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This is to certify that the

dissertation entitled

A MIXED POT: HISTORY AND IDENTITY IN THE
NDAU REGION OF MOZAMBIQUE AND ZIMBABWE 1500-1900

presented by
Elizabeth MacGonagle

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph.D History

_ [/jZ/M
/

 

° degree in

7
Major pro ssor

Datezvz 4””.L- 2007' /

 

MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0-12771

 

 

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6/01 c-JCIRC/DalaDuepBS-p. 1 5

 

A MIXED POT: HISTORY AND IDENTITY IN THE
NDAU REGION OF MOZAMBIQUE AND ZIMBABWE 1500-1900

By

Elizabeth MacGonagle

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of History

2002

ABSTRACT

A MIXED POT: HISTORY AND IDENTITY IN THE
NDAU REGION OF MOZAMBIQUE AND ZIMBABWE 1500-1900

By

Elizabeth MacGonagle

This dissertation examines the development of a cultural identity among the Ndau
of central Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe. I reconstruct how the Ndau came to ‘be
Ndau’ and added cultural, social and political ingredients to their mixed pot of
‘Ndauness’ over a period of 400 years. An awareness of a common identity existed
among Ndau speakers long before the arrival of formal colonialism, and over time history
has transformed ethnic identifications in the Ndau region. In this study I draw on oral
histories collected from Ndau elders and documents preserved in the archives and
libraries of Mozambique, Portugal and Zimbabwe to explore shifts in Ndau history over
the longue durée.

Evidence garnered from both interviews with Ndau speakers and written colonial
sources demonstrates that a wider ‘Ndau’ identity does not reflect a deep primordial
allegiance, for ‘Ndauness’ is created and shaped as an ongoing process. This study
begins around 1500, after the collapse of the Great Zimbabwe state, when the Portuguese
first reached the Mozambican coast and recorded their interactions with Africans at

Sofala who spoke Ndau, a dialect of Shona. I close at the end of the nineteenth century,

W‘

«a.

when formal colonialism took hold in Mozambique under the Portuguese and at the
hands of the British in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). I contend that the wider

Ndau identity that emerged in the twentieth century stems from common cultural traits,

mutually intelligible dialects and a political history of both state formation and
fragmentation.

The study is organized into eight chapters that follow a thematic approach. In
the first chapter I revisit both the rewards and pitfalls of examining ethnic identifications
over time. Chapter two focuses on fieldwork experiences, sources and the methodology
used to ‘get at’ issues of ethnic identification. The third chapter deals with precolonial
exchanges, namely trade and political relations, for economic and political ties in the
wider region were central to the formation of cultural linkages.

Chapters four, five and six then turn to consider how ‘Ndauness’ is shaped within
Ndau communities. I examine cultural practices and social structures--the ties that bind--
in chapter four, and in chapter five I consider how cultural aflinities in Ndau dress,
jewelry, and body art reflected a sense of identity. Chapter six examines three important
activities for the Ndau: brewing beer, making rain and holding court. I analyze both the
practical and the symbolic aspects of these rituals and emphasize the steadfast importance
of shared beliefs among the Ndau.

Chapter seven deals with a more recent recreation of ‘Ndauness’ during a
turbulent time in the nineteenth century when the Gaza-Nguni an'ived from the south and _

%-wm ‘

ruled over the Ndau area. The final chapter addresses negotiations between past and

....--'

 

 

present and considers the Ndau region in retrospect. I address the prickly problems of
‘tribalism’ and more recent redefinitions of what it means to ‘be Ndau’ after Gaza Nguni
overrule. I conclude by showing how the Ndau have responded over time to alterations

in the political and cultural terrain with their own mixed pot of shifting identities.

Copyright © 2002 by
ELIZABETH MacGONAGLE

For my Mom and my map maker

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

C hafambq chapenga.
One who has set out on a journey cannot help beingfoolhardv Ir
-Shona proverb

Numerous people, both at home and abroad, helped me navigate this project to
fruition. Scholars gave generously of their time and knowledge, friends and family kept
watch as crew members, and advisors were there to see that I stayed on course. But it is
really the elders of the Ndau region who made this work possible, and I am thankful for
their willingness to share a small part of their history with me.

At Michigan State University, I received support, assistance and funding from the
African Studies Center, Department of History, College of Arts and Letters and The
Graduate School. Advice and encouragement came from many places and professors,
including the Africanist contingent of Bill Derman, Elizabeth Eldredge, Harold Marcus,
John Metzler, David Robinson and David Wiley. Peter Beattie, Harry Reed and Steve
Averill helped me to explore other regions beyond Africa. Harold Marcus, David
Robinson and Peter Beattie deserve special recognition for seeing this project through to
the end with grace and wit. Thank you.

I am deeply indebted to my four assistants: Pinimidzai Sithole in Zimbabwe, and
Jaime Maconha Augusto, Farai (Antc’mio Francisco) Raposo and Pedro Castigo in
Mozambique. Their contributions helped to ensure successful fieldwork. Looking back,
it is difficult to imagine working with anyone else, for these scholars made the many

journeys and interview experiences among the Ndau enjoyable and productive.

 

' Mordikai A. Hamutyinei and Albert B. Plangger, T sumo-Shumo: Shana Proverbial Lore and Wisdom
(Gweru, 1987), 422.

vi

Fieldwork in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Portugal was carried out with grants from
Fulbright-Hays, the Social Science Research Council, the Luso-American Foundation
and the National Library of Lisbon. I gratefully acknowledge their financial support.

I walked down many paths during the course of fieldwork, and I appreciate the
cordial receptions I received at the end of them. In Mozambique, Gerhard Liesegang not
only shared his insight into Mozambican history, but also provided me with a place to
stay during the elections in 1994. David Hedges, Solange Macamo and Amelia Neves de
Souto were helpful fonts of knowledge at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, along
with the libraries of the Centro de Estudos Africanos and the Archaeology and
Anthropology Department. I would also like to thank Luis Covane and ARPAC (in
Maputo, Beira and Chimoio) for their support. The staff at the Arquivo Histérico de
Mocambique were most accommodating, and this work is enriched by the many sources
that Antonio Sopa brought to my attention at AHM. In Machaze, the staff of CARE
graciously provided lodging in their compound. The acampamento in Moribane, a very
special place, also hosted us. Rachel Chapman and James Pfeiffer provided good food
and company in Chimoio. In Maputo, Carrie Manning, John Fleming, Heidi
Gengenbach, Lloys Frates, Anne Pitcher, Martin Murray, Eric Allina-Pissano, Rob
Marlin and Daphne Sorensen provided support, encouragement and companionship.
Research in Maputo would have been an entirely different endeavor without their
presence.

In Zimbabwe, the Mpofus provided me with a home away from home in Chikore
that was much appreciated. Thanks also to Lorraine and Bill Giles and Mbuya G. for

providing transport and conversation in and around Chikore and Chimanimani. David

vii

and Melanie McDermott Hughes hosted us in Chipinge and provided not only a ride to
Vhimba, but also more importantly an entrée into the community. Ruben Zuze was a
gracious host in Vhimba, where alas, my time was too short. Elias Nyamunda made
fieldwork in Vhimba run smoothly. His keen sensibilities allowed us to meet and
interview many elders in the area. Elias also conducted several interviews in Vhimba for
this study. Gilbert Pwiti, Innocent Pikirayi and the staff at the University of Zimbabwe’s
History Department made sure that my time at UZ was productive. Likewise, the staff at
the National Archives of Zimbabwe facilitated my archival research in Harare.
Colleagues in Zimbabwe such as Diana Jeater, Tony King, Mark Guizlo and Heather
Holtzclaw provided company and support for this endeavor. Others, in ways both large
and small, were there to assist and encourage—including many in the US. and Portugal.
This project builds on the careful and thoughtful work of other scholars steeped in
the region. Allen Isaacman always offered warm guidance as this project progressed over
the years from a proposal to a dissertation. James Bannerman (and his detailed maps)
provided insight into early Shona history. Finally, I deeply regret the loss of David
Beach of the University of Zimbabwe who died in February of 1999. His copious work
in Shona history was unparalleled, and he displayed an unwavering enthusiasm and
support for my investigations into precolonial history. From our very first
correspondence and meetings in 1994, I appreciated his indefatigable encouragement and
kind assistance. This manuscript, regrettably not enriched directly by his comments,
builds upon his scholarship and enthusiasm. I wrote this dissertation with fond memories

and a shared passion for the study of early Shona history. Nhasi haasiri mangwana.2

 

2 Today is not tomorrow. Hamutyinei and Plangger, Tsumo-Shumo: Shana Proverbial Lore and Wisdom,
291.

viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. xi
CHAPTER 1

Labels, Identities and History: On Being Ndau ................................................. l

The Ndau Setting-Labels and Identities .................................................... 2

Ethnicity and History .................................................................................. 23

Ndauness as a “Mixed Pot” ....................................................................... 32
CHAPTER 2

Sources, Methodology and Fieldwork ................................................................. 34

Portuguese Writings as Historical Sources ................................................. 35

’ Sofala and the African Setting .................................................................... 36

Early Authors of the Documents ................................................................ 38

Eighteenth-Century Writers ........................................................................ 42

Significance of the Documents ................................................................... 46

Scholars and Interpretations ........................................................................ 48

Field Experiences ........................................................................................ 56
CHAPTER 3

Precolonial Exchanges: Politics and the Ndau Economy ................................. 62

Early Economies and Trade ........................................................................ 65

Trade and State Formation .......................................................................... 73

The Mutapa State ........................................................................................ 76

The Eastern Territories ............................................................................... 84

Assessing a History of Trade and Politics .................................................. 96
CHAPTER 4

Ties that Bind: Social Structures and Cultural Practices ................................ 102

Totems and Clans ........................................................................................ 103

Marriage ............. ‘ ......................................................................................... l 10

Life Cycle Events ........................................................................................ 1 19

Social Stresses ............................................................................................. 128

ix

CHAPTER 5

Keeping Up Appearances: Houses, Pots and Tattoos ................................
Clothing ...............................................................................................
Jewelry .................................................................................................
Pika and Nyora ....................................................................................
Hairstyles .............................................................................................
Houses and Granaries ..........................................................................
Pots .......................................................................................................
Adoming the Body and the Home .......................................................

CHAPTER 6

Brewing Beer, Making Rain and Holding Court ........................................
Beer, Rain and the Spiritual World ......................................................
Holding Court ......................................................................................

CHAPTER 7

A Turbulent Time: The Gaza Nguni Presence ...........................................
Gaza Nguni Overrule ...........................................................................
Gender and Ethnicity ...........................................................................
A Gaza Nguni Identity .........................................................................
Terror and Intimidation ........................................................................
Changes and Continuities ....................................................................

CHAPTER 8

“We Are Now a Mixed Pot”: The Ndau Region in Retrospect .................
Coming to ‘Be Ndau’ ...........................................................................
Negotiating the Past and the Present ....................................................

BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................

133
134
138
142
146
148
150
151

153
154
165

171
176
180
182
185
188

190
191
201

206

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1
Early politics in the Sofala hinterland ............................................................. 4
Figure 2
Major rivers between Zambezi and Save ......................................................... 6
Figure 3
Ethnographic map showing the eastern Shona region (Pélissier 1984) ..................... 10
Figure 4
Twentieth-century ethnographic map of Mozambique ......................................... 1 1
Figure 5
Portion of 1867 map of Zambezia and adjacent regions (Randles 1979) .................... 13
Figure 6
Portion of 1889 map of Mozambique (Randles 1979) .......................................... 14
Figure 7
Doke’s 1931 map of “The distribution of Shona-speaking peoples” ......................... 16
Figure 8
Map of fieldwork area, 1998-1999 ................................................................ 58
Figure 9
Extent of Gaza Nguni influence ................................................................. I74

xi

CHAPTER ONE
Labels, Identities and Histories:
On Being Ndau

For me, we are called Ndau because we say ‘Ndauwe ’,
that is why we are called VaNdau.’
- Marien Dziwandi

We cannot say there is still Ndau. People are now modernized.
Ndau is disappearing. I do not want to lie to you.
When you come here you call us VaNdau. 2
- Sarai Nyabanga Sithole

Ndau is diflicult.’
- Jana Mwaoneni Makuyana

This study examines the development of a cultural identity among the Ndau of
central Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe over a period of 400 years. As Ndau
speakers came to ‘be Ndau’ long_before the anival of formal colonialism, they added
cultural, social and political ingredients to their mixed pot of ‘Ndauness’. Both historical
processes and a shared material culture shaped a sense of identity among the Ndau. An
exploration of the relationship between social identity and political power as far back as
the fifteenth century reveals intriguing historical factors that led to shifts in ‘Ndauness’
before the arrival of missionaries and colonial officials on the continent. Drawing on rich
historical data gathered from Ndau elders and archival documentsQontend that the }

larger Ndau identity which emerged in twentieth-century Zimbabwe and Mozambique

 

' Interview with Marien Dziwandi, Nyanyadzi, Zimbabwe, 31 July 1999. (All interviews cited hereafter by
name, location of interview and date.) The prefix “Va” in VaNdau denotes the plural.

2 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

3 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, commenting on me limits of the Ndau region. Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July
1999.

stems from common cultural traits, mutually intelligible dialects and a political history of

both state formation and fragmentation.

The Ndau Setting--Labels and Identities

Although Ndau, a dialect of Shona, is the language spoken by most of the people

A f. ,9
living between the Pungwe and Save rivers, neither ‘Shona’ nor ‘Ndau’ were terms found W "‘5 .

in sixteenth or seventeenth-century vocabularies. Both came into use in the nineteenth

century before formal colonialism took hold under the Portuguese in Mozambique and at

fi::. *7-.. ,....r.

the hands of the British in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Yet a common identity

was evident in the unified linguistic and cultural history of the ‘Shona’ in the east who

m-..- ..
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spoke what came to be called the Ndau language. @shfwork seeksg reconstruct how the
Ndau formed and maintained a sense of ‘being’ Ndau over the longue durée.

When the Portuguese established a presence along the Mozambican coast at
Sofala in the sixteenth century, Africans living between the Save and Zambezi rivers
spoke several dialects of the Bantu language known today as Shona. The famous port of
Sofala and the surrounding coastal region were used by Arab traders, probably since at
least the ninth century, until the Portuguese established a fortress at Sofala in 1505 and
began interfering with established trading relationships.4 Even though Sofala failed to

“Ma-w...

offer the best~ access to the gold'found on the Zimbabwe plateau to the northwest,the

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settlement remained a strategic location that the Portuguese exploited long after their

 

4 Erosion has changed the shoreline of Sofala and destroyed the Portuguese fortress. The modern port is 20
miles to the north at Beira. Gerhard Liesegang, “Archaeological Sites on the Bay of Sofala,” Azania, 7
(1972): 147-159; T. H. Elkiss, The Quest for an African Eldorado: Sofala, Southern Zambezia, and the
Portuguese, [500-1865 (Waltham, MA, 1981) 72.

anival in the region.5 The port, located south of the mouth of the B1121 river on a low-
lying sandy coast, remained an important local center for the export trade in ivory, gold
and other goods from interior markets such as the feiras of Manica and Quiteve between
the Save and Pungwe rivers.6
Early on, the Portuguese referred to the peoples along the Sofala coast and in the
hinterland as ‘Karanga’7 (Figure 1). This word translated into a somewhat imprecise
ethnic reality, however, even when it was substituted with “Karanga peoples” or later
“people of the Shona language.” Africans in this region had their own terms of self-
_idept1;fit;an:9n_that included not only the same word ‘Karanga’, but also more specific
Emessuchas ‘Teve’,‘Danda’ and ‘Sanga." (Yet, despite these local names of territories
that in tin—n became separate politics, a sensepfficuqllectrve identityflnong eastern Shona-
speakers was acknowledged by early Portuguese observers when they used the term

‘Karanga’ to refer to the peoples along the coast and in the Sofala hinterland]

‘1 . . .
,./ Ceremonies at the court of Quiteve 1n the east, for example, resembled royal customs at
'1‘”! Ma.“- . -, - W.

 

5 Over the first two centuries of the Portuguese presence exports of ivory rose to overshadow a declining
gold trade. As Malyn Newitt notes, “By the eighteenth century the rest of the world thought of east Africa,
if 1t did so at all, as the producer not of gold but of 1vory ” A History of Mozambique (Bloomington, 1995)
176.
6 The main Manica fair was at Chipangura, later named Masekesa, and Bandire was an important feira 1n
Quiteve. The names and exact locations of other fairs further south are not known. See Newitt, 194-202,
211-216; H. H. K. Bhila, Trade and Politics in a Shana Kingdom (Salisbury, 1982); “Senhor” Ferao,
“Account of the Portuguese Possessions within the Captaincy of Rios de Sena,” In George McCall Theal,
Records of South-Eastern Africa, (Cape Town, 1964) VII, 380. (Hereafter referred to as RSEA. )
7Variations of “Karanga” appear in very early Portuguese documents, the first time probably in 1506,
when a Portuguese chronicler referred to the gold at Sofala coming from a king called “Ucalanga”. In
subsequent Portuguese texts, the terms “Mocaranga” and “Makalanga” appeared. See for example, Joseph
da Fonseca Coutinho, “Report on the Present Situation of the Conquistas of the Rivers of Soffalla” (1699)
in D. N. Beach and H. de Noronha, “The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890” (2 vols. Harare, mimeo.
1980) I; Newitt, A History of Mozambique, 196.

 

 

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Mutapa, a large and famous state on the plateau known to the Portuguese for its gold.8

33' Succession patterns in particular are similar throughout the region.9 In this study I follow
current practice and refer to the larger Shona-speaking group as the Shana people, but my
focus is on those who live in the eastern region and speak Ndau, a recognized dialect of
the Shona language.

Bounded to the north by the Zambezi river, to the east by the Indian Ocean, and to
the south by the Save river, the lands of the Karanga encompassed a wide area that
included not only the immediate Sofala hinterland, but also other Shona-speaking regions
to the north and west (Figure 2). The exact western boundary of this ‘Shona’ area was
unknown to the early Portuguese, for the “Karanga” inhabited much of the Zimbabwe
plateau that African traders crossed on routes stretching from the Kalahari desert to the
Indian Ocean. Throughout the entire Shona area flourishing African communities
constructed elaborate stone settlements on the Zimbabwe plateau, including Great
Zimbabwe (1250-1450 A.D.), as well as at related sites on the Mozambican coastal plain.

These centers contain archaeological evidence of a shared material culture in

Mozambique and Zimbabwe before the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth

century.10

 

8 The Mutapa state, ruled by a leader known as the Mutapa. Monomotapa or Benomotapa was linked to
several dynastic territories further east under changing conditions from the fifteenth century to the 18805.

9 Gerhard Liesgang, “Sofala, Beira e a sua Zona”, Arquivo (6, Outubro de 1989) 31.

'0 H. A. Wieschhoff, The Zimbabwe-Monomotapa Culture in Southeast Africa (Menasha, WI, 1941);
Octévio Roza de Oliveira, “Amuralhados da Cultura Zimbéué—Monomotapa dc Manica e Sofala,”
Monumenta: Boletim da Commissdo dos Monumentos Nacionais de Macambique, Lourenco Marques, 9
(1963); James H. Bannerman, “Notes and Questions Regarding the Archaeology, Language and Ethno-
History of Central Mozambique between the Zambezi and Save Rivers,” Paper prepared for presentation to
the Tenth Pan African Archaeological Congress, Harare, Zimbabwe (June 1995); Graham Connah, African
Civilizations: Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa: An Archaeological Perspective (New
York, 1987) and Martin Hall, The Changing Past: Farmers, Kings and Traders in Southern Africa. 200-
1860 (Capetown, 1987).

 

 

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In early Shona history, political divisions and alliances were formed within and
across ethnic boundaries to mark cultural identities Between the sixteenth and

eighteenth century, boundaries were fluid in early Shona politics when both the Mutapa

A.

state and smaller eastern territories in the Ndau region vied for politica controknd ,

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economrc powerIo regulate trademmthe Sofalahrnterland.‘z. Economic contexts,

 

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particularly trade, influenced Ndau politics and the formation of a cultural identity from

 

the sixteenth century onwards. Political power was inextricably linked to external trade,

and these precolonial contacts highlighted and reinforced political and cultural identities

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“-9

for the people who came to be called Ndau.

The Karanga of the northern Zimbabwe plateau were the dominant aristocracy in
the Shona region in the sixteenth century when the Portuguese arrived.11 The first and
most prestigious Karanga state, the Mutapa state, relied on military power for support.‘2
The Karanga rulers symbolized their prestige by building small madzimbabwe, or houses
of stone, in the areas where they settled, and they had better living standards than the

groups they conquered.l3 Despite the spread of a common political identity known as

 

" Darniao de Goes, “Chronicle of the Most Fortunate King Dom Emanuel of Glorious Memory (1566)” In
Theal, RSEA, iii, 128-131; Newitt, A History of Mozambique, 37-38; John Keith Rennie, “Ideology and
State Formation: Political and Communal Ideologies among the South-Eastern Shona, 1500-1890,” In
Ahmed ldho Salim, ed. State Formation in Eastern Africa (Nairobi, 1984) 166.

‘2 Goes wrote of the Mutapa chief: “Whether in time of peace or war he always maintains a large standing
army, of which the commander-in-chief is called Zono. to keep the land in a state of quietness and to
prevent the lords and kings who are subject to him from rising in rebellion.” In “Chronicle of the Most
Fortunate King Dom Emanuel of Glorious Memory (1566)” In Theal, RSEA, III, 130. Rennie, “Ideology
and State Formation,” 166.

'3 Dzimbahwe or Zimbabwe refers to the court, home or grave of a chief. Earlier scholars thought that
Zimbabwe (madzimbabwe, plural) evolved from one of two contractions: dzimba dzamabwe: houses of
stone, or dzimba woye: venerated houses. Graham Connah, African Civilizations: Precolonial Cities and
States in Tropical Africa: An Archaeological Perspective, 192; Goes, “Chronicle of the Most Fortunate
King Dom Emanuel of Glorious Memory (1566)” In Theal, RSEA, iii, 129; Rennie, “Ideology and State
Formation,” 166-167; For evidence of an elite population living inside the stone enclosure at the zimbabwe
Manyikeni further south, see Peter Garlake, “Excavation of a Zimbabwe in Mozambique,” Antiquity, 50,
198 (June 1976) 146 and “An Investigation of Manekweni, Mozambique,” Azania, 11 (1976) : 25-47;

7

l

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1

among the Karanga aristocracy, led to rivalries that resulted in the formation of a series of

‘Karanga’ over much of the eastern region during the rule of the Mutapa state, there were

some Ndau who refused to accept Mutapa overrule. Local chiefs, for instance, could

~_,.,._~____.‘~_.___,_.,_w. --

,I. decide to withhold tribute or carry out clandestine trade. Other Africans not under

Md

Karanga control, such as those south of the Save in the Inhambane region were called

“Bonga” or “Tonga”. ‘4

-- External pressure from the Portuguese presence, combined with a lack of unity

I
.l

l
separate secondary states in the Sofala hinterland.15 These smaller states thickenedand .

 

 

complicated the soup in the mixed pot that was to be ‘Ndaulg. Three of the states-«Teve,

Danda and Sanga--relied on the Mutapa state for symbolic legitimacy, for it was said that
three sons of the Mutapa chief founded them.16 The Portuguese persistently recognized
the Mutapa ruler in the northern interior as the overlord of the entire region, for they
thought that be controlled the gold mines in the area and thus held the key to untold

wealth." This led to some hostility between the Portuguese and states such as Teve and

 

Graeme Barker, “Economic Models for the Manekweni Zimbabwe, Mozambique,” Azania, 13 (1978);

Berit Sigvallius, “The F aunal Remains from Manyikeni,” in Paul J. J. Sinclair, Analysis of Slag, Iron,

Ceramics and Animal Bones from Excavations in Mozambique (Maputo, 1988), 27 and Paul J. J. Sinclair,

Space, Time and Social F onnation: A Territorial Approach to the Archaeology and Anthropology of

Zimbabwe and Mozambique, c. 0-] 700A. D. (Uppsala, 1987), 96.

'4 André F emandes “LetteLfrpm the Father André Femandes to the Father Provincial 1n India” (1560) 1n

Theal, RSEA, ii, 66. The term ‘TonanggBongar and Bitongalwas a slightly derogatory term 1

that implied chiefless or subject people. It was used by various groups to describe different people between
e a am an Delagoa Bay 1n southern Mozambique. Today BiTonga and Tsonga-speakers live south

of the Save river in southern Mozambique (See Figure 4). Beach, The Shana and Zimbabwe, 158; Rennie,

“Ideology and State Formation,” 166.

'5 1656 dos Santos, Ethiopia Oriental In Theal, RSEA, vii, 273, 285-286; Newitt, A History of

Mozambique, 42-43; Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 166-167.

‘6 Dos Santos, Ethiopia Oriental In Theal, RSEA, vii, 273, Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Asia Portuguesa

(1674) In Theal, RSEA, i, 23, Rennie discusses several examples of legitimation and external political

authority in “Ideology and State Formation,” 172-173.

'7 Two detailed studies of the Mutapa state are by Randles and Mudenge. Most Portuguese writers

expressed a fascination with and penchant for exaggeration about the Mutapa’s control over the region.

See, for example, Franciso Monclaro, “Relacao Da Viagem Que Fizeram Os Padres Da Companhia De

Jesus Com Francisco Barreto Na Conquista De Monomotapa No Anno De 1569, F eita Pelo Padre

8

i .I' \ I
} 11.x

Danda, and these smaller states continued to trade with the Swahili who were now
viewed as economic competitors in the eyes of the Portuguese.18 These secondary states
developed their own political identities that lasted into the nineteenth century as a wider
sense of being ‘Karanga’ faded.19 In the early twentieth century Europeans and Africans
nonetheless revitalized these identities as ethnic markers in their quest to classify and sort

the ‘tribes’ of southeast Africa.20 Even though these secondary states were distinct

u afi-NF‘

P°'_i.“.°§1§““1i?$ <3!“ Several “We:widercvltwlidsmiv be???“ a shared ““9”
and language permeated the region.

The Shona language is Spoken by the majority of the people in Zimbabwe and a
considerable number of Mozambicans living between the Zambezi and Save Rivers.
Most of the people in Zimbabwe and central Mozambique are labeled ‘Shona’. On
twentieth-century ethnographic maps, such as Figure 3 and Figure 4, the classification
‘Shona’ stretches across central Mozambique and into most of Zimbabwe.21 [Yet the use
of the term ‘Shona’ to encompass the various identities--historical, cultural, ethnic or
linguistic--of the people living in central Mozambique and Zimbabwe is problematic.

‘Shona’ is neither an apt ethnic or ‘tribal’ label, but its usage as a blanket term usually

implies that ‘being Shona’ means Speaking the same language, having Similar cultural

 

Monclaro, Da Mesma Companhia (post 1573)” In Theal, RSEA, III, 227 and Manuel Barreto, “Informacio
do Estado e Conquista dos Rios de Cuama (1667)” In Theal, RSEA, III, 482 for exaggerated accounts of the
Mutapa’s power, including the claim that his overrule reached to the Cape of Good Hope. Early maps
supported this view as well.

'8 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 167.

'9 Ibid.

2° Ibid.

2' These maps are the products of scholarship that focuses on Zimbabwe and Mozambique, often
separately.

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traditions and experiencing a Shared history. .‘Shona is an accepted linguistic term that
identifies Speakers of the Shona language, which falls within the south-central zone of the
Bantu language group. In this region language is often equated with ethnicity. Even
though a ‘Shona’ identity in south-central Africa is based heavily on language, Shona
speakers have shared common cultural patterns and historical experiences over the
Iongue duréei}

The Nguni-speaking Ndebele first used 'the term ‘Shona’ to refer to the Rozvil
people they encountered after entering the Changamire state in the southwestern area of
the Zimbabwe plateau in the 18305.22 At that time Shana-Speakers described themselves
in terms of their region or clan, and they only began to use the term ‘Shona’ themselves
sometime after 1890.23 The historian Terence Ranger describes his view of the sense of
identity among Shona-Speakers who shared a common language and political culture m)
the nineteenth centru'y:

There certainly existed a very wide zone of common culture, which scholars have

come to call ‘Shona’, but in the nineteenth century the people who shared that
common culture did not feel themselves to be part of a single ‘Shona’ identity.

1) Pee le defin msfloaefificelbcassubi90‘s 9f.9..P.%U.Icpl§.f.§b.i§f;:@£h§f
an linguistically, culturally, or ethnically.”

In the nineteenth century other outsiders besides the Ndebele were describing some
Shona-Speakers as ‘Shona’ too. Maps from this period include the term, but it was not
used as a comprehensive label for most Shona-speakers on either the Zimbabwe plateau

or the Mozambican coastal plain. Indeed, one Portuguese map from 1867 has “Machona’

 

22 The Ndebele under Mzilikazi migrated from South Africa. The term ‘Shona' first appeared in writing in
1835, according to David Beach, “Zimbabwe Plateau,” 268.

23 This coincides with the onset of formal colonialism in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Beach, “Zimbabwe
Plateau,” 268; Terence Ranger, “The Invention of Tribalism in Zimbabwe,” (Gweru, 1985) 4.

2‘ Ranger, “Invention of Tribalism,” 4.

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in the southern area of the plateau near ‘Muzururos’ and ‘Quissanga’25 (Figure 5). A
later map in 1889 places ‘Machona’ farther north and over a wider area, but ‘Manica’ is
another label which covers the same amount of territory26 (Figure 6). The southern
portion of the plateau was called ‘Matebeleland’ by the middle of the nineteenth century
after the Ndebele settled there, and a large part of the north-central plateau came to be
known as ‘Mashonaland’ sometime after that. White settlers referred to the cast,
including the Ndau-Speaking area, as ‘Manyikaland.’27
After the Rhodesian government commissioned a study on the unification of the

dialects of Shona speakers in the 19205, the term ‘Shona’ was recommended by the
linguist Clement Doke to be the official name of the language.28 His report, published in
1931, described the quandary that the Language Committee faced when they chose a
unifying name for the language:

It has been widely felt that the name ‘Shona’ is inaccurate and unworthy, that it is

not the true name of any of the peoples whom we propose to group under the term

‘Shona-speaking peOple’, and further that it lies under a strong suspicion of being

a name given in contempt by the enemies of the tribes. It rs pretty certainly a

foreign name and as such rs very likely to be uncomplimentary”
As the spoken Sbona language was turned into various written ‘dialects’ by missionaries

in the early twentieth century, some inventing of ‘tribalism’ and tradition occurred.30

Whites drew African language boundaries and“ demarcated dialect territories. American

m- 'MIU.» .

 

25 Zezuru is a dialect of Shona spoken in the region around Harare. Sanga is spoken in the Ndau highland
region. Randles, “Map of Zambezia and adjacent regions by the Marquis sa de Bandeira” (2“ edition,
Lisbon, 1867).

2"Randles, “Map of Mozambique” ( l 889).
27 Manyikaland, Mashonaland and Matabeleland are three provinces in Zimbabwe today, but “Ndauland” is
not a province or a term commonly used
2; Clement M. Doke, Report on the Unification of the Shana Dialects (Hertford, 1931) 78- 80.

30Ibid., 78

Ranger, “Invention of Tribalism,” 14-15.

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missionaries in the east, for instance, championed Ndau so that they could work with just
one language that would cover their entire sphere of influence from the Save river to the
coast.31 After examining the developing language situation in Southern Rhodesia, Doke
arrived at six main “Dialect Groups”: Ndau, Manyika, Korekore, Zezuru, Karanga and
Kalanga32 (Figure 7). Three of these classificafiom--Ndau, Manyika and Korekore--
stretched into Mozambique, then called Portuguese East Africa. Within each area there

were also various dialects. For example, among the'Ndau cluster, there are sub-divisions l

i

1
that Doke labeled Ndau, Danda and Shanga.33 We must question Doke’s neat boundaries

of “the distribution of Shona-speaking peoples,” for this South Afiican linguist did not
visit many of the areas Shown on his map.34 Nonetheless, in the twentieth century,
identities among Shona-speakers expanded beyond historical political units “to be
thought of as a matter of language, culture and ethnicity.”35

This relatively recent and broad characterization of people as ‘Shona’ or ‘Ndau’

does not correspond with identities grounded in history that signified membership within

 

3‘ Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 169. He traces the adoption of ‘Ndau’ by the American Board
missionaries (including the first published use in 1906) and argues that their usage of the term led to the
‘official’ designation by Doke. This expanded usage was soon adopted by ethnographers such as E. Dora
Earthy and H. P. Junod to describe the entire region from the Save river to the coast.

32 Doke, Report an the Unification of the Shana Dialects.

33 Note that Shanga (or Machanga in Portuguese) on the coast is different from Sanga (or Quissanga,
Chisanga) to the north. It is also not the same as Shangaan (or Changana in Portuguese), the name of a
group of people in southern Mozambique who trace their identity back to the Gaza Nguni leader
Soshangane. .

3‘ Doke relied on Zulu-speaking informants for information on the “Ndau Group” and did not gain a
familiarity with the Mozambican region. Commenting on Doke’s enduring classification of Shona into
dialects, David Beach noted, “it is curious how it seems to have stood the test of time in light of practical
experience and further research.” The Shana and their Neighbors (Oxford, 1994). The more recent work of
C. H. Borland revisits the classification of eastern Shona into the two dialect clusters of Manyika and Ndau.
See, for example, “Conflicting Methodologies of Shona Dialect Classification,” South African J ffial of
African Languages, 4, l (1983) : l-19 and “Internal Relationships in Southern Bantu,” South African
Journal of African Languages, 6, 4 (1986) : 139-141.

3’ Ranger, “Invention of Tribolism,” 6; See also Beach, The Shana and their Neighbours, chapter 6.

l7

(.2

a political unit.36 Before 1890, as Terence Ranger contends, Shona-speakers were ~
conscious of local chieftaincy groups rather than one overarching cultural or political l
identity that could be called ‘Shona.’37 Drawing on David Beach’s work in early Sholfra
history, Ranger argues that precolonial states in this region “had never pulled their
subjects together into self-conscious identities, nor had they manipulated concepts of

group identity in a manner which left a lasting legacyjr”8

While this appears to be the
case for much of the precolonial period, I will describe how Ndau speakers drew on their
history of a shared language and culture to develop a wider sense of identity. This was
especially apparent in the nineteenth century when the Ndau endured Gaza Nguni
overrule as a conquered population, as discussed in chapter seven.

Some speakers of Ndau, particularly residents of Zimbabwe where about 80 per
cent of the population Speaks Shona, would identify themselves today as both Shona and
Ndau, but their ancestors would not have considered themselves to ‘be Shona’or even
‘Ndau’ in the nineteenth century.39 Ndau-speakers most likely identified themselves with/
a region such as the lowland “Danda” area, or a political entity such as “Sanga” in the l
highlands or “Teve” to the north. As two elders from Machaze, Mozambique explained,
“All north of the Save [river] speak Ndau, but the Ndau Spoken in various zones is

different.”40 Ironically, Doke’s 1931 report stressed the need for “a linguistic term to use

in connection with the unified language, a term by which the people need never call

 

3‘ Ranger, “Invention of Tribalism,” 6.

’7 Terence Ranger, “Missionaries, Migrants and the Manyika: The Invention of Ethnicity in Zimbabwe” in
Leroy Vail, ed., The Creation of T ribalism in Southern Africa (Berkeley, 1989), 120.

’8 Ranger, 120. David Beach’s scholarship on the Shona includes numerous articles and several books such
as The Shana and their Neighbors, A Zimbabwean Past and The Shana and Zimbabwe, 900-1850.

39 David Beach provides the figure of 79 per cent for Shona speakers in Zimbabwe, while other estimates
tend to be around 80 or 83 per cent. Beach, The Shana and their Neighbours, 185.

40 Seven Laisse and Timothy Mataca, Guezane, Machaze, Mozambique, 16 July 1998.
18

themselves?“ His recommendation of ‘Shona’ did indeed come to be used as an
identification by many of the people themselves, despite the term’s lack of historical
significance.42 Similarly, usage of the name “Ndau” has grown to denote about the same
area of the “Ndau Group” on Doke’S map. A second irony is that the use of ‘Ndau’ as an
ethnic identity today covers a larger area than the local dialect of Ndau spoken only in the
highlands.”

Just as ‘Shona’ has ambiguous origins, the exact derivation of the term ‘Ndau’ is

also unclear. Today many Ndau speakers say that the term was first used as a exclamation

of deference in greetings. In the late nineteenth century people would say “Ndau-we, j,.. t r .. 91-1
-. 2.. l ‘ . , _

Ndau-we which translates as: We salute you! We salute you!“ These words served as
3,518.11 flamleggss and respect, and the use of “Ndau-we " as a greeting has become a
point of pride that symbolizes the friendliness of Ndau-speakers.“ In a similar vein,
several elders explained that the term is derived from “ndau-ndau, " or “ndau ” (with a

low tone), a saying people used “long back” when entering a homestead."6 Robert Open

Nkomo of Nyanyadzi, Zimbabwe said, “I think the Ndaus are called Ndau because when

 

4' Doke, Report on the Unification of the Shana Dialects, 80.

‘2 The uncomplimentary term ‘Shona’ is the name of the language spoken by 6,225,000 people in
Zimbabwe in 1989 and 759, 923 people in Mozambique, according to the 1980 census. According to
Doke’s report, there were about 150,000 ‘Ndau’ in the 19305. One third, or 50,000 people, were living on
the Zimbabwean side of the border and the other two-thirds, about 100,000 people, were in Mozambique.
In 1970, René Pelissier cited a figure of 750,000 for the number of Shona in Mozambique. Many of these
would have been Ndau speakers. Doke, Report on the Unification of the Shana Dialects, Appendix III,
136; René Pelissier, Historia de Macambique, Vol. I, 39. [Online] Available http://www.sil.org/
ethnologue/countrieS/Mozahtml.

‘3 As noted by Doke in his Report and numerous elders, including Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe,
13 July 1999; Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999 and Mateus Sirnango,
Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

“ Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

‘5 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 2000.

‘6 “Long back” is at least the end of the nineteenth century in this case. Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore,
Zimbabwe, 29 June 2000; Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999; Robert Open Nkomo,
Nyanyadzi, Zimbabwe, I August 1999.

19

they get to a home they say ‘Ndau.’47 This expression “meant that if you were busy, that

9948

would be a Signal to notify you so that you pay attention. Those in the compound

. . , . ‘ . 9
would respond by saying “gumar’ , meaning ‘ come m3”

Thus, ‘Ndau’ became 3;”
nickname used by others to describe the people who said “Ndau.”50 Today visitors to a
homestead respectfully announce their presence by calling out “Do-do-do.” The phrase
“Do-do-do” serves the same purpose as “ndau-ndau.”5 1 In contemporary usage, the
dweller calls for the visitors to enter the compound by responding with “Pindai.”
Although many Ndau-Speakers no longer utilize “Ndau” or “Ndau-we” in their greetings,
elders described this usage as common earlier this century.

In fact, the use of the word ‘Ndau’ may even extend back to the eighteenth
century. The historian J. Keith Rennie argues that the earliest reference is apparently
from a Portuguese document that mentions ‘ZEVBJEQ’,’ traders who crossed the (Save; river in
1739 to trade their gold “[9199! at ”Inhambane? This reference to “Mujao” is similar to
“Ndjao”, the Inhambane version of “Ndau.”53 About one hundred years later, the
Portuguese writer 1050 Juliao da Silva referred to “Mataos” as well as “Madandas” and

“Madandas Vatombozis” in the hinterland of Sofala in a report from 1844.54 The British

explorer St. Vincent Erskine made a Similar observation of “Mandanda” in the lowlands

 

‘7 Robert Open Nkomo, Nyanyadzi, Zimbabwe, 1 August 1999.
4‘ Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 2000.
2: Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

Ibid.
5' Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 2000.
‘2 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 168-169.
53 H. P. Junod, “Contribution,” 18; Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 169.
5’ Joio Julia'o da Silva, Memoria sobre Sofalla (1844) in Memories de Sofala (Lisboa: Comissao Nacional
para os Comemoracoes dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 1998) 34, 49, 59, 67 and 74-75. The editors of
this collection of documents, José F ialho Feliciano and Victor Hugo Nicolau, note that the Mataos were
“Vatombozis of Quissanga” who were Gaza Nguni subjects integrated into the military structure of these
conquerors. 34, n. 10; Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 169.

20

near the Save, and he also placed the term “Maandowa” on a 1875 map of his journeys.55
These written references suggest an earlier existence of the term ‘Ndau’ and an
established distinction from ‘Danda’ long before the recollections of twentieth-century
elders.

The two groups of Ndau and Danda were not always that different, however, and
the Danda came to ‘be Ndau’ as well. “In Nyabanga there are many Ndaus and Dumas,”
explained Sarai Nyabanga Sithole of Zamchiya.56 “I want to tell you clearly,” she said,
giggling, “VaDuma and VaDanda were the enemies of the Ndau.”57 Jona Mwaoneni
Makuyana recalled that the Danda were “outsiders” who came from Mozambique to
marry local people in the highlands so that both groups could “become one flesh.”58
Makuyana, born in Mozambique and now a resident of Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, explained,
“the VaDanda can speak Ndau, our languages are almost the same.”59 He argued, “Yes, I
can even say they are one and the same thing. The Slight difference is the tones. After
the Danda region, we could not hear their language, deep within Mozambique.”60 He
concluded, “Ndau is difficult. If you go to the south, they are now Hlengwes,‘and they

”61

do not Speak Ndau. When Ndau elders made distinctions betweenthemsflelyes and!

others they ofien turned to language to define the W191?! Ndauidentity, For instance,
MMIWWHMQHV_ ‘ _ , , , , , ,. _, . ... .L, .J .

,7", Muchergchete Dhlakam‘a of Zamchiya explained, “I am Ndau because I was born by

Ndaus. I do not have a Duma tone or language, neither do I have that of Hlengwe. That

 

5’ St. Vincent Erskine, Route Map of the Gasa Country in “Journey to Umzila’s, South-East Africa, in
1871-1872,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 45 (I875) : 45-125, map facing p. 45.
: Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Ibid.
58 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
5" Ibid.
‘0 Ibid.
6' Ibid.

21

is why I say I am Ndau.”62 Unlike the Danda, the Duma to the west and Hlengwe to the
south are distinctly not Ndau.

Among the eastern Shona known as Ndau-speakers, “being Shona” is replaced for
the most part by a sense of “being Ndau”, or being something else such as “Danda” or
“Tomboji”, but nevertheless speaking NdauKIn the East, there are highland Ndau known
as Ndau, Garwe, Sanga and Tomboji along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border. Near the
coast lowland Ndau are called Danda and Shanga: Mucherechete Dhlakama of Zamchiya
also noted that “those from the valley were referred to as mugowa.”63 Those a bit further
north claim to be “Manica” or “Teve” and speak Shona dialects of the same name. It is
interesting to note that ‘Teve’ is distinct from Ndau today, despite the fact that the
precolonial Teve state was in the Ndau area under study here. In addition, many
Mozambicans of the late twentieth century who live in the wider Ndau region do not see
themselves as “being” Shona, even though they speak a dialect of Shona, according to
linguists.64

The amalgamation of dialects in Doke’s “Ndau Group,” combined with the
differences in accent and vocabulary between Ndau and other Shona dialects, has created

confusion over Ndau as a language and relegated it to the fringe of the Shona-speaking

 

”2 Mucherechete Dhlakama, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999. Mubya Dhlakama was born in Maupfu
across the border in Chikwekwete, Mozambique. For the Duma, see the work of R. Mtetwa, and for the
Hlengwe, James Bannerman.

‘3 Mucherechete Dhlakama, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

6‘ One scene I witnessed in 1998 involved a group of young Zimbabweans having difiiculty locating the
right bus in Chimoio, Mozambique (the capital of Manica province). The Mozambicans they encountered
at the market were using the local language of Teve, spoken around Chimoio, rather than the Shona of
these Zimbabweans. My assistant, Farai Raposa, who grew up in Chimoio and speaks Teve, helped these
young men find their bus by bridging the gap between Teve and Shona. Implicit in this dilemma was the
distinction that Mozambicans made between “Shona” (i.e. the language of “Zimbabwe”) and Teve (the
language of Chimoio), and Farai was happy to offer this incident as an example of the language differences
between Chimoio and the closest Zimbabwean city of Mutare near the border.

22

world. The remoteness of Ndau to most Zimbabweans is apparent in its oversight in two
prominent Shona language dictionaries published in Zimbabwe. The authors of these
Shona-English dictionaries avoid dealing with the Ndau dialect. A dictionary by D. Dale
specifies words common to the dialects of Karanga, Korekore, Manyika and Zezuru, but
not Ndau.“ M. Hannan’s comprehensive Standard Shana Dictionary also leaves out
Ndau but includes dialect variations from Karanga, Korekore, Budya and Zezuru."6 As

the ethnographer H. P. Junod argued in 1934, the‘Ndau are “certainly the most loosely

 

an-“ " ‘1“1’“

connected group,” although their affiliationwith other Shona Speaker's,isV”undeniferble.fi7 It
is the history of the Ndau region in Zimbabwe and Mozambique that casts the most doubt

on the usefulness of contemporary ethno-linguistic classifications.

Ethnicity and History

Although the process of creating and Shaping ethnic identities is ongoing for any
particular group, ethnicity remains tied to a sense of ‘being’ something that group
members hold in common. Shared characteristics may include a language or dialect,
geographical region, common origin or ancestry (historical or mythical), religious bond,
or political entity. The Shifting identities and changing polities among groups such as the
Ndaupqseachallenge for scholars, since both Africans and Europeans transformed
ethnic identifications through social and ideological means at various historical moments.

Even though history itself is constantly used to produce identities, ethnic identities tend to

 

‘5 D. Dale, Duramazwi: A Shana-English Dictionary (Gweru, 1981) 1.

‘6 M. Harman, Standard Shana Dictionary (Harare, 1959), xviii-xix.

‘7 Henri Philippe Junod, “A Contribution to the Study of Ndau Demography, Totemism, and History,"
Bantu Studies, 8, 1 (March 1934), 17.

