Kunama

Kunama (Bazen), aborigines of Upper Nubia, province of Kassala, about the Mareb and Takazze affluents of the Nile; about 150,000 in a territory over 6,000 square miles in extent. All are still pagans of Negroid type, who, like the neighbouring Barea, have hitherto maintained their independence both against the Abyssinian Christians on one side and against the Arab Mohammedans on the other. Hence a perpetual state of warfare, which has earned them a bad name, and which makes them extremely jealous of any strangers penetrating into their territory. Matriarchal practices still survive amongst these rude tribes, who, from their speech, -appear to be originally Hamites, despite their extremely dark complexion and other Negro features. (James, Wild Tribes of the Sudan, 1883.)