According to their oral traditions, the Mwera people are a Bantu people who originated around Lake Albert in north Uganda. They migrated south, back into Africa in the late medieval era, and reached Lake Malawi (Nyasa), where they settled into two communities: Mweras near Nyasa, and the second called coastal Mweras who settled between the Lake and the Indian Ocean coast. The word ""Mwera"" literally means "inland dwellers" (far from coast). Those Mwera people who live on the coast are called "Wamwera" by other Mwera people. They are known to be peaceful people, whose migration and population distribution has been historically affected by violence and seizure inflicted on them.