23

168

take on a powerful salience and appear to be natural, essential and primordia It is

possible to discern how group identities respond to alterations in the political and cultural

terrain over time, but continuities and differences in the ‘creation,’ of ethnici durin the ,

if.) :‘l‘ ’J '
precolonial. colonialand postcolonial eras have yet to be explored in much of Africa. j '

 

Throughout history, social stratification and struggles for power have intensified ethnic
awareness among people who view themselves as sharing a common culture and
historical origin.69 Although‘eth‘rricfi‘ identities may arise at any (given time, they are most,
mus for leading tgyjogng‘e‘ when they are used to satisfy group aspirations at the
expense of others. Mgntitigs of a particular people exist “in a context of oppositions
and relativities” as groups classify ‘others’ during their own acts of self-identification.70

‘A This study explores how ethnic identities were ‘created’ through social and

I

l
1

political institutions, cultural practices and expressions, economic activities and relations ;
between humans and the environment. For example, social structures such as families,
extended kinship ties and patron arrangements shaped ethnic identification. Language,
religious beliefs and rituals, oral traditions and aspects of material culture served to foster
ethnicity in both subtle and obvious ways. In many instances, diverse socioeconomic
activities and unequal access to environmental resources intensified ethnic awareness.
Gender relations, shifting class structures and leadership patterns all influenced ethnic
identification, and the unequal allocation of power and wealth heightened perceptions of

group distinctiveness and exclusion. This project seeks to docgrrrent ,hgwpeople

 

‘3 John Comaroff in Edwin N. Wilmsen and Patrick McAllister, eds., The Politics ofolflerence: Ethnic
Premises in a World of Power (Chicago, 1996).

69 John Wright, “Notes on the Politics of Being ‘Zulu,’ 1820-1920,” Conference on Ethnicity, Society and
Conflict in Natal, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, (14-16 September 1992); Leroy Vail, ed. The
Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa.

24

WEE??? language maintain ethnic distinctions, at times more subtle than?
obvious, despite a history of overlapping political structures. I trace the forging of
common identities as well as the processes of exclusion to offer a more meaningful
analysis of long-tenn shifts in identities.

In order to identify the many linking and overlapping patterns and processes of
changeiflfnap the existing evidence of material culture over several centuries in the
Ndau-speaking region. Ipxamine markers of identity such as language, body art,
religious beliefs, rituals and gender roles in the context of changing sociopolitical
structures. :il}discuss cultural affinities in ceremonies and social gatherings and analyze
the abundant information on Ndau dress, jewelry and markings on the face and body.
The technologies of material culture as well as specific objects such as tools, clothing,
pots, crafts and houses reflect changes in self-identity. Since ethnic awareness shifts over
time, it is necessary to analyze archival materials, oral evidence and material culture to
trace continuities and changes in a cultural identity among the Ndau.

In the archives,j-I)have found scraps of evidence of an Ndau cultural identity in
early travellers’ accounts, reports by colonial officials, writing of missionaries and other
miscellaneous documents. Portuguese records are rich in descriptions of material culture.
Obscure ethnographic studies, despite their ahistorical framework, are also very helpful.
A critical reading of these sources has yielded ample evidence of material culture and
expressions of identity at different historical moments.@strive to bridge the divide

between the social sciences and the humanities by offering a historical analysis of the

 

7° Elizabeth Tonkin, Maryon McDonald and Malcolm Chapman, eds., History and Ethnicity (New York,
1989).

25

evidence of material culture." A deeper historical study of the manner in which people
constructed new ways of seeing themselves and others has relevance beyond southern

Africa, for the phenomenon of ethnicity is worldwide. People call upon various identities
in the midst of ethnopolitical conflicts, andun/jétudy examines the ambiguities and
complexities inherent in the fluctuationswof ethnic boundaries.

Previously, scholars avoided questions surrounding ethnic identities in Africa
since ethnicity was considered to be a “retrogressive and shameful” topic, as Crawford
Young notes, that could “summon forth from the societal depths demons who might
‘ subvert nationalism.”72 Similarly, in South Africa ethnicity was viewed as the false
creation of an apartheid state and feared as a divisive force. More recently, scholars have
acknowledged ethnicity as a motivating force in the world today. For Edwin Wilmsen
and Patrick McAllister, ethnicity is “politically constructed and may arise anywhere at

anytime.”73

They argue that ethnicity holds the key to the structures of inequality, and
they caution against current notions of primordial ethnicity that justify either “new or
continued suppression of dispossessed groups.” John Comaroff notes that an insidious
neo-primordialism, a combination of primordialism and instrumentalism, is currently
receiving attention in the discourse about ethnicity. With this “theoretical bricolage”,
ethnic identities call on some sort of primordial infrastructure in times of crisis or

opportunity. For Comaroff, this view legitimizes a racist politics of difference. In

South Africa, for example, both Inkatha and conservative Afi'ikaners express their

 

7' Ian Hodder, “The Interpretation of Documents and Material Culture.’ in Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna
S. Lincoln, eds. Handbook of Qualitative Research (London, 1994).

72 Crawford Young, “Nationalism, Ethnicity and Class in Africa: A Retrospective)’ Calu‘ers d'Etudes
Afn’caines, 103 (1986): 421-95.

26

ethnonationalist claims in primordialist terms. Ethnicity is attractive, for it simplifies the
social world in a diffuse and unspecified manner and couches complexities “in the

emotive language 0f identity, being and belonging.”75

An assessment of the fluidity of
ethnic identification and its “historical baggage” is needed to combat destructive
consequences of ethnicity, such as those arising from Zulu and Afiikaner nationalism.

In the social sciences, Fredrik Barth's work on the persistence and permeability of
ethnic boundaries has shaped the evolution of thinking about ethnicity.76 He argues that
ethnic groups maintain discrete categories, such as observable cultural features of dress,
language or architecture, as well as basic value orientations. He also shows that
movement across ethnic boundaries and relationships with outsiders, ofien adversaries,
can strengthen ethnic recognition. Expanding upon Barth, social scientists studying the
Maasai in East Africa argue that ethnic ideologies ”shape identity formation and social
action.77 Moving beyond earlier ahistorical analyses, these contributors to Being Maasai
point out that “ethnicity need not be strictly defined,” since people in East Africa
‘become’ Maasai as both active and latent identities are transformed during a continual
process.78 This interdisciplinary collection allows us to see the interplay of various
dimensions of ethnicity across the social field.

Historians have developed their own theories of ethnicity to explain the

fashioning of ethnic identity during the colonial period in Africa. Scholars examined the

“creation of tribalism” in colonial Africa and argued that the usually fluid cultural, social

 

73 Edwin N. Wilmsen and Patrick McAllister, eds., The Politics of Dtfl'erence: Ethnic Premises in a World
of Power (Chicago, 1996).

“’4 John Comaroff in Edwin N. Wilmsen and Patrick McAllister, eds., The Politics ofDifference.

7’ Wilmsen and McAllister, The Politics oszflerence.

7‘ Fredrik Barth, ed., Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (Boston, 1969).

27

and political boundaries were fixed during the colonial period. Leroy Vail’s model of the
process of ethnic construction stresses the importance of culture brokers and African

intermediaries in shaping popular ethnic ideologies.79 Language, a central element of the _‘

 

 

W,” serves either to foster unity or create d1v1s1ons Vail's arguments,
helpful in understanding the prickly problems of ‘tribalism’ during colonial rule, can also
be applied to the precolonial period. Precolonial rulers used ‘inventions’ of ideology to
heighten ethnic awareness and reinforce the loyalties of their subjects.81 My study
expanfiupon Vail’s model to address gaps in our understanding of the precolonial era
and to look further into the past for the motivating forces of ethnicity.

I am examining the shaping of ethnic identity over several centuries in order to
analyze shifts that are apparent only over long time periods. The pioneering work of the
Eyemand Braudel sensitizes us to consider the value of analyzmg continuities H
and changes in social, political, economic and cultural systems and traditions over
centuries.82 Braudel’s method has led scholars to look at different conceptions of time.
He measures time on three scales by examining the very slow history of people's

relationship to the environment (la langue durée), the social history of groups over

several generations and the exciting yet dangerous history of events. Although the

 

77 ”Thomas Spear and Richard Waller, Being Maasai: Ethnicity and Identity in East Africa (London, 1993).
"Ibid..
79 Leroy Vail, ed., The Creation of T rtbaltsm in Southern Africa.
3° The large number of mutually intelligible languages 1n southern Africa complicates the mix, for Africans
developed communication networks through trade and faced few “definable” boundaries in terms of
language. For a discussion of a sense of African unity in South Africa before whites worked to erect
barriers around African identities, see the recent work of Brett Cohen, “‘Something Like a Blowing Wind’:
African Conspiracy and Coordination of Resistance to Colonial Rule in South Africa, 1876-1882” (PhD.
diss., Michigan State University, 2000).
‘I ”John Wright, “Notes on the Politics of Being ‘Zulu,’ 1820-1920. ”
”Femand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phtl1p II (New York,
1972); 011 History (Chicago, 1980); A History of letzanons (New York, 1987).

28

traditional history of events is “the richest in human interest . . . we must learn to distrust

this history with its still burning passions” since events act as a smoke screqi to obscure

R. 7”,-..
\

the economic and social realities of the past.83 By adopting all three typeso’f approaches,
historians are able to reflect on both rapid events and slower peHdds/t’o move beyond
traditional narrative histories. Only by looking at the longuedurée can scholars offer
deeper analyses of history with nuances of change and continuity.

- ,.-- -- also (yahw on the methodological and analytical approaches used by several

iv
scholars who have begun to extend the discourse on thetphenomenon of ethnicity hy

tracing its evolving Course over several centuries?) Ronald Atkinson relies primarily on

oral traditions ,to make tentative conclusions about early Acholi ethnicity in Uganda.84
He argues that the period from the mid to late seventeenth century was the crucial
moment when a distinctive collective identity emerged among the people who came to be
called Acholi. %avid Newbury’s work contests the traditional understanding of ‘clans’ as
static structures.85 Using oral traditionsjhnd comparative evidence of ritual practices and
political forms, Newbury shows that clan identities, rather than being descent-based, were
continually transformed over time in the Kivu Rift Valley. Elan Vansina reconstructs
political tradition in the rainforests of Equatorial Africa by using “words as history” to
examine cultural interpretations and collective representations.“ He argues that a single

tradition, evident in a sense of cultural unity and common institutions, flourished for

centuries among small political units previously considered to be unconnected. Vansina

 

‘3 Braudel, 0n History.
8‘ Ronald Atkinson, “The Evolution of Ethnicity among the Acholi of Uganda: The Precolonial Phase,”
Ethnohistory, 36,] (1989): 19-43.

asDavid Newbury, Kings and Clans. iji Island and the Lake Kivu Rift, 1 780-1840 (Madison, 1991).

29

redefines tradition as a process with “concepts, values, institutions and tools” and
declares that it “must continually change to remain alive.”

@Elizabeth Eldredge’s study of nineteenth-century Lesotho provides another
framework for tracing the evolving course of ethnicity.87 She describes processes of
amalgamation among southern African chiefdoms which led to the political consolidation
of a kingdom and subsequent cultural assimilation. She uses oral traditions, an abundant
amount of evidence about material culture and archaeological data to demonstrate the
feasibility of tracing regional cultural linkages in spite of changing social and political
units. Eldredge argues that the involvement of women in politics contributed to political
reproduction. Through marriage alliances “women produced and reproduced the regional
political order” and played an integral part in maintaining a common language and
culture over a wide geographic area.88

Although women play important roles in reinforcing and transforming ethnic
identification, politics and ethnicity are often mistakenly viewedas solely the affairs of
,1.
men. In a recent book on the Anlo-Ewe of southeastern Ghana: S/andra Greene
challenges the way in which most historians of Afiica have studied gender and ethnic
relations as two separate fields of social history.89 She argues that both fields should be
studied together since they are inextricably connected to each other over the longue

durée. In her study of Anlo social groups known as hlowo, or clans, Greene offers an

exciting approach for analyzing the intersection of gender and ethncity over several

 

8‘ Jan Vansina, Paths in the Rainforests: Toward a Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa (Madison,
1990).

'7 Elizabeth Eldredge, A South African Kingdom: The Pursuit of Security in Nineteenth-Century Lesotho
(Cambridge, 1993).

‘3 Ibid.

30

centuries. Dismissing the idea that “women have no tribe,” she argues that Anlo women,
since the late seventeenth century, consciously and explicitly supported and shifted ethnic
boundaries within the lineages and clans of Anlo society.90 Although many other studies
of ethnicity have focused mainly on elite Africans, Greene notes that marginalized
Africans--men and women--were actively involved in transforming ethnic identities as
they defined and redefined their own identities. Disadvantaged people challenged their
social definitions as the ‘other’, and some ‘outsid‘ers’ were able to alter their identities.
Greene's emphasis on the inextricable connections between gender and ethnicity over the

longue durée is a very different, and welcome, conception of ethnicity.

//fi

/ In addition to these theoretical influences, my project builds upon the work of

others studying ethnic identity among the Shona. Terence Ranger argues that

5 missionaries and colonial administrators played a central role in the “invention of

l

tribalism” among the Manyika in northeast Zimbabwe.” Although Ranger creatively

‘7. shows how ethnicity was tampered with in the colonial period, he gives colonialists too

I

 

 

w.l ..

conclusion that the origins of ethnicity do not lie in the precolonial past.92 Herbert

Chirnhundu, a linguist, demonstrates how missionary linguistic politics “fixed” the
ethnolinguistic map in the Shona-speaking region. He views the creation of “new and

wider ethnic identities” to be a result of missionary influence in Zimbabwe, but he fails to

 

89 Sandra Greene, Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Change on the Upper Slave Coast: A History of the Anlo-
Ewe (Portsmouth, NH, 1996).

9° Greene, Gender, Ethnicity, and Social Change on the Upper Slave Coast, is quoting Vail’s Introduction
to The Creation of T ribalism in Southern Africa.

9' Ranger, “The invention of Tribalism” and “Missionaries, Migrants and the Manyika.”

’2 See Masipula Sithole’s critique, “Ethncity and Democratization in Zimbabwe: From Confrontation to
Accommodation” in Harvey Glickman, ed., Ethnic Conflict and Deocratization in Africa (Atlanta, 1995).
Greene also finds faults with Ranger’s approach.

31

discuss how these linguistic identities spread beyond the missions’ sphere of power.93 J.

1 Keith Rennie’s valuable study of Christianity and the origins of nationalism among the
11 '

ENdau in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) shows how Ndau-speakers could adopt new
identities in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.94 I will expand upon Rennie’s

work and extend the scope to consider the precolonial situation on both sides of the

border.95 These studies have highlighted the manipulation of ethnic awareness during the

colonial era, whereas I will shift the focus to encompass a longer time frame; X U ..
' l n r I A V -~ - .7 . . , .I
i w ) ' ‘J l_ ‘ 2.’-.1_A (OJ ""
w j ' LA) «vii finely“... A Q { .1.
await _ ‘ .‘JAH ‘ (../a'\ .J , ,. ‘ i‘ if!“ f,

Ndauness as a “Mixed Pot”

The idea of a “mixed pot” of ‘Ndauness’ comes from an interview with Idah 9
Manyuni of Chikore, Zimbabwe. When asked if there were outsiders living in her arjea
near the border between Mozambique and Zimbabwe she replied, “Oo-oh yes! They are
so many now . ; . we arc now a mixed“ pot, it is no longer Ndaus only.” Her comments

.1 34115511 ' “
reflect the eclectic ithredients'J in the pot that is ‘Ndauness’, for both internal
contributions and outside influences are part of the mixture. In this study I turn to the
Egedients in this mixed pot and attempt to discern the ambiguities, distinctions and
complexities inherent in an earlier sense of Ndauness. The metaphor of several different
pots also reflects the many facets of Ndauness in the twentieth century, since the Ndau

have distinct uses for various pots. For instance, there is a specific pot for water, another

for beer, one for cooking greens, and a special pot for maize meal. When women bring

 

’3 Herbert Chimhundu, “Early Missionaries and the Ethnolinguistic Factor During the 'lnvention of
Tribalism' in Zimbabwe,” Journal of African History, 33 (1992): 87-109.

9‘ John Keith Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism Among the Ndau of
Southern Rhodesia, 1890-1935,” Ph.D. diss., (Northwestern University, 1973).

9’ Rennie’s short study of “Ideology and State Formation” in the Ndau region is an informative examination
of the shaping of political and communal ideologies over several centuries.

32

these different pots together, they create a delicious meal-~or in a larger sense, an Ndau

cultural identity.

This study seeks to clarify our understanding of the ‘creation’ of ethnicity and the

1 shaping of African identities before the onset of the colonial period through an

\ - —-—._,__ ~

1 examination of the case of the Ndau. Many historical studies over the last two decades,

while groundbreaking for their time, have only highlighted African and European

manipulations of ethnic awareness since the end of the nineteenth century. To move

beyond the contemporary scholarship that focuses on recent identities, we need to look

back in time. A wealth of documents from the Portuguese presence in Mozambique and

Zimbabwe since the sixteenth century, combined with rich historical information

preserved by elders of the twentieth century, offer scholars a tremendous opportunity to

gain insight into the shifting identities at play in southeast Africa over the longue durée.

1 \ l‘ l h A/ r
'._\ ‘
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'J J

33

.\\ ‘ '
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r r
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, it" Kn
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’

CHAPTER TWO
Sources, Methodology and Fieldwork

That is the thing that will record me.
We will go to America together. I
- Riyarwi Mushoma

Kare haagari ari kare.
The past will never remain the past:
- Shana proverb

The sources for this study fall into two distinct categories: oral and archival. Yet
as Riyarwi Mushoma joked above, more than 200 interviews conducted during fieldwork
in the Ndau region did “go to America.” As recorded interviews painstakingly
transcribed into written transcripts, they now join the written record of southeast Africa’s
history alongside archival documents~ housed in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Portugal as
well as published versions of selected documentary evidence.3 Although there are some
obvious differences between the two types of sources, I draw from each as an
‘interpreter’ with a critical awareness of their biases and ‘errors’. I also celebrate the
richness of the data and find that the documentary evidence complements the information
gleaned from interviews with elders. Portuguese documents since the early 15005
describe African societies at the coast as well as activities on the Zimbabwe plateau.
While European writers were often first-hand observers of the time period under study

here, I learned just as much about Ndau history from the ‘true historians’ of the Ndau--

 

' Riyarwi Mushoma, referring to the cassette recorder, at the beginning of our taped interview. Chikore,
Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

2 Mordikai A. Harnutyinei and Albert B. Plangger, Tsumo-Shumo: Shana Proverbial Lore and Wisdom
(Gweru, 1987), 291.

3 Copies of interview transcripts will be deposited with the Oral History Project of the National Archives of
Zimbabwe in Harare and Mozambique’s Arquivo do Patriménio Cultural (ARPAC) in Maputo.

34

elders who have an incredible memory of events and traditions passed down from earlier
generations. With a wealth of documentary evidence, combined with information
gathered from Ndau elders, it is possible to reconstruct early Ndau history and gain a

sense of ‘Ndauness’ over time.

Portuguese Writings as Historical Sources

For scholars of southeastern Africa'interested in the early history of the region,
the pen of the Portuguese was indeed mightier than the sword. Although most of the first
Portuguese arrivals carried either the sword or the cross, they put these down to wield the
pen and leave a written record of their triumphs and travails. The documents left by
Portuguese soldiers, religious men and others in the service of the crown provide details
that are relative not only to the Portuguese experience but also to African life. REP”-
portraits of African customs and appetizing snippets of Mozambican life are embedded in
various Portuguese documents since the sixteenth century. The wealth of evidence left
by the Portuguese sheds light on changes and continuities in Ndau history.

The Portuguese pen detailed favored hairstyles and common spices much to the
delight of not only contemporary readers in Portugal, but also twentieth-century scholars
interested in the past. Fragments of evidence about a type of brewed beer or a manner of /
dress were heretofore overlooked and most likely overshadowed by other ‘official’
documentation such as the voluminous correspondence between the King of Portugal and
his Viceroy overseeing Mozambique. All of these materials are mere pieces of a larger
historical puzzle about the early history of southeastern Africa. An analysis of the
reports, letters and other data that have survived demonstrates the feasibility of

recovering African perspectives from colonial sources, albeit ‘tainted’ and prejudiced

35

 

ones. Rather than dismissing this colonial record in its entirety, scholars need to
acknowledge the inherent biases in these documents and subject them to a healthy
interrogation, for they yield amazingly detailed and valuable evidence of African realties

in what is today central Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe.

Sofala and the African Setting

Before the arrival of the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century, the Sofala
region of Mozambique thrived as an important trading center. About 10,000 residents
lived around the bay of Sofala in 1505 when the Portuguese first established a fortress
and began competing with local African traders, some of whom were Muslim.4 Known I
for its gold exports, Sofala was an important East African commercial center similar to
Kilwa and Zanzibar. Sofala was linked to wider trade networks that connected the
Arabian Peninsula, India, Indonesia and Madagascar. However, its distant southern
location meant that it was difficult to access because of the monsoon, and this lower
frequency of contact placed it on the fringe of the sophisticated Indian Ocean exchange

system.5 The most powerful man at Sofala was a shaykh related to the Swahili living

farther north along the East African coast.6 This ruler directed exports of gold and ivory

 

4 “Letter from Diogo Alcacova to the King (1506)” 20 November In Documentos Sabre 0s Portugueses
Em Macambique e Na Africa Central, 1497-1840 (9 vols., Lisboa, 1962-1972) vol. I, 397; hereafter
DPMA C; T.I-I. Elkiss, The Quest for an African Eldorado: Sofala, Southern Zambezia and the Portuguese.
[500-1865 (Waltham, MA, 1981), 16.

5 In the monsoon wind system the prevailing direction of the wind reverses itself from season to season. In
the Indian Ocean, travel from Mozambique to India was possible during the seasonal monsoon between
April and September. Ships would reverse their course and sail to Mozambique from India in the months
between November and February.

6 Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, extracts In George McCall Theal, Records of South-Eastern
Africa, 9 vols., (Cape Town, 1964), l, 16. (Hereafter referred to as RSEA.)

36

from the interior and enjoyed considerable prosperity until the Portuguese gained control
of Sofala in the sixteenth century.7

In the half century before Portuguese ships first entered the bay of Sofala, trade,
particularly in gold, shifted towards the north and away from Sofala.8 This reorientation
soon eclipsed Sofala, and the coastal region of Angoche, along with the Zambezi river
settlements of Sena and Tete to the north, grew into thriving urban settlements. These
trade centers relied on the increased mining activity and new gold trade fairs, known as
feiras, on the northern part of the Zimbabwe plateau.9 Although Sofala did not offer the
best access to these sources of gold in the northwest, the settlement continued to be a
strategic location that the Portuguese managed to exploit after their anival. At spring tide
Sofala offered good entry to the innovative, deep-keeled Portuguese ships known as
naus.10 A small number of Portuguese maintained a fortress at the port and capitalized on
the trade in ivory with the Ndau of the Sofala hinterland.ll A combination of larger
kingdoms, confederations and smaller polities existed at various times in the Sofala
hinterland. The Portuguese tapped into the established trading networks and lines of
communication to facilitate their commercial interests. Many rivers crossed this well-
watered region known for its abundance in meat, fish and grains. To this day the Pungwe

river marks the northern frontier of the Ndau-speaking area and the Save River forms a

 

7 Malyn Newitt, A History of Mozambique (Bloomington, 1995), 4.

3 Ibid., 10-11.

91bid., 10. Swahili traders and their local partners probably accelerated the shift in trade routes to the north
as they moved to escape the new presence of the Portuguese at Sofala. The Portuguese did not cooperate
well with Muslim traders and tended to assert their power through violence.

'° Fr. Antonio da Conceieao, “Tratado dos Rios de Cuama” (1696) in 0 Chronista de Tissuary (2, no. 14-
18, 1867: 34-45, 63-69, 84-92, 105-11), 63. Erosion has changed the shoreline of Sofala and destroyed the
Portuguese fortress. The modern port is 20 miles to the north at Beira. Gerhard Liesegang,
“Archaeological Sites on the Bay of Sofala,” Azania, 7 (1972): 147-159; Elkiss, 72.

37

rough southern boundary.12 Details from early Portuguese documents help historians
form a fairly detailed picture of the early period, although the regional economic and
political situation was not always clear to the Portuguese themselves at the time.

As Portuguese writers described events in the Sofala hinterland, they focused their
attention on the Mutapa state, located on the Zimbabwe plateau northwest of the Ndau
region. In the interior, extensive Shona political systems such as the Mutapa, Torwa and
Changamire expanded rapidly and then disintegrated while decentralized, segmented
political structures survived.13 The Ndau and the Manica, both Shona-speaking people ml
the east, declared their independence from Mutapa overrule shortly before the beginning
of the sixteenth century. From these new political subdivisions the larger states of
Quiteve, Manica and Barwe were formed, along with smaller territories such as Sanga
and Danda, located southwest of Sofala. The Portuguese left extensive evidence about
their trading activities with the Mutapa state, but not surprisingly, documentary evidence
about these smaller polities is scattered. From various sources we learn about

commercial activities, political maneuvering and details of Ndau daily life.

Early Authors of the Documents

Portuguese chroniclers and missionaries wrote about this part of the world for the

pleasure of their readers, while other officials corresponded with the Portuguese king and _

those in the government out of duty and necessity. The Portuguese monarchy initially

 

" A mid sixteenth-century Portuguese chronicler, Gois, wrote that 400 households were at Sofala.
Liesegang, “Archaeological Sites on the Bay of Sofala,” 149

'2 The Save continues to serve as the western border of the Ndau-speaking region as it curves northward
(from the mouth) in present-day Zimbabwe.

'3 Newitt, A History of Mozambique, 79-80.

38

solicited information about African kings, wars and riches after contact was first made
with the Ndau at Sofala and the surrounding region in the early sixteenth century. Often
“the noise of gold drowned the thoughts of danger” for the Portuguese ‘gentlemen’ who
sought their fortunes in Mozambique.14 Some of the Portuguese who ventured into the
interior were illiterate, so they described their observations to others who then created a
written record secondhand. Missionaries proved to be the best observers and recorders of
events. Many learned 10cal languages such as Ndau and came to understand facets of
Ndau culture. A long line of writers whose works have survived as archival documents
or published texts provides scholars with a wonderful sample of data.

The Jesuit Father Francisco Monclaro was one observer who described African
customs in detail in his report of Francisco Barreto’s 1569 expedition to ‘conquer’ the
ruler of the Mutapa state.” Despite the aggression of this famous mission and
Monclaro’s perception of Africans as “barbarous”, his account offers precious evidence
of African ‘customs’ and politics that can be compared with other great works of the
period.16 Monclaro stated that he has either observed various “customs and principal

”‘7 Monclaro

affairs” of Africans first-hand or “learned upon trustworthy information.
had only secondhand knowledge of most of the Ndau area.
One of the main sources of information about southeast Africa at the end of the

sixteenth century was produced by Father Joao dos Santos,“ a Dominican friar who lived

in Sofala for a total of five years and also spent time in the Zambezi valley before writing

 

'4 Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Asia Portuguesa, extracts in Theal, RSEA, l, 21.

'5 Francisco Monclaro, “Account of the Journey Made by Fathers of the Company of Jesus with F ranciso
Barreto in the Conquest of Monomotapa in the Year 1569,” In Theal, RSEA, 111, 202-253.

'6 Monclaro, In Theal, RSEA, III, 226; Joao Dos Santos, Etiépia Oriental e Varia Histéria de Cousas
Notaveis do Oriente, (I609), (Lisboa, 1999).

39

his narrative.l8 His monumental, encyclopedic work, Etio'pia Oriental ’9 discusses the
geography and culture of the Sofala region and the Zambezi valley. He also provides
details about missionary activities and the military and commercial penetration of the
Portuguese. His writings about Africans are valuable. Dos Santos had contact with Ndau
speakers around Sofala who lived either in the land of Quiteve or just outside its borders.
He also resided at the Mutapa court.20 In Etio'pia Oriental dos Santos argued that the

region “is the most barbarous and brutal that there is in the world.”21 Both dos Santos

/HH.~_ ..... ._,.

,v

and Monclaro made these statements in a religious context, however, for they refer to the
widespread “heathenism” in the region and the need to introduce Christianity.

iFather Manuel Barreto, a chaplain who spent several years with missionaries and
Portuguese officials in the region, wrote a report in 1667 based on first-hand knowledge
of the Zambezi and Mutapa region.22 He urged the Portuguese king to promote the
conquest of Mokaranga, Manica, Maungo, Baroe and Butua to secure “endless rich lands,
like large counties, with revenues of from five to ten thousand, with which it would be
possible to build up many houses and reward many services?” He points out that the

conquest of Maravi and Quiteve may be left for a later enterprise since these kingdoms

 

'7 Monclaro, In Theal, RSEA, III, 227.

'8 Dos Santos lived in Sofala from 1586 to 1590 and again from April 1594 to April 1595. In 1591 he left
Sofala for Tete, where he spent eight months. He spent time in Sena and on Ilha de Mocambique, and from
1592 to 1594 he lived on the Quirimbas Islands. He returned to Portugal in 1600 and completed Etiépia
Oriental in 1607. It was published in Evora, his birthplace, in 1609. Dos Santos later returned to
Mozambique and lived in Sena. Manuel Lobato, “Introductio” to 1050 Dos Santos, Etio’pia Oriental (1999),
7-9.

'9 For dos Santos, “Etiépia Oriental " or “Eastern Ethiopia” was the eastern coast of Africa from the
southern tip to the Red Sea. Dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental (1999), 73 and Lobato, “Introducao” in Etio‘pia
Oriental (1999), 24.

2° Lobato, “lntrodueao” in Etio'pia Oriental (1999), 21-22.

2‘ Dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental (1999), 100.

22 Manuel Barreto, “lnformacao do Estado e Conquista dos Rios de Cuama (1667)” In Theal, RSEA, III,
436-508.

40

would be more difficult to subjugate and yield less lucrative spoils.24 In one glaring
exaggeration, Manuel Barreto overstated the southern boundary of the kingdom of
Quiteve in his 1667 account, claiming that the terlitory ends at the Cape of Good Hope.25
Given the large amount of documentary evidence generated by an assortment of
prolific Portuguese writers in Mozambique during the fifteenth and sixteenth century, it is
fairly easy to whet the appetite of the researcher.26 Unfortunately, events of the next two
centuries are not as well known since the Portuguese were expelled from most of the
Zimbabwe plateau in the 1690s.27 Just as the early Portuguese were obsessed with the
Mutapa state in their quest for gold, later historians were drawn toward the Mutapa state
because of the extensive documents generated by four centuries of Portuguese contact,
albeit uneven. Thus, a fair number of scholars have written about the history of the
Mutapa state, but the same attention was not devoted to the surrounding region to the
southeast. Many of the early narratives mentioned in this study have been published in
multi-volume collections with English translations. A handful were printed in less
accessible nineteenth-century journals, while still others are available only in various

archives and libraries of Africa and Europe.

 

23 Barreto in Theal, RSEA, III, 493. No currency is given for the revenue. The original Portuguese
provided by Theal is “sinco a dez mil de renda. ”

4 Ibid.

25 Ibid., 487. .

26 See, for example, the lists of documents in D. N. Beach and H. de Noronha, “The Shona and the
Portuguese 1575-1890,” 2 vols. (Harare, 1980, mimeo); Ana Cristina Ribeiro Marques Roque, “A Costa
Oriental da Africa na Primeira Metade do Seculo XVI Segundo as F ontes Portuguesas da Epoca,” (Tese de
Mestrado, 3 vols., Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1994), D.N. Beach, “Documents and African Society on
the Zimbabwe Plateau Before 1890,” Paideuma, 33 (1987): 129-145; and D.N. Beach, “Chronological list
of documents from the beginning of Portuguese contact to the separation of Mocambique from Goa”
(Provisional copy provided by David Beach, February 1998).
27 David Beach, a leading historian of the Shona familiar with many early documents on Zimbabwe and
central Mozambique, noted that after the 1690s “there was a decrease of knowledge of the Zimbabwe
plateau contained in the written sources between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.” Beach,
“Documents and African Society on the Zimbabwe Plateau Before 1890,” 129.

41

Two well-known sources for primary materials are George McCall Theal’s
Records of South Eastern Africa and a collection of Documents on the Portuguese in
Mozambique and Central Africa edited by Antonio da Silva Rego and T. W. Baxter.28
The collection edited by da Silva Rego and Baxter, an attempt to update Theal’s Records,
includes nine published volumes of documents on the Mozambican coast and hinterland
from 1497-1615. Theal’s volumes are valuable for the reports and chronicles from
mainly the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They include informative selections from
Ethiopia Oriental, the sixteenth-century account written by the Dominican friar Joao dos
Santos mentioned above. There are also important excerpts from Of Asia, a 1552
chronicle from 1050 de Barros, and Decade of Asia, written by Diogo de Couto between
1609 and 1616. It is possible to discern the early history of southeast Africa by partially

relying on documents such as these.

Eighteenth-Century Writers

Although the Portuguese crown was mainly interested in gold and ivory, details
about the “uses and customs”, usos e costumes, of Africans also appears in some of the
earlyaccounts that Portuguese writers dutifully returned to the king in Portugal.
1;. f Trustworth information from the interior was scarce in both the early and middle part of
théEight’eenth century due to the distant relations with the Rozvi of the Changamire state,
but Portuguese documents from the end of the eighteenth century are especially profuse.

There was an impressive increase in the number of requests from the crown for

 

2‘ Theal, RSEA and DPMA c.
42

information on Mozambique between 1781 and 1805.29 The significant volume of
responses sent from Mozambique during this time period provides scholars with an
informative glimpse of African social and cultural history. Many authors were interested
in African ‘traditions’, daily customs and the causes of conflict, and their manuscripts
display a sincere, if at times misguided, attempt to describe an African ‘way of life.’ The
accounts, like their predecessors, reflect an obvious Eurocentric view of the world held
by the Portuguese at the time. This assortment of Writings was followed by other
important studies published later in the nineteenth century when the Portuguese and the
British initiated aggressive steps towards a ‘firm’ control over the Ndau in their
respective spheres of influence.30 These records document how the European “civilizing”
mission coalesced into systematic exploitation.

Ethnographic reports are the most valuable sources about things African. The
authors included their own observations as well as the second-hand reports of others.
1050 Juliao de Silva (1769-1852), for example, consulted written primary sources housed
in Sofala for his nineteenth-century Memo'rias about Sofala, and others may have done so
as well.31 Some accounts contain misleading tall tales, while others offer more accurate
information. Ignacio Caetano Xavier appeals for sympathy from his European audience
when he writes about the children of Portuguese settlers who are enslaved by the African

ruler Changamira.32 Xavier is also critical of the activities of certain priests, and he

 

29 Jose F eliciano F ialho, “Introducao” to Memo'rias de Sofala, by Joao Juliao de Silva, Zacarias Herculano
da Silva and Guilherme Ezequiel da Silva (Lisboa, I998) 10; Newitt, A History of Mozambique, 201.

3° These include studies such as Joaquirn d’Almeida da Cunha, Estado acerca dos Usos e Costumes dos
Banianes, Bathids, Parses, Mouros, Genios e Indigenas (Mocambique,l885).

3' Fialho, lntrodueao to Memérias de Sofala, 16.

32 Inacio Caetano Xavier, “Noticias dos Dominios Portuguezes na Costa de Africa Oriental (1758)” in
Antonio Alberto de Andrade, Relacées de Mocambique Setecentista, (Lisboa, I955), 143.

43

accuses them of devising schemes to enrich themselves at the expense of the crown.”

Yet the author himself was looking for a royal favor in return for his work, and he
managed to secure an appointment after his report was submitted in 1758.34 Regardless
of his motives, Xavier clearly stated Portuguese priorities when he declared that
missionary operations should be followed by an influx of skilled mine workers.35 Indeed,
historians are pleased that Xavier was most efficient and detail-oriented in his
undertaking, since scholars are able to benefit from the fruits of his labor. These
Portuguese writers leave a meandering paper trail that combines informative musings
with contradictory, erroneous and humorous details.

a I X»
g, /' One of the most valuable documents is Reposta das questaens sabre as Cafi-es, I x..:.\

1‘ "-'-' err-11hr“. r— Mn-u- - I.nu ran-Ir I

 

_ .n. .. “OWO-I" ‘-

written in 1781.36 This reply to questions about the indigenous population of central
Mozambique is probably the first ethnographic survey of Mozambique.37 Before this
report appeared in 1796, earlier works included fragments of data on African beliefs,
customs, rituals and other cultural aspects amidst personal memoirs and reports of the

Portuguese about plans to exploit the wealth of the region and develop favorable trading

 

’3 Ibid., 143-44.

3‘ Andrade, “Introducfio aos Textos,” Relacdes de Mocambique Setecentista,, 22-23.

35 Xavier in Andrade, Relacées de Macambique Setecentista, 186.

36 An alternate spelling of reposta is respasta. Both mean answer or reply. “Cafre”, a Portuguese term that
referred to Africans in general, meant infidel or unbeliever in its Arabic origins. Muslim traders first used
“kaffir” in southeast Africa to refer to Africans who were not Muslim (i.e. not Swahili). The term remains
in use today (particularly in some South African circles) as the derogatory “kaffir.” One sixteenth-century
published reference is in Goes, “Chronicle of the Most Fortunate King Dom Emanuel of Glorious Memory
(1566)” In Theal, RSEA, iii, 129: “The inhabitants of the country [the Mutapa kingdom] are black with
woolly hair, and are commonly called Kaffirs by the settlers.” S. l. G. Mudenge discusses the derivation of
the term in A Political History of Munhumutapa, c. 1400-1902 (Harare, 1988), xiv.

37 The historian Gerhard Liesegang, who saw the value of this report in the 19605, wrote the introduction
and notes to a published version in 1966. Carlos Jose dos Reis e Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as
Cafi'es, Introduction and notes by Gerhard Liesegang (Lisboa, 1966).

44

relationships.38 Yet this Reposta, conceived as part of a failed attempt to form a national
museum, assembles ethnographic pieces about the Ndau into a substantial package of
information.” The document describes traditions, religious beliefs and rituals, aspects of
social life, weddings and burials, death, divinations, prophecies about causes of death,
various aspects of political life, agriculture and food, treatment of sickness, climate,
topography, the manufacture of goods, and the use of plants found in nature. This report
is attributed to Carlos José dos Reis e Gama, the Governor of Sofala, but another writer
was most likely the true author, according to the Mozambican historian Gerhard
Liesegang.40 The Reposta deserves considerable attention as the most detailed example
of evidence from eighteenth-century Portuguese sources.

7 Although no detailed discussion of African identities should overlook the value of 3
the Reposta, the observations in this work are presented as biased comparisons with a
Portuguese way of life rather than neutral observations about African methods and
modes. Many paragraphs begin with statements about what Afiicans do not do rather
than what they do practice. For example, Gama (or the actual author) claims that the
Ndau have no ideas about the origin of their polity.41 He even contends that they do not
think about this question.42 He alleges that the Ndau are ignorant about the history of the
region since they do not know of an apparent “revolution” that once occurred among

them.43 Bearing in mind this caveat about Gama’s mistakes and incorrect information,

 

3" One notable exception is the thorough Etiépia Oriental from the early seventeenth century by Fr. 1050
dos Santos
39Liesegang, “Introducao” to Gama, Reposta das Questoerrs sabre as Cafres, 7.
4° Carlos José dos Reis e Gama apparently produced a report in 1781 on the natural history of the region.
"Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 20. I refer to Gama as the author here until this case of
alleged plagiarism 1s solved.
”Ibid.
‘3 Ibid.

45

scholars can turn to supporting evidence from other sources to confirm or reject some of

the questionable observations in the Reposta.

Significance of the Documents g

The methodology of both the Portuguese who wrote these early, ‘precolonial’m \
documents and the colonial officials who compiled more recent reports is somewhat [I 1
similar. In the twentieth century colonial officials relied upon interpreters or acquired a
proficiency in a local language, depending on their length of time at a post and their
personal views about African languages. Early missionaries in the region learned African
languages, including Ndau, and spoke them in their efforts to spread Catholicism. Many
Portuguese traders certainly developed a knowledge of one or more local language and
thosewho marriedAfricans were exposed to Ndau culture intimately. These men, and all
surviving records of the early period come from men only, studied the “customs and
practices” of the people.44 Scholars are fortunate that-some who were well informed
recorded their observations. The friar dos Santos conducted his own “oral interviews”,
presumably as historians do today. Dos Santos spoke with elderly Ndau women at Sofala
who “perfectly remembered events that had taken place eighty years before.”45 Most of
his writings were the result of direct observations and experience, such as his comparison

of women’s agricultural practices in Africa and Northern Portugal.“S At times the

valuable observations of dos Santos and others describe realities that still exist in Ndau

 

‘4 Travel literature did not appear until the second half of the nineteenth century when Europeans, including
several big game hunters, wrote accounts of their “adventures” south of the Zambezi river.

‘5 George McCall Theal, “Abstract of Ethnographic Information Contained in Portuguese Records and
Early Histories, Added to Papers on the Same Subject Published Some Years Ago by the Compiler of these
Volumes,” in RSEA, VII, 392; Lobato, “Introducéo” in Dos Santos, Etiépia Oriental (1999), 22.

46

culture.47 Yet the documents also reveal a dynamic history, full of good stories with
twists and turns along the way to keep the reader, and the historian, entertained.

The information garnered from the early Portuguese pen, combined with evidence
from oral histories, aids the historian in mapping the contours of Ndauness over time.

For instance, the documents tell us that hand clapping enjoyed widespread use as an
important custom. This practice has endured in the Ndau region to this day. Chiefs have
their own distinct order and rhythm for the clapping at their courts, and men clap
differently from women in daily greetings and expressions of pleasure. It is unfortunate
that the Portuguese chroniclers, missionaries and officials--all men--tended to focus on
the deeds of men. Afiican women are often noticeably absent from many of the
Portuguese descriptions, and thus information about their contributions must be sought
elsewhere to obtain a fuller picture. Despite shortcomings such as this, historians who
consult the eclectic evidence left by the Portuguese can gain an understanding of Ndau
history across the cultural divide.

The Portuguese sources reveal historical data about African perspectives and
material culture from earlier centuries that can be compared with evidence garnered from
interviews with Ndau elders in the twentieth century. Interestingly, Gama insisted that
the Ndau did not have “any memories or traditions of times passed.”48 He was either
misinformed about the importance of memory and oral traditions among the Ndau or
perhaps felt that unwritten African remembrances did not constitute an accurate recording

of the past. It is clear to twentieth-century historians, however, that African oral histories

 

‘6 Lobato, “Introducao” in Dos Santos, Etiapia Oriental (1999), 37; Dos Santos, Etiépia Oriental (1999),
112.
‘7 Lobato, “Introducao” in Dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental (1999), 37.

47

and traditions have proved to be an essential component for an in-depth study of the
region’s early history. Scholars can no longer rely solely on European documents, for

their inherent biases, exaggerations, misinformation, and repetitions of false rumors often

‘w‘- ”moo-w__

\

render them severely flawed. Although they do not tell the whole story of things past,
they do contain a wealth of evidence that merits a thorough consideration and
interrogation. By comparing this documentary evidence with other sources such as the

archaeological record and African oral traditions, scholars can ask and answer questions

about the hinterland of Sofala over the longue durée. MW,

Scholars and Interpretations

Not surprisingly, historians have interpreted the evidence about the wider Shona-
speaking region differently. For instance, exaggerated Portuguese accounts of thel
Mutapa’s wealth and power often tend to cloud historical realities. Historians studying
Shona history have also recognized the limitations inherent in oral traditions. Although
D.P. Abraham collected many Shona oral traditions in the 19505, these have proved to be
quite unreliable.49 Beach has pointed out the problems and pitfalls of relying too heavily

on these Shona oral traditions, but his own work on the Shana has demonstrated how oral

 

48 Gama, Reposta, 20.

‘9 David Beach revises his arguments about D. P. Abraham in A Zimbabwe Past (Gweru, 1994), chapter 6,
from an earlier article of his, “The Mutapa Dynasty: A Comparison of Documentary and Traditional
Evidence,” History in Africa, 3 (1976): 1-17. Between 1959 and 1963 Abraham published several
influential works on Shona precolonial history. He reached his conclusions based upon fieldwork in the
northern plateau area as well as documentary evidence. His first work appeared in NADA . the journal
established in 1923 by Southern Rhodesia’s Native Department so that colonial officials could record local
histories and observations about “native affairs.” Then in 1960 Abraham presented a paper at the
Leverhulme conference at the university in Salisbury (Harare) and moved from “the world of NADA " to
the academic arena of the University College in Salisbury. However, Beach successfully shows why “very
little of Abraham’s work is trustworthy.” A Zimbabwean Past (Gweru, 1994), 3, 227-28, 234.

48

histories enhance an in-depth history.50 The use of oral traditions is important, but they
can be problematic. For example, oral traditions claim that Teve, Danda, Sanga and
Manica were formed by the sons of the first Mutapa ruler, but Gerhard Liesegang and
others have pointed out that this was probably not the case.51 However, these ‘errors’
have their own interesting motivations as well.

Reconstructing the history of these secondary states has proved to be difficult, but
scattered evidence from the documents and works by scholars such as J. Keith Rennie,
David Beach, Innocent Pikirayi, James Bannerman, Richard Mtetwa, H, Bhila, Andrew
Mtetwa and Allen Isaacman provide a framework. Most important for my own interests
in the Ndau region, J. Keith Rennie’s work provides an indispensable first look at how
the Ndau adopted new identities in his scholarship. His dissertation focused on
Christianity and the origins of nationalism among the Ndau in Zimbabwe during the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.52 A short essay published ten years later on
ideology and state formation discussed precolonial identities among the secondary states

of the Ndau region. Rennie also explored transformations in the Musikavanhu Territorial

 

5° D. N. Beach, A Zimbabwe Past; The Shana and Zimbabwe 900-1850: An Outline afShana History
(Harare, 1980) and The Shana and their Neighbours (Oxford, 1994). See also other work on oral histories
from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), including P. Carbery, “Maungwe Traditions,” UZ History
Department unpublished M.A. paper, 1986; l. Pikirayi, “The Traditions of Nyanga,” UZ History
Department unpublished M.A. paper, 1986, and R. Dube, “Family History: A Case Study from Southern
Zimbabwe,” UZ History Department BA Honours diss., 1989. Through the Arquivo de Patrimbnio
Cultural (ARPAC) in Mozambique, there is much new work on the collection of oral histories in
Mozambique as well. ARPAC’s offices in Beira and Chimoio pursue an active field research agenda.

5' Gerhard Liesegang, “Sofala, Beira e a sua Zona,” Arquivo (Baletim do Arquivo Hista'rico de
Macambique) 6 (October 1989) : 21-64; Mudenge, Political History, 46; “Capitulos XX a XXV da
Década IX da Asia de Diogo do Couto” (post 1573) Dacumentas. VIII, 321. In the late sixteenth century,
the Friar Joiro dos Santos discussed this connection and “the errors made by certain writers.” See 1050 dos
Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” (1609) Theal, RSEA, VII, 286.

52 John Keith Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism Among the Ndau of
Southern Rhodesia, 1890-1935” (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1973).

49

cult between the Sabi and Lundi rivers.53 I seek to build upon Rennie’s work in the Ndau
region.

