TRIBES OF MALAWI

The Angoni

The decline of the Maravi Empire resulted from the entrance of two powerful groups into the region of Malawi. In the 19th century, the Angoni or Ngoni people and their chief Zwangendaba arrived from the Natal region of modern day South Africa. The Angoni were part of a great migration, known as the mfecane, of people fleeing from the head of the Zulu Empire, Shaka Zulu. The Ngoni people settled mostly in what is modern day central Malawi; particularly Ntcheu and parts of Dedza districts. However, some groups proceeded north; entering Tanzania and settling around Lake Victoria. But splinter groups broke off and headed back south; settling in modern day northern Malawi, particularly Mzimba district where they mixed with another migrant group coming from across Lake Malawi called the Bawoloka. Clearly, the mfecane had a significant impact on Southern Africa. The Angoni adopted Shaka's military tactics to subdue the lesser tribes, including the Maravi, they found along their way. Staging from rocky areas, the Ngoni impis would raid the Chewa (also called Achewa) and plunder food, oxen and women. Young men were drawn in as new fighting forces while older men were reduced to domestic slaves and/or disposed off to Arab slave traders operating from the Lake Malawi regions.

[edit] The Ayao

The second group to take power around this time were the Ayao (or Yao). The Yao came to Malawi from northern Mozambique to escape famine and conflict with the Makua tribe. The Makua tribe had become enemies of the Yao because of the wealth the Yao were amassing through trading ivory and slaves to Arabs from Zanzibar. The Yao, upon migrating to Malawi, soon began attacking both the Achewa and Angoni people to capture prisoners who they later sold as slaves. The Yao were the first, and for a long while, the only group to use firearms in conflict with other tribes. The Yao ruling class chose in 1870 to follow Islam like their Arab trading partners rather than the traditional animism. As a benefit of their conversion, the Yao were provided with sheikhs who promoted literacy and founded mosques. The Arab traders also introduced the cultivation of rice, which became a major crop in the lake region.

[edit] The Arabs and their Swahili allies

Using their strong partnership with the Yao, the Arab traders set up several trading posts along the shore of Lake Malawi. The largest of these posts was founded in 1840 at Nkhotakota by an Arabic trader from the coast, Jumbe Salim Bin Abdalla. During the height of his power, Jumbe transported between 5,000 and 20,000 slaves through Nkhotakota annually. From Nkhotakota, the slaves were transported in caravans of no less than 500 slaves to the small island of Kilwa Kisiwani off the coast of modern day Tanzania. The founding of these various posts effectively shifted the slave trade in Malawi from the Portuguese in Mozambique to the Arabs of Zanzibar.
Although the Yao and the Angoni continually clashed with each other, neither was able to win a decisive victory. The remaining members of the Maravi Empire, however, were nearly wiped out in attacks from both sides. Some Achewa chiefs saved themselves by creating alliances with the Swahili people who were allied with the Arab slave traders.

[edit] The Lomwe of Malawi

The Lomwe of Malawi are a recent introduction having arrived as late as 1914, during the first World War. The Lomwe came from a hill in Mozambique called uLomwe, north of the Zambezi River and south east of Lake Chilwa in Malawi. Theirs was also a story of hunger largely instigated by the Portuguese settlers moving into the neighbourhoods of uLomwe.^[1] To escape from the ill-treatment (including the Portuguese physically pounding to death live infants in wooden mortars to extract local allegiance), the Lomwe headed north and entered Malawi through the southern tip of lake Chilwa; settling in Phalombe and Mulanje areas. In Mulanje they found gainful employment on teas estates that various British companies were establishing on the foothills of Mount Mulanje. Later they spread into Thyolo [again getting employment on tea estates] and Chiradzulu. The Lomwe readily mixed with the local Manga'nja tribes, as there are no reported cases of tribal conflict. Indeed, the tribal network with the Manga'nja was very good so that when John Chilembwe, the revolutionary clergyman, ran foul with the British planters at Nguludi in Chiradzulu, he used this network to escape towards Mozambique. Unfortunately, the British terrirotial forces caught up with him before he could cross the border