A tribe is a group of related families that hail from a common ancestor. People of a single tribe feel close because they are related, use the same language, and have the same religion. There are countries which continue to base their social structure on tribes. One such state is Uganda.

The most numerous and important ethnic group in Uganda is the Ganda tribe, while the Soga tribe inhabits the eastern banks of Lake Victoria. Another ethnicity in Uganda can be found in the Bahima who live in the south-western part of the country. This is the tribe that Henryk Sienkiewicz calls Wa-Hima in the novel, and he makes it Kali’s tribe.

Each of the tribes uses a slightly different language, which is why the official languages of Uganda are English and Swahili, the latter being a special language developed for contacts between tribes. It is used not only in Uganda but also in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.