Characteristics
The Kinga were to be found in hidden areas, probably having been driven there by the Magwangwara Ngoni, and then the Wasangu, and even the Hehe, and were not easily located. They had little interaction with their neighbors, and felt comfortable only in their mountains. While they provided early warning posts against invasion of the Nyakyusa territory from the south and east, the Nyakyusa were not thankful, and generally held the Kinga in contempt.
Alexander Merensky describes them as having no particular physical type, their facial features and physique all being different. He thought them a mixed group of runaway slaves hiding in the mountains. Merensky found only one common characteristic: due to their mountain climbing the muscles on their legs were very well developed and they had acquired a distinct type of jogging while going up and down these heights.
Merensky, like the Nyakyusa, found them personally dirty and their homesteads of cylindrical and conical shaped huts disorderly and surrounded by hedges of thorn. Seemingly they were adept only at navigating their mountains and skillfully creating beautiful hoes, knives, iron spears, and a very pleasing beer from bamboo, which was plentiful in their area.
Read more about this topic: Kinga People