David Beach’s impresive and detailed research has enhanced our understanding of
Shona history, for his work on Shona political history, including the intricate
arrangements of dynasties spanning several centuries, is invaluable. His first book, The
Shana and Zimbabwe, is an extensive precolonial history of the Shona people on the
Zimbabwe plateau between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. He uses Portugese sources,
oral traditions and archaeological evidence to describe the Zimbabwe (Great Zimbabwe),
Torwa, Mutapa and Rozvi states. In a more recent work, The Shana and their
Neighbours, Beach focuses on Shona relations with neighboring Africans such as the
Nguni states of the Ndebele ot the southwest and the Gaza Nguni to the southeast. Again,
he draws on an impressive amount of evidence to provide a history over a long time
frame. He explores the location and nature of Zimbabwe’s early populations and
includes informative sections on the Shona environment, social structures and commerce.
In his last book, A Zimbabwean Past, Beach returns to his earlier specialty--Shona
dynastic histories and oral traditions. Drawing on research carried our 93132.4 years, he
ingeniously shows how Shona oral traditions reveal the past. Despite Beach’s amazing
scope, thorough analysis and extensive contributions to the field, more work on the
precolonial period remains to be done in the eastern region.

Detailed archaeological evidence from the Mutapa state is analyzed in Innocent
Pikirayi’s recent archaeological study. In this work Pikirayi explores the historical

archaeology of northern Zimbabwe from the fifteenth century to the present. His

 

53 J. K. Rennie, “From Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chiefiaincy: Four Transformations of the Musikavanhu

50

excavations focused on the Mt. Fura region, the seat of the Mutapa state several centuries
ago. Meanwhile, a political history of the Mutapa state by Mudenge offers a fresh look at
the relationship between external trade and internal forces. Mudenge critically examines
previous “misconceptions” concerning the history of the Mutapa state and minimizes the
role of external trade in internal Mutapa politics. James Bannerman is currently working
on tying together the connections between archaeological and historical evidence in the
eastern Shona region. He has completed a study of the precolonial state of Bvumba in
the Manica region and a history of the Hlengwe, neighbors of the Ndau to the south.54
His exciting new research on the locations of archaeological sites, linguistic data and
ethno—history should help to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge of this overlooked
region. Pikirayi and Bannerman’s work stands out as an innovative approach to
reconstructing Shona history through the use of archaeological and historical evidence.
Another excellent case study is Andrew Mtetwa’s study of the Mutapa influence
over the kingdom of Teve.” Through a careful reading of the documents, including
sources not used thoroughly before, Mtetwa reevaluates and reinterprets both Mutapa and
Portuguese activities in Teve. Mtetwa concludes that Teve was originaly a small unit
ruled by a muchinda, or prince, that expanded after successful secondary conquests. Joao
dos Santos writes about Teve in all its glory at the end of the sixteenth century, but Teve

later disintegrated when several provincial princes rebelled. In his examination of the

 

Territorial Cult in Rhodesia,” in Guardians of the Land, ed. J. M. Schoffeleers (Gweru, 1978).

5‘ James Bannerman, “Bvumba - Estado Pré-Colonial Shana em Manica, na F ronteira Entre

Mocambique e 0 Zimbabwe,” Arquivo. 13 (April 1993): 81-98 and “Hlengweni: the History of the
Hlengwe of the Lower Save and Lundi Rivers from the Late Eighteenth Century to the mid-Twentieth
Century.” Zimbabwean History, 12 (1981): 1-45.

55 Andrew H. Mtetwa, “A History of Uteve under the Mwene Mutapa Rulers, 1480-1834: A Re-evaluation”
(Ph. D. diss. Northwestern University, 1984).

51

internal dynamics of Teve, Mtetwa provides insight into the types of interactions between
conquering groups and those that they dominated.

Although Richard Mtetwa’s dissertation on the Duma people of southeastern
Zimbabwe covers a later time period, from the early eighteenth century to 1945, it is an
interesting study of a confederation.56 He focuses on the decentralized nature of the
precolonial economy and the internal trade among the Duma themselves. Mtetwa argues
that precolonial trade patterns and industries continued into the twentieth century and
played a significant role in the Duma resistance to exploitation. He also contends that the
proto-Duma migrated from Teve in response to the activities of Portuguese traders in the
region.

Several case studies illuminate other areas in the region. Bhila’s book on Trade l
and Politics in a Shana Kingdom examines the political and economic history of the
Manyika in the eastern Shona region.57 Using both documentary and oral evidence, Bhila
discusses relations with the Portuguese and surrounding African states as well as the
importance of gold in the area. In an earlier article, he first argued that alluvial gold-

digging and trade, rather than farming, were the main occupations of the Manyika.58 He

 

 

contended that through successful diplomacy and control of mercantile activities,

Manyika’s leaders prevented both the Rozvi emperors and the Portuguese from

exercising any real control over the kingdom from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth

century.

 

5‘ Richard M.G. Mtetwa, “The ‘Political’ and Economic History of the Duma People of South-Eastem
Rhodesia from the early Eighteenth Century to 1945,” (Ph. D. diss. University of Rhodesia, 1976).

’7 11. H. 1c Bhila, Trade and Politics in a Shana Kingdom (Salisbury, 1982).

58 H. H. K. Bhila, “Trade and the Survival of an African Polity: The External Relations of Manyika from
the Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century” Rhodesian History, 8 (1976): 1-1 I.

52

Allen Isaacman’s extensive work in the Barwe (Barue) region has enhanced out
knowledge of Barwe’s history. In his article on “Madzi-Manga,” he focuses on only one
chapter in the kingdom’s political history, due in part to the “paucity of archival data.”59
Madzi-Manga is the name of holy water used in a ritual function. Through the use of oral
traditions, Isaacman reexamines the ritual significance of the madzi-manga and explores
the process of investiture. After analyzing the role of the national guardian spirit in
Barwe society, he'concludes that sacred qualities of kingship were transmitted through
the madzi-manga. This study sheds light on the history of Barwe and its neighbors.

A lengthy Portuguese presence in the Sofala hinterland that spanned several

centuries did not lead to significant Portuguese influence 1n the Ndau region. There was
a relatively small population of Portuguese officials, prazeros (holders of leased crown
estates) and traders living in the area, and a viable Afro-Portuguese community did not
develop (except along the coast), as was the case further north near the Zambezi river.60

For the most part, European institutions were not transplanted among the Ndau, and
European technology and material culture did not take root. Elements of European

culture were present in the form of firearms, a few luxury items and several churches

with their accompanying ritual objects.“ More often the exchange flowed-Jmore'th‘e other \

way, for the small number of Portuguese 1n the area adopted African material culture and

an African way of life. Missionaries made few converts, but fortunately they left many

,M'fl" ' ' Mm-.~.,

_,V'

 

’9 See Allen Isaacman, “Madzi-Manga, Mhondoro and the Use of Oral Traditions - A Chapter in Barue
Religious and Political History,” Journal of Afi'ican History, 14, 3 (1973) 395. James Bannerman raises
concerns about “Madzi-Manga” in “The Extent and Independence of the Mutapa, Torwa, Manyika,

Barwe and Teve Territories and States,” University of Zimbabwe Seminar Series, (20 July 1981), 13, n. 65.
6° In the eighteenth century, for instance, there were prazas at Chiloane, Mambone, Chuparo, Ampara,
Chironde and Cheringoma, according to Malyn Newitt, Portuguese Settlement on the Zambezi.
Exploration, Land Tenure and Colonial Rule 1n East Africa (New York, 1973). See his map on p. 219.

6‘ Newitt, A History of Mazambzque

53

documents. The Portuguese already in the area worked to exclude new settlers and

officials so that they could share the wealth among only a select few. Traders extracted

paw
__..-—.-—

the wealth of the region, in the form of gold, ivory, slaves, skins or base metals, and sent

.f‘

it through long-established trading networks from the hinterland to the coast.
Archaeology can fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge of Shona history
before the arrival of the Portuguese, but the archaeological evidence is scattered and
scarce in the Ndau region. For eastern sites on Mozambique’s coastal plain, our best
evidence is from studies by Garlake, Barker and others of Manyikweni, 133 km south of
the Save River.62 Manyikweni has an architectural style, zimbabwe stone building
technique, contents and dates that are contemporary with Great Zimbabwe, since the
earliest construction was in the twelfth century.63 Building in stone, known as zimbabwe,
occurred throughout the wider Shana-speaking region from the late thirteenth century to
the first half of the sixteenth century.64 At Manyikweni, agriculture, livestock and
hunting were the basis of the zimbabwe economy, but Chinese porcelain and glass beads
present at the site are evidence of external trade.‘55 Archaeologists have determined that
stone structures in the Shona-speaking area indicate the existence of an elite living inside

the enclosures separate from the rest of the population.66 Evidence from madzimbabwe

 

‘2 Peter Garlake, “An Investigation of Manekweni, Mozambique,” Azania, 11 (1976): 25-47 and
“Excavation of a Zimbabwe in Mozambique,” Antiquity, 50, 198 (June 1976) : 146-48; Graeme Barker,
“Economic Models for the Manekweni Zimbabwe, Mozambique,” Azania, 13 (1978): 71-100.

63 Manyikweni was occupied up to the seventeenth century. Garlake, “Excavation,” 146.

6‘ Beach, The Shana and their Neighbours, 99.

65 Barker, “Economic Models,” 96; Paul J. J. Sinclair, Space, Time and Social Formation: A Territorial
Approach to the Archaeology and Anthropology of Zimbabwe and Mozambique, c. 0-1 700 AD. (Uppsala,
1987) 99.

66 At Manyikweni, for instance, analyses of fauna] samples reveal that the community near the stone
enclosure had a more lavish diet than the ordinary people farther away from the enclosure. Young cattle
were slaughtered for an elite around the enclosure and other game were also eaten there. Of the bones
recovered, antelope bones exceeded those of domestic livestock both within the enclosure and outside the
stone walls. An intermediate level of society that ate sheep, goats or game rather than cattle may have

54

such as Manyikweni and Great Zimbabwe suggest that a large degree of social and
political change was occurring within these societies before the anival of the
Portuguese.‘57 Archaeologists have only excavated a handful of zimbabwe sites in the
Ndau region, but future archaeological work should yield valuable evidence to aid
historians studying the Ndau and their neighbors, for these smaller madzimbabwe to the
east are similar to those on the plateau, where more work has occurred.‘58

To avoid dissonance between the two disciplines of history and archaeology, Jan
Vansina points out that historians need to re-think how “to blend an archaeological
reconstruction of an earlier period with a substantial historical one?”59 Few historians
have shown much interest in material culture, yet both archaeologists and historians
would benefit from systematic studies of material culture. Thus, historians need to turn
to their sister discipline, or as Vansina says, to their lost ‘siblings’--archaeologists--to
enhance studies of precolonial history.70 Archaeology provides “resonance to

documentary evidence by placing it against its background, by eliciting the longue durée

 

existed also. Others on the periphery ate mostly grain, wild foods and meat acquired from hunting rather
than consuming cattle, sheep or goats. These ordinary subjects appear to have relied on agricultural
products such as millet and sorghum for their subsistence while occasionally eating meat as a supplement.
Peter Garlake, “Excavation of 3 Zimbabwe in Mozambique” and “An Investigation of Manekweni,
Mozambique”; Graeme Barker, “Economic Models”; Berit Sigvallius, “The F aunal Remains from
Manyikeni,” in Paul J. J. Sinclair, Analysis of Slag, Iron, Ceramics and Animal Bones from Excavations in
Mozambique (Maputo, 1988), 27; Sinclair, Space, Time, 96.

67 Connah, African Civilizations, 195.

68 H. A. Wieschoff, The Zimbabwe-Monomotapa Culture in Southeast Africa (Menasha, WI, 1941);
Octavio Roza de Oliveira, “Amuralhados da Cultura Zimbaué-Monomotapa de Manica e Sofala,”
Monumenta: Boletim da Commissda dos Monumentas Nacionais de Macambique, Lourenco Marques, 9
(1963); and James Bannerman, “Notes and Questions Regarding the Archaeology, Language and Ethno-
History of Central Mocambique between the Zambezi and Save Rivers.” Paper Prepared for Presentation
to the Tenth Pan African Archaeological Congress, Harare, (June 1995), 1 and appendix one.

69 Jan Vansina, “Historians, Are Archaeologists Your Siblings?” History in Africa, 22 (1995): 369-408,
370.

7° Ibid.

55

in which documented events and trends unfold,” according to Vansina.“ Until recently,
the historical scholarship was based mainly on Portuguese written records, but an
incorporation of archaeological evidence and a careful use of oral traditions will enhance
our interpretation of the documents, which have their own biases.

In the future, more work on the archaeological history of the wider Shona-
speaking region will help to resolve some of the gaps in the historical record. Bhila’s
research on the Manyika, A. Mtetwa’s study of Teve and Rennie’s research on the Ndau
are exemplary case studies for the eastern region, but we need more investigations such
as these to gain a better understanding of the wider picture. We know much about the
Mutapa state, yet the research program for the Ndau area remains unfulfilled.
Differences in style variation--any change in material culture that is not related to the
function of the object--offer clues about early ethnic identities. The elaborate stone ruins
at sites such as Zembe, Messambuzi, Uzuma (Ussoma), Nhamara and Magure are a
fertile and scarcely explored ground for archaeological research and historical

interpretation in the southeastern region.72

Field Experiences
Alessandro Portelli writes about how the telling of ‘wrong’ tales enhances our
knowledge, since “errors, inventions and myths lead us through and beyond facts to their

”73

meanings, Interpreting the meaning of errors can be a difficult business. In this study

I have attempted to glean some truths and understand errors as more than casual

 

7‘ Ibid., 398.
72 Bannerman, Wieschoff and Roza de Oliveira all provide details of various sites.

56

mistakes. The large number of interviews allows me to assess a wide range of responses
to many of the same questions asked of over 200 elders. Yet, I also have stories from
elders that inadvertently answered my questions and also raised new lines of inquiry.
They recalled events from over sixty, seventy or eighty years ago, for most of those
interviewed were in their 803 and 90s. Elders were very friendly and willing to speak at
length about their knowledge of history and customs long ago. When someone claimed
to know little about history, I explained that we were also studying magarira netsika
akare, the way of life and customs long ago. Thus, they had knowledge passed down
from earlier generations that was not necessarily ‘history’, but nonetheless helpful
information for my project.

My study area is relatively large since I wanted to speak with elders from one end
of the Ndau region to the other (Figure 8). I interviewed elders in both the capitals and
outlying areas of all districts inhabited by an Ndau-speaking majority. Throughout my
fieldwork I worked with an assistant when conducting interviews.74 Three Mozambicans,
Antonio Francisco (Farai) Raposo, Jaime Maconha Augusto and Pedro Castigo, as well
as one Zimbabwean, Pinimidzai Sithole, facilitated my introduction into communities,

asked questions during interviews and transcribed the taped interviews. Their assistance

 

73 Alessandro Portelli, “The Death of Luigi Trastulli” in The Death of Luigi T rastulli, and Other Stories:
Form and Meaning in Oral History (Albany, 1991), 2.

7‘ Although my knowledge of Ndau allowed me to communicate with people, some elders I encountered
during fieldwork acted as if I spoke strangely. To my relief this was not only due to my American accent,
but also a result of the Shona that I mixed in with Ndau--a product of language training with Zimbabweans
in standard Shana. “Oh, she is speaking Shana!” elders would often exclaim, when they realized that l was
not using a “foreign” language such as Portuguese (in Mozambique) or English (in Zimbabwe). This
distinction highlighted the perceived gap between Ndau and Shona among elders.

57

 

 

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58

was invaluable.75 At each field site I conducted interviews on a daily basis when logistics
permitted, and I tape recorded each interview only if informants were willing and
comfortable.” Questions during interviews were open ended, but we guided the
conversation when necessary. Sociopolitical structures, gender roles, language, religious
beliefs and rituals were the main themes raised in each interview. Many questions
focused on the technologies of material culture and household production. Other studies
' of material culture have shown that muted voices, particularly those of women, can be
expressed in the decoration of rooms and pots.77 I spoke mainly with elders over 80
years of age--both men and women--to record their recollections of earlier times. The
information gathered from these interviews, although clearly subject to interpretation by
both the sources and the researcher, helps to counter the class and gender biases often
present in the written record.78

As a Sign of my appreciation for the time and generous sharing of knowledge
from informants, elders interviewed received photographs of themselves. In most cases I

presented them with an instant Polaroid photograph, and I also took a picture with my

 

75 Elias Nyamunda also graciously assisted during several interviews in Vhimba, Zimbabwe. Transcripts of
taped interviews from Zimbabwe are in English, while my Mozambican assistants transcribed interviews
recorded in Mozambique into Portuguese.

76 I always sought permission to conduct and record each interview. After elders granted consent verbally,
I would turn on the cassette recorder to begin taping. Michigan State University’s Office of Research and
Graduate Study, University Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects (U CRIHS), reviewed and
approved this study on 19 November 1997, with renewal approval granted on 29 January 1999 (IRB #
97777). I also received approval from the Research Council of Zimbabwe to conduct fieldwork and
archival research in Zimbabwe as a Research Associate with the University of Zimbabwe. A Credencial
from the History Department at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane facilitated fieldwork in central
Mozambique.

77 Ian Hodder, “The Interpretation of Documents and Material Culture,” In Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna
S. Lincoln, eds., Handbook of Qualitative Research (London, 1994); Ian Hodder, Reading the Past
(Cambridge, 1991); Ian Hodder, ed. Symbolic and Structural Archaeology (Cambridge, 1982). For an
excellent example from southern Mozambique, see Heidi Gengenbach, “Where Women Make History:
Pots, Stories, Tattoos, and Other Gendered Accounts of Community and Change in Magude District,
Mozambique, c. 1800 to the Present,” Ph. D. diss. (University of Minnesota, 1999).

59

camera. A copy of this second picture was distributed to each person later. In addition to
these photos, I offered each elder a small gift to thank them for the interview and express
my gratitude. These tokens ranged from packets of seeds and soap to razor blades and
matches. At times I also reluctantly distributed cigarettes, particularly to chiefs, when
other gifts seemed inappropriate.

During fieldwork near the border, it was clear that the international boundary
' separating Zimbabwe and Mozambique is an “artificial” border that cuts through the
Ndau-speaking area dividing kin, culture and speakers of the same language. Most
people on or near the border are oriented toward Zimbabwe, partly due to the
infrastructure on that side. With better roads and more frequent transport, well-stocked
shops and greater educational opportunities, Zimbabwe lures Ndau speakers residing on
the Mozambican side of the border. Today children cross the border to attend school in
Zimbabwean communities such as Zamchiya and Zona, and some Mozambican residents
use only Zimbabwean currency.79

Both distinct colonial histories and post-independence fighting in Mozambique
have created discrepancies between the two sides of the border. People on the
Mozambican side fleeing to Zimbabwe “simply traded one set of obligations to their
chief for a less severe one” on the other Side, as David Hughes has convincingly shown in
his recent research.80 Bonds of marriage, language and culture tie Ndau speakers to one

another across the border. They share common interests and a common identity, but they

 

7“ See Stephen Devereux and John Hoddinott., eds., Fieldwork in Developing Countries (Boulder: Lynne
Rienner, 1993).

79 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999; Field notes, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe,
July 1999.

8° David McDermott Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics: Struggles for Land and Clients on the Zimbabwe-

60

do make distinctions among themselves. The border is a marker and a tangible facet of
the Ndau region. Pe0ple refer to it in conversation and acknowledge its existence,
making this a ‘hard’ border in some respects.“ Yet, elders such as Jona Mwaoneni
Makuyana noted few differences in the customs and way of life (magarira netsika) on
either side of the border earlier this century.82 Comparing his birthplace in Mozambique
to his current home across the border in Zamchiya, Zimbawe, he noted, “The only
difference was that a school was built earlier in Zamchiya than in Chikwekwete. That is
the only difference.”83
In this study of the shared cultural, political and linguistic heritage that has
provided the basis for a larger ‘Ndau’ identity, it was necessary for me to conduct
research in both (Mozambique and Zimbabwe since the territory of the Ndau stretches
across central Mozambique into southeastern Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, I have found
that the imposed boundary running through this region has divided much of the
scholarship. With this project, I have attempted to cut across this colonial boundary and
transcend the intellectual frontier defining ethnicity in terms of the colonial and
postcolonial age. I have discovered the importance of talking to Ndau speakers on both

sides of the border and envisioning the wider history of the Ndau region. The next

chapter examines exchanges that took place long before the existence of the border.

 

Mozambique Border,” Ph.D. diss., (University of Califronia, Berkeley, 1999), 123.
8' Ibid., 119. Hughes describes how people cross the border, “but emigration strips at least some people of
rights and securities they regularly enjoy at home.”
:Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
Ibid.

61

CHAPTER THREE
Precolonial Exchanges:
Politics and the Ndau Economy

Therefore Kaflirs who are careful to choose laborious wives
are the richest, and have the most provisions.l
-F r. Jada dos Santos in the 15805

There is plenty of ivory in Sofalla and some amber and also gold with
which people come from Quiteve and Monica to buy merchandise.’
-F r. F elippe da Assumpcda, c. 1698

For centuries, the Ndau and their Shana-speaking neighbors traded gold, ivory l
and other commodities with Muslims from the Arabian peninsula, neighboring Africans
and the Portuguese to develop contacts that strengthened precolonial identities among the
Ndau. This chapter discusses the economic and political contexts that shaped these early
ethnic boundaries by examining trade (both local and long-distance) and political
relations between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries in the Ndau region. I also
consider activities in the wider eastern Shona region between the Zambezi and Save
rivers, for related trade patterns and political systems influenced identities across this
area. Large states, confederations and smaller polities existed at various periods across
the Shona and Ndau-speaking region, and dynamic trading networks and lines of
communication helped to maintain cultural similarities. Political identifications occurred
at multiple levels as villagers and chiefs alike recognized overrule by larger states and

paid tribute to dynasties such as the Mutapa, Torwa and Changamire at various times.

 

' Joio dos Santos, Etia'pia Oriental (1609) in George McCall Theal, ed., Records of South-Eastern Africa,
(Cape Town, 1964) VII, 208. (Hereafter referred to as RSEA.)

2 Fr. Felippe da Assumpca'o, “Brief Account of the Rivers of Cuama c. 1698” in D. N. Beach and H. de
Noronha, “The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890” (2 vols., Harare, 1980) I, 270.

62

Dynamic and extensive political systems expanded, competed and splintered long before
the onset of the colonial era.

Africans ‘created’ ethnic identities in part through economic activities and 3 3 .1
political institutions, and for Ndau-speakers a shared cultural, political and linguistic I
heritage has provided the basis of a larger ‘Ndau’ identity. Historically, ethnicity was
used for political purposes and ethnic boundaries were drawn within overlapping political
structures. Trade and politics shaped ethnic identification, along with other cultural
practices and expressions such as language, religion, art and architecture. As the term
“Karanga” fell into disuse in Portuguese documents, existing political designations

became ethnic terms, or “political ethnicities.”3

By examining the political map and
political identities of central Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe, this chapter begins to
unravel how the Ndau shaped history and identity during the precolonial period.
Wealth stemmed partly from the long-distance trade in gold and ivory between
the interior and Sofala. Swahili traders from East African coastal towns further north l
brought cloth and beads to trade for gold and ivory with Shana-speakers along the coast
of central Mozambique long before the arrival of the Portuguese. The Ndau probably
exchanged goods with the Swahili first at Sofala and later along the Zambezi River at
Sena and Tete.4 The Swahili were Muslim merchants involved in a sophisticated Indian

Ocean exchange system over many centuries. Since these Africans had long-term

contacts with the Arabian Peninsula and other points further East, there were Arab

 

3 John Keith Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation: Political and Communal Ideologies among the South-
Eastern Shana, 1500-1890,” in Ahmed ldho Salim, ed. State Formation in Eastern Africa (Nairobi, 1984),
174.

63

influences on their Bantu culture and language, KiSwahili. After the Portuguese arrived
at Sofala and began to trade with the Shona, they planned to expel all Swahili merchants,
many of whom acted as middlemen in the profitable Indian Ocean trade . But the two
groups of traders co-existed for some time, and both penetrated the hinterland to trade at
feiras, or trading fairs, on the plateau.5 By taking over strategic bases in key East Afiican "
ports, the Portuguese became a formidable competitor in the Indian Ocean system. Yet
trade and commerce, rather than political domination or territorial possession,
characterized early relationships between the Shana-speaking “Karanga” and their
trading partners--the Swahili and the Portuguese.6

As Great Zimbabwe on the southern part of the Zimbabwe plateau declined in the
early fifteenth century, major trade routes shifted further north through towns on the
Zambezi river. The Mutapa state benefited from this and grew to dominate over the
northern part of the Zimbabwe plateau as well as portions of the central Mozambican
coastal plain. The Portuguese intervened in the Karanga politics of the Mutapa state to }
regulate the export of trade goods, but they never completely conquered the Mutapa state
or managed to maintain long-term control over the eastern territories of the Ndau, Teve
and Manica. The Mutapa rulers, meanwhile, demanded taxes and tribute from subjects in

their sphere of influence and attempted to exert some form of rule over outlying areas.

 

‘ Sofala, or Bilad as-Sufala, was viewed by earlier Muslim merchants from the Arabian peninsula as a
region along the coast rather than one specific part. T. H. Elkiss, The Quest for an African Eldorado:
Sofala, Southern Zambezia, and the Portuguese, [500-1865 (Waltham, MA, 1981) 3, 8.

5 Trading centers existed prior to any Portuguese presence in the area, but the Portuguese wanted to control
the feiras (trading fairs) with a capitdo mar (administrative authority) and soldiers at each fair to increase
their profits from the gold trade. The Portuguese attempted to conquer the Mutapa state and take control of
the inland goldfields while the Swahili were content to remain as middlemen.

6 See David Chanaiwa, “Politics and Long-Distance Trade in the Mwene Mutapa Empire During the
Sixteenth Century,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 5, 3 (1972): 424-435.

64

The eastern territories, however, successfully maintained their independence from the

larger Mutapa state.7

Early Economies and Trade

Difficulties in establishing secure, long-lasting bases hindered initial Portuguese
endeavors to reap commercial benefits and proselytize in this part of southeast Africa.
The two major coastal sites for the Portuguese were Sofala and Mozambique Island, the
administrative center for official business with Portugal’s base in Goa under the Estado
da India. Missionaries arrived at these locations and began to work among African
populations. A 1614 agreement instructed the captain of the fortress of Mozambique and
Sofala, Rui de Mello de Sampaio, to “not hinder the passage on the Rivers [of Cuama and
Sofala] of those clerics or missionaries who are proceeding to the churches and the
Christians on the orders of the Archbishop Superior or the Administrator... and they shall
be permitted to take with them the things they need for their sustenance and for divine

”8 However, they were not permitted to take wine to sell.9 The documents

worship.
indicate that commerce was the main priority over all other concerns.
Early on, Sofala symbolized Portugal’s power and prowess in the Indian Ocean

region. The Portuguese created a captaincy there in 1505 to administer a royal monopoly

over gold and, later, ivory. Although the gold mines in the interior were not on the scale

 

7 These included large states such as Teve (Quiteve, Uteve), Manica (Manyika), Barwe (Barue) and Danda
(Madanda), as well as smaller territories including Sanga (QuiSanga, Kisanga, Chisanga), Dondo and
Machanga (Mashanga).

8 “Contract of the Trade of the Rivers of Cuama and Sofala with Rui de Melo de Sampaio (1614),” 17
March In Documentos Sabre 0s Partugueses Em Mocambique e Na Africa Central, [497-1840 (9 vols.,
Lisboa: National Archives of Rhodesia and Nyasaland; Centro de Estudos Histbricaos Ultramarinos,‘ 1962-
1972: 335-343) vol. IX, 339. (Hereafter cited as DPMA C.)

9 Ibid., 339-341.

65

of an African El Dorado, Sofala was an important reminder of Portugal’s presence in l
southeastern Africa and the crown’s unrelentless quest for gold. The area, referred to
initially as the biblical land of Ophir, remained a mythical “gateway to fabled lands of
gold and glory” despite the decline of the settlement at Sofala.10 In 1530, soon after
Sofala’s early prominence waned, Goa became the capital of Portugal’s Estado da India.
Later in 1752 the King of Portugal declared the separation of Mozambique from the
government of Goa. Even though the second half of the eighteenth century was marked
by administrative autonomy for Mozambique, this change made little difference for most
of the African population in the hinterland of Sofala.

Manuel Barreto notes that the Portuguese initially used Sofala as a base before it
was eclipsed by Sena and Quelimane. He observed around 1667, “Today some gold from
Manica is exported from Sofala, which I think does not exceed five hundred pastas,
whereas that annually exported from Quelimane is nearly three thousand?“ The main
trade goods from Sofala at the time were ivory from Quiteve and Manica, along with
some ambergris.12 Earlier reports from 1580-1584 of the fortress at Sofala note that the
trade in ivory was reduced, compared to the “extensive trade in gold and ivory” earlier.”
This was not for a lack of ivory. Conceicao noted that there was much ivory inland in a
region ruled by an Afiican called Caranga (Mukaranga), but a frustrating system of trade

left Portuguese traders returning “with their hair standing on their heads after having been

 

'0 Elkiss, The Quest for an African Eldorado, 70-72.

" Manuel Barreto, “Informacfio do Estado e Conquista dos Rios de Cuama,” In Theal, RSEA, 111, 479. A
pasta was a measure of gold that weighed about 100 maticals, according to S. l. G. Mudenge, A Political
History of Munhumutapa, c. 1400-1902 (Harare, 1988), xviii.

'2 Barreto, “Informacio do Estado e Conquista dos Rios de Cuama,” In Theal, RSEA, 111, 479-80.
Ambergris, a grayish, waxy substance from the intestines of sperm whales, was often found floating in
tropical seas. It was used in some perfumes.

'3 “Papers Concerning Sofala and Mozambique (c.1580-1584?)” 1n Theal, RSEA, IV, 1-2.

66

one, two or sometimes three years in the bush, away from their homes.”14 This Shona
ruler did not allow unauthorized subjects to trade with the Portuguese since he wanted to
maintain control over all external ivory sales. '5 The monopoly of the trade reduced the
quantity of ivory that elephant hunters turned over to the ruler and his authorized elders
since these leaders failed to cover transport costs and pay “a fair price,” according to the
Portuguese. '6

The Portuguese, like the Swahili before them, traded cloth and beads with the
Ndau and their neighbors in exchange for ivory, gold and slaves.17 At the end of the
seventeenth century Conceicfio noted that slaves were very cheap and the land was
abundant in meat, fish, maize and rice, yet wheat was absent.18 Francisco Barreto’s
expedition to conquer the mines of Mutapa relied on more than 2,000 slaves to transport
equipment and supplies up the Zambezi.” Trade in slaves north of the Zambezi was
noted by Manuel Barreto in 1667.20 The Mutapa rulers received tribute from chiefs and
others who ruled over parts of their empire.21 The Portuguese also presented an annual
gift, called a curva, to powerful rulers such as the Mutapa to ensure free passage through
their territories and unhindered access to gold mines.22 Francisco Barreto, the first

Portuguese captain of Sofala, initiated this arrangement with the king of Quiteve since

 

“ Conceieao in D. N. Beach and H. de Noronha, “The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890,” 200.
'5 Ibid., 204; Fr. Antonio de Conceicao, “Tratado dos Rios de Cuama (1696)” O Chronista de

T issuary. 2, 14-18 (1867): 63.

'6 Conceicio in Beach and de Noronha, “The Shana and the Portuguese 1575-1890,” 1, 200.

'7 Conceicao, O Chronista de T issuary, 63.

'8 Ibid.

'9 Monclaro in Theal, RSEA, III, 238.

no Barreto, “lnformacao do Estado e Conquista dos Rios de Cuama,” Theal, RSEA, III, 481

2' Conceicfio, 0 Chronista de T issuary, 66.

22 See, for example, “Contract of the Trade of the Rivers of Cuama and Sofala with Rui de Melo de
Sampaio (1614),” In DPMA C, IX, 339; Curva is the Portuguese rendering of the Shana huruva (to make an
obligatory contribution), Mudenge, Political History, xii.

67

this ruler controlled the trade routes in the immediate Sofala hinterland.23 After the
Mutapa ruler Mavhura signed a treaty of vassalage to the Portuguese crown in 1629, the
Portuguese secured a steady supply of gold from the mines of the Mutapa state and
enjoyed a somewhat stable trading relationship with the lands of the interior.24

Throughout the eighteenth century, Sofala was a mere foothold for the Portuguese
rather than a major center of trading operations in the Indian Ocean region. In the middle
of the eighteenth century there were only four “rich”'Portuguese settlers living at
Sofala.” The fortress was in decline and the waves of the encroaching sea pounded
against this symbol of Portugal’s presence among the Ndau.26 But in the hinterland both
Portuguese and African leaders were actively vying for power over people and natural
resources. Around Sofala and near the mouth of the Save river at Mambone to the south,
as well as further north along the Zambezi river, the Portuguese had established prazos, l
or crown estates, in the early seventeenth century. 27 These prazos, grants of land made if
by the Portuguese crown, became Africanized institutions as land was acquired from

African chiefs and the Portuguese interacted and interrnarried, with the local population.

Prazeras, or estate holders, and other Afro-Portuguese backwoodsmen, sertanejos, along

 

23 Friar Luis Cacegas, “Extracts from History of the Order of Saint Dominic in the Kingdom and Conquests
of Portugal,” Extracts in Theal, RSEA, I, 380- 406, p. 396; Joz‘ro dos Santos, Etiapia Oriental e Vdria
Historia de Cousas Notdveis do Oriente, 1609, (Lisboa, 1999), 175; Malyn Newitt, A History of
Mozambique (Bloomington, 1995), 94.

2‘ Mudenge dates the period of Portuguese ascendancy from 1632 to 1684 in A Political History of
Munhumutapa, 263 and 258; “Report: Contract of the Mines of Monomotapa with D. Estévr‘ro de Ataide
(161017),” In DPMAC, IX, 211.

25 Ignacio Caetano Xavier, “Noticias dos Dominios Portuguese na Costa da Africa Oriental” (1758) in A.
A. Andrade, Relac5es de Macambique Setecentista, (Lisboa, 1955) 142.

26 Ibid., 155. See Gerhard Liesegang, “Archaeological Sites on the Bay of Sofala,” Azania, 7 (1972) : 147-
159.

27 For works on the prazo system, see Allen Isaacman, Mozambique: The Africanizatian of a European
Institution (Madison, 1972) and M. D. D. Newitt, Portuguese Settlement on the Zambezi: Exploration,
Land Tenure and Colonial Rule in East Africa (New York, 1973) and A History of Mozambique, Chapter

68

with their private armies, tended to act independently of the Portuguese crown and refuse
to recognize royal authority. Prazeros and sertanejos negotiated a coexistence with
Shona populations and took advantage of local conflicts to strengthen their positions.
Thus, Portugal’s overall ‘colonial’ presence was limited in practice to control over most l
of the trade routes leading to the interior.28 African activities, rather than Portuguese
policies or maneuvers, shaped most of this region’s history, since the Portuguese failed to
settle‘inland in large numbers or assert much control over the Ndau ‘heartland’ of the
interior.

Sofala was linked to other lands inhabited by the Shona in the serta'a, or
hinterland. The system of rivers south of the Zambezi allowed people in Sofala to
communicate with those in Manica via the waterways, but little direct contact was
possible with the town of Sena on the Zambezi river since, as Barreto noted, there were
no rivers connecting the two towns.29 Assumpcfio commented, “there is plenty of ivory in
Sofalla and some amber and also gold with which people come from Quiteve and Manica
to buy merchandise.”30 The abundance of ivory in Quiteve led to an expansion of the
ivory trade up to the end of the seventeenth century.31 In his 1667 report, Manuel Barreto

described the region of Quiteve as “very rich, fertile, and healthy” with an abundant

supply of ivory and ambergris.32 However, he claimed, “not a grain” of gold was to be

 

10. The holder was referred to as a prazero. Most married locally, and alter the first generation prazeros
tgnded to be of mixed descent. The origins of the prazas stem from the sixteenth century.
Ibid., 201.
29 Barreto, “lnfonnacio do Estado e Conquista dos Rios de Cuama,” In Theal, RSEA, III, 479.
3° Fr. Felippe da Assumpcao, “Brief Account of the Rivers of Cuama c. 1698” In Beach and de Noronha,
“The Shana and the Portuguese 1575-1890,” 270.
3' Conceicao, O Chronista de Tissuary, 45.
’1 Barreto In Theal, RSEA, III, 487.

69

found.3 3 Dos Santos noted the importance of cattle over gold for the people of Abutua,
located in the interior on the southern part of the Zimbabwe plateau.34 South of Sofala
pearls and seed-pearls were discovered in the Bazaruto archipelago and along the coast to
the port of Inhambane, where ivory was also traded.33 The Portuguese interest in
economic exploitation led them to record details about African economies and polities in
the Sofala hinterland.

‘Many Ndau and their other Shona-speaking neighbors were interested in
acquiring the main imports of cloth and beads, but it simply was not feasible for most
Africans to gather and exchange gold and ivory directly on the plateau or in the Sofala
hinterland.36 For example, killing elephants for meat and ivory required skilled hunters
or the use of large pits. Even though attacking an elephant was very dangerous,
approximately 4,000-5,000 elephants were killed each year in the sixteenth century.”
Yet Beach estimates that under 2,000 people hunted elephants.38 He also calculates that
only one in every five Shona “lived within a reasonable distance of gold reefs or alluvial

”39 Many people were killed in accidents when they worked inside gold mines;

deposits.
gold washing was much safer. Other trade commodities, including copper, iron, leopard

skins, beeswax, rubber, grain and cattle were traded for cloth, beads, iron implements and

 

’3 Ibid., 489.
3‘ Dos Santos, Etiapia Oriental (1999), 205
33 Conceicfio, O Chronista de Tissuary, 63; Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Asia Partuguesa, In Theal, RSEA, I,
15.
3° “Relacao (C6pia) Feita pelo Padre Francisco de Monclaro, da Companhia de Jesus, da Expedicao ao
3Monomotapa, Comandada por Francisco Barreto” (post 1573), DPMAC, VIII, 390.

37Joao de Barros, “Da Asia” (1522- 1613) Theal, RSEA, VI, 266; Mudenge,PoliticalHistory,176-78;
Richard M. G. Mtetwa, “The ‘Political’ and Economic History of the Duma People of South-Eastem
Rhodesia from the Early Eighteenth Century to 1945,” Ph.D. diss. (University of Rhodesia, 1976), 272; and
Beach, Neighbours, 73.

:David Beach, The Shana and their Neighbors (Oxford, 1994), 73.

39Ibid.

70

porcelain.40 A 1512 document notes that cloth, either imported or made locally, was
“traded throughout the land.”41 Gold, imported beads, cloth, guns, cattle, hoes and ivory
were all used as currencies in the precolonial period.42

The major trade routes from the coast in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth
century ran up the Zambezi river or through the northern part of the Sofala hinterland into
Teve and Manica. There were other routes to the east coast via the Buzi and Save rivers
further south, but Rennie argues that this trade, although continuing until the nineteenth
century, was “limited.”43 Boats did navigate up the Buzi, Pungwe and Save rivers for at
least 50 miles from the coast.44 Communication links were good in this central region,
and it is unclear why more long-distance trade did not occur during the reign of the
Mutapa state.45 Perhaps the shift in power from Great Zimbabwe to the Mutapa state, as
well as the lengthy distance to the Mutapa capital in the north, discouraged external trade.
Since the Ndau region had few gold deposits, the Portuguese were not very interested in l
trade there.46 However, even though the documents fail to mention trading activities,
commerce may have been substantial since mining tends to support the trading of

commodities in surrounding communities. Other flourishing long-distance trade routes

 

‘0 Ibid., 73; John Keith Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism, and the Origins of Nationalism Among

the Ndau of Southern Rhodesia, 1890-1935,” Ph.D. diss. (Northwestern University, 1973), 52.

" “Apontarnentos de Gaspar Veloso” (1512), DPMA C, III, 185, 187.

42 Richard M. G. Mtetwa, “The ‘Political’ and Economic History of the Duma People of South-Eastern
Rhodesia,” 273.

43 John Keith Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,”52.

‘4 The Buzi was navigable for about the first hundred miles, the Pungwe for fifty to one hundred miles and
the Save was passable to the present-day border with Zimbabwe, according to Rennie, “Christianity,
Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 52. Liesegang notes that Joao Juliao da Silva wrote in 1846
that boats could go up the first 150 km of the Save to Maringa, and after that bark canoes were used.
Liesegang, “Archaeological sites on the Bay of Sofala,” 152.

‘5 Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 37.

‘6 Ibid, 40-41, 52.

71

ran even further south through the Tsonga region to Venda in the interior.47 After Sofala
turned into a backwater under Portuguese control in the 15305, trade shifted to the route
along the Zambezi, which was closer to many prazos.48

The prazos disrupted trade in the Mutapa state and the eastern Shona region,
inhabited in part by the Ndau, even though the Portuguese presence in the area was
relatively small. For example, after Sisnando Dias Bayfio won a large region of Teve
territory on the Buzi river, the king of Teve was forced to keep “a good understanding”
with the Portuguese, apparently out of fear.49 The prazos became Africanized institutions
as land was acquired from African chiefs and the Portuguese interacted with the local
population. Many prazo holders, who were ofien of a mixed Afro-Portuguese
background, considered themselves to be quite African. Prazo rulers relied on an army /
of slave soldiers known as the chikunda and demanded tribute from local Africans under 9
their control. The prazos exerted political power in the area through marriage allainces,
mercenary activities, and concessions from Afi'ican chiefs.50 Some prazos were
“essentially chieftaincies”, and they demanded tribute, mined gold and traded ivory
within the regional economic network.51 The “parasitic nature of the prazo system” led

to violence and disruption in the region.52

 

‘7 Ibid., 51.

‘8 Innocent Pikirayi, The Archaeological Identity of the Mutapa State: Towards an Historical Archaeologv
0 Northern Zimbabwe (Uppsala, 6, 1993), 109.

‘ Manoel Barretto, “Report upon the State and Conquest of the Rivers of Cuama” (1667), Theal, RSEA,
vol. III, 487; Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 167. See Isaacman and Newitt’s work on the
prazos for detailed studies of the relationship between the eastern Shona and prazo-holders such as
Sisnando Dias Bayao and Antonio Loba da Silva.

50 Newitt, A History of Mozambique, 217-218.

5‘ Ibid.

’2 Pikirayi, The Archaeological Identity of the Mutapa State, 1 19.

72

Trade and State Formation

External trade was only one factor in the complex process of state formation
among Shona-speaking groups, and thus we should not assume, as some of the literature
does, that a direct, causal relationship existed between commerce and political
consolidation.53 The wider Shona area has a shared history of large states, confederations
and smaller political chiefdoms, but as Beach contends in his last book, a straightforward
relationship between trade and state formation among the Shona did not exist.54 In an
early work from 1970, Nicola Sutherland Harris argues that the Rozvi king controlled and
confined the large volume of internal and external trade during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries to benefit a small, oligarchical group of rulers and priests.55 Stan l.
G. Mudenge challenges this conclusion that the king had exclusive control over trade and
dismisses the validity of the “trade-stimulus hypothesis” as applied to the Rozvi ease.“5
Mudenge also finds fault with David Chanaiwa’s 1972 study of long-distance trade in the
Mutapa state.57 Chanaiwa argues that external trade played an important role in Mutapa
politics. He discusses how shrewd Mutapa leaders during the sixteenth century

controlled internal and international trade within their sphere of influence. Mudenge,

somewhat unsuccessfully, criticizes this view that external trade played an important role

 

’3 For arguments about gold mining trade, see 1.R. Phimister, “Pre-colonial Gold Mining in Southern
Zambezia: A Reassesment,” African Social Research 21, June 1976 : 1-30. Phimister criticizes H. H. K.
Bhila’s work for overemphasizing the importance of mining in Manyika. However, Bhila makes a strong
case in Trade and Politics and “Trade and the Survival of an African Polity.” For a summary of several
works on trade and state formation, see also Gerald Bender and Allen Isaacman, “The Changing
Historiography of Angola and Mozambique,” in Christopher Fyfe, ed. African Studies Since 1945: A
Tribute to Basil Davidson (London, 1976).

54 Beach, Neighbours, chapter 3.

5’ Nicola Sutherland Ham's, “Trade and the Rozvi Mambo” in Richard Gray and David Birmingham, eds.
Pre-Colonial African Trade: Essays on Trade in Central and Eastern Africa before I 900 (New York,
1970)

56 S. I. G. Mudenge, “Role of Trade in the Rozvi Empire: A Re—appraisal,” Journal of African History, 15,
1974 : 373-91 and A Political History of Munhumutapa, 27.

73

in internal Mutapa politics. For the case of Teve, Andrew Mtetwa argues that the
kingdom, originally a small district, “grew out of that small province in spite of, and not
because of, designs of central power.”58 It is important to consider both the recent focus
on internal activities and state power as well as earlier scholarship which emphasizes
external factors.

Even though Great Zimbabwe, and subsequently the Mutapa state, were involved ‘
in trade to the coast, there is simply not enough evidence to support the assumption that
trade was the primary cause of state formation at Great Zimbabwe.S9 Archaeological
evidence has helped historians to understand more about Great Zimbabwe, but we still do
not know all of the reasons behind the formation of this powerful state. Beach cites the
importance of local wealth such as cattle, and he argues that the historical connections
between local and external capital among the early states of the Shona still remain hazy."0
Archaeological data has shown that the Shona responded quickly to meet the demands of
Swahili traders for gold and ivory.

At this point, further archaeological research is needed to shed light on the
importance of both local resources and external capital, as well as the actual dates of state
formation. Additional information on early trade at Great Zimbabwe, Torwa,
Changamire or Mutapa may lead to new theories about trade and state formation among
the Shona. They may follow Beach’s contention that trading in iron and salt did not lead

to any regional political importance for some early trading communities, for even though

 

57 Chanaiwa, “Politics and Lonchistance Trade.”

58 Andrew H. Mtetwa, A History of Uteve under the Mwene Mutapa Rulers, 1480—1834: A Re-evaluation.”
Ph. D. diss. (Northwestern University, 1984), 18.

59 Martin Hall provides an excellent archaeological summary in The Changing Past: Farmers, Kings and
Traders in Southern Africa, 200-1 860 (Capetown, 1987).

74

these items were highly valued in Shona society, Beach argues that the trade was not on a
scale to support specialization or scheduled markets."l Unfortunately we do not have the
answers to some crucial questions about the relationship between trade and state
formation with the early Shona states.

