Gciriku is a traditional Kavango

Kavango

The Kavango people, also known as the vaKavango, reside on the Namibian side of the Namibian–Angolan border along the Kavango River. They are mainly riverine living people, but about 20% reside in the dry inland. Their livelihood is based on fishery, livestock-keeping and cropping...

 kingdom in what is today Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

. Its people speak the Gciriku language

Gciriku language

Gciriku or Dciriku , officially Rumanyo, is a Bantu language spoken by 305,000 people along the Okavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, in Botswana, and in Angola. It was first known in the west via the Vagciriku, who had migrated from the main Vamanyo area and spoke Rugciriku,...

.

The Gciriku (Rugciriku: vaGciriku) are one of the many ethnic groups in Namibia with an estimated population of 20 000. The Gciriku mainly live in the Kavango region, Ndiyona Constituency

Ndiyona Constituency

Ndiyona is a constituency in the Kavango Region of Namibia. It has 19,150 inhabitants, the district centre is the settlement of Ndiyona.The constituency contains the Khaudom National Park as well as the settlements of Nyangana, Shamwimbi, Twitwima, Kakekete, Tcotcoma, Cwibo, Shishidjo, Shakambu,...

. A small number of Gciriku live in the southern part of Angola. Their language, Rumanyo (previously known under the name Rugciriku), is also a Bantu language

Bantu languages

The Bantu languages constitute a traditional sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual intelligibility, though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages...

, spoken in the Ndiyona constituency and in Rundu

Rundu

Rundu is the capital of the Kavango Region, northern Namibia, on the border with Angola on the banks of the Okavango River about 1000 m above sea level. The place normally receives an annual average rainfall of , although in the 2010/2011 rainy season were measured.Rundu grows rapidly...

.

Origins

The Gciriku are part of the Kavango migration group that originated in the parts of central Africa and the Great Lakes. In the early 1900s, the Gciriku became the first tribal group in the Kavango area to accept European missionaries. The Missionaries were given land and settled in an area now known as Nyangana.

Royal rulers

Hompa Nyangana (1874-1924) was a fierce critic of all European influence, and particularly that of missionaries. Six Catholic mission journeys into the Kavango ended unsuccessful during his reign. Only after the seventh journey did missionary and later Archbishop

Archbishop

An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...

 Joseph Gotthardt

Joseph Gotthardt

Joseph Gotthardt was a Catholic missionary and later Bishop and Archbishop in South-West Africa . He was the first to set up missions in the Kavango Region and in Ovamboland, became the first Vicar Apostolic of Windhoek.-Early life and missionary work :Gotthardt was born in Thalheim in the German...

 manage to establish a mission station at Nyangana in 1910 and at Andara

Andara

Andara is a village in Mukwe Constituency, Kavango Region, Namibia. Located 200km east of Rundu, it is inhabited primarily by the Hambukushu people. It is the home of the Holy Family Parish, a Roman Catholic mission...

 in 1913, using the severely weakened position of the King after the VaGciriku-Lishora Massacre of 1894.

Language

The Gciriku speak a language called Rugciriku. The language is also part of the school curriculum and the subject is called Rumanyo. Most people refer to the language as Rugciriku rwaMuduva (Muduva's Rugciriku). The language has a few clicking but it is not similar to the San language.

Famous Quotes in Rugciriku

• Muntu mudona - Don't trust anyone.
• Wash tuka oko ghuna kutunda, tuka oko ghuna kuyenda - Small world.