the big Bantu family. The fierce Masai are Nilotic people. Tanzania's different tribal groups are mostly of Bantu origin. The Sukuma tribe from Lake Victoria is the largest with a population of over three million. Other large tribes include the Haya from western Lake Victoria, the Chaga who occupy the fertile Kilimanjaro slopes, the Nyamwezi and Gogo in central Tanzania, and the Hehe, Ngoni and Nyakyusya from the southern highlands. Perhaps most famous is the Masai tribe, which dispersed across the northern plains and beyond into Kenya.

The Bantu Tribe

There are more than 60 million people who speak Bantu as their native language. They live primarily in the regions that straddle the equator and continue southward into southern Africa where it is believed they migrated to.

The Hadzabe tribe

The Hadzabe tribe, living along the remote shores of Lake Eyasi, is related to the South African bushmen. They also have a similar 'click' language. As hunters/gatherers, they live a very primitive nomadic life.

The Masai tribe

The Masai tribe is probably the most interesting tribe in East Africa. These proud people refuse to give up their own traditions. The tribe occupies a territory covering vast areas in southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They are nomadic herdsmen and warriors, feared by neighbouring tribes. the Maasai tribe are the southernmost Nilotic speakers and are linguistically most directly related to the Turkana and Kalenjin who live near Lake Turkana in west central Kenya. According to Maasai oral history and the archaeological record, they also originated near Lake Turkana. Maasai are pastoralist and have resisted the urging of the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. They have demanded grazing rights to many of the national parks in both countries and routinely ignore international boundaries as they move their great cattle herds across the open savanna with the changing of the seasons. This resistance has led to a romanticizing of the Maasai way of life that paints them as living at peace with nature.

Datoq tribe

The Datoq tribe, a nomadic tribe of cattle herdsmen. Their territory borders Masai land, and conflicts sometimes occur.