Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T08:37:13.982Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Zimba and the Lundu State in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Matthew Schoffeleers
Affiliation:
Free University of Amsterdam

Extract

This article is a partial answer to M. D. D. Newitt, who proposed that settled Maravi states were established only as a result of the rise of Muzura in the first half of the seventeenth century (cf. J. Afr. Hist., 1982, ii). Newitt thereby challenged the more orthodox view that a formal Maravi state system existed already by the middle of the sixteenth century, if not earlier. It is argued here that the orthodox view is still valid in the case of the Lundu state in the lower Shire valley, and perhaps also in the case of some of the neighbouring states. It is shown that around 1590 the then Lundu incumbent embarked on a course of strong state centralisation during which he appropriated the power of the traditional rain priests and thus became both the secular and the ritual leader of the country. It is also argued that this unusual degree of centralisation was achieved and could for a time be maintained with the help of the Zimba, an army of fugitives from the south bank of the Zambezi. However, the present article challenges Malawian historiographical orthodoxy on a very different point, by maintaining that Muzura is not to be identified with the Kalonga dynasty on the south-western shores of Lake Malawi, but with a separate state system in the western Shire Highlands, which gained prominence well before the Kalongas came to the fore.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Lundu is both a positional title, comparable to ‘chief’ or ‘king’, and a dynastic name. We speak of ‘the Lundu’, when the title stands by itself, and of ‘Lundu’, when it is attached to a proper name.Google Scholar

2 Alpers, E. A., ‘North of the Zambezi’, in Oliver, R. (ed.), The Middle Age of African History (London, 1967), 7884;Google ScholarAlpers, E. A., Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa (London, 1975), 4655.Google Scholar

3 Newitt, M. D. D., ‘The early history of the Maravi’, J. Afr. Hist., XXIII (1982), 145–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Curtin, P. D. et al. , African History (London, 1978), 172.Google Scholar

5 Newitt, ‘Early History’, 158.Google Scholar

6 Rangeley, W. H. J., ‘Bocarro's Journey’, Nyasaland Journal, VII, i (1954), 1523.Google Scholar

7 Newitt, ‘Early history’, 249.Google Scholar

8 Axelson, E., Portuguese in South Africa, 1600–1700 (Johannesburg, 1969);Google ScholarIsaacman, A. F., Mozambique — The Africanization of a European Institution: The Zambezi Prazos, 1750–1902 (Madison, Wis., 1972);Google ScholarNewitt, M. D. D., Portuguese Settlement on the Zambesi (London, 1973);Google ScholarSchebesta, P., Portugals Konquistamission in Süd-ost Afrika (St. Augustin, 1966).Google Scholar

9 See, e.g., Willis, R. C., ‘On historical reconstruction from oral-traditional sources’, Herskovits Memorial Lecture (Edinburgh, 1976);Google ScholarMiller, J. C., ‘The dynamics of oral tradition in Africa’, in Bernardi, B. et al. , Fonti Orali. Antropologia e Storia (Milan, 1978), 75101;Google ScholarVansina, J., Oral Tradition as History (London, 1985).Google Scholar

10 Newitt, ‘Early history’, 151.Google Scholar

11 Monclaro, F., ‘Relação da Viagem que fizeram os Padres da Companhia de Jesus corn Francisco Barreto na Conquista de Monomotapa no Anno de 1569’, in Theal, G. M. (ed.), Records of South-East Africa, III (London, 1899), 235.Google Scholar

12 Ibid., 229, 234–5.

13 Ibid., 234; Santos, João dos, Ethiopia Oriental, in Theal, Records, VII (London, 1902), 234–5.Google Scholar

14 A critical discussion of Silveira's missionary activities and the possible reasons for his murder are to be found in Schebesta, Portugals Konquistamission, 66–99.Google Scholar

