What is "machame"

Machame is an area on the south-western slope of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Historically, she was in 1889 referred by Hans Meyer as a great African giant, also the largest and most populous of all the Chagga states in Kilimanjaro, whose ruler as early as 1849 was reckoned as a giant African king with influence extending throughout all Chagga states except Rombo. By the 1860s, a German explorer Von der Decken (popularly known to the Chagga as Baroni), presented Machame as a confederation of western Chagga states comprising Narumu, Kindi, Kombo, to as far as the Western end of Kibongoto, each with their own chiefs under the king of Machame. 'Baroni' observed that by that time only two of the Chagga states had some autonomy from the king of Machame, namely, Lambongo (later Kibosho under powerful chief Sina) and Kilema. The rapid and certain disintegration of its influence over other Chagga states after an atrocious attack and her subsequent subjugation by Sina of Kibosho in the mid-1889, led to a highly confined influence constrained between Machame itself and a neighbouring village, Masama, where a frail sultan of Machame seemed to alternate in abode. Although by 1889 she was still estimated to comprise almost 20% of all the population of the Chagga, towards the end of the 19th Century Machame distinctly became a lowly chieftaincy still with claims of influence over Masama. Today Machame retains some of its beauty once praised by missionaries and explorers of the 19th Century, with much of historical sites that remind of her admired historical past. The exciting view of mount Kilimanjaro from Machame and the adventurous route to its peak have continued to be the source of tourist attraction to this once a giant African state.

The name "Machame" therefore refers to an ethnic and linguistic group of people occupying this area historically as its homeland, as well as the specific location.