On the other hand, evidence from the Mutapa state clearly demonstrates that
political power was intricately linked to external trade. Leaders relied on imported goods

to secure the political loyalty of their subjects.62 Steady trading patterns strengthened the l

l

1

position of rulers, but scholars debate the actual relationship between external trade and
Mutapa political power. Beach and Chanaiwa both argue that external trade was essential
for Mutapa rulers, but Mudenge challenges this view. Instead, Mudenge claims that
while commerce was important to the Mutapa state, trade played a lesser role than
historians have suggested.63 Mudenge concludes that internal production fueled the
Mutapa state, and leaders did not benefit greatly from or exert much control over external
trade. He attempts to show that external trade with the Portuguese did not have a
prominent influence on Mutapa politics, but evidence of extensive trading relations and
benefits between the Mutapa leaders and the Portuguese contradicts this contention.
Mudenge overlooks the inherent economic and political power of this new trading
relationship. The need to protect trade from disruption is often described as a major
reason for state building in other cases. As Beach and Chanaiwa have noted, the
documents for this situation suggest that when trade was erratic or trade routes were

threatened, political power became precarious.

 

60 Beach, The Shona and their Neighbors, 70, 74, 77.
°‘ Ibid., 61-62.
62 Ibid., 72. This evidence is mainly from Portuguese documents.

75

Rulers of the Mutapa state asserted their dominance over a large area, and they
demanded tax and tribute from subject peoples within this sphere. Their power, however,
was often threatened by outsiders, such as the Maravi north of the Zambezi river and
conniving Portuguese who interfered with earlier trade patterns established between the
Shona and the Swahili of the East African coast.64 Although smaller chiefdoms in the
interior were incorporated into the Mutapa state, the larger eastern territories maintained
' their own independence, in part by exerting control over the trade routes which passed
through their land. The Mutapa state was unable to dominate the coastal rulers who

traded out of Sofala.65

The Mutapa State

The Mutapa state, based in Dande on the northern edge of the high veld, exerted
Varying degrees of control over the thriving trade that passed through the smaller
territories to the east. Documentary evidence from the Portuguese reveals economic and
DOIitical connections between the Mutapa state and its eastern offshoots. The Mutapa 1
State emerged on the northern Zimbabwe plateau by about 1490 and grew to exert erratic,
but considerable control over a large area. Smaller political units to the east remained on
the periphery of Mutapa’s influence. The oral traditions published by Abraham in the

1 9508 and early 19603 suggest that the origins of the Mutapa state stem from Great

\

63
64 Mudenge, Political History.
The leader of the Maravi peoples across the Zambezi in the 15905 is referred to as Chunzo. “Extractos
glsa Decada Composta por Antonio Bocarro” (1569), Theal, RSEA, 111, 361.
“Carta de Jofio Vaz dc Almada, Capitao de Sofala, Para El—Rei” (1516), DPMA C, IV, 291; James
annerman, “The Extent and Independence of the Mutapa, Torwa, Manyika, Barwe and Teve and States,”

niversity of Zimbabwe Seminar Series, (20 July 1981 ).

76

Zimbabwe, but this still remains a hypothesis.66 Pikirayi discusses how archaeological
sites on the northern plateau follow the Great Zimbabwe tradition. Thus, a link exists 1
between Great Zimbabwe and subsequent zimbabwe stone structures related to the
Mutapa further north, but the exact connections are not known.

Many of the ruling elite from Great Zimbabwe settled in other zimbabwe sites on
the northern part of the plateau, and the Mutapa dynasty grew to dominate the other
ruling’ aristocracy in the area.‘57 The Mutapa state maintained its power by controlling
trade, threatening or declaring warfare and demanding the allegiance of political leaders.
Even though the good grazing and gold-bearing areas were centered on the plateau, the

Zambezi lowlands were important as well.68

The Mutapa state’s influence extended to \
the coastal areas south of the Zambezi by the middle of the sixteenth century, yet rulers
never controlled all of the Sofala hinterland. The Ndau and other Shona dynasties in the
east declared themselves independent at various times in the sixteenth century to develop
their own smaller political units and benefit from trade to the coast. Other Shona-
speaking groups closer to the plateau remained subordinate to the Mutapa state. These
subjects supplied an annual tribute to avoid the threat of military intervention. Thus
many villagers preserved a sense of relative independence, and perhaps protection, with
this system of tribute.

The Mutapa state controlled trade routes and trade goods through a state-1,

sponsored system of tax and tribute. The ruling aristocracy demanded one tusk of each

 

6" As mentioned in chapter two, Beach questions the evidence underlying this interpretation by Abraham.
See Beach, A Zimbabwe Past, chapter 6.

‘7 Beach, Neighbours. 101; James Bannerman, “Notes and Questions Regarding the Archaeology,
Language and Ethno-History of Central Mocambique between the Zambezi and Save Rivers,” Paper

77

elephant killed, controlled the mining of gold on the plateau and taxed the trading posts
of both Swahili and Portuguese traders on the Zambezi river at Sena, Tete and later
Zumbo. About half of all gold extracted from a newly opened mine was supposed to go
to the Mutapa ruler, but the Portuguese sources describe rampant disregard of this
decree.69 After an initial period of taxation, a mine could then be worked without further
tax due. Some of the Mutapa’s subjects worked for seven of every twenty three days in
royal fields to provide a surplus of grain for the ruler’s use. Beach points out that it is
still not clear how this agricultural system functioned in outlying areas and smaller
territories, but this crop surplus certainly helped in times of drought.70 All kings as far
away as Sofala were said to have obeyed the Mutapa, “the greatest king of kings” in the
early sixteenth century.71 Widespread overrule by the Mutapa state did not last long, for l
in the seventeenth century the state was fractured by civil wars and outside aggression
from both the Portuguese and the Maravi north of the Zambezi.72

Earlier wars also disrupted trading relationships, and around 1570 the Portuguese
entered into a favored relationship with the Mutapa state, allowing a Portuguese trader to
assume the title of capitdo-rnor, or captain of the gates, to oversee all trade with the

Mutapa state from the feira (market) of Masapa.73 The capitdo-mor collected one cloth

 

Prepared for Presentation to the Tenth Pan African Archaeological Congress, Harare, (June 1995), 16.
Thus the origins of the Mutapa dynasty most likely stem from Great Zimbabwe.

‘8 Beach, Neighbours, 102.

’9 “Relacao (Copia) Feita pelo Padre Francisco de Monclaro, da Companhia de Jesus, da Expedicao ao
Monomotapa, Comandada por Francisco Barreto” (post 1573), DPMA C, VIII, 390.

7° Beach, Neighbours, 103. Drought was a reoccurring problem in this region.

7' “Apontamentos de Gaspar Veloso” (1512) DPMA C, Vol. 111, 183.

72 “Extractos da Decada Composta por Antonio Bocarro” (1569) Theal, RSEA, III, 361 .

73 Jofio dos Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” (1609) in Theal, RSEA, V11, 270-273; Axelson, 175; Mudenge, A
Political History, 90; Newitt, A History of Mozambique, 218; Beach, Neighbours, 108.

78

out of every 20 pieces for the Mutapa ruler.74 At times, however, Mutapa rulers deemed
it necessary to declare war in order to maintain control over trade or another chiefdom.
Mutapa rulers relied on their ‘potential’ standing army, which was a reserve system 1
consisting of peasants who were called up to fight for the ruler.75
When the Mutapa state was at war with other kings, such as during a conflict in

l 512 with a king named “Ynhoqua,” the Portuguese used both political persuasion and
Inilitary force to secure a firm hold on trade in the region.76 In the mid-seventeenth
century, Francisco Barreto’s envoy offered to help the Mutapa ruler fight his enemy,
chief Mongasi from north of the Zambezi river, in exchange for permission to survey the
gold mines controlled by the Mutapa state.77 The Mutapa rulers tended to comply with
Portuguese requests, for they wanted to control and appease the Portuguese trading
community rather than expel foreigners and risk losing a steady supply of trade goods.78
Over time the Mutapa rulers were forced to compromise with the demanding Portuguese,
and they lost economic power by granting the Portuguese concessions to goldfields in
Order to maintain some semblance of political control over the Portuguese.79 Mutapa
rulers relied on trade to ensure political power, and they found themselves in uncertain
Situations. At the end of the seventeenth century “the great era of state formation” in the
Shona region ended.80 Even though the last renowned Shona state, Rozvi (Rozwi), was

ruled by Changamire as a large military power from its base on the southern part of the

:4 Eric Axelson, Portuguese in South-East Africa, 1488-1600 (Johannesburg, 1973), 175.
75 Mudenge, A Political History, 20,90.
7: “Apontamentos de Gaspar Veloso” (1512) DPMAC, Vol. III, 185.
78 “Abstract of Documents,” Theal, RSEA, V111, 374.
This is discussed further in Beach, The Shona and their Neighbours, 109.
79 In 1607, the Mutapa leader Gatsi Rusere formally granted all of the mines to the leader of the Portuguese
traders, Diogo Simoes Madeira, in return for his military assistance. Newitt, A History of Mozambique, 83.
8° Beach, The Shana and their Neighbours, l 1 l.

79

Zimbabwe plateau, both it and the Mutapa state declined in the eighteenth century after
succumbing to internal problems and outside pressures. The gold and ivory resources
that helped to support these great political systems were dwindling during this time as
well.81

The wider Shona region thus came to be characterized by the often unstable
“great society” of paramount chiefs as well as the more durable “little society” of smaller
villages.82 The era of great state formation among the Shona ended with the Changamire {:
state of the Rozvi in the west.83 At the end of the seventeenth century, mwoyo totem clans i;
from the Rozvi state migrated eastward and occupied the Ndau area in the western ‘
reaches of the Sofala hinterland. In 1698, Portuguese residents described this movement
as an ‘invasion’ by the ‘rebel’ Changamira, ruler of Abutua, who attacked in 1684 and
again in 1694.84 These comments reflect both the state building efforts of the Rozvi and
the determination of the Butua rulers to keep the Portuguese out of the interior.85 By the
early eighteenth century, this Rozvi confederation asserted some control over both the
Ndau in the Save valley as well as parts of the Mutapa state centered on the northern edge
of the plateau.36 A summary of African power and leadership from 1758 by one
Portuguese official, Ignacio Caetano Xavier, describes the earlier Rozvi invasion led by

the leader Changamira:

8 ' Ibid., 110.112. The Shona worked out the upper gold reefs in the north and exhausted the southwestern
goldfields.
a: This argument, made by David Beach, is developed in his extensive work on the Shona.

The Duma subsequently established a confederacy to the west of the Save. See Richard M. G. Mtetwa,
“The ‘Political’ and Economic History of the Duma People of South-Eastem Rhodesia.”

Manoel Rebello, “Proposal Submitted by the Residents of the Rios de Cuama to the Viceroy” (1698) in
Beach and de Noronha, “The Shona and the Portuguese, 1575-1800,” vol. I.
85 Newitt, A History of Mozambique, 201.
3° A. Rita-Ferreira, Povos de Macambique: Historia e Cultura (Porto, 1975), 120-126.

80

At the time when Francisco Barreto and other captains tried to conquer the great

Empire of the Senna Rivers, the Manamotapa [Mutapa] was obeyed by all the

tenants and the land of Butua that now belongs to the Changamira was his, but

one of his shepherds ripped it away from his empire and proclaimed himself its

owner, taking the name of Changamira and gradually increased his power in the

native style to the point it has reached now; all the Régulos [rulers]used to unite

forces to fight as if for a common cause.87
The actions of the ‘rebel’ Changamire were similar to other attempts (some less
successful) by the Ndau and their Shona neighbors to declare independence from the
Mutapa. The Ndau were on the fringes of the ‘empire’ and less likely to unite “for a
common cause” under the Mutapa as Xavier noted above. On the other hand, the
Mutapa’s power probably did not even reach the eastern region inhabited by the Ndau.
From other documents we know more about the smaller polities of Quiteve, Manica and
Barwe since the Portuguese maintained a stronger position in the eastern region and
remained on fairly good terms with these leaders, or régulos.88

The early documentary evidence for this region pertains much more to trade than

state formation. However, since trade went hand in hand with politics, evidence about
trade also pertains to politics. For example, Africans who paid tribute to the Mutapa
‘ identified’ on one level with the state ‘above’ them. But at the local level, people were
loyal to their village chief and paid tribute to this leader. On an even lower level, the
individual economies of some families were independent of and parallel to that of a chief,

as Richard Mtetwa demonstrated in his work on the Duma.89 Even when rulers such as

the Rozvi kings demanded regular payments from subjects, there is evidence from the

V

87 Xavier in Andrade, Rezacoes de Mocarnbique Setecentista, 185. English translation from Beach and de
j(\Ioronha, “The Shona and the Portuguese, 1575-1800,” Vol. II, 58.
83 Xavier in Andrade, Relacées de Mocarnbique Setecentista, 186.

R Mtetwa, “The ‘Political’ and Economic History of the Duma,” 271.

81

southern plateau that chiefdoms of the interior traded independently with the coast.90
Further to the north, villagers and chiefs who recognized overrule by the Mutapa dynasty
also resisted this domination at times. For instance, people found ways to circumvent tax
and tribute and benefit more from their own labor. They hid gold, failed to report new
discoveries of mines, offered less grain to chiefs or never surrendered elephant tusks to
their rulers.9|

When the Portuguese settled at Sofala in the early sixteenth century, their main 1'
goal was to exploit the famed gold of the Mutapa state. Early Portuguese observers
estimated that the Swahili were making a profit “of one hundred to one” in the exchange
of cloth for gold at Sofala.92 The Portuguese originally planned to disrupt the Swahili
trade out of Angoche to the north and take control of the trade routes from the plateau to
Sofala.93 However, the “monopolistic tendencies of the coastal rulers” led to a decline in '
the trade which passed through Sofala and a shifi to activity further north along the
Zambezi river at Sena and Tete in the 15308.94 By the middle of the sixteenth century,
the Portuguese decided to move into the hinterland of Sofala and gain control of the
source of all gold and ivory.” Gold exports were very important in the early sixteenth
century, with 5,737.5 kilograms exported in 1506.96 Yet the actual amount of gold

extracted never fulfilled the expectations of the Portuguese, who continued to h0pe that

2"” Ibid., 271-272.
' Ibid., 271; “Relacao (Cbpia) Feito Pelo Padre Francisco de Monclaro da Companhia de Jesus, da
Expedicao ao Monomotapa, Comandada por Francisco Barreto” (Post 1573), DPMA C, V111, 390.
2 Of course, this was not in terms of local values. “Descricao da Situacao, Costumes e Produtos de Alguns
Logares de Africa” (c. 1518), DPMAC, v, 357.
“Apontamentos de Gaspar Veloso, Escrivao de Mocambique, Enviados a El-Rei” (1512) DPMA C, III,
1 87.
9" Pikirayi, The Archaeological Identity of the Mutapa State, 109; Elkiss, The Quest for an African
Eldorado, Chapter 4.
Axelson, Portuguese in South-East A frica, 1488-1600.

82

good political relations with the Mutapa state would improve their own economic
situation.

For the first two hundred years of Shona-Portuguese contact, the Mutapa state
was the largest polity within 1,000 kilometers of the coast south of the equator.97
Absolute power was never in the hands of the Portuguese, but they were able to exert
political, economic and religious influence over the Mutapa state. Some Shona rulers
converted to Christianity and Portuguese interference in Mutapa politics led to violence
and unrest in the region.98 For example, a new Mutapa king accepted nominal overrule
by the Portuguese in a treaty signed in 1629 after a period of warfare and aggressive
activities by Dominican missionaries in the region.99 The Portuguese began to view the
Mutapa king as a client alter the signing of this treaty.'°° By the middle of the
seventeenth century, civil wars within the Mutapa state had weakened the Mutapa’s
political, economic and military strength.101

A popular Shona tradition about the history of the grand Mutapa state appears

often in the literature, including the eighteenth-century report of Reis e Gama.102 This

9‘ Mudenge, A Political History, 382-383.
9’ Beach, The Shona and their Neighbors, 68-70. Viewing the Mutapa state as an obstacle, the Portuguese
drew up plans to conquer it in 1569 after the murder of the missionary Dom Goncalo da Silveira at the
Nutapa’s court provided Lisbon with an excuse. F ranciso Barreto led the expedition up the Zambezi in

l 571 to demand that the Mutapa “receive and protect Christian missionaries, expel the Moors, cease
tyrannical conduct towards his subjects, carry on commerce in a friendly manner, and make sufficient
compensation for all damage done and expenses incurred; and upon failing to do so war might justly be
tnade on him.” But the expedition was a tragic failure for the Portuguese. “Determinacao dos Letrados:
Com q. Condicoens se Podia Fazer Guerra aos Reys da Conquists de Portugal, Fala em Especial do
Monomotapa” (1569), Theal, RSEA, 111, 150-156.
98 Pikirayi, The Archaeological Identity of the Mutapa State, 1 16.
99 “Treslado das Capitulacées que Fizeram os Portuguezes com El Rey de Monomotapa” (1629), Theal,
IQSEA, V, 287-93; Newitt, A History of Mozambique, 89-90.

: 0° Newitt, A History of Mozambique, 88-90.

a 3; Beach, The Shana and Zimbabwe, Chapter 4.

Carlos José dos Reis e Gama, Reposta das Questoens sobre os Cafi-es (l 796), Introduction and notes by

Ger-hard Liesegang (Lisboa, 1966).

83

account, probably part myth and part reality, ‘explains’ the founding of three tributary
states that were offshoots of the Mutapa kingdom. The tradition states that three princes,
sons of the Mutapa king, were given distant lands that became the smaller states of
Manica, Quiteve and Madanda. A fourth son was the designated heir to the Mutapa’s
central lands on the northern Zimbabwe plateau. According to tradition, after the death
of their father these three princes declared their independence from the new king of the
Mutapa state, who was their brother, and forged their own smaller political identities in
their territorires. Other chiefs followed suit so that, according to Reis e Gama, there were
one hundred chiefs wielding power in the hinterland of Sofala by the end of the
eighteenth century. These chiefs did not “recognize the superiority of one over the other,”
a situation that remains fairly similar to this day, where many local chiefs claim

autonomous rule over relatively small territories.103

The Eastern Territories

The eastern territories of Manica, Barwe, Teve, Danda, Sanga and Dondo
developed political and economic relationships with the Mutapa state, but they also
benefited from other long-distance trade between the coast and the goldfields in the
Southwestern interior. In the sixteenth century the powerful state of Torwa controlled
these sources of gold as a close successor to Great Zimbabwe before Changamire’s Rozvi
Conquered the Torwa rulers in 1680s. Danda, for example, probably acted as a mediator

in the trade between Torwa (and later Rozvi) on the southern plateau and Muslim

x

'“mmgo
84

communities remaining in coastal areas such as Buweni and Chiluane.“ Further north,
the Mutapa state continued its attempts to monopolize trade routes, but at times some of
the smaller territories may have charged a tax of up to fifteen per cent on trade goods.'05
The Portuguese also attempted to exert continuous control over the feiras of the Mutapa
state and its tributaries, but the eastern territories supported themselves by relying on a
tax on the trade originating in the Torwa state.“ Powerful states in the interior either
escaped the grasp of the Portuguese or negotiated colaborative agreements that helped to
support the economies of the Ndau and their neighbors in the east.

According to tradition, Manica was one of the original three offshoots of the
Mutapa kingdom that were established by sons of the Mutapa king. The hereditary title
of Manica’s ruler was Chicanga until 1822 when the name changed to Mutasa.”7 The
title Mutasa remains in use to this day. By about 1512 documentary evidence reveals that
the territories of Barwe and Manica were already formed. Oral traditions collected by
Allen Isaacman claim that the Barwe people broke away from the Mutapa between the
end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century to migrate from
Chedima in Tavara across the Mazoe rive to Missongue further southeast.108 Beach notes

that documentary and oral evidence suggests that Mureche, the daughter of Mutapa

Matope Nebedza, may have founded Barwe with her husband, who was possibly a son of

I 0’ Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation”, 168. Chiluane was also an important trading center for the
Portuguese.
' 05 Beach, The Shana and their Neighbours, 104.

0° Newitt argues that Portuguese commercial infiltration led to a shift in the region’s balance of power as
African chiefs became involved in and dependent upon commercial activities. A History of Mozambique,
97.
‘07 Gerhard Liesegang, in Gama, Reposta das Questoens sobre os Cafres, n. 39 and Gama, 20.
"’8 Isaacman, “Madzi-Manga,” 396.

85

Teve’s ruler.'°9 Even though the details of Barwe’s origins are not clear, the Makombe

110

dynasty of Barwe stemmed from the Mutapa state. This Shona-speaking dynasty also
incorporated some Sena-speaking lower Zambezi Tonga groups that lived in the Barwe
region.'”

Isaacman has described Barwe as “the most important offshoot” of the Mutapa

state.”2

Barwe controlled the trade route from Manica to Sena which ran through its
territory, but Manica’s importance should not be overlooked. Although much gold was
exported from Manica, the presence and power of the Barwe state discouraged the

”3 Manoel

Portuguese from leaving Sena to attempt to take over either Barwe or Manica.
Barretto described the Portuguese relationship with Barwe in 1667 as “a good
understanding,” but he thought that “it would be better if they lived in good

subjection.”“4 Portuguese merchants traded at the feira of Manica and the feira at

”5 There is no evidence of gold mining in Barwe,

Arangua in Barwe on the Pungwe river.
but alluvial gold was found in the rivers of Macossa and Gorongoza.”6 While Barwe
imported “a great amount of gold” from other areas, it did have ivory, cattle, iron and the

revenue from taxes on the transport of Manica’s gold.”7

 

“’9 Beach, the Shana and Zimbabwe, 158 and 164.
110 -
Ibid.
"‘ Ibid.
“2 Isaacman, “Madzi-Manga,” 395.
"3 Ibid.
114 Manoel Barretto, “Report upon the State and Conquest of the Rivers of Cuama” (1667) Theal, RSEA,
III, 488.
"5 Bannerman, “Notes and Questions,” 8.
“6 Ibid.
"7 “Apontamentos de Gaspar Veloso” (1512), DPMA C, III, 183; Manoel Barretto, “Report upon the State
and Conquest of the Rivers of Cuama” (1667), Theal, RSEA, vol. III, 488.

86

Portuguese documents from the early sixteenth century describe Manica as a land
with much gold, and in 1667 one writer simply called it “one continuous gold mine.””8
Gold was extracted throughout the year, and this led the Portuguese to maintain a
continued presence in Manica.”9 Manica had a standing army which was occasionally
used outside of its territory.120 In the mid-seventeenth century, Portuguese traders were
settled in Manica at Chupangura and Matuca.'2‘ Fearing Portuguese encroachment afier a
rumor of a discovery of silver in the Chikova area, the Mutapa sought an alliance with the
ruler of Manyika in 1673.'22 This appeal was described by the Captain of Manica as
“unexpected” since the leaders of Manyika “have not supported the Emperor for a long
time.”123 This alliance between the ‘Karanga’ of the northern plateau and the Manyika to
the east signaled a change in relations with the Portuguese, but the Portuguese
involvement in trade was not impeded until the end of the century. In 1695, the
Changamire state drove the Portuguese from their feira at Manica, but Portuguese traders
returned in 1719 and remained there until the 1830s.”"

Manica’s neighbors also traded in gold. For instance, at a four-day distance from
Manica the territory of Amcoce had large nuggets and finger-length bars of gold.” In

Amcoce the ruler received half of all the gold from his mines and relied on external trade,

just as Gaspar Veloso noted, “he who mines it pays the king one half, and all their

. '8 Manoel Barretto, “Report upon the State and Conquest of the Rivers of Cuama” (1667), Theal, RSEA,
Vol. 111,486; See also “Apontamentos de Gaspar Veloso”(1512),DPMAC,III,183.
I 9Manoe1Barretto, “Report upon the State and Conquest of the Rivers of Cuama” (1667) Theal, RSEA,
11,489.
. 2° “Autos do Inquérito Mandado Fazer pelo Govemador Francisco Barreto” (post 1573) DPMAC, VIII,
235, 241, 245. This description claims that the ruler of Manica had an army of 3, 000-5, 000 men.
[hi (1.
I 2 Beach, The Shona and Zimbabwe, 133 134
' 24 Ibid., 134. The emperor is the Mutapa ruler.
Beach, The Shana and their Neighbors, 119

87

supplies come from abroad.”126 In Mazofe, the king’s tax on gold was also half of all that
was mined, for this appears to be the common tax on gold.127 Butua was another territory
beyond Manica known for its rich gold deposits.’28 Yet we know much more about

Manica since the Portuguese traders were based there.

In addition to Manica, much of the rest of our information about the eastern states
centers around Teve, thanks to the writings of 1050 dos Santos. Teve was quite a
powerful state even before dos Santos wrote his lengthy account, Ethiopia Oriental, at

the end of the sixteenth century.129 Dos Santos recorded that Teve and other lands in the

east were “all free and independent, and some of them make war with Monomotapa.”I30

In 1512, Gaspar Veloso described the king of “Ynhacouce” as the capitdo-mor of the

IMutapa.131 Noting the precariousness of the documents, Gerhard Liesegang and David

132

Beach suggest that Ynhacouce was a part of Teve known as High Teve. Given these

major commercial connections, Andrew Mtetwa argues in his study of Teve that the state

developed “intimate and profound” relations with the rest of the Shona region during its

early history.133

By about 1550 Teve ceased to have political relations with the Mutapa state, and

Mtetwa points out that Teve, despite Portuguese influence, maintained a separate identity

:: “Apontamentos de Gaspar Veloso” (1512), DPMA C, 111, 183.
Ibid.
:23 Ibid.
Manoel Barretto, “Report upon the State and Conquest of the Rivers of Cuama” (1667) Theal, RSEA,
113,487.
I 30 Ibid. . .

Joio dos Santos, “Eth1opia Oriental” (1609) Theal, RSEA, VII, 287. “Monomotapa” 15 one of many
\gersions of Mutapa.

I 3; “Apontamentos de Gaspar Veloso” (1512), DPMA C, 111, 183.

Gerhard Liesegang, “Sofala, Beira e a sua Zona.” Arquivo. 6, (October 1989), 24-25; Beach, The Shana
and Zimbabwe, 168. The location of High Teve (Alto Teve), a ten-day journey from Sofala, was near the
$§§y of Chimoio today. Bannerman, “Notes and Questions,” 13.

’ Andrew Mtetwa, “A History of Uteve,” v.

88

until the nineteenth century. After the Portuguese attacked Teve in 1575, Teve leaders
appear to have maintained a fairly good relationship with them. The 1575 Portuguese
military expedition led by Vasco Femandes Homem resulted in a peace treaty that
required the Portuguese captain of Sofala to make an annual curva of 200 pieces of cloth
to the ruler of Teve each year.”" This curva ensured the safe passage of Portuguese
merchants travelling through Teve. The rulers of Teve demanded both taxes and gifts
from all foreign traders. Teve had fairs on Mondays where traders sold their
merchandise. Many Afiicans brought goods to trade, and the only currency was “gold by
weight?”35 Manoel Barretto, writing in 1667, commented on the absence of gold in Teve,
but he observed that Teve was rich in ivory.136 A later document notes the presence of
gold in Teve, and Beach says that the area of Teve between the B1121 and Pungwe rivers
contained small goldfields.137 Barretto advised against invading Teve, calling the
enterprise “more difficult and less lucrative” than the proposed conquest of Manica,
Barwe or Butua.138 The Portuguese traders relied on the ruler of Teve to ensure peace in
the region and protect markets and trade routes fi'om outside attacks. The ruler of Teve
was known as Sachiteve, yet Reis e Gama’s eighteenth-century report claims that the

name of the king of Quiteve is not hereditary.I39 Dos Santos noted that the ruler had a

134 “Capitulos XX a XXV da Década IX da Asia de Diogo do Couto” (post 1573), DPMAC, VIII, 319;
J oao dos Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” (1609), Theal RSEA, V11, 220. For a detailed description of the
Portuguese 1n early Teve, see Andrew Mtetwa,‘ ‘A History of Uteve, ” chp. 4.
'35 ““Apontamentos de Gaspar Veloso”(1512),DPMAC,III,183.
36Manoel Barretto, “Report upon the State and Conquest of the Rivers of Cuama” (1667) Theal, RSEA,
III, 487, 489; Bannerman notes that part of Teve near the serra Xiluva was a gold bearing region with
evidence of gold mining and washing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bannerman, “Notes and
Questions,” 13.
7Ferao, “Account of the Portuguese Possessions within the Captaincy of Rios de Sena” (1810?) Theal,
{QSEA v11, 378 379, Beach, The Shona and Zimbabwe 169.
8Manoel Barretto, “Report upon the State and Conquest of the Rivers of Cuama” (1667) Theal, RSEA,
I11,4924193.
Gama, Reposta das Questoens sobre os Cafres, 20

89

regular force of about two to three hundred armed men. "’0 At the end of the seventeenth
century when Teve came under the control of a prazo, the Portuguese traders were forced
to abandon their lucrative business at the feira.”l

As Bannerman has noted, further archaeological excavations and accurate dating

for the construction and occupation of Teve’s stone sites would place historians in a

142

better position to piece together the existing evidence on Teve. These sites are closely

”3 Bannerman

related to Great Zimbabwe, and they may be offshoots of that earlier state.
suggests that migrants from Great Zimbabwe may have founded the “proto Teve
State.”‘“ Teve and other territories along the trade routes following the Buzi and Revue
rivers may have broken away from Great Zimbabwe when it was still powerful, or these
smaller states may have originated afier the decline of Great Zimbabwe. Beach argues
that the mazimbabwe of Teve and Barwe were probably “established a little later than the
main period of zimbabwe construction?”5 Drawing from dos Santos’s evidence on Teve
in the late sixteenth century, Bannerman suggests that there may have been a ‘Karanga’
migration into Teve from the Mutapa state at a later date.““5 Hopefiilly, further

archaeological research will offer some clues about the links between Great Zimbabwe

and eastern Shona states such as Teve.

:20 Joao dos Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” (1609) Theal, RSEA, VII, 201.
M; Bhila, Trade and Politics, 75.
143 Bannerman, “Notes and Questions,” 16.

H. A. Wieschhofi', The Zimbabwe-Monomotapa Culture in Southeast Africa (Menasha, WI, 1941);
Octévio Roza de Oliveira, “Amuralhados da Cultura Zimbaue-Monomotapa de Manica e Sofala.”
Monumenta: Boletim da Commissao dos Monumentos Nacionais de Mocarnbique. (Lourenco Marques,
l1 963); and Bannerman, “Notes and Questions.”

I 45 Bannerman, “Notes and Questions,” 16.
I 46 Beach, The Shana and their Neighbors, 99.
Bannerman, “Notes and Questions,” 16; Dos Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” in Theal, RSEA, V11.

90

Nyamunda was an early sixteenth-century ruler who controlled the southern
portion of Teve’s territory between the B1121 and Save rivers at the time of the Portuguese
arrival in the region.‘47 After Nyamunda succeeded his father to become the king of
Teve, he installed his son (the first Sedanda) to rule over the southern area. This region
became known as Danda (or Madanda). In the early sixteenth century Nyamunda
capitalized on his gold mines and trading relations with some of the Portuguese to break
away from the influence of the Mutapa state, according to the Portuguese recor
Nyamunda began to fi'ustrate the Portuguese at Sofala in 1516 by blocking trade routes to
the coast.'49 In 1518, D. Antonio da Silveira described the drastic change in the
relationship with Nyamunda:

Whilst he could and it seemed to him that we might be of some use, he was a
good neighbour and allowed a lot of gold to come to the factory; now that he has
no need and knows what, in truth, the captain of Sofala can do, he bursts with

laughter at the thought of him and blocks all the routes and then writes to the
captain to send ambassadors to him, accepts the gift they take him, detains them

with words every three years and finally kills him [sic].'50

Clearly, Nyamunda held the upper hand at this point in Danda’s trading relations with the
Portuguese. His actions forced the Portuguese at Sofala to seek out an alternate route
through Teve to reach the gold of the Mutapa state?“ Nyamunda was able to manipulate

the balance of power in the region successfully and thwart the control of the Mutapa state

further inland.

\

: :7 Bannerman, “Notes and Questions,” 16; Dos Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” in Theal, RSEA, V11.
, 8 9“Traslado da Carta de D. Antbnio da Silveira para El-Rei” (post 1518) DPMAC v, 569.
291b1d.,567-569; “Carta de 1050 Vaz de Almada, Capitao de Sofala, para El- Rei” (1516) DPMAC, 1V,
9 l.
a
, :° “Traslado da Carta de 1). Antbnio da Silveira para El-Rei” (post 1518) DPMAC v, 569
Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism, ” 67.

91

Unfortunately, for eastern territories such as Danda this balance proved to be
tenuous. Wars with the Mutapa must have exhausted their resources and reduced their
revenue from trade.152 Salt was traded with Manica, but the economic power of these
smaller states was often eclipsed by changing political relationships among Shona-
speaking rulers and the grth of the Portuguese prazos in the seventeenth century.153 As
Danda declined in the eighteenth century, chiefs were reported to be in open warfare by
I 822.’54 Despite this political fragmentation, the ruling dynasties of the eastern territories
proved to be quite enduring. For example, Danda’s ruling dynasty, an apparent offshoot
of the Teve dynasty, can be traced back to at least the beginning of the sixteenth
century.” Even the term ‘Danda’ has survived as an ethnic classification. J. K. Rennie
notes that it was “originally used in clear distinction to Ndau, which referred to people of
the highlands.”'“ Thus, despite political changes, people continued to maintain ethnic
boundaries through the use of labels such as ‘Danda’ in contradistinction to the term
‘Ndau’.

Other political units in the southeastern region, although much smaller than
Nanica, Teve or Danda, played an important role in the development of an ‘Ndau’
identity. The Portuguese were not interested in this region since it lacked gold mines,
and unfortunately, most documents do not tell us much about these smaller dynasties.
Often, it is difficult to match. a name mentioned in the documents with any particular

area. References refer to rulers of smaller political units, but scholars only know some

I 52 Ibid.; “Carta de Joao Vaz de Almada, Capitao de Sofala, para El-Rei” (1516) DPMA C, IV, 291.

I
I :: Bhila, Trade and Politics, 2.
a s Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 168.

Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 66-67; Beach, The Shona and

Zimbabwe, 163,169.

92

scattered details about territories such as Sanga and its Mutema dynasty or the
Musikavanhu territory of Dondo.157 One of the best accounts is attributed to the captain
of Sena, Senhor F erao, in the early nineteenth century.‘58 Rennie’s work on the
Nyakuimba-Musikavanhu dynasty shows that traditions link this dynasty with the area of
Great Zimbabwe.”9 Earlier fieldwork by Rennie in the Zimbabwe highlands and recent
research fi'om David Hughes on both sides of the border (in Vhimba and Gogoi) makes it
possible to compare archival evidence with local histories from these areas.

Sanga’s Mutema chieftaincy was founded probably in the mid to late seventeenth
century, according to the Mutema genealogy studied by Rennie.”0 Sanga was a client
state of Changamire, but Mutema clashed with Changamire and consolidated his power
to create the independent state of Sanga.“51 Under the ruler Mutema, Sanga gained its
independence by the early eighteenth century.I62 In areas under Mutema’s control, terms

“such as ‘Sanga’ or ‘Rove’ (Rozvi) were either suppressed or fell into disuse.”'63

Mutema’s state “allied itself more closely with the Musikavanhu territorial cult-

chiefiaincy,” according to Rennie.”4 The court was at Ngaone (Gaonhé), which was in

 

'56 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation”, 168; My field experiences revealed that some people in the
highlands of Zimbabwe refer to all Ndau-speakers 1n Mocambique as “Danda. ”
"7 Beach, The Shona and Zimbabwe 161.
'58 This document was probably written by Joao Julifio da Silva, according to Gerhard Liesegang. Noted in
Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 116, n. 29; ‘Senhor’ Ferao, “Account
of the Portuguese Possessions within the Captaincy of Rios dc Sena” (1810) Theal, RSEA, V11, 371-383.
59 J. K. Rennie, “From Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chiefiaincy: Four Transformations of the Musikavanhu
Territorial Cult 1n Rhodesia,” in Guardians of the Land, ed. J. M. Schoffeleers (Gweru, 1978).
60Evidence for Sanga’ s Mutema dynasty does not go back farther than the late seventeenth century,
according to J. Keith Rennie. See “From Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chieftancy,” 264 and “Christianity,
Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism”; ‘Senhor’ F erao, “Account of the Portuguese Possessions
Eithin the Captaincy of Rios de Sena” ( 1810) Theal, RSEA VII, 374, 377-378.
'6; Rennie,“me Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chieflancy,” 258.
Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 168; F erao “Account of the Portuguese Possessions within
the Captaincy of Rios de Sena”(1810)TheaI,RSEA, VII, 378.
63 “Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation, ” 169.
“Rennie, “F rom Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chieftancy,” 266.

93

the highlands east of the Save and a journey of fifteen days from Sofala.I65 Copper mines
were located in the southern portion of Sanga near the border with Dondo, but
unfortunately, the details of trading relations are quite sketchy.“ Beach speculates that
Sanga was the richest of the lands ruled by the moyo chiefly lineage in the southeast

167 More importantly, Rennie argues that Sanga became l.

because of these copper mines.
the basis for an Ndau ethnic identity.”8 Extensive trade links existed in the eighteenth
century when traders fi'om Sanga brought gold to Inhambane from a goldbearing region
farther afield than Sanga. "’9 While wider economic links may have been a reality,
missionaries were involved in the artificial shifting of ethnic identities in the late
nineteenth century. In the case of Sanga, missionaries eager to classify their audience as i
one linguistic and cultural group applied the term ‘Ndau’ to a larger group--all southern

Shona-speakers living east of the Save river.‘70

This assigned identity remains as an
ethnic legacy today.
At the mouth of the Save, Shanga (or Mashanga, Machanga) was the last polity

formed in the eastern Shona region in the early nineteenth century.”‘

Machanga, like
Danda, may have been part of Quiteve, but by the end of the eighteenth century it was

already independent.‘72 With its low-lying location, Machanga had a distinct ‘coastal’

 

'65 Ferao, “Account of the Portuguese Possessions within the Captaincy of Rios de Sena”(1810)Theal,
RSEA, VII, 378. This journey was by F erao’s standards in 1810. Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,”
168.

'66 Beach, The Shana and Zimbabwe, 17].

"’7 Ibid.

"’8 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 168-169.

'69 Ibid. Sanga is not a goldbearing region.

170 Ibid. For more on how missionary linguistic politics ‘f1xed’ the ethnolinguistic map in the Shona-
speaking region, see Herbert Chimhundu, “Early Missionaries and the Ethnolinguistic Factor During the
‘Invention of Tribalism’ in Zimbabwe,” Journal of African History, 33 (1992): 87-109.

171 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 169.

172 Liesegang in Gama, Reposta das Questoens sobre os Cafres, 34, n. 43

94

identity that set it apart from the Sanga highlands. Portuguese and Swahili traders used
Mambone at the mouth of the Save river, as well as Chibuene and Chiluane to the north
as a trading settlements. In addition to the emergence of Machanga, Beach refers to the
“shadowy beginnings” of other smaller polities known as Budya, Maungwe, Buhera and
Dondo.I73 Unfortunately, there is scant historical information from these inland polities.
By drawing on more solid evidence of Sanga, Rennie relates changes in ideology
'to the economic and political structures of precolonial societies in the Ndau region. He
explores how ideology is shaped not only by changing economies and politics, but also
“from an internal dynamic at the level of ideology itself.””4 Ideology is viewed as
having three dimensions: identities, cosmology and values. His most interesting and
detailed discussions focus on identities. Although ruling groups are obvious agents of
ideological construction and reconstruction, oppressed groups also form their own

ideologies.’ 7’

Yet ideology usually helps to legitimate the position of those in power.
Rennie notes that outside observers, the main sources in the documents for the time
period, often cite evidence about what they were told rather than what they observed.
Thus, we learn more about ideology than practice through these ‘prepared’ answers to
inquiries.176

Rennie also argues that the creation of secondary states in the Sofala hinterland

and the hostilities between these new states and the Portuguese led to “the loss of an

overall ‘Karanga’ identity and the emergence of new political identities derived from

 

173 Beach, The Shona and their Neighbors, 111.

174 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 162-63.
”’1bid., 164.

”6 Ibid.

95

individual states.”'77 Although he does not explain how different or separate these
sixteenth and seventeenth-century political identities were fi'om an earlier ‘Karanga’
identity, he claims that new ethnic identities were formed. Even though Rennie may give
too much credit to the Portuguese for stimulating rivalries which led to the formation of
these secondary states, his arguments about political and communal ideologies are
intriguing. I argue, however, that the presence of an often hostile ‘outsider’ tended to

reinforce a shared identity that came to be defined as “Ndau”.

Assessing a History of Trade and Politics

After 1700, large state-building in the Shona-speaking region ceased as gold and l
ivory resources dwindled.178 Despite exhausted goldfields in the south-west and a
reduced elephant population, trade continued between the interior and the coast into the
nineteenth century.'79 In the eighteenth century, the Portuguese shifted their attention to I
mining copper and other less precious metals to substitute for shrinking gold resources.180
The Mutapa, Torwa and Changamire states all lasted into the eighteenth century, but no 1
new Shona states were formed. As the era of intense trade and state formation ended,
Shona dynasties managed to hold onto their political power. Although this political
strength was often on a much smaller scale, many dynasties lasted for centmies.

The Shona were more divided after 1700, whereas during the previous two

centuries there were several strong states and numerous united territories throughout the

 

"7 Ibid., 167.
"8 Beach, The Shana and their Neighbours, 1 1 1-112.
"9 Ibid., 103.
“° Ibid., 1 14.

96

Shona-speaking region)“ Both the Mutapa state and the eastern territories of Barwe,
Manica, Teve and Danda successfully controlled trade through their lands and collected
both a tax on trade goods and a curva from outside merchants. The Ndau and their
neighbors depended on the international trade in gold and ivory to secure imported cloth
and beads. At times, coastal rulers demanded too much in taxes or gifis, and this led to a

‘82 Rulers also disrupted commerce when they

stifling of the established trading system.
were at war. For example, when Teve and Manyika were hostile to each other in the
1570s, the ruler of Teve did not allow the Portuguese to pass through Teve territory to

'33 The Portuguese faced problems such as this since

reach the gold mines of Manyika.
they were unable to exert absolute political or economic control over the entire Shona
region. Even though the Portuguese conquered Teve in 1575, they agreed to pay a curva
to the ruler of Teve to maintain an open trade route.‘84 With all of these interruptions in
trade, outside merchants turned to alternate routes while the Mutapa state attempted

I85

either to intervene with force or to negotiate agreements. The Mutapa leaders probably
sent armies to newly formed Shona territories to collect tribute in the sixteenth century,
but the documents show that the Mutapa state did not exert any regular rule over the

east.186 From its location in the northwest, the Mutapa state always faced the problem of

distance and never monopolized trade or politics in the eastern region.

 

'8' Ibid., chapter 4.

'82 Beach, The Shana and Zimbabwe, 172.

'83 Dos Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” (1609), Theal, RSEA, VII, 217; “Carta (C6pia) de Vasco Femandes
Homem para Luis da Silva” (1576) DPMA C, VIII, 457-458.

"‘4 Dos Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” (1609), Theal, RSEA, vrr, 219-222; “Carta (copia) de Vasco
Femandes Homem para Luis da Silva” (1576) DPMA C, VlIl, 457-458.

'85 Beach, The Shana and Zimbabwe, 172—174.

"‘6 Ibid. 174.

97

Although Shona rulers relied on trade to enhance their political power, their
dependence on this commerce proved to be precarious. It was difficult for leaders to
control the various aspects of trading relationships. The Shona had to secure \
relationships with outsiders and provide a constant supply of commodities for export.
Scholars still want to know more about the mediating relationships which were formed as
a result of trading activities among the Ndau, neighboring Africans and the Portuguese.
How were identity boundaries formed, maintained and crossed during this intense period
of commerce and state building? Further evidence from future archaeological work will
provide us with a clearer understanding of early Shona politics and constructions of
identities. Research which incorporates both archaeological, linguistic and historical
data, following Jan Vansina’s model, as well as more recent evidence of material culture,
will help to fill gaps in historians’ knowledge of the precolonial period'"

In their struggle to control commerce in the Sofala hinterland, both large states
and smaller territories depended on the extensive trading networks developed over
centuries of contact with outsiders. Political solidarity in the cast was fi'agile as rulers
formed alliances to suit their own economic and political needs. These states used
diplomatic maneuvering and military force to guarantee a continued hold over trade.
Both the Mutapa state and the eastern territories vied for control over trade in this manner j

during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Despite the political fragmentation that

occurred after the decline of the Mutapa state, ethnic identities in the southeast drew on a

 

'37 Jan Vansina, “Historians, Are Archeologists Your Siblings?” History in Africa, 22 (1995): 369.408.
Vansina uses this methodology in Paths in the Rainforests: Toward a History of Political Tradition in
Equatorial Africa (Madison, 1990). Colleen Kriger demonstrates how evidence of material culture can be
used to examine changes in social, political, economic and cultural relations over a wide region suffering
from a paucity of other forms of historical evidence. “Iron Working in Nineteenth Century Central Africa,"

98

shared Ndau culture. Economic ties and political alliances helped the Ndau to maintain a
sense of ‘being’ Ndau and maintain links to a wider ‘Karanga’ or ‘Shona’ identity. Yet
as polities changed and those in the east were no longer united under a far-reaching
Mutapa state controlled by a powerful king, cultural identities shifted from ‘Karanga’ to
less inclusive labels such as Ndau, Danda and Teve. These identities still exist today
alongside a resilient “Ndauness” retained over centuries.

Leaders maintained their economic and political power by fostering a sound
economic base and asserting an ideological legitimacy over others. Below the aristocracy
a second tier of territorial chiefs held power, and elders, headrnen and household heads
governed below them. Although rulers increased their economic power base by taxing
traders, they also relied on their role as administrators of justice to strengthen their
economic position.188 For example, in Teve “nobody could see the king of Teve without
bringing clothes or a cow, and if he could not afford that the supplicant brought a sack of
earth to signify his obedience to a territorial ruler, or a bundle of grass for thatching.”'89
In addition to this income a ruler could order a seizure of goods, according to dos Santos,
“to avenge some injury he has received, or pretended to have received, from the
Portuguese . . . this is what they call an empata, and in this way he liberally pays himself

what is due and takes satisfaction for the affront he has received.”190 Dos Santos also

reported that merchants “with their bags of gold” could travel “much more securely than

 

Ph.D. diss. (York University, 1992) and Pride of Men: Ironworking in 19” Century West Central Africa
(Portsmouth, 1999).

'88 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation”, 170.

"9 Ibid., 167; Join dos Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” (1609), Theal, RSEA, vn, 199.

'°° Joan dos Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” (1609), Theal, RSEA, vn, 272.