15 Monclaro, ‘Relação’, 247.Google Scholar

16 Ibid., 235–6.

17 Details of Santos' missionary career are to be found in Schebesta, Portugals Konquistamission, 92–102.Google Scholar

18 Santos, Ethiopia Oriental, 292.Google Scholar

19 Ibid., 293–4.

20 Ibid., 295.

21 Ibid., 295.

22 Ibid., 296.

23 Ibid., 297–9.

24 Alpers, Ivory and Slaves, 53.Google Scholar

25 Both Alpers (ibid., 50) and Newitt (‘Early History’, 156) assume that there were two Zimba campaigns, one before and one after 1590. However, if we leave out the Zimba horde which ravaged Kilwa and Mombasa as unrelated to Lundu's Zimba, there is no evidence left of any Zimba action in Makualand prior to the 1590s. Even Lupi's account, which is one of Alpers' main sources of information, implies no Zimba activity on the east coast before that date. It is therefore possible that the Zimba conquest of Makualand took place only after 1590 or even 1593.

26 Santos, Ethiopia Oriental, 368–9.Google Scholar

27 Morgan, W. B., ‘The lower Shire valley of Nyasaland. A changing system of agriculture’, Geographical Journal, CXIX 459–69;Google ScholarMandala, E. C., ‘Capitalism, ecology and society: the lower Tchiri (Shire) valley of Malawi, 1860–1960’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Minnesota, 1983).Google Scholar

28 Santos, Ethiopia Oriental, 268;Google ScholarWallis, J. P. R. (ed.), The Zambezi Expedition of David Livingstone (London, 1956), 268.Google Scholar

29 Chafulumira, W. E., Mbiri ya Amang'anja (Zomba, 1948), 20;Google ScholarGamitto, A. C. P., King Kazembe, 1 (Lisbon, 1960), 127.Google Scholar

30 Bocarro, A., Decade written by Antonio Bocarro, His Majesty's Chronicler for the state of India, of the performances of the Portuguese in the east, in Theal, Records, III, 395.Google Scholar

31 The name Muzura may have been derived from the verb /-zula/, ‘to pull up by the roots’. /Mu-/ is a common actor prefix, and the consonants /r/ and /l/ are interchangeable in Chimang'anja.Google Scholar Cf. Scott, D. C., A Cyclopaedic Dictionary of the Mang'anja Language (Edinburgh, 1982), 681, s.v. zula.Google Scholar

32 Gomes, A., ‘Viagem que fez o Padre Ant.o Comes, da Comp.n de Jesus, ao Imperio de Manomotapa; e assistencia que fez nas ditas terras d.e. Alg'us annos’ (ed. and notes by Axelson, E. A.), Studia, 3 (01, 1959), 199200. The detail about Muzura having been a powerful hunter is probably a legendary cliché (cf Vansina, Oral Tradition, 139).Google Scholar

33 Bocarro, A., Decade, 416–9.Google Scholar

34 The year 1622 is mentioned in Schurhammer, G., ‘Die Entdeckung des Njassa-Sees’, Stimmen der Zeit, XCIX (1920), 9. Schurhammer's source was Father Sebastian Barreto's annual report to the Superior General of the Jesuits, dated December 15, 1624.Google Scholar

35 Bocarro, A., Decade, 387–95;Google ScholarAxelson, Portuguese, 41–2.Google Scholar

36 Axelson, Portuguese, 67;Google ScholarSchebesta, Konquistamission, 118;Google ScholarNewitt, ‘Early history’, 160.Google Scholar

37 Newitt, ‘Early history’, 160.Google Scholar

38 Barreto, M., ‘Report upon the State and Conquest of the Rivers of Cuama’, in Theal, Records, III, 480.Google Scholar

39 Interview with Messrs Mbukwa, Khombe and Kambalame, officials of the Mbona shrine, Mbangu Village, Nsanje District, Malawi, 4 May 1967. Interview with Mr. Joseph Thom, the shrine's spirit medium, Thole Village, Nsanje District, 1 May 1972.Google Scholar

40 Price, E., letter in The South African Pioneer, XL, viii–ix (1927), 103–4.Google Scholar

41 Details on the resistance history of the Makombe Paramountcy in Newitt, Portuguese Settlement, and Isaacman, A. F., The Tradition of Resistance in Mozambique (London, 1976).Google Scholar

