Nyemba

Nyemba is what the Kavango people of northern Namibia call Namibian|immigrants]] who fled from Angola during the Angolan Civil War.

The Namibian term "nyemba" also refers to a dialect of the Angolan language Ngangela, which is further divided into dialects like Luchazi, Nyemba, and Mbwela, to name a few. It does not include Yauma, Nkangala and Ndundu which are Mbunda dialects that are not part of the so-called Ngangela.[1][2]

Ngangela is a generic term for peoples east of the Central Highlands (Mbwela),[3] and yet in a sense is used specifically to group all the dialects mentioned above as one tribe being Nyemba.[4] As a consequence of the Angolan War of Independence (1961–1974) and the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002) and not to forget the scramble of Africa by the Europeans, a number of Mbunda were in Zambia and in the Kavango region of Northern Namibia, in the west and east of Kavango Region, around Rundu and Nkurenkuru. Many other Angolans (often also referred to as Nyemba)[5] also immigrated to traditional Kavango territory, during and long before the Angolan Civil War began.[6]