99

'9' Thus African rulers used the

if they were in Portugal” save for the occasional empata.
proceeds of trade to sustain their power, while also relying on internal production to
increase their economic base.

Below kings and their courts, chiefs in the ‘intermediary aristocracy’ were called
nyamasangos, or rulers of the woodland.‘92 These chiefs came from various origins.
They were members of royal lineages, older leaders recently incorporated into the state,
or recent immigrants invited into the community.193 For example, Rennie examines “a
string of Soko chiefiaincies” along the Buzi river ‘Which suggests a possible early
creation of interlinked political authorities controlling the eastern half of the trade route
between Sofala and the Great Zimbabwe area.”'9" Rennie argues that nyamasangos,
rather than kings, took the ground tusks of elephants killed on their land)”
Nyamasangos received cloth for burials and some collected tribute, announced court
decisions and conveyed messages for their rulers.“ Ideology, according to Rennie, was
“a critical factor” in perpetuating this economic arrangement in which “the aristocracy as
a whole enjoyed considerable control over the accumulation and redistribution of
wealth.“97

Ideology alone did not win followers for a leader. As Rennie points out, leaders

used “elaborate symbolism”, apparent in descriptions from many Portuguese documents,

 

'9' Ibid. Rennie notes that empata comes from the Shona verb kubata — to seize. “Ideology and State
Formation,” 170.

'92 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 169-170.

'93 Ibid., 169. For contrasting attitudes towards immigrants in recent times, see David Hughes, “Frontier
Dynamics Struggles for Land and Clients on the Zimbabwe-Mozambique Border.” Ph.D. diss. (University
of Califronia, Berkeley, 1999).

'94 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 169-170.

“’5 Ibid., 170.

'9‘ Ibid., 170-171.

'97 Ibid., 170.

100

198 Political authority and

to create consensus and support the cohesive nature of states.
social inequality were legitimated both symbolically and historically in a number of
ways. For example, leaders could claim to control aspects of the environment, such as ‘1
rain, or maintain a royal grave cult with annual offerings.I99 Symbolic ties to an external
political authority--the Mutapa state in the Sixteenth century--were maintained through
the annual relighting of local fires from a main fire at the Mutapa ruler’s court. When
Changamire’s Rozvi state further South eclipsed the power of the Mutapa, Rennie’s
research reveals that the “fire ritual was re-enacted from that quarter, and the legitimating
charter was adjusted.”200 Traditional connections were also established between the
Mutapa state and the smaller secondary states, such as the claim that the Mutapa’s sons

20‘ AS the Mutapa state declined, the legitimating

founded Teve, Danda and Sanga.
factors among the regional rulers Shifted to remain ‘valid.’ The following chapters

discuss the formation of identities in the context of changing sociopolitical structures in

the Ndau region.

 

I98 -
lb1d., 171.
'99 Ibid., 171-172; John dos Santos, “Ethiopia Oriental” (1609), Theal, RSEA, vu, 199-200.
20° Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” I72.
20' Ibid., 171-173.

101

CHAPTER FOUR
Ties that Bind:
Social Structures and Cultural Practices

Bridewealth into the family! '
- Midwife 's announcement
after the birth of a girl

Kuwanikwa igwara, vasikana vose vanofamba naro.

e . 7

Marriage is like a path which all girls have to use.‘
-Shona proverb

If you give a hoe you would get yourself a wife.3
- John Kunjenjema

This chapter is the first of three chapters to look at how ‘Ndauness’ was shaped
within Ndau society. Several long-standing, interdependent social structures and cultural
practices bound Ndau communities together over successive generations and across a
vast region. The ties that bind through time and space are the focus of chapter four.
Modes of social and political organization such as households, lineages, clans, villages {
and chiefiaincies were crucial elements of the Ndau socio-cultural milieu. The Ndau
regulated life cycle events such as birth, marriage and death through practices that
reinforced the social order. A hierarchical system ensured, in most cases, that power \
flowed from paramount chiefs to lesser chiefs and their village headrnen. A council of

male elders assisted leaders in making decisions at the village level, and patriarchy was

 

' Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

2 Mordikai A. Hamutyinei and Albert B. Plangger, T sumo-Shumo: Shana Proverbial Lore and Wisdom
(Gweru, 1987), 215.

3 John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

102

reinforced in daily household life where male authority was evident.4 The Ndau
responded to stresses in their social world by relying on the judgement of their leaders
and established “safety nets” designed to deal with problems such as troubled marriages
and food shortages. People turned to their own granaries or the more abundant food]
reserves of chiefs, for instance, in times of drought or locust plaguess Over time the
Ndau consciously initiated changes in their social structures and cultural practices in
response to shifts in the political and‘economic landscape. Although these threats could
have been divisive to Ndau communities, the continuities and adaptations that emerge
from this examination of socio-cultural patterns and practices over the longue durée

reinforced a sense of shared ‘Ndauness’ across the region.

Totems and Clans

Clans and totems were two underlying principles of the Ndau social structure, and
the totemic group is one of the most enduring identity markers with relevance for the
Ndau today. Each person belonged to a clan that claimed descent from a common

ancestor and had its own distinctive totem, mutupo (pl. mitupo). Over time totems have

 

4 This does not mean that women were always “passive actors and victims of patriarchal structures,” as
Carin Vijfbuizen notes in her study of a contemporary Ndau village in the 19905, “‘The People You Live
With’: Gender Identities and Social Practices. Beliefs and Power in the Livelihoods of Ndau Women and
Men in a Village with an Irrigation Scheme in Zimbabwe,” Ph. D. diss. (Wageningen Agricultural
University, Netherlands, 1998), 1. She discusses how “both women and men shape, change and reproduce
rules, beliefs and normative value frames in practice and thereby shape those practices.” She argues that
“both women and men, but especially women emerge as important negotiators, arbitrators and mediators in
social relations.” 14.

5 This assistance was reserved for times of dire need when the granaries of a homestead were empty. A
Shona proverb cautions that the chief’ 3 place is for spending the day, but not the night. (Dzimbabwe
muswero, harina uraro.) Hamutyinei and Plangger, T sumo-Shumo: Shana Proverbial Lore and Wisdom,
306-307.

103

maintained their significance much more than clan groups, given the growth of clan
populations, subdivisions and dispersals. Totems such as Sithole, Dhiliwayo and
Dhlakama serve as family names for the Ndau, and since overrule by the Gaza Nguni in
the nineteenth century, the Ndau now use the Nguni versions of the older Shona
equivalent.6 These Nguni translations adopted by the Ndau have now become very much {
‘Ndau’ and serve to set the Ndau apart from other Shona speakers. In Ndau society
intermarriage was strongly discouraged among people of the same totem, thus promoting
the maintenance of exogamy. However, over time large clans were divided into sub- I
clans with their own totems and lineages so that endogamous marriages could take place
between members of different sub-clans with their own mitupo.

This occurred in Zamchiya for instance among the large Sithole totemic group.
One elder explained that the creation of “Makuyana, Gwenzi and Komo are all Sitholes,
they made these distinctions so that they can marry one another.”7 In the Mutema
chieftaincy further north, a fine of a white cow was imposed in the past for any marriages
within the same clan.8 Given the scarcity of white cows, this fine served to discourage

intra-clan marriages.9 Today people of the same totem who wish to marry must pay a

 

6 Some confusion arose among several women when they were asked about their surnames during
interviews. Many used the name of their own totem, while others followed western custom and provided
their husband’s surname. The Nguni presence resulted in nineteenth-century changes such as mwoyo (or
mayo) becoming nkomo or sithole and muyambo (or mulambo/mlambo) replacing dziva. Most of the
elders interviewed have names with Nguni origins.
7 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999. See also Henri Philippe Junod, “A
Contribution to the Study of Ndau Demography, Totemism, and History,” Bantu Studies, 8, 1 (March
1934): 17-37, 28.
: Carin Vijfbuizen, “‘The People You Live With’,” 18.

Ibid.

104

cash fine.10 Another elder from Chikore commented that Sitholes often marry each other,
and “they are like a chieftaincy lineage” that “reigns supreme because wherever you go
you will come across a Sithole.”H John Woka of the Dhiliwayo totem withheld
information about his true totem so that he could marry a woman from the same totem.
His wife, Grace Chirawo, is also a Dhliwayo, but she is not related to Woka.12 As these
examples illustrate, there are some elements of flexibility within the totem system.l3
Classifications shifted over time and restrictions could be somewhat ambiguous.
Most totems are associated with an animal that is sacred, and members of a totem
are not allowed to eat that animal or a particular part of it. Some totems revere an insect
or a geographical feature such as a river or the pool of a hippopotamus. It is said that
people who eat the meat or restricted animal part associated with their totem will loose
their teeth.14 However, it is also possible to treat the meat with traditional medicine to
prevent any loss of teeth, and some elders joked that they still had teeth after eating their
totem. ‘5 People of the Sithole (mwoyo) totem, prohibited from eating beef several
generations ago, now consume beef except for the heart.“ And although Sarai Nyabanga

Sithole of Zamchiya said that her sacred animal is cattle, mombe, she eats beef.17 The

totem offers some protection from danger and is not to be sacrificed. People shared a

 

'° Ibid.

" John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

'2 John Woka and Grace Chirawo, Chimanimani, Zimbabwe, 29 July 1999.

'3 John Keith Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism Among the Ndau of
Southern Rhodesia, 1890-1935,” Ph.D. diss., (Northwestern University, 1973), 91.

'4 Ibid., 90. Members of the pool totem must not drink water from certain areas such as the Save river.
'5 John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

'6 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

'7 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

105

sense of spirit, or mweya, with their totem.18 A member of the zebra totem (mbizi)
remarked in 1933, “The zebra has got our manners, we have the same way of living.”19
A person always inherited the totem of the father and not the mother.20 The food 5
avoidance custom extended to a fetus, for a pregnant woman had to abstain from both her
own totem and her husband’s.21 After She gave birth she could eat the totem of her
husband once again, but not her own.

' Totems served to protect clan groups and make a spiritual connection with clan I
members.22 Each totem has a special way of giving thanks, that involves praising the

totem in the form of a short praise poem. For example, a Sithole who was called Mazoje

was thanked in this manner:

Mwaita Mazoje-ee (You did it, Mazoje-ee)
Mutupo uri mudanga-a (The totem is in the kraal, i. e. cattle)
Sithole-ee
Ganyamaope”

These praises reinforced the distinct identity of the members in a particular totem.
People had strong feelings of affection for their totem, and did not like to see any harm
come to it. A sense of protection was witnessed by the anthropologist H. P. Junod in
1933 when he allowed his European friend to kill a zebra in the presence of Office

Muhlanga, a member of the zebra (mbizi) totem. According to Junod, Mhlanga was

 

'3 H. P. Junod, “A Contribution,” 23.

'9 Quoted in H. P. Junod, “A Contribution,” 28.

2° lbid.

2' H. P. Junod, “A Contribution,” 29.

22 Ibid., 28.

2’ Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

106

visibly upset over the death and “began a whole funeral oration” for the animal.24 Junod
concluded that a person’s relationship with his or her totem “implies very deep feelings
of affection, something like a sense of community of substance.”25

Each clan had its own particular greeting that involved a customary clapping of
hands, and these salutations have changed little over time.26 When men clap they place
their palms together so that their fingers are in front. Women, on the other hand, cross
their palms as they clap. This manner of greeting is not specific to the Ndau, for it is
practiced throughout the wider Shona area, including the region north of the Pungwe
river.27 In 1609 Joao dos Santos described this custom as part of the elaborate ritual
surrounding all communication with the king. According to dos Santos, subjects were
required to crawl on the floor from the entrance to approach the king and then lie on their
sides without looking at the king as they addressed him. While Speaking to the king they
clapped their hands, in the customary manner of greeting, and when they finished their
business they exited by crawling on the floor just as they had entered.28 Crawling on the
floor as a Sign of reverence is no longer practiced, but there are other displaysof respect.
Rather than clapping, in some areas women perform a courteous bow when they

encounter men. This practice still occurs in some rural areas, particularly in the

Mozambican districts of Machanga and Chibabava and north of the Pungwe river as

 

2‘ H. P. Junod, “A Contribution,”, 26—27.

2‘ Ibid., 27.

2° Fieldwork observations, 1998 —1999. H. P. Junod, “A Contribution,” 18.

27 H. P. Junod, “Notes on the Ethnological Situation in Portuguese East Africa on the South of the
Zambezi,” Bantu Studies, 10 (1936): 293-311, 295-296.

23 Joio dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental in George McCall Theal, Records of South-Eastern Africa (RSEA), (9
vols., Cape Town, 1964) VII.

107

l.29 Totemic praise greetings bound ordinary people together across the Ndau region

wel
just as marriages brought members from two families, and two different totems, together.
Totems were a significant cultural practice for the Ndau and their Shona-speaking
neighbors. Many totems found in the Ndau area were also common to other Shona
Speakers such as the Manyika. This shared identity acted as a tie that not only bound the;
Ndau together, but also linked them to the wider cultural sphere of all Shona. Despite the
remarkable homogeneity of the Shona-speaking region over time, the Shona do not have
a myth surrounding the creation of humanity.30 Of course, they “have managed perfectly
well without one,” as David Beach has noted.31 The clan identities of the Ndau, however,
imply a common origin from one ancestor. According to highland ‘tradition’ cited by

Rennie, there were twelve original clans among the Ndau created by Chiphaphami

Shiriyedenga.3’2 The mitupo are listed here.33

Mwoyo heart
Dziva pool
Mbizi zebra
Bumphi wild dog
Shoko monkey
Gwerekwete ant-bear
Nzou elephant
Gwai sheep
Shiri bird
Ishwa termite
Nungu porcupine
Nhuka eland

 

29 H. P. Junod, “Notes on the Ethnological Situation,” 295-296.

3° Dos Santos, Etio'pia oriental in Theal, RSEA, VII, 200; Beach, The Shana and their Neighbours,
(Oxford, 1994) 4, 28.

3 ' Beach, The Shana and their Neighbours, 4.

32Shiriyedenga was the fust Mutema, according to Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of
Nationalism,” 90-91; H. P. Junod, “A Contribution,” 21-25.

’3 Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 90.91; H. P. Junod, “A
Contribution,” 21-25.

108

Over time, branches emerged with their respective totems and lineages.34

Both the subdivisions of clans and the assumption of a common origin from
Shiriyedenga blurred clan identities, according to Rennie.” One history of Musikavantu
alleges that the founders of the Mutema, Musikavantu and Mapungwana chieftaincies
were all brothers who were later given different clans to allow intermariage among their
descendants.36 Yet this stOry iS similar to the myth surrounding the founding of Danda,
Manica and Teve by the three sons of the Mutapa discussed in chapter three. Both
‘myths’ serve to unite groups by claiming a common ancestry. At the end of the
seventeenth century, clans of the mayo totem migrated eastward from the Rozvi state in
Mbire to the Save valley. They conquered dziva clans located in both the Save valley and
settlements further east. From the end of the eighteenth century, chief Mutema
dominated over the moyo dynasties in the southeastern highlands, but Beach points out
that “important elements” remained from earlier polities reconfigured after the moyo
migration from Mbire.37 Many Ndau chiefs in the highlands in 1900 claimed descent \
from Shiriyedenga and a common migration with the Rozvi from Mbire.38 lnterlinked \I

chiefly lineages drew on this connection with the Rozvi to legitimate their political

identity.39 Rennie notes that ‘We do not know to what extent the Rozvi identity was

 

3" H. P. Junod, “A Contribution,” 21-25; Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of
Nationalism,” 90.
:: Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 91.
Ibid.
3’ Beach, The Shana and Zimbabwe, 170.171.
38 Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 89.
’9 Ibid., 66, 89.

109

shared by non-chiefly lineages.”40 Chieftaincies in the twentieth century have more than
one totem due to expanding households, migration, marriage and other factors."1
Immigration, migration, incorporation, succession, and other factors such as marriage

affected Ndau clans over time to create diverse, complicated and shifting identities.

Marriage

Ndau chieftaincies relied on marriages to create ties among them.42 An
examination of marriage among the Ndau since the Sixteenth century reveals many
continuities in practice. Marriage was an important tie, for the practice brought two
families together in an alliance. Bridewealth, in the form of goods or services before the
use of British pounds, sealed a relationship between two families and served as evidence
of an established bond “for both family and ancestors?”3 At times a goat, provided by
the husband’s family, acted as a symbol that tied the two families together.44 Bridewealth i
also brought reciprocity to the marriage arrangement by compensating the woman’s
family for the loss of their daughter and her labor."5 The groom’s family benefited from
the labor of the new wife and held the rights to all offspring. In this way marriage helped

to secure increased security for the groom’s family. Bridewealth ensured that the woman

 

‘° Ibid., 89.
" Carin Vijfbuizen, “‘The People You Live With,’” 18.
‘2 Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 76.
‘3 Carin Vijflluizen, “‘The People You Live With’”, 27-28, 30. She refers to stages of bridewealth that
include a first, mabvunziro, and second, pfuma, payment
44 .
Ibid., 28.
‘5 Ibid., 27—28.

110

would be treated properly among her husband’s family."6 In an early customary act,
some men would bring two mice or cattle to their potential father-in-law as a symbolic
token of assurance that the bride would be cared for by the suitor.47 Although the
practice (payments and negotiations) of bridewealth has shifted during the colonial and
postcolonial period, it continues to be a central aspect of Ndau culture today.48

An account from the middle of the sixteenth century describes what was probably
the most common type of marriage involving bridewealth. According to Father
Monclaro in 1569, “The method of marriage is to agree with the wife’s father and give
him a certain quantity of goods, for the wives bring nothing to their husband, but the
latter buys them from their fathers in the manner aforesaid)”9 If marriages did not work
out, the women at times returned to their families and the goods were given back. In this
instance cloth was cited by Monclaro as the bridewealth.so Hoes, chains of beads and
livestock were also used as bridewealth before the introduction of British pounds as
currency at the end of the nineteenth century.

Other Portuguese observers often misinterpreted African marriages as solely sales
transactions. At the end of the eighteenth century Reis e Gama claims that marriage is
the act of “purchasing a woman” from her father with a payment of cattle.51 Reis e Gama

describes the new wife as a “captive”, and he makes it clear that bridewealth seals the

 

‘6 Ibid., 28. Vijfbuizen cites the general belief among the Ndau of Manesa of “something that is paid a high

'ce for will be better taken care of than something obtained for nothing”, 28-29.
7 Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

48 Field experiences 1998, 1999 and Carin Vijflruizen, “‘The People You Live With’”, 27—28.

:2 Monclaro, “Relaeao da Viagem (1569),” In Theal, RSEA, 111, 230.
Ibid.

5 ' Carlos Jose dos Reis e Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres (1796), Introduction and notes by

Gerhard Liesegang (Lisboa, 1966), 18.

111

marriage contract.52 However, if the woman wishes to leave her husband and return to
the homestead of her parents, she may do so as long as her father either offers one of his
other daughters as a substitute or returns the bridewealth to his son-in-law.53 In either
case, the son-in-law is assured of securing a wife. Although Ndau marriages bore a
resemblance to the arranged marriages of the time in Europe, Portuguese observers such
as Reis e Gama viewed African unions in a very different light.

In Ndau society a father hoped that a wealthy man would be the husband of his
daughter so that he could recoup a Sizeable bridewealth for himself and guarantee a
secure future for the young woman.54 A woman’s father knew that he could demand
cattle as payment and then go onto buy Sheep, goats and poultry.” A father might “look
at a home and say, ‘I want my daughter to be married at that home,’ where there was
enough food.”56 This often led to arrangements where older men married younger
women. Women also sought men who would be good husbands and providers of much
bridewealth that would benefit their families.57 Skilled hunters or dancers were popular
men who received the attention of women.58 Men who were not as talented or wealthy
relied on their sister’s bridewealth to assist them in securing a wife. Problems arose

when one family had many more sons than daughters, for the bridewealth received after

 

’2 Ibid., 18, 28.

’3 Ibid., 18.

5" Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

5’ Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

5” Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

57 See David McDermott Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics: Struggles for Land and Clients on the Zimbabwe-
Mozambique Border.” Ph.D. diss. (University of Califronia, Berkeley, 1999), 94-95.

’8 Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

112

the daughters married would not be sufficient for all of the sons.59 However, in a ugariri
arrangement, a potential son-in-law could work for a prospective father-in-law for some
time until he was given a wife in exchange for his service."0 This provided a young man
without sufficient bridewealth the opportunity either to marry a woman he loved or
simply marry at all.

Marriages often involved lengthy periods of courtship and intensive negotiations
over bridewealth. If a man wanted to marry a young woman he was expected to contact
the young woman’s paternal aunt or grandmother to initiate a relationship. The paternal
aunt, known as Vatete, was a powerful figure in marriage negotiations and relations.
Courtship between two adolescents, called uchinde, was accepted among the Ndau.“ I
Premarital intercourse was also allowed as long as the hymen remained intact.62 In some
cases uchinde led to marriage after a process called kufava took place. This was when
the young woman’s parents accepted work from the groom in lieu of bridewealth."3
Kufava allowed parents to firlfill a daughter’s wishe to marry her sweetheart.64 Both the
Ndau and their neighbors to the north, the Zambezi Tonga, practiced kufava, Similar to
uchinde, earlier this century.“ If a couple in the twentieth century wished to elope or a
man fell in love with a married woman, the man’s father would attempt to provide money

or the means for the couple to marry. The father may “borrow money from any person,

 

’9 Ibid.
5° Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
6' Timbteo Mabessa Simango, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998.
‘2 Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999; Michael Gelfand, The Genuine Shana: Survival
Values of an African Culture, (Gweru, 1973), 167-170;
H. P. Junod, “Notes on the Ethnological Situation,” 305.
:Timbteo Mabessa Simango, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998.
Ibid.

113

1

l

even the chief?“

The son would then pay back the loan, most likely by working in
Johannesburg as a migrant laborer. Or, the father may use bridewealth from the marriage
of one of his daughters to assist his son.67

Xavier noted in the middle of the eighteenth century that all of the efforts of the
Ndau “aim at finding ways of acquiring more women and they do have as many as

”68 Men who had many wives

possible; Kings generally manage to have 1500 and more.
were considered to be wealthy. A large number of cattle also represented wealth,
particularly in the southeastern Ndau area around the mouth of the Save river where large
herds grazed at the end of the eighteenth century."9 In Machanga and Mambone, for
instance, rich men had 300 or more cattle, at this time.70 A large number of children also
signified a wealthy and prosperous head of household. Reis e Gama noted in 1796 that
the number of children of one man was proportionate to the number of his wives.71 In the
twentieth century, Freddy Sithole--with four wives and 25 children--boasts that “no one

can fight me here.”72 He feels a sense of security with his ‘wealth in pe0ple.’ He knows

that his large labor force will bring plentiful harvests that will fill the granaries and carry

 

‘5 H. P. Junod, “Notes on the Ethnological Situation,” 298.
:3 Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Ibid.
‘8 Ignacio Caetano Xavier, “Noticias dos Dominios Portuguese na Costa da Africa Oriental” (1758) in A.
A. Andrade, Relacées de Macambique Setecentista, (Lisboa, 1955), 146. English translation from D. N.
Beach and H. deNoronha, “The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890,” (2 vols. Harare, 1980, mimeo.), II,
31.
”9 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafi'es, 22.
7° Ibid.
7' Ibid., 28.
’2 Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

114

him through times of famine. Reflecting on his situation, he commented that others
would single him out to say “that one is really wealthy.”73
The pursuit of food security among the Ndau was clearly played out in their 1‘
marriage arrangements.74 The custom of mutengatare or exchange reflects the desire to
Strengthen social bonds and promote prosperous relationships. If two families did not
have enough money or means to offer bridewealth they would practice mutengatare, the
exchange of daughters or sisters. Each man would respect the other as a father-in-law,
even though in reality each was a son-in-law as well.75 If one wife initiated a divorce, her
husband would go to her father and demand that the other exchanged wife be returned to
his family.76 Marriages were also arranged to benefit the brothers of young women. One
elder recalled that if the brother of a young girl wanted to marry, “the family would sell
the girl child to any willing so that the brother will get the proceeds from that trade in
order to go and pay bridewealth for his would-be wife.”77 Some girls, often those
reaching puberty, were betrothed to compensate or pay off a debt. Marriages also
involved loans, with a father borrowing what he needed and promising to give his

daughter in return. In this instance a young woman was betrothed to a family and the

members of the family then decided on who would receive her as a wife.78

 

73 Ibid. Reflecting on the situation today, Freddy Sithole said, “But now businessmen are the wealthy
eople.”

‘34 Ellen Gapara and Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

75 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

76 This could be the daughter of the soon—to-be divorced-man. Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya,

Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

77 Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999. The verb “to sell” is used here since later in the

interview Mbuya Manyuni states that the exchange of daughters was “not trading.”

’3 Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

115

After missionaries and British Native Commissioners arrived in the highlands of
Southern Rhodesia, they prohibited marriages that involved male or female clientage.79
With the Native Marriages Ordinance of 1901, only cattle and cash could be used as!{
bridewealth in Southern Rhodesia. This placed a burden on young men to work for cash
wages in the colonial economy. Most of the elders interviewed spoke of 25 pounds as the
average brideprice. “That money was not found here, but in Johannesburg, Joni,”
remarked one elder who echoed a common sentiment.80 As the use of cash for
bridewealth increased, chiefs had more difficulty securing clients and accumulating
wealth in people.81 Exchange marriages, mutengatare, continued despite the new law.82

Those who did not exchange daughters or sisters in a mutengatare arrangement
could produce goods or livestock as bridewealth for a marriage. Before the introduction
of money at the end of the nineteenth century, people married at times by using a thick

83 This chain of beads was

chain of beads called gapa reusanga or magaraza eusanga.
supposed to be as long as the future bride’s height.“ Some left the Ndau area and went

south to the region of Bilene and Delagoa Bay to acquire beads known as chuma.85 In the

area of Zamchiya, chains of beads were often used in marriage exchanges until they were

 

79 Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics,” 75.

’“ Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

8' Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics,” 75.

82 During many interviews elders recalled mutengatare arrangements, but it is not clear when (or ifuand
where) the practice ceased. In her recent study of an Ndau village, Manesa, in the 19905, Carin Vijfbuizen
does not mention the practice of mutengatare.

83 Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

8’ Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999; Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999;
Siyazini Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

8’ Siyazini Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

116

replaced by goats and an increased practice of mutengatare.86 About six goats were given
for a marriage, and people would weave baskets in exchange for goats.87 “Only those
with goats and sisters were able to marry,” observed one elder.88 Yet hoes were another
common form of bridewealth, according to many elders. A man who wanted to marry
would secure a hoe from a blacksmith and give it to his future father-in-law.89 Some
hoes were merely blunt stones.90 Hoes without holes were used according to one elder
from Mutema.91 A less fortunate man would offer a wooden hoe, called mutika to his
potential father-in-law.92 People in the Chikore region would exchange hoes from
Bwanyi for a wife.93 “You give out a hoe, you get a wife,” explained Idah Manyuni.94
Upon marriage, a woman was married into a family (and not only to a husband) to
strengthen her husband’s family group.” In a negotiation over bridewealth in the 19903,
a new wife was told, “Love the family of your husband, like the way you love your own
family.”96 The bride kept her totem and could be referred to as a mutorwa, or outsider.97
But if a man died his wife usually remained with his family and received care from them

in a leviratic arrangement. Normally, a widow is ‘inherited’ and married to another

 

8” Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999; Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya.
Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

87 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

“8 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

8" Ibid.; Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

90 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

9' John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

92 Ibid.; Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

93 Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999; Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
9‘ Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

95 Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999; Michael Gelfand, The Genuine Shana, 166.

9” Carin Vijfbuizen, “The People You Live With,” 39.

97 Vijfbuizen notes that this term has also come to mean “daughter in law” among the Ndau of Manesa in
the 19905, Ibid., 250.

117

person such as the deceased’s brother or son.98 This ‘inheritance’ practice was a point of
contention at times for widows. Women were expected to produce as many children as
they could, with ten or twelve considered satisfactory.99 If a woman was infertile, a
‘replacement’ wife, often one of her sisters, was given to her husband, or her family
returned the bridewealth. After a woman passed her childbearing years, her husband
might many a younger woman to produce even more progeny. This new wife was often
the daughter of the first wife’s brother (her niece).100 The relationship between the two
wives could be characterized by either jealousy or a working partnership. Regardless, an
additional wife increased the size of the husband’s extended family and promised more
security for the group.

Much of a marriage ceremony revolved around the negotiation and payment of
bridewealth, but elders recall marriage ceremonies where the bride was ceremoniously
escorted to the family of the bridegroom by a group of girls and women who prepared
sadza and beer to take with them. '0' As they approached the bridegroom’s home they
began singing, “T auya nayee. Makoti. T auya nayee, ” to announce their arrival with the
bride.102 They would then be invited to the homestead and given some tokens. They
would perform any chores that needed to be done and leave on the second day.103 As the

proverb at the beginning of this chapter states, the Ndau expected all young women to

 

9‘ Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.
99 .
Ibld.
‘°° Ibid.
:3; Phoebe Mukokota, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.
Ibid.
"’3 Ellen Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

118

many so that two families could forge a bond.“ Hoes were the most common item I
given to the bride’s family as bridewealth, but some used chains of beads, usanga, or
made an exchange of a female relative, known as mutengatare. Marriage placed
obligations on both husband and wife, as well as the family of the husband. Through
marriage alliances women “reproduced” the regional political order and played an
integral part in maintaining and transforming a common language and culture over a wide
geographic region.'°5 Through time‘bridewealth, in a multitude of forms, has remained a
constant factor in Ndau marriages, except in cases of destitution, pawning or warfare. In
these times of extreme social stress the Ndau did not always follow the standard custom
of negotiating a marriage contract based on bridewealth. They sought other ways to

acquire a wife, for “there is nothing that cannot bring about a marriage.”106

Life Cycle Events

Family and clan alliances were also reaffirrned by other rituals that marked the
life cycle. The Ndau performed ceremonies governed by certain practices to celebrate
events such as the birth of a new child. After a birth, people would come to give
congratulatory messages, clap their hands and say “wahuruka. She has been honored.”107

The baby was expected to remain in the house until the umbilical cord fell off, and when

 

m Hamutyinei and Plangger, Tsuma-Shuma: Shana Praverbial Lore and Wisdom, 215.

'05 For an account of the role of gender in the shaping of ethnic identity in nineteenth-century Lesotho, see
Elizabeth Eldredge, A South African Kingdom: The Pursuit of Security in Nineteenth-Century Lesotho
(Cambridge, 1993).

'06 According to Shona wisdom: Hapana chisingawanisi. Hamutyinei and Plangger, Tsumo-Shuma: Shana
Proverbial Lore and Wisdom, 214.

'°’ Ndagumirwa Sigauke, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

119

this happened the family of the newborn held a small party.108

They would slaughter a
chicken or a goat and invite close neighbors to celebrate.109 This party, known as musere, i
thanked God and the ancestors for the baby.110 The baby was shown to the father, and if
the infant was a boy the father would declare a resemblance in appearance.”' One elder
claims that people ululated only for the birth of a girl, perhaps in anticipation of the
prosperity a young woman will bring her father in the form of bridewealth.112 During a
ceremony called chinyuchila the paternal grandparents “introduced” the baby to the
maternal grandparents.113

Phrases accompanying the birth announcement in Zamchiya demonstrate how the
infant’s sex could affect a family’s future. Midwives, usually elderly women (mbuya)
delivered babies, and if the child was a boy the midwife would announce “Your bow has

been snatched.””"

If a girl was born the midwife would say “bridewealth into the
family.””5 The midwife’s role was an important one, and most of the gifts went to the
midwifem5 These included cloth, blankets and grain.”7 The mother of the child

inscribed a star-like mark on the face of the midwife and the baby. 1 '8

 

'08 Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999; Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13
July 1999.
'°° Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.
"0 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
m Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
"2 Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
"3 Timéteo Mabessa Simango, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998.
I: Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Ibid.
"6 Chinungu Mtetwa (a midwife), Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
II: Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Ibid.

120

The birth of twins was considered to be a bad Sign for many Ndau and Reis e

Gama argued at the end of the eighteenth century that one of the newborns was put into a

119

pot and cast off into a torrential river. Although infanticide occurred, the Ndau

coveted wealth in people, cattle and abundant crops. But unexplained phenomena such
as the birth of twins led the Ndau to cite witchcraft as the motivating factor.
When a young woman began to menstruate she told her parents that She was

120
d.

“mature” and a celebration followe The Ndau acknowledge the first menstruation of

a young woman With fOOd, drinking and dancing.121

The young woman dressed in the
finest cloth and adomments of the household.122 When they reach adulthood, men are
circumcised and a celebration of food, drink, dancing and drums is arranged.123 In these
celebrations, as well as during ancestral offerings, the Ndau use the same drums and play
in a similar manner.124
Many of the funeral practices described by Reis e Gama in the late 17005
remained in place during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Soon after the
death of an important leader such as a king, prince or major chief, the Ndau beat drums to
assemble relatives and “captives” who shave their heads and beards. Those in mourning

125

grieved in their hands and on straw called mulala Reis e Gama notes that in Quiteve,

the body of a king or queen is Shrouded in a white cloth, called samater, that was

 

"9 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres. This attitude stems from the belief that it is not possible
or “natural” to create two people together. If both twins and their mother were to die during childbirth,
they would all be cast ofl‘ into a large river.

'20 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

121 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 20.

'22 Ibid.

"3 lbid., l6.

'2‘ Ibid.

121

imported to Sofala from northern Asia.126 Elders describes a similar method that the

Ndau followed in the twentieth century.127

The corpse is placed on a bed and left to
decompose.128 Several receptacles are placed underneath the bed to collect decaying
matter from the body. Various important men and highly esteemed women encircle the
cadaver until it is severely decomposed. The material that falls into the vessels is saved
and eventually the bones are wrapped in the white samater cloth. Later the bundle of
bones is put in the bloodstained Skin of a black cow, and, amidst a gathering of all
relatives, the remains are deposited in the cemetery of kings that lies on a hill called
Made.129 This process often lasts two or three years, and when the remains are buried,
Reis e Gama claims that some influential men or women are sacrificed for the deceased
king so that he has others to care for him and keep him company.130 After a death, some
people abstain from working as part of their mourning. The number of days depends on
the status of the deceased. A minor lnhamacango would merit six days, while princes
require six months and a king is honored with one year, according to the Reposta.131 It
appears that ceremonies and burial practices have remained consistent since at least the
eighteenth century, except for the human sacrifices, which are allegations by Reis e

Gama with no supporting evidence.

Dos Santos recounts a similar practice rumored to occur at the Mutapa’s court.

 

125 -
Ibid.
'f" Ibid. and n. 32, c.f. Sebastit'io Xavier Botelho, Memoria Estatistica Sabre as Dominios Portuguezes no
A rica Oriental, (Lisboa, 1835), 150.
' 7 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
'28 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 18.
129 -
Ibid., 19.
'3° lbid.
'3' lbid., 17.

122

It is related of this Monomotapa that he has a house where he commands

bodies of men who have died at the hands of the law to be hung up, and

where thus hanging all the humidity of their bodies falls into vases placed

underneath, and when all has dropped from them and they shrink and dry up

he commands them to be taken down and buried, and with the fat and

moisture in the vases they say he make ointrnents with which he anoints

himself in order to enjoy long life--which is his belief--and also to be proof

against receivin harm from sorcerers. Others say that with this moisture he

makes charms.l 2
The Mutapa symbolically gained ‘life’ from death of others and maintained power over
his subjects through this alleged ritual. Elders today, however, note that chiefs were
mummified earlier in the twentieth century, but ordinary people were not. The chief’s
muzukuru would set a fire in the grave to mummify the body.133 Once the body was
mummified, the ash was removed from the pit and the chief was buried there.134 A
special object swallowed by the chief was removed from his mouth after the
mummification process and kept safely by his first wife.135 It was later given to the

chief’s successor to swallow to repeat the practice.136

The muzukuru spent about five
months looking after the grave. People were not informed of the chiefs death until a
month, or longer, after he died.137 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole explained, “If anyone spoke

about the chief 5 death, they were asked if they were the ones who killed him. So people

kept quiet. They would only ask about his condition. They were told that the chief was

 

"2 Dos Santos, Etiapia Oriental in Theal, RSEA, vii, 289. See also Joan dos Santos, Etiapia Oriental e
Varia Hista'ria de Causas Nataveis do Oriente, 1609, (Lisboa, 1999), 223.
:1: Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

Ibid.
I: Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

Ibid.
'37 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999; Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe,
14 July 1999.

123

k ”138

very sic The wives of the chief and women who had not yet reached menopause

were not permitted to visit the grave.‘39
Children were sent away when a person died, and the body of the deceased was

removed from an opening in the wall of the house rather than the door so that children

would not observe the removal.140 When children later asked where the deceased was

141

they were told that the person was lost. Mubayi Mhlanga explains, “Some children

would go on and ask the elders to go and look for that person since when cattle are lost,

‘42 Yet later the male head of the household was

people would go and look for them.
buried in the center of the homestead, where children play. '43 The female head of the
household was buried in the veranda of her house.144 The graves of the household heads
“were regarded as guardians of the homestead.’”"5

Problems of succession were a major crippling factor for politics in the wider
Shana region.146 With the system of yafa yabara, the first born of the deceased chief

became the new chief, regardless of the number of siblings.147

The eldest son was given
his father’s “ruling devices”, items such as walking sticks or knobkerries.148 Unlike the

recent practice of succession from father to son, Mubayi Mhlanga noted that “long back”

 

E: Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Ibid.
"0 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999; Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya,
Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
:4; Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
4 .
Ibrd.
:2 Jane Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
Ibid.
"’5 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
"6 Malyn Newitt astutely argues this point in A History anazambique (Bloomington, 1995), 46.
"7 Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.
"8 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999; Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13
July 1999.

124

succession followed “brotherhood seniority, from the eldest to the youngest.”149 Dos
Santos wrote that chiefs nominated their successors, and the custom of ritual suicide by
an ill or incapacitated chief may have been an attempt to maintain an orderly transfer of
power, as the historian Malyn Newitt has noted.150 Yet, even declarations by the ruler did
not stop other descendants from attempting to take power, for not only sons of a chief,
but also his brothers and the male descendants of past rulers could make a claim for the
throne.

Before his death, a chief chose young girls to be his wives. The appointed
successor then sat with these women on an animal skin while people ululated and cheered
in appreciation.” ’ The death of a chief was not announced immediately to the
community, but after several days a statement was made such as “the mountain has
collapsed.”152 A bull was slaughtered and the chief was buried. After a grave was dug
the body was covered with a black and white cloth. The cloth was covered with the fresh
skin of the slaughtered bull. At the end of the burial the pit was covered.”3 To mourn
the deceased chief, women would sing while pounding grain, yawe, yawe, yawe-e!
Chakadya mambo chinyika, ‘Oh! Oh! What took our chief’m

People brewed beer and slaughtered a beast to celebrate the installation of a new

£155 156

chie Other chiefs were invited to the celebration. Women would sing, Mamba

 

"9 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'50 Newitt, A History anazambique, 46.

'5' Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

E: Dunhu kana Gama raandamaka. Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.
Ibid.

‘“ Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

‘5’ Ndagumirwa Sigauke, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'5‘ Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

125

wedu wauya tafara. Mamba wedu wauya tafara. (Our chief has come, we are happy.)157

The chief was installed while people danced, and “people would be overjoyed to have a
new chief.”158 A new installation would not occur for another two years. Relatives and
other chiefs were invited to witness the new installation. The new chief was hidden form
the public and made to wait naked with a sister. Beer was poured over the new chief and
a small piece of black cloth was wrapped around him. Later both brother and sister were
later covered with a piece of cloth and people began to cheer, ululate, clap their hands,
dance and celebrate. This sister of the chief was forbidden from marrying for the rest of
her life. Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana of Zamchiya noted that the installation of a new
chief differed with chiefdoms.159 Some poured beer on the head of a naked chief as part
of the ceremony. The chief was installed with a woman, possibly one inherited from his
deceased father. This was especially the case “long back”, “but nowadays that is no
longer practiced.”160
In Danda dos Santos described the power of the king’s wives in the appointment

of a new ruler.161

One king of Danda, suffering from severe leprosy, named a prince to
succeed him and then took poison to kill himself.‘62 However, the king’s wives
successfully maneuvered to seat another prince, described as diligent and well-liked, on

the throne.163 This new king would most certainly accommodate the interests of these

new ‘inherited’ wives. Dos Santos also observed a Similar system of succession in

 

i: Mucherechete Dhlakama, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Ibid.

i210“ Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
Ibid.

'6' Dos Santos. Etiopia Oriental (1999), 91-92.

126

Quiteve, but in this instance the king reached the throne without any disturbances from
the royal wives.“ Manuel de Faria e Sousa describes the Mutapa as having over one
thousand wives (perhaps a slight exaggeration) in the early sixteenth century.165 He
claims that respect was shown for these women by the king’s son who must give way to
all and stop until they pass.166 Later in the sixteenth century Monclaro also claimed that
the Mutapa had more than 3,000 wives who cultivated in their gardens.167 Sousa wrote
that the king was a sovereign over many princes who tend to rebel, thus he “always keeps
their heirs about him.”168
The Portuguese did not often help matters, for their meddling in African politics
created additional tensions. The Portuguese captain José da Fonseca Coutinho was
ordered to kill the king of Quiteve, Sacacato, since this ruler entered into an alliance with
“the enemy Changamira” and interfered with trade through his kingdom. ‘69 After this
‘troublesome’ leader was deposed, his brother, Inhaunda, replaced him. Sacacato,
however, managed to escape an attack on his life and sought revenge for his expulsion by

killing the brother who had replaced him.170 Although Coutinho claims that the

“grateful” Inhaunda was the “legitimate heir to the throne of Quiteve”, this new ruler

 

'62 Ibid., 92.
"3 Ibid.
'6‘ Ibid., 89. .
:2: Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Asia Partuguesa (1666 and 1674), extracts in Theal, RSEA, 1, 16.
Ibid.
'67 Monclaro, “Relacao da Viagem,” in Theal, RSEA, III, 229.
‘68 Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Asia Partuguesa (1666 and 1674), extracts in Theal, RSEA, 1, 15.
"’9 Joseph da F onseca Coutinho, “Report on the Present Situation of the Conquistas of the Rivers of
Soffalla” (1699) in Beach and dc Noronha, “The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890,” 1; “Letter from the
King to the Viceroy of India” (1702) 15 March, Theal, RSEA, V, 7. See also a second letter from 1704
referring to the incident on p. 13.
no “Letter from the King to the Viceroy of India” (1704) 19 January, Theal, RSEA, V, 13.

127

171

turned out to be full of false promises and a propensity to start new wars. After news

of the incident and its repercussions reached the king of Portugal, Coutinho was fired

'72 Despite this fiasco, the following instructions from a 1795 document

from his post.
clearly echo the Portuguese desire to gain control over Afiican leaders and trade routes.

You must always be careful to put in charge a regula that will respect the

old conditions and to stop anyone from taking it without your consent as

used to be the custom, and to open trade routes between Sofalla, and

Manica; if that asks for any expense from the Royal Treasury, you will

make it with the sense and economy required and will give the traders all

the help they may need and be of use to them and the State.173
At times the Portuguese were intricately involved in Afiican royal procedures. For
instance, Joao Julifio da Silva brought a cabaia, or a red tunic with wide sleeves, a cap
and red cloth to the king at Bandirem He also presented 12 rosaries of fake coral, 12
packets of beads, 24 bottles of aguardente, or firewater, and one kerchief to the king.175

Although most African chiefs managed to maintain control over their own polities, they

had to deal with the ‘Portuguese factor’ in their external political and economic relations.

Social Stresses
The Ndau relied on socio-political structures such as the family and the chiefdom

to deal with disasters and stress, but sometimes natural forces such as drought and locust

 

'7' Joseph da Fonseca Coutinho, “Report on the Present Situation of the Conquistas of the Rivers of
Soffalla” (1699) in Beach and de Noronha, “The Shana and the Portuguese 1575-1890,” I.

172 “Letter from the King to the Viceroy of India” (1704) 19 January, Theal, RSEA, V, 13.

173 “Copy of His Excellency’s Communication” (1795) 14 May, Dom Diogo de Souza to Carlos Joze dos
Reys e Gama, from Mocambique, in Beach and de Noronha, Vol. II.

174 Joio Juliio da Silva, “List of the Cloths and Effects that Lieutenant-Colonel Joio Juliio da Silva Will
Carry with Him for the Ceremonies and Expenses at Bandire” (1831) 28 February in Beach and de
Noronha, Vol. II.

”5 lbid.

128

plagues led to famine. One great famine in 1912 came to be known as the year of
mutendeni. Numerous elders referred to the hardship caused by this famine, which was
named after a tuber that is peeled and pounded before being dried and mixed with chaff
from pounded maize grain to neutralize the poison in the mutendeni grain.I76 Ndau
suffering from famine would prepare a dark-brown meal out of the ground mutendeni,
which is poisonous if eaten on its own or not prepared properly.177 Famine victims would
ask their chiefs for permission to dig out'mutendeni or diya, a tuber that looks like
cassava, to eat.178 Some from Zimbabwe would go into Mozambique to find diya.

Master farmers, mukurudza, had a better chance of surviving a famine with their

‘79 During the famine of mudiwa, Sarai Nyabanga Sithole recalls

abundant store of grain.
“people from deep into Mozambique” coming to Nyabanga because of the famine.180
The Chikajara family perished except for “five men, two wives and one child” who
managed to survivem Sarai and her mother were refused assistance by her father’s

sister in Nyabanga, but the chief provided them with food and grain to take home with

them.182 After receiving this assistance from the chief, whose granaries were full, they

 

'76 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
177 lbid.; John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999; Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28
June 1999.
'78 John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999; Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June
1999.
'79 Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.
'80 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999. Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana of Zamchiya,
says that the mwadiwa famine was the same mutendeni famine of 1912. Interview in Zamchiya,
Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
:2; Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

Ibid.

129

did not have to dig for diya and mutendeni.183 Meanwhile, her father survived by eating
pumpkins with his other wivesm

During other famines the Ndau also relied on mutendeni or wild fruits such as
masasate, maembe and madzudzuande to survive.’85 Locusts would eat all of the maize
plants in the fields,186 but farmers also ate locusts and their eggs to survive.187 After a
locust plague, Chinungu Mtetwa remembers her mother grounding grain from grass into

mealie-meal.188

Mubayi Mhlanga recalls a famine known as ndambi and another one
called tsunu that were caused by insects.189 During the mutendeni famine he survived by
eating food called gusha prepared by his mother.‘90 Famine victims would also travel
long distances to trade goods such as spears and arrows for grain!” The Ndau traded
grain with their non Ndau-speaking neighbors such as the Duma during times of
drought.’92

The Ndau experienced their share of warfare, but fighting was not an everyday
occurrence. A late eighteenth-century comment in the Reposta about the frequent

warfare in the region dryly notes that the Ndau almost always have weapons in their

hands.193 Xavier also describes the indigenous population of Sofala as “barbarously

 

”‘3 lbid.
”‘4 Ibid.
'85 Simon Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999; Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1
July 1999; Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
”'6 Mucherechete Dhlakama, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
:2; Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Ibid.
if: Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Ibid.
'9' John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.
'92 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999; Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya,
Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
"’3 Ibid., 22.