42 Interview with Mr Fryton Malemia, Malemia Village, Nsanje District 8 August 1967. On the different meanings of the noun kholo, cf. Scott, Cyclopaedic Dictionary, 227 S.V.Google Scholar

43 Santos, Ethiopia Oriental, 300.Google Scholar

44 The prefix /chi-/ is often used in the Mang'anja language to convey the notion of something or someone great or redoubtable. Chitundu may therefore best be translated as ‘the fearsome Tundu’.Google Scholar

45 Abraham, D. P., ‘The roles of “Chaminuka” and the Mhondoro cults in Shona political history’, in Stokes, E. and Brown, R. (eds.), The Zambesian Past (Manchester, 1966), 46.Google Scholar

46 Wallis, (ed.), Zambezi Expedition, 76. Malawi Government, Department of Surveys, District Maps, Sheet 10, Nsanje (Blantyre, 1975). Rangeley Papers, The Society of Malawi Library, File 2/1/17.Google Scholar

47 Price, T., ‘Mbona's water-hole’, Nyasaland Journal, VI, i (1953), 2833.Google ScholarSchoffeleers, J. M., ‘The Story of Mbona the Martyr’, in Schefold, R. et al. , (eds.), Man, Meaning and History (The Hague, 1980), 246267.Google ScholarSchoffeleers, J. M., ‘Oral history and the retrieval of the distant past’, in van Binsbergen, W. and Schoffeleers, M. (eds.), Theoretical Explorations in African Religion (London, 1985);Google ScholarSchoffeleers, M., ‘Ideological confrontation and the manipulation of oral history; a Zambesian case’, History in Africa (forthcoming 1987).Google Scholar

48 On the use of the prefix /ma-/ in Chimang'anja see Scott, Cyclopaedic Dictionary, 299.Google Scholar Also: Price, T., ‘The Meaningof Mang'anja’, Nyasaland Journal, XIV, i (1961), 2833.Google Scholar

49 Gamitto, King Kazembe, 1, 28, and route map attached to vol. II.Google Scholar

50 A likely location would have been the Lulwe Plateau, on the south-western edge of the Matundu Hills, which at an altitude of about 500 metres extends several miles into Mozambique in the direction of Sena. The stream draining this plateau is also called Tundu.Google Scholar

51 Lupi, E. do Couto, Angoche, Breve memoria sobre uma das capitanais — mores de Districto de Mocambique (Lisbon, 1907);Google ScholarAlpers, Ivory and Slaves, 51–2. Note that the Zimba were known both as Marundu and Matundu, that is to say, both as Lundu's and Tundu's men.Google Scholar

52 Schoffeleers, ‘Story of Mbona’, 251–2. The text was recorded during an interview with Mr Chapalapala, an elderly subsistence farmer from Misomali Village, Chapananga Chiefdom, Chikwawa District, on 31 August 1967.Google Scholar

53 This evidently happened after Lundu's military defeat in 1622. A more detailed discussion is to be found in Schoffeleers, ‘Ideological confrontation’ (forthcoming).Google Scholar

54 See for instance Rangeley, W. H. J., ‘Makewana, the mother of all people’, Nyasaland Journal, V, ii (1952), 3150.Google ScholarAmanze, J. N., ‘The Bimbi cult in Southern Malawi’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1986).Google Scholar Rangeley's article is on the Chisumphi cult in the Central Province of Malawi. For a collection of essays on rain and fertility cults, which illustrate the structural rivalry between cult and state, see Schoffeleers, J. M., Guardians of the Land (Gwero, 1979).Google Scholar

55 The principal sources of the persecution theology referred to here are the Mbona myths. See Schoffeleers, ‘Oral history’, for a discussion.Google Scholar

56 Newitt, ‘Early history’, 161.Google Scholar

57 Newitt, Portuguese Settlement, 34–8.Google Scholar

58 Ibid., 37.

59 Bocarro, A., Decade, 388.Google Scholar

60 Gomes, ‘Viagem’, 180;Google ScholarBarreto, ‘Rivers of Cuama’, 475.Google Scholar

61 Newitt, Portuguese Settlement, 202.Google Scholar