The Hema is a people of about 160,000 people in eastern Congo in the province of Ituri. Historically, they have always been cattle breeders and they were favored by the Belgian colonial regime opposite the Lendu, which mainly used to cultivate agriculture. This was the cause of the Ituri conflict involving 50,000 people. In this sense, the rivalry between Lendu and Hema is comparable to the Hutu and Tutsi.
The Hema has its own language, the Hema. Nevertheless, the Northern Hema rather speaks the Lendu.
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