130

warlike”, and he claims that these Ndau speakers are equaled in ferocity by the home
guards of the Mutapa)94 This characterization is not repeated by most other observers,
and the people around Sofala do not have a bellicose reputation, for the most part. But
occasional fighting did break out between the Ndau and their rival neighbors or with the
Portuguese. The Ndau fought among themselves mostly over territory)95

Warfare occurred within Danda, the Ndau area located southwest of Sofala, and
the Ndau in this region also faced hostile neighbors to the south, the “Landins,” who

wished to take control of Madanda)96

The ‘production’ of war was reserved solely for
the “Landins,” according to the Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafi'es. ‘97 Typically,
winning parties would rob all whom they encountered after a victory.198 Reis e Gama
claims that the Ndau considered killing and stealing between kings to be valiant acts)”
.In addition to women, children and male clients were also exchanged to cement alliances
between kings.200 Alliances were made through common accords and sealed by a ritual
drinking of beer, often made from maize or millet. One party drank half of the beer in a
calabash and gave the remainder to the other side to drink. Once the calabash was

emptied the other Side refilled it, drank half and then passed it to the new partner to

empty. This sharing of beer was followed by dancing and drumming to celebrate the new

 

'94 Xavier, “Noticias dos Dominios Portuguese na Costa da Africa Oriental” in Andrade, Relacaes de
Macambique Setecentista, 145. Xavier also provides details on fighting techniques.

'95 Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

'96 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 22.

'9’ Ibid., 24.

'98 Ibid., 22.

"” Ibid., 17.

3"“ Ibid., 22.

131

20' The wider significance of beer is discussed filrther in chapter

forging of friendship.
six.

The Ndau shared common social and cultural traits over several centuries that t
contributed to the emergence of a sense of Ndauness. Social structures and cultural
practices related to totems, marriages, births and deaths served to bind the Ndau together
across the region. Many of the conventions in place in the twentieth century, such as the
burial and succession of chiefs, are similar to those practiced centuries earlier. While
some of these ‘traditions’ have certainly changed with time, they have retained a coherent

relevance for the Ndau today. The next chapter explores how the Ndau used body art and

adornment to strengthen social bonds and shape an ethnic identity.

 

3‘” lbid.

132

CHAPTER FIVE
Keeping Up Appearances:
Houses, Pots and Tattoos

At bathing places by the river, if you did not have pika
and nyara you were laughed at and stalked by other
girls and labelled as barbel, fish without scales.’

-Chinungu Mtetwa

Mesa haana muganha.
Eyes have no boundaryz
- Shana proverb

The Ndau proclaimed an identity through appearances that was visible to others.
They adorned their bodies and homes in a manner that defined social and ethnic
boundaries and accentuated gender and status distinctions. Body art was one important
way to link people together as ‘insiders’ and set them apart from others outside the social
group. Tattoos, called pika, and scarification, known as nyora, were two observable
expressions of female beauty and attractiveness) Over several centuries, Ndau women
shaped connections by sharing a ‘body language’ of decorative markings, chains of beads
and metal jewelry such as anklets, bracelets and earings.4 Recognizable aspects of Ndau
culture such as body art and ear piercing, as well as details of Ndau taste in dress,

jewelry, pottery and houses, caught the attention of Europeans who recorded various

 

' A barbel is a species of catfish. Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

2 Mordikai A. Hamutyinei and Albert B. Plangger, Tsumo-Shuma: Shana Proverbial Lore and Wisdom
(Gweru, 1987), 424.

3 Many young Ndau women no longer practice some of the beauty techniques discussed here, such as pika
and nyara (also called cicatrization), although they are still prevalent in the district of Machaze,
Mozambique. (Field notes, Manica: Machaze, 14 - 24 July 1998.)

4 “Body Art: Marks of Identity,” Exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, New
York, 20 November 1999- 29 May 2000.

133

intricacies of Ndau culture to leave a rich written record of how the Ndau maintained

standards of beauty.

Clothing

Ornamentation and dress were popular topics in the longer Portuguese documents,
and we can take many observations at face value. Dos Santos noted in 1609 that weavers
made cotton cloth, called machira, from thread spun by women.5 Manuel de Faria e
Sousa reported that Africans south of the Zambezi in the sixteenth century wore cotton
clothing, including some finer clothes with gold threads.6 There is evidence of cotton
production in the Shona region Since the era of Great Zimbabwe (1250-1450).7 At the
end of the eighteenth century, the main cotton manufacturing regions in the Sofala
hinterland were Madanda and the areas of Macaia and Mirambue in Quiteve.8 Cotton
production was rare in other Ndau-speaking areas, according to Gama.9 Almost one
hundred years later, in 1872, Erskine witnessed the Ndau making cotton in the Danda
region near the Save)0 He described the cloth as “strong and course, but clean and

white.”11

 

5 1050 dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental e Varia Historia de Causas Nataveis do Oriente, 1609, (Lisboa, 1999),
112, and English translation in GeOrge McCall Theal, Records of South-Eastern Africa (RSEA), (9 vols.,
Cape Town, 1964) VII, 207. Dos Santos notes that women performed this task when they were not out
working in their fields.
6 Manuel de F aria e Sousa, “Asia Portuguesa” (1666-1674) in Theal, RSEA, 1, 15. Sousa was writing in the
seventeenth century about the previous century.
7 S. I. G. Mudenge, A Political History of Munhumutapa, c. 1400-1902 (Harare, 1988), 37 and 70, HA.
8 Carlos José dos Reis e Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres (I 796), Introduction and notes by
SGerhard Liesegang (Lisboa, 1966), 24-25.

lbid.
'0 St. Vincent W. Erskine, “Journey to Umzila’s, South-East Africa, in 1871-1872,” Journal of the Royal
Geographical Society. 45 (1875), 95.
" Ibid.

134

Some Africans who lived south of the Zambezi in the sixteenth century, including
possibly the Ndau, wore cotton cloth woven on “low looms, very slowly” from the
northern side of the river. ‘2 Monclaro mentions in 1569 that this cloth, also referred to as
machira, is worn by men around the body and crossed over the breast.13 Both Monclaro
and Barreto, writing almost 100 years later, noted that the trade in cloth (often in
exchange for beads) was flourishing.14 The king of Quiteve and his lords dressed in
either fine cotton or imported silk that hung from the waist to the ankle. Dos'Santos
describes how a larger cloth (again called machira) was thrown “over the shoulders like a
cape, with which they cover and muffle themselves, always leaving the end of the cloth
on the left side so long that it drags upon the ground, and the more it drags the greater
their majesty and dignity.”15 Near the Zambezi Monclaro wrote that a black cloth known
as “Bertangil” was unraveled and beaded in different patterns, as well as twisted into a
cord that was worn around the neck)6 Unfortunately many documents, such as this one
by Monclaro, do not specify if both men and women wore this cloth. According to dos
Santos, writing in the 15805, only women spun cotton.l7 This practice may have spread
further south to the Ndau area where cloth continued to be produced locally despite a

large and fairly steady volume of imports.

 

'2 Monclaro, “Relacao da Viagem,” In Theal, RSEA, III, 229.

'3 lbid. Machira is the Ndau word for pieces of cloth (iira, sing).

'4 Ibid., 234; Manuel Barreto, “Informacao do estado e conquista dos rios de Cuama,” Theal, RSEA, III,
481.

'5 Dos Santos, Etiopia Oriental (1999), l 11 and English translation in Theal, RSEA, v1, 207.

'6 This was a cotton cloth made in Cambay that was usually blue, red or black, according to S. I. G.
Mudenge, A Political History of Munhumutapa, c. 1400-1902 (Harare, 1988), xi; Monclaro, “Relacab da
Viagem,” In Theal, RSEA, 111, 234-235.

'7 Dos Santos Etiapia Oriental in Theal, RSEA, VI, 207.

135

The Ndau harvested cotton, Spun and dyed wide pieces of cloth and used spun
sheep’s wool as thread.18 They added color with dyes made from crushed substances,
boiled leaves, bark or roots, or mud from fresh water rivers.19 Some cloth panels were
dyed orange with saffron, brown or gray with dark clay and red with blood.20 Indigo and
a plant referred to as “ambono” were common dyes in the Ndau region, according to
Gama.21 People apparently first brought pieces of cloth to the Chikore area from the
Portuguese trading base at Bwanyi on the coast.22 The first cloth in Zamchiya purchased
from Pakatai, was only red, black and white.23

The Ndau also dressed in animal Skins and bark from trees that differed little
from cloth, according to an account from 1758.24 A century later Erskine described the
use of baobab bark as large cloth coverings.25 He described the coverings as “immensely
heavy, but apparently of everlasting wear.”26 He was referring to magudza, coverings

made out of woven strips or strings from baobab, msasa and fig trees.27 One gudza was

 

'8 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 26; Erskine, “Journey to Umzila’s, South-East Africa, in
1871-1872,” 95.
'9 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 26; An account from the early sixteenth century claimed
that the Muslim residents of Sofala did not used dyes. “Description of the Situation, Customs and Produce
of Various Places of Africa” (c. 1518) In Documentos Sabre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique e No Africa
Central, [497-1840, DPMAC, (9 vols., Lisboa, 1962-1972) V, 375.
:1: Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 23.

Ibid.
22 Bwanyi (Bwanye or Buene) is an island at the mouth of the Gorongoza river near Chiluane (south of
Sofala). It was “the main Portuguese base in the Sofala region for much of the nineteenth century,”
according to David Beach, A Zimbabwean Past (Gweru, 1994), 247.
23 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
2" lgnécio Caetano Xavier, “Noticias dos Dominios Portuguese na Costa da Africa Oriental” (1758) in A.
A. Andrade, Relacoes de Macambique Setecentista, (Lisboa, 1955), 146.
:: Erskine, “Journey to Umzila’s, South-East Africa, in 1871-1872,” 97.

Ibid.
2’ Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999; Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July
1999.

136

big enough to cover four or five children, who would sleep under it.28 People wore
magudza and also wove ‘strings’ from trees into maswa to use as clothing.29

One account mentions Africans south of the Zambezi in the sixteenth century
wearing sheepskins “because of the cold south winds.”30 The second ‘skin’, or
membrane, of elephants was dried and used as a sheet, and leopard skins were
particularly valued as clothing. Noting the prominent status of some women, Xavier
commented, “Only the most important among them wear cloth, according to their means,
giving preference in this and other aspects to the women who are always highly respected
and without whose opinion nothing is decided.”31 This reference most likely concerns
royal women, such as those of Quiteve, for the status of common women was below that
of men.

Although cloth was manufactured and acquired through trade in the Ndau region,
many elders recall the prevalence of skins as well.32 In the hinterland of Sofala Afiicans
used a combination of cloth and skins and covered themselves from the waist down,
according to an early sixteenth-century account.33 One elder described the use of two
small pieces of cloth called faya wrapped over the upper body as a covering.34 Animal

skins were made into shoes to provide protection from thorns.35 Two straps of animal

 

2” Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

7‘9 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999; Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya,
Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

30 Manuel de F aria e Sousa, “Asia Portuguesa” (1666—1674) in Theal, RSEA, I, 15.

3' Xavier, “Noticias dos Dominios Portuguese na Costa da Africa Oriental” in Andrade, 146; English
translation from D. N. Beach and H. de Noronha, “The Shona and the Portuguese 1575-1890” (2 vols.,
Harare, 1980), Vol. II, 31.

32 Ndagumirwa Sigauke, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

33 “Description of the Situation, Customs and Produce of Various Places of Africa” (c. 1518) DPMA C, v,
375.

3“ Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

35 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

137

skin, one in front and one in the back, were worn by men. The tanned skins, known as
njoba, were from the jangwa, an animal in the mongoose family.36 An inner skin was
used as underwear.37 Or, at times a man covered only his penis with a munyata.38
Women also wore skins in the front and back. Cowhide, called dembe, was mainly meant
for women.39 Skins wrapped around the waist were called mukare. Many women wore a
short skirt called a chikisa, which is still used today for special occasions and certain
ceremonies. On the upper body, a woman would sometimes wear two straps of cloth
over each shoulder and tuck the straps into her chikisa.4o Women did not cover their
upper bodies at times, but an early account from 1518 notes that they cover their breasts
once married."l Some elders preferred the tanned skins over clothes because the njaba
was very durable."2 An elder from Chikore explained, “Some would marry using those
skins if they were nicely and expertly done.”43 However, those that were not tanned
properly were described as “laughing stocks?“ So skins were both admired and

ridiculed, depending on the quality of the tanning.

Jewelry
Women, and some men, wore beads and very fine bracelets of copper and gold

(makasa) on their arms and similar metal anklets on their legs, a practice that

 

3" Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999; Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999;
Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
3’ Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
38 John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.
’9 Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
‘° Ibid.
4' “Description of the Situation, Customs and Produce of Various Places of Africa” (c. 1518) DPMAC, v,
375; John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.
:: Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
Ibid.

138

continued into the twentieth century.45 Monclaro notes that the Monomotapa sent
eight of these metal bracelets to Franciso Barreto in the sixteenth century to honor him
as one of his “wives.”46 Xavier describes “beads of various colors and kinds, the most
appreciated being the ones that are mixed with small pieces of coral, and they also
wear some made of tin.”47 On a journey from Inhambane to Sofala, Andre Femandes
admired women wearing “many strings of different colored beads twisted together in
front, and arranged to fall one below the other at the back.”48 He also wrote that
Africans wore copper bracelets (rather than iron) that were “much esteemed among

them ”49

Women also wore headbands, makheya, and ornaments woven with beads.50
Femandes observed women with “all sorts of finery, such as crowns and circlets, on
their heads, which are half shaved.”51 Elders in the twentieth century reported that
Ndau women were said to beautiful when they wore metal bracelets and chains of
beads around their necks.52

The Ndau wore jewelry made from gold, copper and ivory as well as imported

glass beads. Men brought anklets from Bwanyi as gifis to their Wives and

 

4‘ Celani Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

‘5 Monclaro, “Relacao da Viagem,” In Theal, RSEA, III, 229; Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June
1999; Ndagumirwa Sigauke, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999; Beach, The Shana and their
Neighbours, (Oxford, 1994), 158.

‘6 Barreto and other Portuguese officials were called the chief’s ‘wives’ as a sign of honor and affection.
Monclaro, “Relacaé da Viagem,” In Theal, RSEA, III, 229, 252.

47 Xavier in Andrade, Relaca'es de Macambique Setecentista, 146. English translation from Beach and
Noronha, Vol. II, 31-32.

’8 Andre Femandes, “Letter from the Father Andre Femandes to the Brother Luiz Froes at the College of
Goa” (1560) 25 June, Theal, RSEA, II, 76.

‘9 Ibid.

5° John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999; Phoebe Mukokota, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June
1999.

5' André F emandes, “Letter from the Father André Femandes to the Brother Luiz Froes at the College of
Goa” (1560) 25 June, Theal, RSEA, II, 76.

’2 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

139

girlfriends.’3 Ivory was cut into small pieces that were soaked in cold water or buried
in humid earth for some time.’4 The pieces were fashioned into combs, knife handles
and sheaths.55 Other items were manufactured out of iron, copper, gold, cotton and
skins.56 The coast near Sofala yielded amber and seed pearls, and in 1696 a shipment
of pearls and seed pearls were sent to Goa.57 Iron also came from the cotton-
producing regions of Madanda, and Quiteve. Iron ore, described as “dust like earth”,
was an abundant mineral that Ndau artisans smelted and worked into various
implements such as knives, axes, arrows and wire that was twisted around their legs
and arms.58 Blacksmiths made hoes from pieces of iron bars worked to perfection
with hammers and files.59 This technique may have been a recent development, since
Gama noted that earlier peoples did not understand this method. Copper was worked
in a similar manner to iron and fashioned into rings worn on the neck, legs and arms.60
Despite the presence of blacksmiths, Gama claimed that the Ndau did not know how to
work gold or stone at the end of the eighteenth century.“ Ivory and gold, acquired in
the hinterland regions of Quiteve, Manica and Barue, were traded at Sofala.62
Monclaro could not explain the reluctance of African men and women to mine for
gold in the sixteenth century, especially since he argued that “they have a great love of

gold, and make different things of it which they wear round their necks like beads, and

 

5’ Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999; Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
5" Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 23.
5’ Ibid., 23-24.
5“ Ibid., 23.
57 Xavier, “Noticias dos Dominios Portuguese na Costa da Africa Oriental” in Andrade, 154-55.
5" Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 23. Although the text reads “hands and feet”, Gama is
glost likely referring to the common practice of wearing wire on the arms and legs.
Ibid.
°° Ibid.
6' Ibid., 23-24.

140

also use it in trading for cloth.63 He concluded that Africans dug for gold at certain times
when they wanted to buy cloth."4 Monclaro argued that Shona speakers valued gold even
more than the Portuguese, using it for trade and to make jewels and ornaments.65 The
Ndau and neighboring Shona also worked iron, copper and pewter into ornaments and
“other little things” according to Monclaro.“ Blacksmiths made arrows, assegais, hoes,
hatchets, and a kind of half sword that they called “lupangas.”67 Given the importance of
jewelry and metalworking, mining was most likely carried out to meet the demand for
metals, despite its inherent risks.

Dos Santos noted that the Mutapa and his vassals each wore a white shell on
their foreheads that hangs from their hair. The Mutapa himself wore another white
shell on his breast. Yet these shells, referred to as andaras (ndara) by dos Santos,
were despised by the king of Quiteve, “as they are insignia of his enemy
Monomotapa,” according to dos Santos."8 The Teve leader was determined to set
himself apart from his rival on the plateau. Soon afier, Diogo Simoes also gave the
Mutapa a gold andara set with false stones “such as the Mokaranga kaffirs wear on
their heads,” according to the chronicler Antonio Bocarro.69 The andara retained a

religious significance in the twentieth century among the Ndau and their neighbors to

 

(’2 Xavier, “Noticias dos Dominios Portuguese na Costa da Africa Oriental” in Andrade, 154, 174.

63 Monclaro, “Relacao da Viagem,” In Theal, RSEA, III, 234.

6‘ Ibid., 253.

6’ Ibid.

6‘ Ibid., 235.

67 Dos Santos, Etiapia Oriental (1999), 112 and in Theal, RSEA, VII, 207. A lupanga, also known as a
‘panga’, is from the Shana word for knife: banga (sing), mapanga ml).

6“ Dos Santos, Etiapia Oriental, Theal, RSEA, v11, 289. Andara is ndara, a “shell-like white ornament (or
real shell) gen[erally] worn on chest (of great antiquity, now associated with chiefiainships and with those
having magical powers).” M. Hannan, Standard Shana Dictionary (Gweru, 1984), 443.

6° “Extracts from the Decade Written by Antonio Bocarro” (1631—49) in Theal, RSEA, 111, 405.

141

the south, but it is worn “only by a person who is a medium for an Ndau spirit of very
high rank,” according to the missionary E. Dora Earthy.70

Ndau women have pierced their ears and worn earrings to decorate their bodies,
but men only began to pierce their ears in the nineteenth century after the Gaza Nguni
invasion.71 Although ear piercing began as a sign of subjection under the Gaza-Nguni,
Ndau men gave this practice a different cultural meaning after Gaza-Nguni overrule
ended in 1889. For the next 3040 years, a man’s pierced ears, often with a large hole,
were a sign of being ‘Ndau’. Men pierced their ears as a rite of passage, and this ‘mark’
distinguished them from other migrant laborers in Joni. The piercing of men’s ears will
be discussed further in chapter seven in the context of Gaza Nguni overrule; However, it
is important to note here that Ndau men ‘incorporated’ ear piercing as their own coming
of age ritual and mark of identity to the public. Even after Gaza Nguni overrule ended, a
man needed to pierce his ears to successfully court a woman, win her heart, and avoid
being regarded as worthless.72 Thus, during the nineteenth and twentieth century, ear

piercing held shifting meanings for men and women in Ndau society.

Pika and Nyora
Just as ear piercing became a right of passage for young men before they went
to work in South Africa’s mines, tattoos, known as pika, marked the passage of young

women into adulthood. Philemon Khosa said that pika “was done as a symbol of

 

70 E. Dora Earthy, Valenge Women: The Social and Economic Life of Valenge Women of

Portuguese East Africa, on Ethnographic Study (London, 1933), 212. Earthy lived among the Valengwe
north of the Limpopo river where Ndau spirits are prevalent. See chapter six.

7' Valengwe women to the south did not pierce their ears, Earthy, Valenge Women. 105.

72 John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

142

identity, just like the piercing of ears so that people will be able to identify under
whose chiefdom people belong.”73 If someone looked at a woman wearing pika, “you
would know that this is a Ndau,” said Allen Mundeta.74 The beauty marks of pika.
often placed on the cheeks, forehead and stomach, were applied during puberty75 “so
that one would be attractive to boys.”76 But pika also demonstrated to the community
that young women were now adults. “Without pika you were not considered a lady,”
said one elder.77 Pika was a sign of both beauty and womanhood'in Ndau culture.78
Although pika was a matter of choice”, in the eyes of many pika added beauty
and made people look extraordinary among other people.80 It was common for pika to
consist of three marks on each cheek, forehead and stomach, but designs varied from
this practice.81 Some women, including many in Machaze, Mozambique, also had
pika on their legs. In recent times, Ndau women used pins to make pika marks82 to
beautify their faces.83 Although there was much laughter from female elders
surrounding questions of pika and nyora,84 most of those interviewed echoed
Mucherechete Dhlakama’s comment that both practices were “done for our men” and

“done to attract our men,”8’

 

7’ Philemon Khosa, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 July 1999.
7“ Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.
7’ Amelia Mutume, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998.
76 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
77 Celani Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
7“ Ndagumirwa Sigauke, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
’9 Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.
8° Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
8' Amelia Mutume, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998.
:: Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Ibid.
8" Ndagumirwa Sigauke, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999, just one of many examples.
85 Mucherechete Dhlakama, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

143

Nyora, scarification, also added beauty to women’s bodies and pleased men.“
The skin was cut, usually with a knife,87 and keloids developed after a substance such
as ash or clay was placed in the wound.88 Women decorated their bodies with
scarification patterns on their face, stomach, upper chest and thighs. The European
traveler Erskine noted in 1872 that the Danda who lived in the low lying region just
north of the Save river, “mark themselves with a V-shaped series of bumps” on their
forehead, between the eyes, as well as sometimes on their cheeks.89 On another
journey in the same region the following year, he wrote that the Danda had “rows of
skin-lumps between their eyes and at each corner of the mouth.”90 He proceeded to
the Ndau highlands to visit Mzila and did not remark on the practice of nyora in that
region.91 Yet elders interviewed throughout the Ndau region commented on the
prevalence of nyora and pika.

The patterned scar tissue of nyora served not only to beautify a woman, but
also to enhance sexual relations. This sexual aspect created added pressure for a

woman to have nyora. “Those without nyora are not that interesting,” remarked one

 

86 Phoebe Mukokota, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999; Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June
1999.

87 Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

88 The substance added to the wound may have been ‘medicine’ since Desmond Dale defines nyora as a
“tattoo mark, cicatrix, in which medicine has been added.” Desmond Dale, Duramazwi: A Shana-English
Dictionary, (Gweru, 1981), 163.

“9 Erskine, “Journey to Umzila’s, South—East Africa in 1871-1872,” 95; See also John Keith Rennie,
“Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism Among the Ndau of Southern Rhodesia, 1890-
1935,” Ph.D. diss., (Northwestern University, 1973), 88.

90 St. Vincent W. Erskine, “Third and Fourth Journeys in Gaza, or Southern Mozambique, 1873 to 1874
and 1874 to 1875, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 48: 25-56, 30.

9' Yet we cannot be sure that Erskine did not see women with keloids as he headed north towards the
Chimanimani mountains from the lower Save. He may have been looking only for scar tissue on women’s
faces, or perhaps he did not have the opportunity to view nyora and pika on other parts of the body such as
the stomach or thighs. In addition, Erskine was forced to rely on his memory when he wrote his account of
the journey, since all of his notebooks were lost in a flooded river. Erskine, “Journey to Umzila’s, South-
East Africa in 1871-1872,”, 45.

144

elder, since “it was done so that when caressing a woman you would feel the kind of

n 92

‘bumpy’ and rough surface, it is so pleasing. Nyora was considered to be so
important that a new bride would be inspected by her husbands’s aunts to make sure
that she had nyora.93 If the bride did not have nyora, she was ordered to have it done
before she was accepted as a wife, according to an elder in Chikore.94 Nyora
decorated the body95 and entertained the husband96 as well. Even though many elders
noted that nyora was pleasing to men, one male elder said that nyora was also “meant
to arouse the woman when she was being caressed, just like fondling.”97

Nyora, like pika, was a rite of passage for young women. “Without nyora one
was not considered a full woman,” explained Celani Mutigwe of Chikore.98 Another
elder recalled the atmosphere surrounding nyora: “It was meant to compete with other
girls in having those designs. At bathing places by the river, if you did not have pika
and nyora you were laughed and stalked by other girls and labelled as barbell, fish

”99 Thus, a woman without nyora was both ridiculed and frowned upon

without scales.
by others.100
Less information is available on the practice of teeth filing among the Ndau. One

elder recalled her grandmothers sharpening their two upper teeth (incisors) to add to their

 

92 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

’3 Celani Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

9“ lbid.

95 Ndagumirwa Sigauke, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

96 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

97 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
9‘ Celani Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

99 Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'00 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

145

beauty.101 In 1872 and 1873, Erskine also observed Ndau in the Danda region near the

lower Save who “file their upper teeth to a point.”102

The European traveler H. P. Junod
noticed in 1935 that the Ndau’s neighbors just to the north of the Pungwe river, the
Barwe and Manyika “file the inner side of their two upper incisive teeth in triangular

”103

shape. And many Chopi women south of the Save filed their upper teeth in the first

half of the twentieth century as well.104

Hairstyles

One of the earliest Portuguese accounts, from around 1518, noted that Africans in
the hinterland of Sofala “adorn the head slightly.”105 This was most likely an
understatement, for details of intricate hairstyles and ornamentation appear in other
documents from the sixteenth century. Women wore bands of beads on their heads and
used reddish rocks called mukura, probably ochre, to die their hair red.‘06 The rocks were
crushed into a powder and mixed with oil from mupfuta and then rubbed into hair. ’07
Elders recall that people near the border, in the area of Zamchiya, traded mukura with

others to the west in the valley where it was in demand.108 Erskine observed women

 

'0' Amelia Mutume, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998. “05 dois dentes incisivos do
maxilar superior.”

'02 Erskine, “Journey to Umzila’s, South-East Africa in 1871-1872,” 95; Erskine, “Third and Fourth
Journeys in Gaza, or Southern Mozambique, 1873 to 1874 and 1874 to 1875,” 30.

'0’ H. P. Junod, “Notes on the Ethnological Situation in Portuguese East Africa on the South of the
Zambezi,” Bantu Studies, 10 (1936): 293-311, 296.

'04 E. Dora Earthy, Valenge Women, 105.

’05 “Description of the Situation, Customs and Produce of Various Places of Africa” (c. 1518) DPMAC, v,
375.

'06 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'°7 Ibid.

"’8 Ibid.

146

further east near the lower Save “loaded with beads and red clay.”109 Women, including
the wives of chiefs, were considered to be “very smart” with reddish dye from mukura,
according to Sarai Nyabanga Sithole“0
Men were known for their creative hairstyles of which Monclaro provided a

detailed account at the end of the sixteenth century.

They wear ham-like headgear as an adornment, being made of their own

hair turned back in a strange manner; these horns are in general use in

Kaffraria, and provide a good shade. In‘ the middle of the head they make

one which draws the hair in most orderly and well-arranged fashion, first

making the hair long by means of small pieces of copper or tin which they

tie at the end of a few hairs brought together, so that the weight gradually

makes them long and crisp, and thus they go about with their heads

covered with these small pieces.111
Dos Santos describes a very similar procedure for making “horns” in hair, and notes that
man cannot wear their horns in the same fashion as the king of Quiteve, who wears four
horns in the following manner: “One a palm in length above his forehead like a unicorn,
and three half a palm in length, one at the back of the head, and one over each ear; each
horn standing very straight up in its place.”1 12 A man who did not wear horns faced
ridicule and the insult “that he is like a woman.”1 ’3 He continued by noting that they do
not use hats because of these horns. Dos Santos also argued that Africans did not cut

. . 4
their hair or beards.ll

 

'09 Erskine, “Third and Fourth Journeys in Gaza, or Southern Mozambique, 1873 to 1874 and 1874 to
1875,” 30.
”0 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
m F ranciso Monclaro, “Narrative (Copy) by Father Francisco de Monclaro, of the Society of Jesus, of the
Expedition to Monomotapa, Led by Francisco Barreto (post 1573)” DPMA C, viii, 325-429, 381. Compare
with another version of Monclaro, “Relacao da Viagem,” in Theal, RSEA, III, 229.
1:: Dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental (1999), 111; English translation in Theal, RSEA, vu, 207.

Ibid.

147

Houses and Granaries

The Ndau did not adorn their homes in the same decorative manner that they
used for their bodies. Round houses were made out of wooden poles and covered with
thatch. They were often plastered with dagga, a clay mixture, placed on either the inside

115

or both Sides of the dwelling. Men were the predominant builders of a house frame

116

and roof thatchers. Women plastered the walls and treated the earth floors to prevent

”7 Ndau women decorate the outside walls of some houses

cracking and crumbling.
today with painted designs, but this appears to be a recent trend.”8

The Size of a house varied, but we know that there were very large houses at
Great Zimbabwe in the sixteenth century and large houses appeared again in Manica in

”9 The entrances to houses

the 1890s for the purpose of avoiding the Portuguese hut tax.
in Zamchiya were small, and people had to bend down to enter.120 One elder in Zamchiya
noted that some big houses were divided “into two compartments for two wives.”121 The
Ndau in this region also built double story dwellings called dandara where people would
escape from lions.122 Very small double story houses called zvitumba, zvitarahwi and

, . . . . 2 .
zvzkurumbana also exrsted further north in chief Mutema’s region.1 3 Possessrons, such

as a pot for cooking, two hoes for digging and a bow with arrows for hunting, were stored

 

“‘ Dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental (1609) In Theal, RSEA, vii, 289.
"5 Manuel de F aria e Sousa claimed that Africans south of the Zambezi river in the sixteenth century lived
in wood houses.
”6 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
"7 Ndagumirwa Sigauke, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
"8 Further south, the walls of Valenge houses bore many designs earlier this century. Earthy, Valenge
Women, 238, Plate XVII.
"9 Beach, The Shana and their Neighbours, 48.
1:? Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Ibid.
'22 Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
'23 John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

148

upstairs in some of these houses, while people Slept on the ground floor on woven

mats. ‘24

Today the southeastern region of Machanga boasts the largest houses in the
Ndau-speaking area. Both the sizes of Ndau houses and their arrangement in a
compound vary over time and space.

Grain was also stored in some of the houses with a second floor,125 but the
Ndau tended to make separate granaries out of various materials to store their food.
Common materials were the same as those used in houses--pole and da'gga with straw
roofs--and these granaries are similar to those still in use today.126 Grain was also
stored in pots underground, and elders recall this practice during the famine of

127

mwadiwa. When harvests were good, grain reserves lasted for two years.128

Granaries differed by region and personal preference. For instance, granaries
in Mhakwe were not like those in Chikore. In Mhawke there were different granaries
for each type of crop. The granary, dura/matura, was built like a chitumba (double-

story hut), but the entrance at the top was smaller. A person needed a ladder to

129

enter. Yet in Chikore only double-story huts, zvitumba, were used as granaries.

The Ndau wove bundles of grass or small poles and grass together to make granaries

130

with small openings called nyumbu. The grass weave permitted ventilation and

 

"4 Catherine Dhlakama, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

'25 Ndagumirwa Sigauke, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'26 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 24. Numerous elders, when asked to describe houses
long ago, pointed to a ‘traditional’ round house or granary in their compound and noted that the
construction methods and building materials had not changed overtime. The houses that resembled those
used by earlier generations ofien sat next to ‘modern’ square houses made with cement blocks and
corrugated iron roofs.

'27 Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'28 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'29 Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

"° John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe. 30 June 1999; Catherine Dhlakama, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30
June 1999; Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

149

discouraged weevils from damaging the grain.13 I A beer party would be an occasion
to weave nyumbu.132 Rapoko was stored in a nyumbu or a chitumba, where it was
forced down using a pestle.133 Some Ndau would also build granaries plastered with

‘34 Ndau from Zamchiya recall using magombana, or thick

dagga, at times in trees.
musasa tree bark to store gain as well.135 Granaries in Zamchiya were made with only
dagga or a combination of both dagga and small poles.136 Despite the type of granary,

maize was stored with the husks.137

Pots

Nyumbu are still very impressive baskets used by some Ndau, but female potters
also made various kinds of clay pots, hari, for cooking and storage. Women would dig
clay soil from valleys and the sides of rivers to mix it with sandy soil from a crushed
piece of clay pot called a mushapa.138 After sprinkling water over the clay soil they
would mix it the following day and add the sandy mixture before making their clay

139

pots. Once made, a pot would dry for five days inside a house before being burned in a

fire until it was red-hot.140

 

'3' Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamwiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

'32 Mucherechete Dhlakama, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'33 Ibid.; Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'34 Phoebe Mukokota, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999; Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya,
Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

'35 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'36 Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

'37 Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

'38 Celani Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999; Ndagumirwa Sigauke, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13
July 1999.

"9 Celani Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

“‘0 Mucherechete Dhlakama, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

150

Very large pots were surrounded by woven baskets to aid during carrying.Ml
Each type of pot had a specific name. A large pot called mabiya was used for cooking a
sauce of leaves or meat used as a relish.142 Other very large pots were used to brew
beer.‘43 In the area around Mhakwe, a medium-sized nhamba was used for cooking the
maize-meal staple of sadza. Women and girls carried water in nhuvi, and the larger
mabiya was for brewing and storing beer. A chipfuka was used for storing water and a
clay plate known as mukheya was for serving relish.144 Zvikaraira were used as water
mugs during meals.I45 When asked about the kinds of pots that women made, Jona
Mwaoneni Makuyana said, “They did not make those decorative ones that are made
today for selling to whites. They made ordinary hari for cooking or mukheyo for

drinking.”l46

Adoming the Body and the Home

The Ndau kept up appearances overtime in ways that were both distinctive and
Similar to some of the cultural practices of their neighbors. In the sixteenth century the
Ndau shared a penchant for making horns in their hair with their neighbors to the south in
the hinterland of Inhambane. Father Andre Femandes observed Africans in this area
wearing “two horns on their heads” that they “stick in two pieces of wood” or decorate

the points “with a little gold.”M7 Even further south around Delagoa Bay in the

 

'4' Ellen Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

"2 Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

”3 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'4‘ Catherine Dhlakama, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

"5 Ellen Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

'46 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

"7 André Femandes, “Letter from the Father André Femandes to the Brother Luiz Froes at the College of
Goa” (1560) 25 June, Theal, RSEA, II, 76.

151

eighteenth century, Africans wore brass rings on their arms “from their wrists to above

””8 similar to those used by the Ndau and their Shona neighbors. Yet

their elbows,
despite the fact that other Africans such as the Tsonga and Valenge marked their bodies
in a similar manner to pika and nyora of Ndau women, elders in the Ndau region today

consider tattoos and scarification to be specific to the Ndau.149

This sense of ‘being
Ndau’ through shared body markings is also gendered--women mark their bodies while
men (and women) enjoy the beauty of it. Although evidence about how Ndau-speakers
adorned themselves is oflen rich, it is difficult to discern which cultural practices were
adopted as a result of internal dynamics or contact with ‘outsiders’ through trade,
incorporation or resistance. Regardless of this gap in scholars’ knowledge, the hairstyles,
ornamentation and body art of the Ndau were all examples of vehicles for expressing
both individual and group identity. With pika and nyora, for instance, ‘Ndauness’ was
inscribed on women’s bodies. Through the use of pika and nyora, the Ndau made a
statement about standards of female beauty and attractiveness and signaled an ethnic
boundary. Hairstyles and jewelry most likely served as both a status symbol and an

aesthetic medium. By expressing their own distinct concept of the body and its

adornment, the Ndau shaped a very public identity with a long historical continuity.

 

”8 Fynn “Delagoa Bay,” Theal, RSEA, II, 481

'49 Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999. See, for instance, the discussion of tattoos in
nineteenthocentury southern Mozambique in Heidi Gengenbach, “Where Women Make History: Pots,
Stories, Tattoos, and Other Gendered Accounts of Community and Change in Magude District,
Mozambique, c. 1800 to the Present,” Ph. D. diss. (University of Minnesota, 1999), chapter five.

152

CHAPTER SIX
Brewing Beer, Making Rain and Holding Court

The chief would tell people to go and instruct them
that they would see a whirlwind. These people would
not even reach their intended destination before rains fell.’

-Sarai Nyabanga Sithole

Ushe hahuzvitongi.
C hieftainship cannot rule itself’
-Shona proverb

Mhasva haizvitongi.
A case cannot try itself 3
-Shona proverb

The Ndau have shared a mélange of beliefs reflected in the activities of brewing
beer, making rain and holding court. As important ingredients in the ‘mixed pot’ of
Ndauness, both the practical and symbolic aspects of these rituals were central to the
development of a cultural identity among the Ndau. Beer drinking has a deep social
significance, for as one proverb notes, “Where there is beer there is noise.”4 The noise
may stem from a work party, a ceremony of thanksgiving, or a casual afternoon gathering
of elders.5 Beer chinks, both in the present and in the past, validate the position of each

headman “as social dean and land manager?”5 Similarly, a chief whose ancestors

 

' Sarai Nyabanga Sithole describing Mbonyeya’s rain—making power of the Musikavanhu chieftaincy.
Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
2 Mordikai A. Hamutyinei and Albert B. Plangger, T sumoeShumo: Shana Proverbial Lore and Wisdom
(Gweru, 1987), 304.
3 Ibid., 320.
4 Ibid., 412. Panonwiwa daro, pananzikwa nemhere. Another proverb notes, “(SnufO tobacco creates no
grudge like beer” (F adya haina shura sedora), implying the rudeness of refusing to offer beer to visitors.
.434.
Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999; Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June
1999; Field notes, Zimbabwe: Zamchiya, July 1999.
6 David McDermott Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics: Struggles for Land and Clients on the Zimbabwe-
Mozambique Border.” Ph.D. diss. (University of Califronia, Berkeley, 1999), 142.

153

continue to bring rain is viewed as “the rightful authority.”7 Legitimacy is also central to
holding court, for chiefs relied on their communities to abide by decisions made at the
dare, or court.8 Leaders knew that “chieftainship cannot rule itself,” but sufficient rain I

and ample beer made the affairs of the court run much smoother.9

Beer, Rain and the Spiritual World

Life‘ was not possible without ample rain and fertile soil. Therefore, chiefs and
headrnen took charge of rainmaking ceremonies, which gave thanks to both the chief and
his ancestors for the crops harvested in the past.10 Rainmaking ceremonies, called /
makato, were “part and parcel of people’s livelihood” in the chiefdom.ll Makoto were
held annually under the guidance of the chief in July and August, or at other times after a
period of drought. Elders recalled people celebrating at the residence of the chief when
he asked them to prepare makato.12 Women would ululate into the night at the chief’s
residence. “Even when the chief went to sleep, we would still dance and sing around his
house,” remarked Mucherechete Dhlakama of Zamchiya, Zimbabwe.13 Meanwhile, men

sat together and drank beer, but each family also reserved beer for the chief.14

 

7 Carin Vij fhuizen, “‘The People You Live With’: Gender Identities and Social Practices, Beliefs and
Power in the Livelihoods of Ndau Women and Men in a Village with an Irrigation Scheme in Zimbabwe,”
Ph. D. diss. (Wageningen Agricultural University, Netherlands, 1998), 265.
8 The dare is not only the ‘court,’ but also the village meeting place for men and the body that has judicial
or executive authority. M. Harman, Standard Shana Dictionary (Gweru, 1984), 111.
9 Hamutyinei and Plangger, T sumo-Shumo: Shana Proverbial Lore and Wisdom, 304.
'° Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999; Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13
July 1999.
” They are still performed today. Philemon Khosa, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 July 1999; Mucherechete
Dhlakama, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
:: Mucherechete Dhlakama, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

lbid.
'4 Ibid.; Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999; Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13
July 1999; Philemon Khosa, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 July 1999.

154

Chiefs performed ceremonies at gravesites or other shrines to ensure rainfall and
fertility, and people drank beer and sang praise songs to the ancestors.15 One song
repeated the phrase Iri mubako mwemvura waye-e, or “Going to the cave of water.”16 The
Ndau also placed beer, sadza and meat under a tree as an offering to the ancestors.‘7
People passing by were permitted to help themselves to the food and beer under the
tree,18 and after eating they thanked the ancestors and asked for a plentiful season.19 The
Ndau viewed rainmaking ceremonies as successful, and even if makoto failed to bring
rain, people did not stop performing the ritual.20

An early description of rainmaking from the Portuguese record appears in dos
Santos’s discussion of the ‘working’ relationship between Ndau chiefs and their subjects
in the 1580s.

When they suffer necessity or scarcity they have recourse to the king, firmly

believing that he can give them all that they desire or have need of, and can
obtain anything from his dead predecessors, with whom they believe that he
holds converse. For this reason they ask the king to give them rain when it is
required, and other favourable weather for their harvest, and in coming to ask
for any of these things they bring him valuable presents, which the king
accepts, bidding them return to their homes and he will be careful to grant their
petitions.21

Dos Santos went on to argue that the Teve king deceives his subjects and “does not give

them what they ask for” until they make greater offerings.22 He lamented the many days

 

‘5 Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

'6 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

'7 John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

'8 lbid.

'9 Ibid.

20 Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

2' Joao dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental e Va'ria Histo'ria de Causas Natdveis do Oriente, 1609, (Lisboa, 1999)
and English translation in George McCall Theal, Records ofSouth-Eastern Africa (RSEA), (9 vols., Cape
Town, 1964) VII,199.

” lbid.

155

spent “in these comings and goings” surrounding requests to the king, yet he noted the
general satisfaction within the kingdom when it began to rain.23 More than 300 years
later, when the rainy season approached in Nyabanga, Sarai Nyabanga Sithole recalled
how her uncle, Magavhu, would “negotiate with the chief to plead on behalf of the
people.”24 She explained that the chief, Mbonyeya, would then

tell people to go and instruct them that they would see a whirlwind. These

people would not even reach their intended destination before rains fell.

Women would then ululate for the people who would have gone to the chief’ S

sacred place to bring rain.25
It was also common for the Ndau to believe that a type of traditional medicine, divisi,
caused crop failure by invisibly transferring one person’s healthy crops into the field of
another.26 If one farmer questioned his poor harvest compared to the abundant crop of a
neighboring farmer, the chief usually intervened and ordered the beneficiary to stop
relying on the charm of divisi at the expense of the harmed neighbor.27 When insects
such as caterpillars or worms posed problems for crops, people would collect the insects
and bring them to the chief “pleading to have such creatures disappear to other places.”28
Mubayi Mhlanga notes, “Normally after that things would become stable.”29 These

requests for rain and crop protection stressed the central role of chiefs as powerful

‘stabilizers’ in Ndau society.

 

23 Ibid.

2‘ Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

25 Ibid. Mbonyeya displayed rainmaking powers around 1895 until his death in 1947, according to J. K.
Rennie, “From Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chiefiaincy: Four Transformations of the Musikavanhu Territorial
Cult in Rhodesia,” in Guardians of the Land, ed. J. M. Schoffeleers (Gweru, 1978), 257, 278.

‘3: Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

' lbid.

f: Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

‘ Ibid.

156

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Shona speakers to the west--the
Changamire dynasty of the Rozvi—-influenced the rainmaking of those further east,
including the Ndau and their Manyika neighbors.30 Traditions claim that “Dombo”, the
founder of the Rozvi, was expelled from the Mutapa state when he refused to drink a
poison ordeal to confirm an oath.31 Once the Changamire ruler established his chiefdom
in the southwestern Khami area of the Torwa kingdom in the late seventeenth century, he
adopted the local reliance on the Mwari rainmaking Spirit.32 The influence of this
guardian Spirit spread eastward as the Rozvi kingdom expanded, and both the Ndau and
the Manyika arranged for delegates to visit the Mwari shrines in the Matopo Hills of /
southwestern Zimbabwe.33 From Bhila’s work on the Manyika north of the Ndau region,
we know that the Manyika sent tribute to the Rozvi kings for about 100 years, and then
maintained important links after this tributary relationship ceased in the eighteenth
century.34 Thus, the power of Mwari extended over a large area and served to link people
across political boundaries.”

But in the Sanga (Chisanga) highland region east of the Save river, the dziva (pool

totem) dynasties established in the seventeenth century had their own territorial cults that

 

3" Beach, The Shana and Zimbabwe (Harare, 1980): Rennie, “From Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chieflaincy,”
25 7-285; Gloria Waite, “Public Health in Precolonial East-Central Africa” in The Social Basis of Health
and Healing in Africa, Steven Feierman and John M. Janzen, eds., (Berkeley, 1992), 221.

3' Waite notes that this substance was probably mteya. Gloria Waite, “Public Health in Precolonial East-
Central Africa” in The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa, 221.

’2 Ibid.; Rennie, “From Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chiefiaincy,” 260, 264.

33 Gloria Waite, “Public Health in Precolonial East-Central Africa” in The Social Basis of Health and
Healing in Africa, 222; Rennie, “From Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chiefiaincy,” 260.

34 H. H. K. Bhila, Trade and Politics in a Shana Kingdom, (Salisbury, 1982); Gloria Waite, “Public Health
in Precolonial East-Central Africa” in The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa, 222.

35 Gloria Waite, “Public Health in Precolonial East—Central Africa” in The Social Basis of Health and
Healing in Africa, 222.

