Introduction

Kabwa is an Eastern Bantu language spoken by a group of about 14,000 who live a few kilometers inland from the Mara Bay of Lake Victoria in northern Tanzania. Specifically, the Kabwa people live in the Bukabwa ward of the Makongoro division, in the Butiama district of the Mara region.

The Ethnologue classifies the Kabwa language as Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoid, Southern, Narrow Bantu, Central, J, Logooli-Kuria (E.405).  Alternate names for the language are Ekikabhwa, and Kikabwa. Kabwa shares considerable lexical similarity with three other language varieties: Sweta (86%), Kiroba (80%), and Kuria (73%).