157

brought rain.36 Despite conquest by mayo (heart) dynasties, these rain-bringing cults
survived, and by the nineteenth century the power of the leading chief, Musikavanhu, was
eventually recognized by members of other lineages who brought presents for rain from
as far away as the coast.37 Even the Gaza Nguni leaders who ruled over much of the
Ndau region in the nineteenth century sent payments to rain-making chiefs such as
Mafussi, according to the European traveller St. Vincent Erskine.38 Rennie argues,
however, that Musikavanhu’s charismatic leaders impeded integration into the Sanga
chieftaincy of Mutema.39 The transformation of Musikavanhu into a secular chiefiaincy
would not take place until Rhodesian colonial authorities intervened in the twentieth
century.“0

AS the case of the Rozvi demonstrates, Ndau chiefs were not the only figures who
could bring rain. Even the European Erskine alleged, “I acquired quite a high reputation
as a rain—maker, because it frequently happened that it rained upon my anival at kraals
[homesteads].”41 On one journey through the Save lowlands in the 1870s Erskine
claimed that an elderly chief named Sondaba asked him to make rain.42 Sondaba offered

Erskine “some corn and three fowls,” but Erskine demanded a goat instead. Even though

 

36 John Keith Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism, and the Origins of Nationalism Among the Ndau of
Southern Rhodesia, 1890—1935,” Ph.D. diss. (Northwestern University, 1973), 68—69 and “From Zimbabwe
to a Colonial Chieftaincy”; David Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics,” 38.
37 Coastal delegations brought presents for rain into the 19205, according to Rennie, “From Zimbabwe to a
Colonial Chiefiaincy,” 257 and 262.
38 St. Vincent W. Erskine noted this in the 18705 in “Journey to Umzila’s, South-East Africa, in 1871-
1872,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 45: 45-128, 121. The Gaza Nguni presence led to many
changes, including a disregard for territorial shrines, as discussed ahead in chapter seven. John Keith
Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation: Political and Communal Ideologies among the South-Eastern
Shana, 1500-1890,” in Ahmed ldho Salim, ed. State Formation in Eastern Africa (Nairobi, 1984), 184.
39 Rennie, “From Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chiefiaincy,” 270.
4" lbid., 272-280.
" St. Vincent W. Erskine, “Third and Fourth Journeys in Gaza, or Southern Mozambique, 1873 to 1874
43an 1874 to 1875, Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 48: 25-56, 34.

Ibid.

158

Sondaba did not fulfill Erskine’s requirement, rain fell for three days soon after the
request, according to Erskine.

Beer drinks, like rainmaking ceremonies, were important religious functions as
well as popular social gatherings. A major annual feast involving beer and dancing was
bira, a ceremony of thanksgiving for the care of the ancestors.“ After a harvest people l
presented a share of their crops to the local chief and offered a portion to their
ancestors.44 Relatives, friends and neighbors brought beer and food to a ceremony that
praised and appeased their ancestors.45 On the day of a special beer drink such as bira
nephews and nieces would lay by the door with tree branches and sing.46 Beer was also
brewed for a bira to celebrate the homecoming of migrant laborers from South Africa."7
People would drink, sing, dance and enjoy themselves. A traditional dance of the Ndau
highland region known as muchongoyo was performed when these men returned from
Joni, or J ohannesburg."8 Women possessed by spirits performed another dance, the
chinyambera in the wider Ndau region.49 Those possessed by spirits, known as Mhangas,
had their own praise songs.50 During a summer’s full moon children from the community

gathered at homesteads to play and dance chinyambera.51 People would Sing and beat

 

‘3 Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999: Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July
1999.

4" John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

’5 Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 2000; Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July
1999; Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

4" Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

‘7 Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

48 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 2000; Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe,
14 July 1999. Sekuru Makuyana argues that “when muchongoyo is performed, even white people would
nod their heads in appreciation following the sequence of the dance.”

’9 Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999. She commented that ceremonies such as this one have
been replaced by ‘modern’ ceremonies.

5° Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 2000.

5' Ellen Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

159

drums, but not make any offerings.52 Doro rengoma was a special beer brewed for
occasions with drumming that led people to dance and play.53 These ceremonies brought
people together to celebrate and drink beer.

For the Ndau, the power of the spiritual world is central to rainmaking and beer
brewing ceremonies. The Ndau have maintained beliefs in the power of ancestor spirits,
healers and spirit mediums over several centuries, as evidence from dos Santos and other
documents confirms. In 1758, for instance, Xavier described the religious beliefs of the
Ndau in this manner:

They worship only one true God whom they call Mulrrngo54 and consider the

prime cause of everything, and do not recognize any false gods, they worship

almost to idolatry their dead and call them muzimos and at their festivals, which

are carried out when they feel like it, without any established order, they make

them offerings of food and drink and place them by a tree especially dedicated

to their purpose and which they respect as sacred in the same way as they

respect the graves.”5
Despite the inherent bias in this description, it is fairly accurate. Reis e Gama noted in
1796 that the Ndau believe in a God called Murungo and they have no word or concept
for the “devil.”56 Yet dos Santos interpreted spirit possession in the 15808 as the

presence of a “devil” in Ndau society.57 The Ndau, meanwhile, offered ancestors beer or

food at their gravesites to appease them and prevent any malady from striking those still

 

52 Ibid.

53 Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 2000.

5‘ Dos Santos also noted that Africans in the Sofala hinterland recognized “a great God, whom they call
Moungo. He argued, however, that “they have a confused knowledge . . . but they do not pray or command
themselves to him.” Etiépia Oriental in Theal, RSEA, VII, 199.

55 Ignacio Caetano Xavier, “Noticias dos Dominios Portuguese na Costa da Africa Oriental” (1758) in A.
A. Andrade, Relacées de Macambique Setecentista, (Lisboa, 1955), 147. English translation from Beach
and Noronha, Vol. II, 32.

56 Carlos Jose dos Reis e Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre os Cafres (l 796), Introduction and notes by
Gerhard Liesegang (Lisboa, 1966), 15-16.

’7 Dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental in Theal, RSEA, v11. 197.

160

living.58 On some occasions clothing is left on a grave for two or three days before it is
removed.59 Burial places remain venerated sites of supplication, particularly the sacred (
sites of chiefs. At the end of the seventeenth century Manuel de Faria e Sousa argued
that Africans believe that their kings go to heaven and are called “muzimos.”60 This is a
reference to the spirit elder of a family or the soul of a dead relative, called mudzimu (p1.
vadzimu) in Ndau. Faria e Sousa compared the belief in “muzimos” (vadzimu), called
upon in times of need, to the Catholic reliance on saints.61 At the end of the sixteenth
century, Dos Santos thought that people in Teve observed days called ‘musimas’, to
honor the “souls of dead saints” (vadzimu).62 Ancestral spirits continue to occupy an
important place among the living in the Ndau region today. For example, ancestors from
both families are informed of a pending marriage, and it is hoped that they will unite “and
communicate well with both families?"3
Many Ndau interpreted various incidents, such as their dreams or the songs of
birds, as either good fortune or ominous signs.64 Witchcraft was often an explanation for
unfortunate events, and this preoccupation with fate gave witchcraft a prominent place in
Ndau society. Even though the Ndau viewed the sun, moon, stars, wind and rain as

natural creations, they considered thunder and lighting to be the result of witchcraft.65

When the Ndau attributed deaths and misfortune to witchcraft they would consult

 

58 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 15.

5" Ibid., 17.

60 Manuel de F aria e Sousa, Asia Portuguese (1666; 1674), extracts in Theal, RSEA, 1, 24-25.

6' Although Sousa’s description is not entirely accurate, it is understandable that his confusion arises from
his own Catholic perspective. Manuel de F aria e Sousa, Asia Partuguesa (1666; 1674), extracts in Theal,
RSEA, 1, 24-25.

‘2 Dos Santos, Etiapia Oriental, in Theal, RSEA, 200.

‘53 Carin Vijfbuizen, “‘The People You Live With’”, 36.

6‘ Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, l7.

6’ Ibid., 17-18.

161

diviners to determine who brought about these calamities."6 Negative associations with
witchcraft led some Ndau to fear those associated with any magical powers.67 Oracles.
called inhamucaras or pandas, were both men and women. These figures applied
household medicines and profited as “deceivers”, according to Reis e Gama in the
Reposta.68 Diviners known as cuchacucha threw cowrie shells on the floor and made
their predictions based upon how each shell landed."9 Chiefs were responsible for
resolving acusations of witchcraft that often involved domestic disputes. They consulted
n ’angas and spirit mediums and ordered those held responsible for misdeeds to hand over
cattle or goats.70

After the death of a chief or other important person, the surviving heir consulted a
diviner called a ganga to seek out the guilty party. Following a ceremony with dancing
and drumming, the diviner reviewed the history of the deceased’s grudges with his
enemies and then used his brush or feathers to select one or more people as the ‘murder’
suspects. Some suspects were killed with knives while other ‘lucky’ ones were forced to
undergo a well-documented poison ritual to determine their guilt or innocence. Dos
Santos referred to this poison ritual, which he called Iucasse, as one of the “most terrible
and wonderful oaths” of three common practices used by the Ndau when someone’s

innocence is called into question.71 The accused drank a cup of poison that was reported

 

66 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 19; Xavier, “Noticias dos Dominios Portuguese na Costa
da Africa Oriental” in Andrade, Relacaes de Macambique Setecentista,, 147.

‘57 Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

68 The word used is enganadaras. Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 16.

”9 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 16.

7° Later, money was a form of payment as well, but this occurred rarely. Allen Mundeta, Chikore,
Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

7' Dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental (1609), in Theal, RSEA, v11, 204.

162

to kill the guilty but leave the innocent “safe and sound.”72 Once an accused man proved
his innocence, the accuser was then punished for his “false testimony.” According to dos
Santos, the accuser “becomes the slave of him whom he falsely accused, and forfeits all
his property and his wife and children, half going to the king and the other half to him
who was accused.”73 Reis e Gama, writing 200 years later, described a similar poison
ordeal with a substance called maavi that contained a mixture of bark, tree roots and
crocodile bile.“ Those who vomited maavi were considered to be falsely accused, but
those who did not expel the potion were forced to make a payment. A second ‘oath’ cited
by dos Santos was called xaca and entailed licking a red hot iron. Those who were
‘innocent’ were not banned on their tongues. A third Sixteenth-century method used
calc‘ia, a mixture of water, bitter herbs and almude. A suspect proved his innocence by
swallowing the liquid without vomiting afterwards, but a guilty person was unable to
swallow even “a single drop,” according to dos Santos.” The Shana proverb “The one
who pretends to be innocent is the evil-doer” reflected the desire of the Ndau and their
Shona neighbors to test the claims of suspects.76

Chiefs acted as important intermediaries between their constituencies and the
spirit world. At the end of the Sixteenth century, for example, the ruler of Teve ascended
a mountain to perform a ceremony at the graves of his ancestors each September. Dos

Santos described the excessive eating and drinking of the king and his entourage that

 

’2 Ibid.

73 Ibid.

7" Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 19. He reviled the Ndau for using maavi.

7’ Dos Santos, Etiépia Oriental (1609) in Theal, RSEA, viii, 204-205.

76 Jenga mhosva / ndiye muiti wezvakaipa. Hamutyinei and. Plangger, T suma-Shuma: Shana Praverbial
Lore and Wisdom, 200.

163

characterized the first eight days.77 After this prolonged feast, all mourned for the dead
over several more days until an ancestral spirit, in this case the king’s dead father,
possessed a person present at the ceremony.78 The Spirit, according to dos Santos,
“begins to cough and speak like the dead king whom he represents, in such a manner that
it seems to be his very self, both in voice and movements.”79 All present “prostrate
themselves before him” to demonstrate honor and recognition of the spirit. Then the
people withdrew so that the living king could have a ‘private’ conversation with the spirit
about the outlook for the future. Topics of discussion included war and forecasts of
famine or misfortune, but dos Santos claimed that “these blind men” continued to believe
the false answers of the spirit medium each year.80

A more recent and similar religious ceremony called mandhlazi centers around a
ndhlazi spirit that belongs to a deceased warrior, who was usually a wandering Nguni
warrior. These spirits can also inhabit the Ndaus, but not other Shona speakers, because
the Ndau and the “Zulu” “feel that they belonged to the same clan once upon a time,”
according to one Chikore resident.81 During a mandhlazi ceremony, a possessed
participant becomes a “Zulu-speaking warrior” who may be angry or violent.” In
addition to mandhlazi, spirits called mazinda, madanda and zvipunha also possessed

people, and still do during ceremonies today.”

 

77 Dos Santos noted that the king’s drunken state during the ceremony was “a very usual thing.” Etia‘pia
Oriental in Theal, RSEA, viii, 196.

’8 Ibid., 197.

’9 Ibid.

8° Ibid.

3' “Zulu” refers to the Gaza Nguni. Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999. Allen Mundeta
also notes that the Manyka and Zezuru have “other spirit mediums that tell them what to do, but not in this
area.”

82 Simon Mundeta and Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

“3 Catherine Dhlakama, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

164

Steven F eierman’s argument that mediumship “constituted an entirely separate
sphere of public authority”, albeit an unstable one, helps to explain why the history of
healers has been invisible, for the most part.84 Spirit mediums exerted a moral and ’
religious authority on a plane separate from the expansive socio-political realm of chiefs.
Religious figures concerned with the spirituality, health, security and well—being of the
community helped to foster an intangible sense of a shared identity. The rule of chiefs, on
the other hand, lends itself to visibility and stabilityuexcept for opportunistic succession
struggles. An overall lack of firm religious backing weakened Ndau polities and added to
their vulnerability. During both Zimbabwe’s struggle against colonial rule, as well as the
protracted anti-colonial resistance in Mozambique, female Spirit mediums, such as
Nehanda, emerged as powerful actors to bridge the gap between the spirit world and the
threatening situation at hand. In a similar postcolonial adaptation, Ndau chiefs rely on
female Spirit mediums “who act as power brokers between the different but overlapping

worlds of chiefs & government.”85

Holding Court

Chiefs were both feared and respected, but their power was held in check by the
dare, a council of village men who ruled over major court cases and served as advisors to
affairs of state.86 The decisions of the dare were firm; Even people of authority involved

in a case abided by the judgement of the court. In each village a chief or headman

 

8" Steven F eierman, “Colonizers, Scholars, and the Creation of Invisible Histories,” in Beyond the Cultural
Turn: New Directions in the Study of Society and Culture, Victoria E. Bonnell and Lynn Hunt, eds.
(Berkeley, 1999), 210, n. 12 and 187.

85 Carin Vijfbuizen, “The People You Live With”, 265.

8° John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

165

presided over small cases and attempted to reconcile parties involved in minor disputes.87
Serious offenses, however, were reserved for the court of paramount chiefs, where i
leaders made decisions related to cases of witchcraft accusation and advised consultations
with a n ’anga, or healer at times.88 “If found guilty a person would be humiliated. They
were then made to pay by a human being,” noted an elder from Zamchiya.89 In the
seventeenth century, Faria e Sousa also wrote about severe punishments for witchcraft,
theft and adultery.90 Leaders used fratricide and banishment to settle frequent succesion
disputes.91 These practices remained fairly constant since information about holding
court was recorded by dos Santos at the end of the sixteenth century.

Respected men from the community assisted with proceedings at each chief’s
court, the dare proper.92 Plaintiffs would relate their accusations, and then defendants
would respond to the allegations. The chief and his council of elders would deliberate
and decide the guilt or innocence of those accused. Common crimes were adultery,
murder and theft.93 Depending on the nature of the offense, guilty parties were made to
pay for their crimes by providing compensation such as hoes, chains of beads, livestock,
money or even a human being.94 Mr. Tarangwa of Chikore noted that in some cases,

guilty parties “were made to pay with their own child, pledging out a son, daughter or

 

3’ Dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental in Theal, RSEA, vu, 208; Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya,
Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

88 Dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental in Theal, RSEA, VII, 208; Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe,
13 July 1999.

89 Sarai Nyabanga Sithole, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

9° Manuel de Faria e Sousa, Asia Portuguese (1666; 1674), extracts in Theal, RSEA, 1, 24-25.

9' David Hughes discusses colonial interventions and the suppression of these methods in “Frontier
Dynamics,” 143.

92 VaTarangwa, Chikore, 28 June 1999.

9’ Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 20.

9’ These valued items were also used to secure marriage arrangements. Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore,
Zimbabwe, 29 June 2000; Siyanzi Raphius and Ellen Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999;

166

sister as a form of payment.95 But if a man courted another’s wife, for instance, the
adulterer could be forced to give cattle to the husband.96 If a woman was unable to make
a payment, she could pledge herself in lieu of a fme.97 Or if a guilty party was unable to
provide goods towards restitution for a death, “they would give a little girl to the
deceased and say, ‘this is your wife,’ and that would be the end of the topic.”98 This
practice of giving a daughter to the spirit of the deceased (and to his family, indirectly)
occurred both before and during the nineteenth-century Gaza Nguni occupation.99
Chiefs also relied on court messengers to act as a liaisons with the community.100
People would report offenses to a messenger who would then relate the complaint to the
chief. The chief would then instruct his messengers to summon the offender to the dare
where the chief and his councilors would preside over the case. These agents who acted

101

as ‘policemen’ were well respected for the most part, but the ruler of Teve had a

bodyguard of ZOO-300 men called inficis who also acted as executioners.102 The inficis
encircled the king’s enclosure shouting “Inhama, Inhama” (signifying “flesh”) to call
upon the king to issue a death sentence, according to dos Santos, so “that they may

salO3

exercise their office of executioner. Another group, known as marombes, acted as

 

Mucherechete Dhlakama, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999; Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28
June 1999; VaTarangwa, Chikore, 28 June 1999.

9’ VaTarangwa, Chikore, 28 June 1999.

9“ Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

97 A proverb reflects this desperate act: Mhasvakadzi muripo mwene. A woman’s fine is her very self.
Hamutyinei and Plangger, Tsuma-Shumo: Shana Praverbial Lore and Wisdom, 314.

98 Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

99 Ibid.

'00 Catherine Dhlakama, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

'°' Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

"’2 Dos Santos, Etio'pia Oriental in Theal, RSEA, vn 201.

103 Ibid., 201-202. “lnhama” or nyama also means ‘meat’.

167

court “jesters.”104 Marombes recited the chiefs praises and performed with a group of
dancers and musicians who played many-keyed instruments known as ambira made with

'05 Members from these three groups of attendants accompanied

iron, wood and gourds.
ambassadors on their missions.106 The threatening nature of the inficis must have helped
to make each mission a success for the chief.

Although plaintiffs normally sought justice from a chief, Reis e Gama claimed
that laws once enforced in an exact manner by the leaders of Quisssanga,‘Madanda and
Butonga were altered in his time so that “any” African judged crimes and meted out

punishments. ‘07

This late eighteenth-century ‘vigilante’ justice included the killing of a
suspect, or the removal of eyes, hands or ears. Thus, a large population of blind and
maimed Africans stationed themselves at the doors of their “kings and princes”,
according to Reis e Gama, where they sang, danced and played instruments in exchange
for sustenance from a gracious king.108 Some of these casualties were even elevated in
status and permitted to join royal entourages.109 This lack of deference to rulers indicates
faults in the political authority of Ndau leaders. Most chiefs certainly ruled with an iron
fist however, and documentary evidence describes how they failed to exhibit

graciousness in matters related to their own families. For instance, Reis e Gama reported

that any man who was caught looking at one of the king’s wives lost his eyes as a

 

“’4 Dos Santos, Etiopia Oriental, in Theal, RSEA, v11, 202.

'05 Ibid. Dos Santos describes two instruments called ambira. One resembles the finger piano (also called
a mbira today) made out of flat rods of iron on wood and played inside a gourd. The other was a type of
xylophone. Henrik Ellert argues that dos Santos was describing the matepe mbira, also known as sansa or
sansi in Mozambique. Henrik Ellert, The Material Culture of Zimbabwe, (Harare, 1984), 62.

'°" Dos Santos, Etiopia Oriental in Theal, RSEA, v11, 203.

'07 Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 21.

'°“ Ibid.

168

”0 The ogler was then forced to rely on alms for sustenance along with other

punishment.
blind subjects. Custom and tradition were central to Ndau societies, but chiefs adapted to
changes and created new rules of conduct as demanded by the situation at hand. Overall,
peace was maintained by the decisions of leaders, who acted as judges.m )

Consultations with any local Ndau chief were ceremonial in their own right.
Outsiders who wished to speak with a chief had to make their requests through others so
that “the word is passed through three or four before it reaches the fumo [chief], even
though he understands it.”112 The chief sat on a small stool while those in attendance
were on mats. Monclaro, dos Santos and others refer to the traditional clapping used to
open and close each meeting which was a formality similar to the greetings discussed in
chapter four.113 This practice remains firmly entrenched in Ndau society today and
occurs before and after each meeting with local variations in pattern and rhythm.
Commenting on the authority of the chief, Monclaro observed, “They have great
ceremonies among themselves, and no council is held without the firmo, who is often
kept rather for ceremony than for any substantial obedience shown to him.”114 Today the
custom of ululating for a chief also continues. Chinungu Mtetwa explains, “Long back
such ululation and dancing for the chief was done as a token of thanking him for taking
care of their welfare in the jungle infested by lions.”115 Socio-political structures at the

village level revolved around the authority of local chiefs. In a description that holds true

throughout the Ndau region, Monclaro explained, “The greater part of this Kaffraria is

 

"°1bid.

‘“ Ibid.

”2 Monclaro, “Relacao da Viagem,” Theal, RSEA, III, 227.
“3 Ibid.; Dos Santos, Etiépia Oriental (1999), 89-90.

"4 Monclaro, “Relacao da Viagem,” Theal, RSEA, 111, 227.

169

governed by fumos [chiefs] and petty rulers, and though it has powerful kings whom it
obeys, it has nevertheless these fumos and headmen by whom people are governed.”l ‘6
Despite official Portuguese attention to paramount chiefs, “kings” and the Mutapa
‘emperor’, Monclaro recognized the ‘hidden’ authority of local chiefs and their ancestors.
The practices and ideas surrounding beer brewing, rainmaking and affairs of the \
court were major contributors to what it means to ‘be Ndau.’ People followed the
customs of their ancestors and sought justice from their chiefs for any redress.117 There
was an important connection between the authority of ruling chiefs and the power of
ancestors. Chiefs and headmen made offerings to ancestral spirits, usually at graves in
sacred forests, as a legitimating part of their duties.118 Traditional religious ceremonies,
mabira, were important gatherings that emphasized shared beliefs and demonstrated an
investment in the power of both political leaders and ancestor spirits. Aspects of both
religion and society revolved around brewing beer and making rain. While beer drew
people together for religious ceremonies, it could also attract a husband’s love or satiate a

”9 The three activities of brewing beer, making rain and holding court are

work party.
common strands of a web of shared beliefs maintained by the Ndau over centuries. The

arrival of the Gaza Nguni in the nineteenth century threatened the sociopolitical fabric of

Ndau life.

 

”5 Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
"6 Monclaro, “Relaeao da Viagem,” Theal, RSEA, 111, 227.
m Gama, Reposta das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 21.

”g John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

“9 Carin Vijfbuizen, “‘The People You Live With.m 26-

170

CHAPTER SEVEN
A Turbulent Time: The Gaza Nguni Presence

Ngungunyana was a problem . . .
We are called Ngungunyana ’3 people yet we are Ndau.
We were changed into Changana (Shangani). I
- Jana Mwaoneni Makuyana

People who were staying here were called Machangana (Shangani),
but they were Ndau. Their leader was Ngungunyana . . .
We are called Ndau, but we are Shangani.2
- John Kunjenjema

1n the nineteenth century many of the Ndau of Mozambique and Zimbabwe re-
created a sense of ‘Ndauness’ amidst a shifting political and cultural terrain of invasion
and domination. This turbulent time was marked by the migrations of several northern E
Nguni peoples, including the Gaza Nguni, who settled in the Ndau heartland of the
middle Save highlands in the 1830s and again at the headwaters of the Br'rzi river from
1862 to 1889. Most of the people who came to be called Ndau submitted to Gaza Nguni
overrule and ‘became Ndau’ in response to the presence of these outsiders. The Gaza
Nguni conquest acted as a foil for the Ndau to assume an ethnic identity with a powerful
salience that reverberated into the twentieth century. The collective identity Shared by \
Ndau Speakers was reinforced during the colonial and postcolonial periods through a
common history of suffering at the hands of Europeans and other Africans. This chapter
examines the nineteenth-century ethnic identifications and cultural practices of both the

rulers and the ruled in the Ndau region.

 

', Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
' John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

171

Nguni migrants fleeing the disturbances in Natal associated with the rise of the
Zulu state first reached the area inhabited by the Ndau in the 18208. Raids, battles and
retreats occurred along the routes of these migrationS--the result of a complex interaction
of environmental, political and economic factors.3 Africans who found themselves in
weaker positions sought security through incorporation into stronger societies ruled by
powerful leaders. Turbulent times led vulnerable groups to submit both voluntarily and
involuntarily to ‘great men’ such as Shaka, Moshoeshoe and Soshangane, founder of the
Gaza Nguni state. Several N gum-speaking groups remained in the Shona-speaking area
for a few years before moving northward into the lakes region of East Africa. Before the
Gaza leader Soshangane drove Nxaba and his followers north of the Zambezi river,
Nxaba remained in the eastern highlands (on the modern Zimbabwe/Mozambique border)
and around the Ndau states of Sanga and Danda from about 1827 to 1836.4 Nguni groups

raided heavily populated areas such as Teve and Sofala for food until 1836 when these

 

3 For more on the causes and consequences of the dramatic changes that took place during this time, see the
works such as Carolyn Hamilton, ed., The Mfecane Aftermath (Johannesburg, 1996); Elizabeth Eldredge,
“Sources of Conflict in Southern Africa, c. 1800-1830: The ‘Mfecane’ Reconsidered,” Journal of African
History, 33, 1 (1992): 1-35 and “Migration, Conflict and Leadership in Early Nineteenth-Century South
Africa: The Case of Matiwane,” in Robert W. Harms, Joseph C. Miller, David S. Newbury and Michele D.
Wagner, eds., Paths Toward the Past: African Historical Essays in Honor of Jan Vansina (Atlanta, 1994 :
39- 75); Carolyn Hamilton, “‘The Character and Objects of Chaka’: A Reconsideration of the Making of
Shaka as ‘Mfecane’ Motor,” Journal of African History, 33 (1992): 37-63; J. D. Omer—Cooper, “Has the
Mfecane a Future? A Response to the Cobbing Critique,” Journal of Southern African Studies, 19, 2 (June
1993): 273-294 and The Zulu Aftermath (London, 1966); Jeff Peires, “Paradigm Deleted: the Materialist
Interpretation of the Mfecane” Journal afSauthern African Studies, 19, 2 (June 1993): 295—3 13; J. B.
Wright, “Political Mythology and the Making of Natal’s Mfecane,” The Canadian Journal of African
Studies, 23, 2 (1989): 272-291 and Julian Cobbing, “The Mfecane as Alibi: Thoughts on Dithakong and
Mbolompo,” Journal of African History, 29 (1988): 487-519.

4 According to David Beach, The Shana and Zimbabwe, 900-1850 (Harare, 1980), the leader Nxaba entered
the Save valley in 1827 and conquered Mutema’s territory of Sanga, 177. Gerhard Liesegang, “Nguni
Migrations Between Delagoa Bay and the Zambezi, 1821-1839,” African Historical Studies 3, 2 (1970):
325, 337.

172

newcomers came to dominate the area.5 Zwangendaba was the chief of one group that
crossed the Zambezi near Zumbo in 1835.6 Another group under Maseko crossed the
Zambezi around 1839.7 These Nguni-Speaking groups disturbed the balance of power in
the wider Shona-speaking region through raids, conquest and the imposition of overrule.

Soshangane, however, remained south of the Zambezi river and established the
Gaza state in the lower Limpopo valley where the inhabitants were southeastern Bantu
speakers who came to be known as the Tsonga. Following the pattern of strong leaders
of the time, Soshangane incorporated both refirgees and local populations to gain strength
in numbers. Like Mzilikazi, Soshangane established a military state with age regiments
based on the Zulu model. Several centuries earlier, Karanga chieftaincies had dominated
over some of the same Tsonga-Speaking groups in the region between Inhambane and the
Save river. However, by the beginning of the nineteenth century the Tsonga chieftaincies
had established themselves as culturally distinct neighbors of the Ndau.

In about 1836 Soshangane moved his capital northward to the Ndau heartland in
the highlands near the middle Save river. He remained in this area of Quissanga until
1839 when he returned to his previous southern location by the Limpopo river.8 After
Soshangane died in the late 18503, his son Mzila moved the capital back among the Ndau
in the highlands near the headwaters of the Buzi river. Under Soshangane’s grandson,

Ngungunyana, the court eventually returned to the south near the Limpopo river in 1889.

 

5 Both Nxaba and Soshangane are credited with an attack on Sofala in 1836, but Liesegang argues that the
Gaza Nguni under Soshangane were not involved in the Sofala attack. Liesegang, “Aspects of Gaza Nguni
History, 1821-1897” Rhodesian History, 6 (1975), 3, n.9 and “Nguni Migrations,” 317, 325-327.

6 Zwangendaba eventually settled in Tanzania, 1200 miles from his birthplace, where his followers came to
be known as the Ngoni. lbid. and J .D. Omer-Cooper, The Zulu Aftermath (London, 1966).

7 Liesegang, “Nguni Migrations,” 321, 335, 337.

8 Omer-Cooper, The Zulu Aftermath, 58. Liesegang notes that the kingdom was named afier Soshangane’s
grandfather, “Nguni Migrations,” 328.

173

 

 

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174

The capital, called Mandhlakazi regardless of its location, remained in the south at Bilene
until the state was conquered by the Portuguese in 1895 (Figure 9).

Mzila’s presence at the headwaters of the Br'rzi and Mossurize Rivers, beginning
in the mid-nineteenth century, affected Ndau polities in different ways. Some Ndau
leaders submitted while others refused to accept Gaza rule and were killed. Mzila’s
conquest of many of the Ndau people, particularly those inland, and the subsequent rule
of his son Ngungunyana appear to have been especially harsh. While elders in the
twentieth century attribute much of the terror that people faced at the hands of the Gaza
Nguni to the more renowned Ngungunyana, repression also occurred during the earlier
rule of Mzila from 1861 until 1884. Ngungunyana’s relocation of the capital to Bilene
was accompanied by an exodus of many Ndau forced to demonstrate their loyalty to the
paramount chief. After the Portuguese defeated the Gaza Nguni in the ‘scramble’ for
Mozambique, many Ndau left Bilene to return to their homeland north of the Save River.

The term ‘Ndau’ may derive from the phrase that Ndau-Speakers used in their act ,
of supplication to greet the invading Nguni.9 Even if this is not the case, scholars tend to
view the term as a derogatory nickname used by the Gaza Nguni.lo In interviews,
however, most elders trace the origin of ‘Ndau’ back to the greeting Ndau-we, Ndau-we

with no apparent embarrassment or shame.ll The Ndau, in fact, referred to the language

of the Gaza Nguni with their own pejorative term, Xibitzi.12

 

9 As mentioned in chapter one, those who came to be called ‘Ndau’ would say Ndau-we, Ndau-we (We
salute you! We salute you!) to exclaim deference. Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

'0 Gerhard Liesegang, for instance, argues that the word came into use after the conquests of Nqaba to
designate local assimilated men who wore Nguni dress and used Nguni armaments. Liesegang, “Sofala,
Beira e a sua Zona,” Arquivo, 6 (October 1989), 32.

” Field interviews in Mozambique (1998) and Zimbabwe (r999).

'2 Martinho Manhacha Jackson Simango, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 5 September 1998. The term
xibitzi, or chibitzi, is probably derived from dzviti, meaning “invader” (or “warrior” in common usage), i.e.

175

Gaza Nguni Overrule

The Gaza Nguni successfully defined political identity in terms of culture to
secure loyalty from subject populations.l3 People were drawn into the Gaza state through
a combination of incorporation, conquest and a desperation to survive. Ndau warriors
who lived with Ngungunyana, for instance, were called mabziti. '4 However, members of
non-Nguni groups such as the Ndau, Manyika and Tsonga managed to influence the
language and culture of the Gaza Nguni while submitting to overrule by their conquerors.
One elder, drawing comparisons between the Gaza Nguni and the Ndau, insisted that the
mother of Ngungunyana was an Ndau woman.15 Cultural exchanges occurred throughout
this period, such as the Gaza Nguni usage of an indigenous Tsonga-based language. By
the end of the nineteenth century the Gaza Nguni were using Ndau drums and pots, as
well as Ndau methods of healing and the Ndau word for healer, nhamussaro.‘6 Perhaps
in the interest of efficiency, Soshangane based his government structures in south-central
Mozambique on Tsonga and Ndau chiefly lineages. A single Gaza Nguni culture never 1
emerged among the diverse groups living in south-central Mozambique and eastern \

Zimbabwe under the Gaza Nguni.17 Instead, the small Nguni nucleus, originally only

 

the Nguni. Dzviti is also an abusive term for a Ndebele person, according to Desmond Dale in Duramazwi:
A Shana English Dictionary (Gweru, 1981), 54.

‘3 John Keith Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism among the Ndau of
Southern Rhodesia, 1890-1935” (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1973).

'4 Mulenje Macama William Simango, Buzi, Sofala, Mozambique, 23 September 1998.

'5 Luis Mangate Bill Mapossa (interviewed with Agostinho Manduze Jorge Chiteve Simango, Regulo
ChiTeve), Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 11 September 1998.

'6 Liesegang, “Sofala, Beira e a sua Zona”, 32.

'7 Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 147 and Walter Rodney. “The Year
1895 in Southern Mozambique: African Resistance to the Imposition of European Colonial Rule,” Journal
of the Historical Society of Nigeria 5 (1971), 517.

176

about 100 people, was heavily influenced by conquered populations.18 In the large and
mobile Gaza state, both the rulers and the ruled inevitably Shaped identities that blended
characteristics from the small Nguni elite and their incorporated followers. Meanwhile,
populations far from the capital, which shifted over time, maintained their own sense of
identity since they faced little pressure to assimilate.

Most Ndau view the arrival of the Gaza Nguni from the south as the beginning of
a turbulent time in their history. Before these outsiders invaded one elder noted, “Our
fathers told us that people here were living harmoniously.”l9 Some regions practiced
politics by consensus.20 Frequently, Ndau speakers today refer to the Gaza Nguni as ‘the
Zulu’, even though nineteenth-century conceptions about what it meant to be ‘Zulu’ were
changing and ofien in flux. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, for instance, the
Zulu chiefdom was quite small in relation to larger Nguni states such as the Ndwandwe,
Mthethwa and Ngwane. After the death of Dingiswayo of the Mthethwa, the Zulu
kingdom grew under Shaka’s leadership. AS Shaka conquered surrounding chiefdoms
the ‘Zulu’ gained fame and emerged as a powerful state in southeast Africa. Yet Ndau
elders in the twentieth century transferred the powerful image of the fierce Zulu warrior--
reputed to be prone to violent and ruthless action--to a similar oppressor, the Gaza Nguni.
According to one Ndau elder living in Chikore, the Ndau say “Shangani, Zulu and

Ndebele are one and the same thing.”21 Soon after the Gaza Nguni conquest Ndau clan

 

'8 This figure, cited in Monica Wilson and Leonard Thompson, A History of South Africa to 1870 (Boulder,
1983), 100 comes from Alfred T. Bryant, Olden Times in Zululand and Natal, Concerning Earlier Political
History of the Eastern—Nguni Clans (London, 1929).

'9 John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

2° José Paulo Maduca Simnago, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998.

2' Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999. Historically the Nguni ancestors of the Shangaan, the
Zulu and the Ndebele did share a common language and culture, so these connections are not inaccurate.

177

names in the region were transformed into their N guni equivalents.22 When the ‘Zulu’
arrived, “everything changed because the Zulus would marry the most beautiful Ndau
women.”23 Thus, the Gaza Nguni presence disrupted Ndau social structures and
significantly altered the names of clans.

Both Mzila and Ngungunyana appointed deputies known as ndunas to control the
far reaches of their state. These ndunas acted as governors and supervised Ndau chiefs t
who pledged allegiance to the Gaza Nguni rulers. Yet some elders described the despotic
nature of Gaza Nguni rule and claimed that the conquerors were reluctant to ‘trust’ Ndau
chiefs. “The likes of Musikavanhu were not allowed to rule because Ngungunyana was
the only chief without subordinate or co-chiefs. Wherever Ngungunyana conquered, he
would not respect any of his subordinates,” recalled one Ndau elder.“ Time and again
elders relayed perceptions of Ngungunyana’s rule as harsh. The majority of Ndau chiefs,
such as Mafussi, for example, submitted to the system of overrule.25 Many had little
choice, for the military might of the Gaza Nguni was formidable. The Gaza Nguni used
tactics of intimidation to assert ‘control’ over Ndau populations. For instance, when
Chief Ngorima resisted incorporation by the Gaza Nguni he faced repeated raids from
their army. His subjects fled into the Chimanimani Mountains, and he sought safety

further west in Gutu.26 The ndunas served as the link between the Ndau and the state )

apparatus when Ngungunyana did not take matters into his own hands.

 

22 For instance, Mayo became Sithole or Nkomo, as discussed in chapter four.

’3 Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

2‘ Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

25 See David Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics: Struggles for Land and Clients on the Zimbabwe-Mozambique
Border” (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1999), 40.

2“ Ibid., 40.41.

178

The Gaza Nguni failed to develop a connection with Ndau ancestral spirits tied to
the land.27 As old territorial loyalties clashed with new political realities of conquest,
ritual opposition to the Nguni grew. The Gaza Nguni harassed and exiled many Ndau l
chiefs in the highlands, but cults such as the Musikavanhu territorial cult survived and
“remained a uniting factor in indigenous society,” according to the historian J. Keith
Rennie.28 He argues that “the Nguni never managed to reach accommodation with the
territorial cult leaders, the ‘owners of the soil’, and‘to create ideological consensus in the 1'
same way that the rulers of Sanga, Teve and Danda seem to have done.” 29 Despite the 1
power of the rain shrines of Ndau territorial cults, Mzila rejected their legitimacy and
chose not to incorporate them into the Gaza Nguni political realm. This division between
Ndau beliefs and Gaza Nguni overrule served to reinforce cultural and political
differences between the Ndau and the Gaza Nguni.

One of the most dramatic shifts in Ndau society was the arrival of a Gaza Nguni
military who came to serve as a “military aristocracy of non-producers.”30 These
conquerors appropriated surplus food and cattle from surrounding populations.31 They
regulated hunting, collected animal skins as a form of tax, monopolized the export of
ivory and controlled cattle movements.32 The Gaza Nguni relied on personal

subordination and clients to maintain control over their vast state. Local populations

 

27 John Keith Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation: Political and Communal Ideologies among the
South-Eastem Shona, 1500-1890,” in Ahmed ldho Salim, ed. State Formation in Eastern Africa (Nairobi,
1984), 184.

28 J. K. Rennie, “From Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chiefiaincy: Four Transformations of the Musikavanhu
Territorial Cult in Rhodesia,” in Guardians of the Land, ed. J. M. Schoffeleers (Gweru, 1978), 258.

29 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 184.

www.mz

3' Timbteo Mabessa Simango, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998.

32 Fernando Vitorino Tuzine, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998; Rennie, “Christianity,
Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 137.

179

were forced to pay tribute to the empire and help support military raids of nearby
communities. Some men and women pledged themselves to the nduna, and Patrick
Harries argues that scholars have overlooked the existence of internal Slavery within the
Gaza-Nguni state.33 Captives from raids, orphans and destitute people became clients.
Various forms of subservience, known as kukhonza—either allegiance, capture, pawning
or bride service--constrained many Ndau in both their daily labor and wider life.34 Cattle,
animal skins, cloth, food and brass beads were all items of tribute.” Women sought
protection and support as wives of either Ngungunyana, the ndunas or loyal Ndau chiefs.
Ngungunyana’s children from these marriages were given to Nguni nobles as wives and
laborers. Ndau speakers were forced to act as soldiers, porters, concubines and wives as

the Gaza Nguni capitalized on their wealth in the Ndau people.36

Gender and Ethnicity

Both Ndau and Nguni women played an important role in the shaping of
nineteenth-century culture and society in southeast Afiica. Their contributions were most 7
notable when marriage alliances or arrangements provided women with the opportunity
to produce and reproduce the regional political order.37 Women played an integral part in
maintaining a common language and culture over a wide geographic area, yet their

activities are often overlooked by scholars. In The Creation of T ribalism in Southern

 

’3 See Patrick Harries “Slavery, Social Incorporation and Surplus Extraction: The Nature of Free and
Unfree Labour in South-East Africa,” Journal of African History 22 (1981): 309-30 for more on the
‘ambulatory enslavement’ derived from the Nguni system of kukhonza. He describes relationships “of
extreme servility and exploitation” that he defines as slavery. p. 311.

3" See Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics” for detailed examples of kukhonza in Gogoi and Vhimba.

35 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 183.

3‘ Ibid

180

Africa, Leroy Vail repeats the Tswana proverb that “women have no tribe” and argues
that the appeal of ethnicity “was strongest for men”.38 In the Ndau region, women
consciously and explicitly supported and shifted ethnic boundaries within the lineages
and clans of Ndau society, just as Sandra Greene has demonstrated for the Anlo-Ewe of
southeastern Ghana.39 Ndau women raised their children within a certain cultural and '
linguistic framework that shaped identity formation. Although men usually held
positions of political power among the Ndau, female chiefs were appointed at times.40
Women asserted their power more often in Ndau society as influential healers and spirit
mediums.

Among the Nguni, some women of the ruling dynasty held both political and
social power.41 Ngungunyana’s mother, Empiumbecasane, exerted control over her son’s
decisions and over the affairs of a village.42 Empiumbecasane was also the head priestess
at the shrine where Ngungunyana worshipped Soshangane’s grave."3 Some of the wives
of the ruler lived in distant parts of the region and helped the Gaza Nguni king to
maintain relations over a wide area.“ Most Ndau women today, when asked in

interviews, claim that they knew “nothing” about the time of Ngungunyana and the

affairs of men in the political reahn. But other studies have shown how marginalized

 

37 For the case of Lesotho, see Elizabeth Eldredge, A South African Kingdom: The Pursuit of Security in
Nineteenth-Century Lesotho (Cambridge, 1993).

’8 Leroy Vail, ed., The Creation ofTribalism in Southern Africa (Berkeley, 1989) 15.

39 Sandra Greene, Gender Ethnicity and Social Change an the Upper Slave Coast: A History of the Anlo-
Ewe (Portsmouth, NH, 1996).

’0 H.P Junod, “A Contribution to the Study of Ndau Demography, Totemism and History,” Bantu Studies
(8, 1934 : 17-37) 22; Rennie, “Christianity, Colonialism and the Origins of Nationalism,” 77.

4' Rodney, 516.

’2 Ibid. Parallels may exist with Shaka and his mother Nande.

‘3 Ibid., 517.

‘4 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 184. Rennie notes that members of the royal family were
“dispersed in towns around the state.”

181

Africans--men and women--were actively involved in transforming ethnic identities as
they defined and redefined their own identities.45 This was surely the case for the Ndau
as well. Disadvantaged Ndau-speakers who challenged their social definitions as the
‘other’, as well as some who came from the fringes of society, were able to alter their
identities to ‘fit’ in. In the Ndau region, ethnicity and gender are inextricably connected

to each other over the longue durée.

A Gaza N guni Identity

The Gaza Nguni conquest followed earlier migratory patterns that ushered in new
inhabitants to the Zimbabwe plateau and central Mozambican coastal plain. Emerging
leaders broke with patriarchs and migrated to new territories where they secured their
own power over people. Even the breakup of the famous Mutapa state is explained by a
myth that follows this pattern. The Nguni, however, invaded more territory over a
Shorter length of time than earlier migrants to the area. The Gaza Nguni widened their
cultural identity to include some conquered subjects.46 Non-Nguni could achieve social
mobility by ‘becoming Nguni’ through acculturation. Outward Signs of assimilation werel
more common among Ndau men than women. Many men learned the language of the E
rulers, pierced their ears in the Nguni fashion, served in the army and renamed their clan

using the nearest Nguni equivalent to the Ndau term."7 Some Ndau men even adopted the

Nguni language and wore the Nguni head ring.48 Ndau men forced into the army were

 

’5 Both Greene and Eldredge make this point.

’6 Rennie, “From Zimbabwe to a Colonial Chieftaincy,” 183-184.
’7 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

’8 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 186.

182

assigned to Nguni age regiments that broke down existing group identities.49 Regiments
raided frontier areas and worked in the royal kraals of the king’s wives.SO Unmarried
Ndau men were dispersed to other areas of the kingdom to sever their local ties and
loyalties. Their military service was another form of labor tribute. The Nguni state
system helped to foster a sense of ‘national’ identity when the ruler’s position as head of
the army and the agricultural cycle was reinforced during ‘national’ ceremonies.51 Even
though Ndau speakers, particularly large numbers of men, adopted Nguni traits and
cultural practices, many elders considered Ngungunyana and his warriors to be the only
true “Nguni”.

The piercing of men’s ears was a very obvious “mar ” of identity that symbolized
Gaza Nguni dominance over the Ndau. The Ndau say that men only started to pierce
their ears after the Gaza Nguni invasion when Ngungunyana relied on ear piercing to
identify those who had ‘submitted’ to his overrule. 52 A Similar identifying body mark
does not exist for women, unless we interpret Gaza Nguni control over women’s bodies
(particularly those deemed beautiful) as a significant mark of subjugation. Idah Manyuni
of Chikore described the piercing of men’s ears as “a form of identity” that was
Ngungunyana’s directive.53 “He is the one who did this,” she said, referring to
Ngungunyana; “The piercing of ears was a Sign of identity to Show that we are warriors,

Ndaus,” she explained.54 This act demonstrated that Ndau men “were warriors,

 

‘9 Ibid.

5° Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics,” 40.

5' Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 184.

’2 Joéo Guerra Muchanga, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998; Luis Santana Machave,
Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998; Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July
1999.

’3 Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999; Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
5“ Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

183

madzviti,” according to Phillip Mutigwe.55 The Ndau called Ngungunyana’s order to
pierce ears chidzviti, after dzviti, which means invader or warrior.56 Mubayi Mhlanga of
Zamchiya explained, “It was a mark of identity. My ears are pierced to Show that I

”57 This sense of belonging was echoed by other elders. Phillip

belong to Ngungunyana.
Mutigwe recalled that the Nguni “upheld their custom by claiming that those with
unpierced ears did not belong to them.”58 Subjects without pierced ears who were “not
part of them” were killed, “but those with pierced ears were spared because they Shared a

common identity,” he explained.59 Freddy Sithole concluded, “So we from Bilene, as

followers of Ngungunyana, we had this distinct identity, of pierced ears?”0

1

1

After the defeat of the Gaza Nguni, ear piercing became a rite of passage for all
young Ndau men in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century before they served
their time in the mines of South Africa. Most young men pierced their ears when they
reached puberty. This “form of tribal identity”, as one former headman described it, was
necessary for all of the men who went to Joni, or Johannesburg.61 Men used a knife to
pierce their ears and some created large holes that could hold a snuff container or a
peeled maize stalk staff.62 This practice was considered to add beauty to a man’s

appearance.63 One woman from Chikore in Zimbabwe saw men from the east in

 

5’ Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe. 29 June 1999; Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.
m Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999; Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
’7 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999; Similar sentiments were expressed by Siyanzi
Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999 and Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July
1999.
:2 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

Ibid.
6° Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
6' VaTarangwa, Chikore, 28 June 1999.
(’2 Catherine Dhlakama, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999; Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13
July 1999.
6’ Catherine Dhlakama, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

184

Mozambique actually wearing earings, an uncommon site among most Ndau men.64
Among male Shona Speakers, only the Ndau pierced their ears, and this mark proclaimed

an identity that was visible to all.65

Terror and Intimidation

Political and cultural conditions give rise to social identities in an assortment of
ways. We know from studies such as Terence Ranger’s work on Manyika identity that
Africans were not duped into accepting any random ‘tribal’ affiliation during the colonial
period.66 Rather, people chose to embrace identities which suited them, and they played
an instrumental role in what always remained a complicated process. However, the
repression, intimidation and very real threat of violence from the Gaza Nguni constrained
the Ndau and limited their opportunity to express and adopt cultural identities in the
nineteenth century.

The Gaza Nguni controlled many facets of Ndau life and had the power to order
the death of their subjects. Evidence from interviews with elders reveals a historical
memory of incredible atrocities attributed to Ngungunyana."7 The Ndau remember
Ngungunyana as an oppressive leader who ordered harsh penalties for his subjects. One
elder recalled Ngungunyana’s distaste for the sight of animal bones and his threat to kill

people who left their bones in full view.‘(’8 Another noted that Ngungunyana tore out the

 

6‘ Sekai Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

‘5 Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

”6 Terence Ranger, “Missionaries, Migrants and the Manyika: The Invention of Ethnicity in Zimbabwe,” in
Leroy Vail, ed., The Creation of Tribalism.

“7 Rennie also refers to the “ample testimony” about the king’s ability “to order mutilation, killing and
expropriation of property as punishments for offences” In “Ideology and State Formation,” 184.

68 Most began to bury their bones to avoid punishment. Timoteo Mabessa Simango, Machanga, Sofala,
Mozambique, 4 September 1998.

185

eyes of anyone who looked at one of his wives.69 Ngungunyana was infamous for killing
men indiscriminately and seizing their daughters for distribution as offerings to his
warriors. He ordered the massacre of an entire village when one person was suspected of
witchcraft or excessive sympathy for a local leader, according to one account.70 Men and
women who committed adultery were assaulted--sometimes their eyes were removed and
their hands cut off,71 and murderers were executed.72 People suspected of witchcraft or a
crime such as the theft of a cow were impaled on wooden sticks and left on display at the
junction of two paths.73 These corpses were left to rot without a burial to serve as a
deterrent to potential offenders.74 A person found guilty of almost any crime was most
likely killed during Ngungunyana’s time, according to many elders.75 As one man
gravely noted, “He did what he wanted at will.”76

Ngungunyana’s mass exodus from the Mossurize area to Bilene is another
example of the restraints placed on the Ndau. Elders recall this forced march in 1889 as a
“death march” where many Ndau died from lack of food and water.77 Anywhere from

60,000 to 100,000 Ndau migrated, with Gaza Nguni guards punishing deserters with

 

69 lsaias Veremo Dhlakama, Chibabava, Sofala, Mozambique, 15 September 1998. This echoed a similar
eighteenth—century practice in the hinterland of Sofala that is described in Gerhard Liesegang, ed. Reposta
das Questaens sabre as Cafres, 1796, (Lisboa, 1966).

70 Pedro Bapiro Gafuro, Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1998; Joao Guerra Muchanga,
Machanga, Sofala, Mozambique, 4 September 1999; F ilimon Dongonda Simango, Dongonda. Chibavava.
Sofala, Mozambique, 15 September 1998.

7' Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe. 14 July 1999.

72 John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

73 Ibid. Ngungunyana would order the death of a person “by sinking a sharp wooden peg into their head
through their back into the ground,” according to Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14
July 1999.

7" John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999; Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya,
Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

75 Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

76 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

77 Wilson Mhlanga, “The Story of Ngwaqazi: The History of the Amatshangana,” Nada 25 (1948), 72.

186

death.78 Some managed to escape during the journey and return to their communities, but
many more Ndau had to wait until after Ngungunyana’s defeat before they could return to
their homeland. Others remained permanently in the south to form a “Ndau” element in
the population around Bilene.79 Despite the death and suffering associated with this
involuntary migration, Ndau elders today credit Ngungunyana for bringing ‘civilization’
to their region. This is one of the interesting repercussions of Ngungunyana’s presence
that lingers alongside his legacy of despotism and terror.

After Ngungunyana’s departure from the Ndau region, other Ndau chiefs resumed
their rule with headrnen as their aids and juniors.80 Some of Ngungunyana’s madzviti, or
warriors, stayed behind in the Ndau region or even returned later.81 Presumably,
members of this group of madzviti were reluctant to leave their Ndau wives and Start a
new life in Bilene. The warriors who remained were considered to be outsiders,
according to the recollections of one elder.82 Yet the Ndau accepted their presence, and
they assumed political roles. This same elder explained, “The likes of chief Mpungu are
Ngungunyana’s warriors who remained here. That is where you can find most of the
returnees from Bilene.”83 The Ndau region bears the marks of Gaza Nguni overrule
today in a manner quite different from the area of the Zimbabwe plateau settled by the

Ndebele.

 

73 Rennie, “Ideology and State Formation,” 187.
79 Ibid. This presence, most likely quite substantial, is understudied. Rennie argues that “enough remained
to form a substantial ‘Ndau’ element” in the south.
:‘I’ Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
Ibid.

187

Changes and Continuities

The history of Ndau subjugation at the hands of the Gaza Nguni demonstrates
how ethnicity is shaped by cultural practices and often used to further political aims.
Although ethnic identities may arise under a host of conditions, they are most famous for \
leading to violence when they are used to satisfy group aspirations at the expense of
others. Edwin Wilmsen and Patrick McAllister argue that ethnicity holds the key to
structures of inequality and is frequently the object of manipulation in the exercise of
power.84 The dominant use group identities to define the subordinate, yet the subordinate
can “adopt the terms of their definition” to organize and assert their own collective
identity.85 This is what the Ndau managed to do as they faced Gaza Nguni overrule in the
nineteenth century. Their experience illustrates how both the powerful and the weak
reproduce an ethnically ordered world.86

The Ndau region on the eve of colonial conquest is also an inviting starting point
for a study of ethnicity since it calls for an exploration of an earlier sense of Ndauness.
There are continuities between the nineteenth and twentieth century, such as when the
Portuguese perpetuated “many of the underlying forms of the Gaza Nguni kingdom” in

the Ndau region during the colonial period.87 Some Ndau men continued to pierce their

ears “in the style of Ngungunyana” until the 19308 while others abandoned the practice as

 

82 Ibid.

83 Ibid.

8‘4 Edwin N. Wilmsen and Patrick McAllister, eds., The Politics of Difference: Ethnic Premises in a World
of Power (Chicago, 1996).

85 Ibid., viii.

3‘ Ibid.

87 Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics,” 34.

188

soon as Ngungunyana left for Bilene.88 And in the postcolonial period, scholars sych as
David McDermott Hughes have discussed how “warring parties--especially Renamo--
capitalized upon people’s familiarity with colonial methods of recruiting forced labor.”89
From the eighteenth-century trade in ivory to nineteenth-century Nguni regiments,
leaders relied upon pe0ple as porters and soldiers.90 Later, Renamo’s warfare in the bush
forced people to repeat this work. Over time the Ndau have added ingredients to their
own mixed pot of ‘Ndauness’ created centuries earlier, but their nineteenth-century
experience is especially pertinent. There was a certain resilience to the cultural identities
of both the Nguni and the Ndau as acculturation occurred between each group. The

Gaza-Nguni influence is one aspect of the constant reworking of identities within the

Ndau context.

 

88 José Mussalaulo, Muvi, Sofala, Mozambique, 7 September 1998; David Ngilazi, Chibavava, Sofala,
Mozambique, 15 September 1998.

89 Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics,” 34. Hughes continues with a provocative discussion of how “war was
merely a harsher form of peace.” See also Christian Geffray, A Causa das Annas: Antrapalagia da Guerra
Cantemparénea em Macambique (Porto, 1991).

9° Ibid., 18.

189

CHAPTER EIGHT
“We Are Now a Mixed Pot”: The Ndau Region in Retrospect

You also became Ndau because you speak the Ndau language.
are born adeau parents, so you are Ndau.’
- Ellen Gapara

We are now a mixed pat, it is no longer Ndaus only}
- Idah Manyuni

In central Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe history and identity are both '
salient and inconspicuous features of the cultural landscape. This contradiction exists, in
part, since the Ndau have created and recreated identities over the past five hundred years
in this region. Amidst alterations in the political and cultural terrain, the Ndau have
Shaped a sense of identity that has come to resemble a mixed pot.3 Today ‘Ndauness’ is
present throughout the Ndau region, but it is neither prominent nor particularly striking to
the casual observer. Yet a closer look reveals lingering historical legacies from the
precolonial, colonial and postcolonial eras. The ambiguities and complexities inherent in
the cultural remembering of the past demonstrate the fuzzy nature of histories and
identities. Elders preserve historical memories and use them either to support or to
suppress ethnic identification. The Ndau reconstruct memories and oral traditions to
address contemporary realities, and the recent war in Mozambique has strongly
influenced histories and relationships on both sides of the border. My investigation of
Ndau history since c.1500 reveals that neither the pressures of colonialism nor the politics
of nationalism created a sense of ‘being’ Ndau. Evidence shows that ‘Ndauness’, while 5

not reflecting a deep primordial allegiance, was shaped as an ongoing practice.

 

' Ellen Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.
2 Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

190

Coming to ‘Be Ndau’

An enduring sense of ‘being’ Ndau is the hallmark of a cultural identity that
has persisted over the longue durée in this corner of southeastern Africa. Although it
is not always easy to glean ‘Ndauness’ from the historical record, the presence of
Ndau-speakers in the hinterland of Sofala since the era of dos Santos and other early
Portuguese writers offers scholars the opportunity to piece together a picture of a
lasting and changing identity. The history of Ndau speakers is rooted in common
people who have endured various hegemonies while maintaining their own “little
traditions.” Despite facing exclusion and incorporation during periods of intense
domination, the Ndau have demonstrated an ability to alter their identities, both
temporarily and permanently, in creative ways during both the precolonial and
colonial era.

Historical memories of Ndau elders, for instance, recollect a more recent
turbulent time in the nineteenth century under the Gaza Nguni leader Ngungunyana
and place the Ndau in opposition to this alleged tyrant. Rather than recall the glory
days of Ngungunyana’s rule, as was the case amidst anti-colonial sentiment of the
early twentieth century, Ndau elders today portray the king a8 a despot. Elders relate
detailed stories of torture at the hands of the Gaza Nguni.4 Ngungunyana is described
as an omnipotent ruler, although clearly his policies were carried out with assistance
from his ndunas as well as local collaborators.5 Although a sense of being Ndau was

surely apparent much earlier-~as this study demonstrates-some Ndau elders actually

 

3 As Idah Manyuni mentioned through metaphor. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.
4 See chapter seven for the grisly details.

191

give N gungunyana credit for forging a sense of identity among the Ndau, particularly
a sense of ‘being ‘Ndau’ for men.

Ear piercing among Ndau men, first introduced by the Gaza Nguni, is one apt
example of a gendered sense of ‘Ndauness’ manipulated by the Ndau following Gaza
N guni overrule. After the departure and eventual defeat of the Gaza Nguni, ear
piercing became a rite of passage for all young Ndau men in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth century before they served their time as migrant workers in South
Afiica. Phillip Mutigwe, one elder from Chikore, explained that Ngungunyana’s
warriors first forced Ndau men to pierce their ears “because it was a Zulu custom that
every adult should have pierced ears?”5 “It all started with Ngungunyana who
distinguished people as Ndaus and Tongas,” according to Chinungu Mtetwa of
Zamchiya.7 Ear piercing “was a Sign of identity for people under Ngungunyana”8 that

”9 Ndau men pierced their ears to Show that

“served to differentiate tribal identities.
they were subordinates of Ngungunyana, and Mateus Simango explained, “If you did
not have pierced cars you were not on Ngungunyana’s side.”10 Ngungunyana’s order
to pierce men’s ears was one more lasting mark of the Gaza Nguni occupation. But in
the highland Ndau region of Chikore and Zamchia, men also pierced their ears,
according to one elder, “to Show that we are not vaDuma,”n Ear piercing was used by

Ndau men in the highlands to set them apart from masvina, others who did not pierce

their cars, such as the Duma who live further west across the Save or Malawians

 

5 This cooperation from locals was gained possibly through coercion at times.
6 Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

7 Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

8 Siyanzi Raphius Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

9 Ellen Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

'0 Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

192

known as mabhurataya.12 Ndau men pierced their ears initially because of a Gaza
Nguni directive, but later they continued the practice by choice to mark ethnic
boundaries and demonstrate to others that they were Ndau.
Elders expressed various opinions about ‘Ndauness,’ reflecting the complexity
and ambiguity surrounding how the Ndau as a group came to ‘be Ndau.’ For Jona
Mwaoneni Makuyana being Ndau is “a tribal identity.”l3 He explained,
We were called VaShangani before Ngungunyana changed us into Ndaus.
Mahohoma [a district administrator in the colonial government] is the one who
destroyed Shangani, he said that we are Ndaus. This is because people used to
say “Ndau” as a greeting and also when referring to places. So he called us
VaNdau, ‘AmaNdau.’14

Similarly, Mateus Simango claimed, “Long back we were not called Ndaus, we were

called Shangani. It was Mahohoma who started it.”15

Mateus Simango also cites
Mahohoma as “the one who divided us into Ndau and Shangani.”16 Other Ndau elders
also linked an Ndau identity with an earlier Shangaan one. “We are called Ndau but

we are Shangani, said John Kunjenjema.”l7

The Ndau ‘became’ Shangani and the
“original Shangani went to Bilene with Ngungunyana,” he explained, referring to
Ngungrmyana’s forced march in 1889 to Bilene in the south.18 Speaking to his young

son, Freddy Sithole said “The Ndaus are your generation, but those of our generation

are Shangani, madzviti.”19 For the elder Sithole, the act of ‘becoming’ Ndau occurred

 

11 Chinungu Mtetwa, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999; Phoebe Mukokota, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30
June 1999.
'2 Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
I: Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
Ibid.
:: Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
Ibid.
I; John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.
Ibid.
'9 Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999. VaSithole was about eighty years old when he made
this comment.

193

after the Gaza Nguni occupation. His use of a temporal marker to make a distinction
about ‘being’ Ndau was common among male elders interviewed.

At first glance, this “fixing” of ethnicity supports theories about the “creation
of tribalism” during the colonial period in Africa, as described by Leroy Vail and his
colleagues in 1989.20 Vail’s model, highlighting the role of European and African l
culture brokers in the formation of ethnic identities, appears to be at play in the
‘ shaping of popular ethnic ideologies in the Ndau case.21 Yet the arguments of Vail
and others, indeed helpful in understanding the workings of ‘tribalism’ during colonial
rule, Should also be applied to both the precolonial period and to postcolonial realities.

African rulers, both before and after colonial rule, have drawn on ‘inventions’ of

r
Il
!

ideology and ‘tradition’ to gain and maintain loyalty from their subjects.22

When women were asked what it meant to be Ndau they often referred to
language, place of birth and ‘tribe’. Idah Manyuni, for instance, replied, “I can say it is
just a name which has been there Since time immemorial.”23 Bertha Munedzi, responded,

”24 and Mbuya Dhliwayo explained, “It means I

“It means I was born among the Ndau,
speak Ndau.”25 For some elders ‘being’ Ndau has a ‘tribal’ connotation. “To say I am

Ndau, Zezuru or Zulu, it means my tribe,” commented Celani Mutigwe of Chikore.26

‘Being’ Ndau is a matter of identity for many Ndau elders. “I am Ndau because that is

 

:2) Leroy Vail, ed., The Creation of T ribalism in Southern Africa (Berkeley, 1989).

Ibid.
22 Commenting on the “invention of tribalism” thesis, Masipula Sithole remarked, “But we all know that all
inventions are real.” “Ethnicity and Democratization in Zimbabwe: From Confrontation to
Accommodation,” in Harvey Glickman, ed., Ethnic Conflict and Democratization in Africa (Atlanta, 1995):
121-169. See also, for example, John Wright, “Notes on the Politics of Being ‘Zulu,’ 1820-1920,”
Conference on Ethnicity, Society and Conflict in Natal, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg (14-16
September 1992).
B Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.
2‘ Bertha Munedzi, Mhakwe, Zimbabwe, 30 July 1999.
25 Mbuya Dhliwayo, Mhakwe, 30 July 1999.
26 Celani Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

194

my tribal identity,” remarked Phoebe Mukokota of Chikore.27 Among men, Philemon
Khosa echoed these sentiments with his explanation that “To be Ndau simply means your

”28

tribe or dialect. Another female elder, Ellen Gapara, remarked matter-of-factly:

You also became Ndau because you speak the Ndau language, are born of Ndau
parents, so you are Ndau. Hlengwes are called Hlengwes because they Speak
their own language, so they are Hlengwe. The same applies to Zezuru and
Ndebele people.29
The Ndau are also conscious of their totems, but they do not draw on their totems for “an

”30 The different answers of elders, men and

actively operational ethnic identification.
women, reflect the confusing nature of explaining a sense of ‘being’ something that is
often maintained in part by “little traditions.”

Ndau-Speakers altered identities in the nineteenth and twentieth century in
especially powerful ways. During this time ethnicity was often manipulated away from
home in sites such as the mines. As many Ndau men traveled to Joni (Johannesburg) in
search of the best opportunities for migrant laborers, the journey became a “cultural
necessity for African men” throughout much of the Ndau-Speaking region.31 As a rite of
passage for young men, with earnings that enabled them to accumulate wives, “mining
became associated with manhood itself.”32 Laborers who remained in Mozambique
usually failed to earn enough wages to secure wives.33 In South Afiica Ndau speakers

would adopt a ‘Shangaan’ identity to receive better pay as mineworkers. These laborers

experienced a multicultural milieu that included other languages such as Shangaan, Zulu

 

27 Phoebe Mukokota, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

2“ Philemon Khosa, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 July 1999.

29 Ellen Gapara, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

3° As is the case in Rogo, Nigeria, according to Abdul Raufu Mustapha, “Identity Boundaries, Ethnicity and
National Integration in Nigeria” in Okwudiba Nnoli, ed. Ethnic Conflicts in Africa (Dakar, 1998) : 30.

3' David Hughes, “Frontier Dynamics: Struggles for Land and Clients on the Zimbabwe-Mozambique
Border,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Califronia, Berkeley, 1999) 56.

’2 Ibid., 59.

195

and Sotho. Partly because both Africans and Europeans manipulated ethnic identities in
various ways during this time, as the contributors to Vail’s collection illustrate, it is
difficult to tease out the fashioning of identity amidst the backdrop of migrant labor and
hegemony.34

People call upon various identities in the midst of ethnopolitical conflicts. Elders
remembering history can also reflect the views of a rural community that feels alienated
by the central government in a distant capital. Ndau elders themselves have ‘Zulu’
(N guni) surnames and pierced ears in the “Nguni style.” Yet there was an element of
reciprocity between Nguni ways and Ndau culture. Interestingly, the northern Nguni
language of the Gaza elite scarcely remained in use, but loanwords infiltrated other
languages such as Ndau.35 By the end of the nineteenth century most Gaza Nguni also
spoke Shangaan, a sub-group of the local Tsonga language in southern Mozambique.
The Gaza Nguni assumed certain aspects of a Tsonga identity to the south and an Ndau
identity to the north. Nguni clan names, songs, dances, and a certain pride in a glorious
military past--emphasized alongside resistance to the coming of colonial rule--all
survived. Two-way acculturation carried over into the colonial period as the Nguni came
to ‘be Shangaan’. Yet even though elderly Ndau men have pierced ears as a result of the
Gaza Nguni presence, those in Mozambique feel isolated from the ‘South’ and the
Mozambican capital in Maputo, where they consider the government to be dominated by

‘Shangaan’ interests. Similarly, in Zimbabwe the Ndau feel ignored by the government

 

’3 Ibid.

3" Vail, ed., The Creation of Tribalism.

’5 The founders of the Gaza state are northern Nguni, while the term Gaza is used to refer to the population
as well as the territory under the control of the ruling Nguni elite in south-central Mozambique and eastern
Zimbabwe.

196

and passed over for powerful positions. To complicate matters, the Ndau in each country
have a reputation as confused troublemakers.36

The Ndau also set themselves apart-~from each other and other groups-~when they
speak, as demonstrated by the remarks of several elders from Chikore, Zimbabwe. John
Kunjenjema, a Zimbabwean who was born in Mutema and then moved to Chikore when
he was about forty years old, noted, “In Mozambique they speak Ndau although there is a
small difference in that those in Mozambique have an accent or intonation that sounds
like a child.”37 For Kunjenjema, “real Ndau” is found in Chimanimani, and “moderate
Ndau” is spoken in Chikore.38 “Real Ndau” was also distinguished from the Hlengwe
language spoken further south by Celani Mutigwe.39 Her husband, Phillip Mutigwe,
insisted that “real Ndau speakers” who speak “pure Ndau” are found on the Zimbabwean
side of the border in Chirinda and Chikore, near Espungabera. He argued, “If you go
down into the valley the tone is different. Again beyond Espungabera we do not
understand each other because of tonal differences.”40 Yet this area east of Espungabera
is widely considered to be part of the Ndau region.

On the other hand, Idah Manyuni, living in Chikore but born in Mt Selinda,
described the Ndau spoken near Espungabera as “no longer Ndau but a mixture of its bits
and pieces.”41 She added, “Going further down across and along the border with

Mozambique up to Zamchiya and Mahenye, people there do not speak like we do here.

 

36 “Confusao” (confusion) was a common term used by other Mozambicans and Zimbabweans to describe
Ndau speakers and the Ndau region. Some Ndau employed this term as a self—identifying characteristic.
:2 John Kunjenjema, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

Ibid.
3" Celani Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
4° Phillip Mutigwe, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
4' Idah Manyuni, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June I999.

197

For example, instead of labelling a clay pot as hari they call it mbende.” 42 Freddy
Sithole, also from Chikore, noted that in Chimanimani just to the north the tone of spoken
Ndau was different.43 He observed, “If we cross into Mozambique there are fluent
Ndaus, but further into Mozambique the tone changes into Danda?“ Allen Mundeta, a
resident of Chikore and member of a younger generation, observed that even though the
Ndau dialect changes as one travels further east, “basically it is still the same.”45 He
explained that Ndau-speakers'further to the east “speak a different language,” but “they
are Ndaus.” 46 They are often referred to as Danda, which some consider to be a
derogatory term. According to Mundeta, “It means people who are not really smart, just

”47 The many divisions and

like the British talk about the Irish as not being very smart.
differences among those who speak what has come to be called Ndau suggests a lengthy
presence of Ndau speakers in the area as time allowed for the development of diversity.48
The Ndau region, straddling an international border, challenges the ‘hard’
boundary separating Mozambique and Zimbabwe.49 Many Ndau elders in both countries
do not cite any firm boundaries for the Ndau region, perhaps because they have an
unbounded sense of Ndau ‘territory.’ Therefore elders often did not answer questions

about the extent of the area inhabited by Ndau speakers in terms of borders or frontiers.

Most people interviewed in Zimbabwe did note that the Ndau region extended across the

 

‘3 lbid.

“3 Freddy Sithole, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999. Ndau is a tonal language. To the west, in the Save
River Valley, the tone is different as well.

4" lbid. VaSithole is referring to the tone and accent of language speaker.

45 Allen Mundeta, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

‘6 Ibid.

‘7 Ibid.

48 Variety would not be a characteristic of recent arrivals. D. E. Needham, E. K. Mashingaidze and N.
Bhebe, From Iron Age to Independence: A History of Central Africa (Harare, 1984) 39.

49 Jeanne Penvenne discusses the “centrifugal forces which challenge the bounded political entity called
Mozambique” in Jeanne Marie Penvenne, “Mozambique: A Tapestry of Conflict” in History of Central

198

border into Mozambique, although they differed over the extent of the Ndau region
within Mozambique.5'0 For one former headman in Chikore, the Ndau region spread into
Mozambique and northward to Mutema’s area of control.51 But he noted that in
Johannesburg, Ndau-speakers are easily identifiable, even though “those from

”52 Thus, national distinctions between Zimbabwe

Mozambique have their own accent.
and Mozambique were apparent in a third country, South Africa.

In addition to accents there are other observable differences that make the Ndau
distinct. The Ndau proclaim an identity visible to others through body art such as tattoos,
pika, and scarification, nyora, on women’s bodies.53 This shared ‘body language’ of
decorative markings and jewelry shaped connections among Ndau women over several
centuries. Mubayi Mhlanga, a resident of Zamchiya near the border, argues that the
Ndau have their own greetings that set them apart from their Hlengwe neighbors to the
south and Manyika neighbors in the north.54 Despite differences such as these that shape
a public identity, there is also movement across ethnic boundaries. For instance, Mateus

Simango of Zamchiya recalled that outsiders, referred to as “vaShangana,” arrived from

the Hlengwe region while Ndau speakers from Zamchiya also went to stay in the

 

Africa: The Contemporary Years since 1960. edited by David Birmingham and Phyllis M. Martin (New
York, 1998) 233.

50 There appeared to be some confusion over the exact meaning of the term “Ndau” in this instance. It was
not always clear if elders were speaking about a language or a cultural identity.

5' VaTarangwa, Chikore, 28 June 1999.

52 Ibid.

53 As described in chapter five.

54 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999. The Save river forms a rough southern boundary
of the Ndau region as it curves eastward to empty into the Indian Ocean. Hlengwe is spoken to the south.
The northern limit of the Ndau area is around Rusitu, since people speak Manyika (another dialect of
Shona) beyond Chimanimani, according to elders such as Jona Mwaoneni Makuyana, Zamchiya,
Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

I99

Hlengwe region.55 Yet the comments of elders such as Mubayi Mhlanga reinforce the
western boundaries of the Ndau region. He said that when the Ndau headed west and
crossed the Save, they were “noticed and taken as invaders.”56 He explained:

Those without pierced ears were said to be from across the Save [further

west], we call those people va Duma. But now such distinctions are no more.

Long back on the way to Mutare [heading north] if you were stranded you

could not put up7 for the night where people could see you because they

would kill you.
Thus ‘being Ndau’ meant being noticed by outsiders and perhaps facing danger outside
the Ndau region on the grounds of your identity.

Even though many Ndau see themselves as a distinct group, it is misleading to
envision an “archipelago of cultures” in this region of southeast Africa, for as Eric Wolf
argues, seemingly discrete societies have always been partly maintained by virtue of their
mutual contacts.58 This is indeed the case with the Ndau. While groups emerged among
the Ndau with separate genealogies considered to be culturally distinct, Ndau speakers
shared a common cultural identity for the most part. These communities of Ndau
speakers--families, clans, villages and chieftaincies--experienced contact and
interconnectedness through sexual politics, regional links of trade, warfare against
common enemies and migration together to the mines or fields of South Afiica. In both

the past and the present, ‘being Ndau’ does not correlate neatly with any single political

system or process. The region has a dynamic political history influenced by local

 

55 Mateus Simango, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999. To the south, explained Allen Mundeta, the
Hlengwe area and the Chiredzi area are no longer considered to be part of the Ndau region. Allen Mundeta,
Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

f6 Mubayi Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

’7 The western limit of the Ndau region is the also the Save river as it flows southward up river. Mubayi
Mhlanga, Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

‘8 Eric Wolf. Europe and the People Without History (Berkeley, 1997).

200

political identities and traditions that stand out amidst an overarching ‘Ndau’ cultural

identity.

Negotiating the Past and the Present

In the post-independence period, a sense of ‘being Ndau’ continues to transcend
the arbitrary international border between Zimbabwe and Mozambique. However,
interesting distinctions exist between the Ndau living on each side of the border. For
example, many Ndau-speakers in eastern Zimbabwe will cross into Mozambique to
consult with a traditional healer, n’anga, since Ndau spirits in Mozambique are perceived
as having more power than their Zimbabwean counterparts. Even the term “Ndau”
carries different connotations in each country. For most Zimbabweans, an Ndau-speaker
belongs to one of the six main subgroups of the Shona language. In Mozambique,
however, “Ndau” can be a very separate and distinct label with tenuous connections to a
sense of ‘Shonaness’ and the wider Shona language spoken in other parts of central
Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Perhaps even more telling, the Ndau in both Zimbabwe and Mozambique remain
marginalized in the political realm, and other Africans use the Ndau as convenient
scapegoats for economic and security problems in the region. Some of these accusations
stem from the heavy Ndau membership in Renamo, the rebel movement in
Mozambique’s war. 59 Ndau became the lingua franca of Renamo since many of
Renamo’s leaders were Ndau.60 On the Zimbabwean side of the border, Ndau speakers in

the Chipinge constituency have always voted in “their” candidate from the small, “Ndau”

 

59 The initial support for Afonso Dhlakama, Renamo’s president since 1980, “derived almost entirely from
the N’dau speakers of central Mozambique,” according to Alex Vines in Renamo: Terrorism in
Mozambique (Bloomington, 1991 ), I6.

201

opposition party ZANU (Ndonga) led by Ndabaningi Sithole.61 Even though “it is rare
for politicians to campaign along ethnic lines” in Zimbabwe, the political scientist

”62

Masipula Sithole points out that “the electorate votes along ethnic lines. The minor
presence of ZANU (Ndonga) in the seat for Chipinge is most likely a mere thorn in the
side of the ruling party, ZANU (PF). Another thorn, perhaps more dangerous, exists in
the form of the chimwenjes, an armed group based in western Mozambique that operated
on both sides of the border in the 19903. Understanding more about the negotiations
between past and present shifts in identity will help scholars analyze the motivations of
violent groups such as the chimwenjes that take advantage of the relatively porous border
that exists today.

As countries such as Mozambique and Zimbabwe struggle to reconcile cultural
pluralism with a post—colonial national identity, cultural identities that cross borders
present a challenge to nation states.63 UNESCO’s World Culture Report for 2000 notes
that culture can be “threatened by globalization and exploited in situations of conflict.”64
The presence of the former rebel group Renamo, now the major official Opposition in
Mozambique, complicates the picture. Renamo’s leader, Afonso Dhlakama, speaks Ndau

and draws on his identity as an Ndau from the center of the country to increase his power

base and fuel a long-standing rivalry with Frelimo, the ruling party. Thus, a new ethno-

 

“’ Ibid., 63-64.

6' Ndabaningi Sithole founded ZANU (Ndonga) in 1963 as a faction of ZANU (PF), the ruling party since
independence in 1980 with Robert Mugabe as president. Masipula Sithole, “Ethnicity and Democratization
in Zimbabwe: From Confrontation to Accommodation” in Ethnic Conflict and Democratization in A frica,
148-151.

‘2 Ibid., 151.

63 “Culture: UNESCO Wants World Heritage to Include Tradition,” UN Wire, 21 November 2000, posted
on the H-Net Discussion List on Research in African Primary Sources, (22 November 2000), <h-
afresearch@h—net.msu.edu>.

6‘ UNESCO, “World Culture Report 2000: Cultural Diversity, Conflict and Pluralism,” n.d.,
<http://www.unesco. org/opi/WCR2000/>.

202

 

political situation has emerged in Mozambique in the 19903 alongside Dhlakama’s rise as
a very important political player since the end of the war.65

Ethnicity certainly has the potential to wreak havoc with nationalism. During
fieldwork in Rogo, Nigeria, Abdul Raufu Mustapha found complex and multi-layered
ethnic identifications that revealed “principles of inclusion and exclusion in the process
of community formation.”66 He also noted “a preserved historical consciousness, rather

”67 This is similar to the awareness of

than an actively operational ethnic identification.
Ndau totemism among most Ndau, or feelings of ‘Ndauness’ from Mozambicans in the
east who consider themselves to ‘be VaDanda.’ In his work on Nigeria, Mustapha
suggests that scholars examine the “possibilities and constraints offered by the actual
historical dynamics of the sub-nation groups and formations whose integration lie at the
heart of ‘nation-building.’”68 He cautions against following a “state-centered” approach
to nation-building that ignores the relevance of “processes of identity formation in the
pre-colonial period.”69 For Mustapha, an emphasis on ‘irniversalistic concepts of state
and citizenship” has “little regard to pre-colonial cultures of exclusion which impede the
access of castes, women and some linguistic and social groups to full citizenship in the

’9,

‘nation-state. Yet even though processes of incorporation, rather than exclusion,

emerge as the dominant historical pattern in the Ndau region, studies of Mozambique and

 

65 Dhlakama, for instance, has suggested that his party may establish a new headquarters in the city of
Beira, the capital of the province of Sofala. Many areas in this central province were Renamo strongholds
during the war. “Could Zimbabwe Intervene Again,” Financial Gazette, 10 February 2000.

6" Mustapha, “Identity Boundaries, Ethnicity and National Integration in Nigeria” in Ethnic Conflicts in

A rica, 30.

6 Ibid.

‘8 Ibid., 27.

6‘ Ibid.

203

Zimbabwe as nation states need to consider the underlying cultural history in each
country.70

The implications of history and identity for national integration need further
study. Whether it is “real or imagined,” “ethno-regional domination” can have divisive
and deadly consequences." In addition, the scholar Michel Cahen has noted how “a
fierce denial of the relevance, even of the existence of all the different communities” in a
nation can lead to resentment.72 When Mozambique’s first president, Samora Machel,
proclaimed, “There are no more whites or blacks, only Mozambicans,” he was hard at
work constructing a socialist program that considered ethnic appeals to be reactionary
and opposed to the nation building process. 73 As the sole party after independence,
Frelimo “had the function of hindering any expression of different identities or regional
social trajectories,” according to Cahen.74 In this instance, rejecting ethnicity rendered
social hierarchies intricately tied to ethnicity invisible.

This examination of the historical processes of identity formation reveals patterns
of integration and domination among political communities in the Ndau region. Shifts in
identities at various periods in Ndau history occurred as a result of changes from within
Ndau society as well as from outside influences. Both written and oral sources reveal
common themes over the longue durée. Weaving strands of Ndau history together by
melding these sources enhances an understanding of relationships within and between

groups in the region. However, this study of history and identity between 1500-1900

 

7" Ibid.

7' Ibid., 47.

72 Michel Cahen, “Nationalism and Ethnicities: Lessons from Mozambique,” n.d., Contemporary
Portuguese Politics and History Research Centre, University of Glasgow, <http://www.cphrc.org.uk/essays/
cahen1.hnn>.

’3 Ibid.

7‘ Ibid.

204

leaves more questions about recent processes of identity formation in the twentieth
century unanswered. The written record allows future investigations to be informed by
rich historical sources. By historicizing ethnic, colonial and national identities scholars
can begin to revisit the prickly problems of tribalism and address contemporary
definitions of what it means to ‘be Ndau.’ “The past will never remain the past,”

according to Shona wisdom, as history and identity are reinterpreted in the region.75

 

75 Kare haagari ari kare. Mordikai A. Hamutyinei and Albert B. Plangger, Tsumo-Shumo; Shana
Proverbial Lore and Wisdom (Gweru, I987), 291.

205

BlBLlOGRAPHY

ARCHIVES

Mozambique:
Arquivo do Patrimonio Cultural (ARPAC), Maputo and Beira
Arquivo Historico de Mocambique (AHM), Maputo
Companhia de Mocambique
Direccao dos Servicos dos Negocios Indigenas
Fundo do Século XIX, Govemo do Distrito de Sofala
Inspeccao dos Servicos Administrativos e dos Negocios Indigenas (ISANI)
Seccao Especial

Zimbabwe:
National Archives of Zimbabwe (NAZ), Harare
Civil Registers (S)
Historical Manuscripts, United Church Board for World Ministries (UN Series)
Oral History Interviews (AOH)
Public Archives, Native Commissioner, Melsetter (N, NUE)

Portugal:
Biblioteca da Ajuda, Lisboa
Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa
Biblioteca da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa
Arquivo Historico Ultramarino (AHU), Lisboa
Avulsos de Mocambique
Diversos de Mocambique

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219

FIELD INTER VIEWS
I998-1999

Manica Province, Mogambique:

Agostinho, Amelia. Dombe, Sede, Distrito de Sussendenga, 7 July 1998.

Alvar, Balamiera. Rotanda, Bairro Sede, Distrito de Sussundenga, 2 July 1998.
(Ambuya) Ana, (Ambuya) Selinda and (Ambuya) Lucia. Chitobe, Sede, Distrito de
Machaze, 19 July 1998.

Basopo, Eliza. Espungabera, Sede, Distrito de Mossurize, 27 July 1998.

Cecilia, (Ambuya) and Goshwe Sitole. Espungabera, Sede, Distrito de Mossurize, 27 July
1998.

Chingera, (Ambuya). Guezane, Distrito de Machaze, 17 July 1998.

Chiquerwa, Wilson. Dacata, Distrito de Mossurize, 28 July 1998.

Chisanati, Timo N gesi. Dombe Sede, Distrito de Sussendenga, 9 July 1998.

Dubuya, Manuel. Dacata, Distrito de Mossurize, 28 July 1998.

Gama, Emilia. Bairro Sede, Rotanda, 4 July 1998.

Gangenjani, Semu. Sussundenga, Sede, 4 August 1998.

Group Interview with Nyanga Mbiri Mupunga, Mangiza Munzanga, James Dundo,
Albino Joni, Fazenda Soni, Makinase Mupinde, et al. Mupunga, Distrito de Sussendenga,
10 July 1998.

Group interview with Regulo Mateus Faduku et al., Chipambuleque, Distrito de
Machaze, 15 July 1998.

Gundana, Joshua. Dombe, Sede, Distrito de Sussendenga, 7 July 1998.

Gwanga, (Ambuya). Guezane, Distrito de Machaze, 17 July 1998.

Inhasi, (Ambuya). Chimunkono, Distrito de Sussendenga, 8 July 1998.

1050, Rosinda and Musota Fifteen. Sussundenga, Sede, 4 August 1998.

Kamba, Viola. Sussundenga, Sede, 4 August 1998.

Kaniera, Robert Musambudzi, Rotanda, 3 July 1998.

Kumbi, Josia Matavera. Tuca-Tuca, Distrito de Machaze, 20 July 1998.

Liesi, Seven and Timothy Mataca (guia). Guezane, Distrito de Machaze, 16 July 1998.
Lovemore, Wanda. Rotanda, Bairro Sede, Distrito de Sussundenga, 2 July 1998.
Machawa, Mateus. Chitobe, sede, Distrito de Machaze, 19 July 1998.

Mafuia, Luis Nhica. Chiurairue, Distrito de Mossurize, 29 July 1998.

Mafuria, Timothy Moso Sitole. Chiurairue, Distrito de Mossurize, 29 July 1998.
Magude, Nelson Paulo Paweta. Rotanda, Bairro Sede, Distrito de Sussundenga, 2 July
1998.

Magumisse, Jossia and July Sofakai (guia). Dombe, Sede, Distrito de Sussendenga, 7 July
1998.

Mahamu, Murivana. Dacata, Distrito de Mossurize, 28 July 1998.

Makadui, Chako. Guezane, Distrito de Machaze, 17 July 1998.

Maki, Mutasi. Sussundenga, Sede, 4 August 1998.

Makosi, Pedro. Tuca-Tuca, Distrito de Machaze, 20 July 1998.

Marokana, Mixon. Chiurairue, Distrito de Mossurize, 29 July 1998.

220

Mashanja, (Ambuya) and Phillipe Sunguro. Rotanda, Bairro Sede, Distrito de
Sussundenga, 2 July 1998.

Mashawo, Mazete Mixon. Dacata, Distrito de Mossurize, 28 July 1998.

Mashiri, Peter. Rotanda, Bairro Sede, Distrito de Sussundenga, 2 July 1998.

Matakera, Jose. Rotanda, Bairro Sede, Distrito de Sussundenga, 2 July 1998.

Mbadzo, Manuel Antonio. Rotanda, Bairro Sede, Distrito de Sussundenga, 2 July 1998
Mbajaninga, Champs. Guezane, Distrito de Machaze, 16 July 1998.

Mberi, Kenneth. Rotanda, Bairro Sede, Distrito de Sussundenga, 2 July 1998.

Mlombo, Zuze Chingomana. Dacata, Distrito de Mossurize, 28 July 1998.

Moyana, Tafula. Guezane, Distrito de Machaze, 17 July 1998.

Muchalenyi, Timu waeseni. Dacata, Distrito de Mossurize, 28 July 1998.

Muchlanga, Albert Laisse. Chiurairue, Distrito de Mossurize, 29 July 1998.

Muchanga, Henriques Musindo. Chiurairue, Distrito de Mossurize, 29 July 1998.
Muchanga, Kemsi Mambachange Mapungwana. Espungabera, Sede, Distrito de
Mossurize, 27 July 1998.

Muchanga, Lucia. Chiurairue, Distrito de Mossurize, 29 July 1998.

Muchanga, Sofasoque Pande. Espungabera, Sede, Distrito de Mossurize, 27 July 1998.
Mudengo, Francisco Roki. Chitobe, sede, Distrito de Machaze, 19 July 1998.
Mukwawaya, Benjamini Mikiseni. Chimunkono, Distrito de Sussendenga, 8 July 1998.
Musinwa, Feniasi Mikiseni. Musambudzi, Rotanda, 3 July 1998.

Musororo, Vaina and Binda Domu Mosunza. Rotanda, Bairro Sede, Distrito de
Sussundenga, 2 July 1998.

Mutanda, Mangiza. Chimunkono, Distrito de Sussendenga, 8 July 1998.

Mutimumkulo, Solomon and Ana Mutimumkulo. Tuca—Tuca, Distrito de Machaze, 20
July 1998.

Mutisi, Paulino. Chitobe, sede, Distrito de Machaze, 19 July 1998.

Muvanekwa, Brandy Matonga. Dacata, Distrito de Mossurize, 28 July 1998.

Nemhasi, (Ambuya). Espungabera, Sede, Distrito de Mossurize, 27 July 1998.

Ngini, Isaac. Chiurairue, Distrito de Mossurize, 29 July 1998.

Rice, Chimoio and Reina Mucheka. Musinwa, Feniasi Mikiseni. Musambudzi, Rotanda,
3 July 1998.

Sangatana, Round. Musambudzi, Rotanda, 4 July 1998.

Save Group Interview, Grupo 1: James Matseva, Sargeni Nyamunda, Samuel Chisingi
and Around Tivane, Chidoco (Save), Distrito de Machaze, 23 July 1998.

Save Group Interview, Grupo 2: Selinda Nyambi Perisela, Tasi Bokuta, Tawasi Shaluk.
Naisai Chishongue and Nyamani Chisatu Basoka, Chidoco (Save), Distrito de Machaze,
23 July 1998. ~

Save Group Interview, Grupo 3: Ngozi Mateja, Chiruvani Sitolo Zuka and Manhasi
Sitoye, Chidoco (Save), Distrito de Machaze, 23 July 1998.

Save Group Interview, Grupo 4: Tawasi Sibanda, Zamuse N yamunda, N yokasi Mutani,
Munyani Nyamunda and Anasi Sibanda, Chidoco (Save), Distrito de Machaze, 23 July
1998.

Save Group Interview, Grupo 5: Makokali Chitandu, Paulina Changu, (?) Chilovane
Tsonga, Moyasi Changu, Josi Miyambo, Moyasi N gwenya, Yokasi Tivane and Mujai
Tiwana, Chidoco (Save), Distrito de Machaze, 23 July 1998.

221

Save Group Interview, Grupo 6: Mushawa Nyanzi, Totowani Machava, Mangeni
Matesva, Musami Nyambani and Maria Azitangu, Chidoco (Save), Distrito de Machaze,
23 July 1998.

Save Group Interview, Grupo 7: N yasala Sibandi, Chikavana Mataweya, Manhasi
Maliga, Pukwane Machisi Simango, Tawasi Simango and Salimina Tchislangu, Chidoco
(Save), Distrito de Machaze, 23 July 1998.

Save Group Interview, Grupo 8: Ndaina Sete, Moyasi Abasizi, Cecilia Secheni, Sara
Sitoi and Tavasi Chipinini, Chidoco (Save), Distrito de Machaze, 23 July 1998.

Save Group Interview, Grupo 9: Julieta Coana, Chibemva Sitole. Makokani Shauke and
Julivani Ngwenya, Chidoco (Save), Distrito de Machaze, 23 July 1998.

Simpson, Tazwira and Zefenius Simpson. Musinwa, Feniasi Mikiseni. Musambudzi,
Rotanda, 3 July 1998.

Sito, Filipe. Guezane, Distrito de Machaze, 17 July 1998.

Siyanda, Mario Joao, Feliz Mikiroso, Amelia Joao and Luisa Mukwiyo. Dombe Sede,
Distrito de Sussendenga, 9 July 1998.

Sunguri, Zacariah. Musambudzi, Rotanda, 3 July 1998.

Valemo, Sebastiao. Chitobe Sede, Distrito de Machaze, 22 July 1998.

Vurandi, Lazaro. Chimunkono, Distrito de Sussendenga, 8 July 1998.

Watchi, Ndasi. Sussundenga, Sede, 4 August 1998.

Sofala Province, Mocambique:

Anonimo. Bl’lzi, 24 September 1998.

Bonessa, Pedro Fernando. Machanga Sede, 11 September 1998.

Dhlakama, Isaias Veremo (2a. vez) Chibabava Sede, 15 September 1998.

Dongunda, Filimon (Chefe de Dongunda). Dongunda, Distrito de Chibabava, 15
September 1998.

Gofuro, Pedro Bapiro. Zona de Zivava, Distrito de Machanga, 4 September 1998.
Magona, Julia Kua Joao. Machanga Sede. 7 September 1998.

Group Interview with Chefe Agostinho Manduze Jorge Chiteve Simango (Regulo
ChiTeve) e Luis Mangate Bili Mapossa, Distrito de Machanga, Regulo ChiTeve. 11
September 1998.

Mavijo, Mwari and Psipa Chauque. Machanga Sede, Distrito de Machanga. 8 September
1998.

Machava, Luis Santana. Machanga Sede, Distrito de Machanga, 4 September 1998; 8
September 1998. -

Machava, Marachana Twende. Dongunda, Distrito de Chibabava, 15 September 1998.
Mapare, Manuel (regulo de Guara-Guara) and others. Guara-Guara, Distrito de BL’lZi, 23
September 1998.

Maposa, Notissa Mabalana. Dongunda, Distrito de Chibabava, 15 September 1998.
Mapossa, Mateus Mbangenene (Chefe tradicional de Moligue). Moligue, Distrito de
Chibabava, 18 September 1998.

222

Matavata, Carlos Alberto with Mamundu Ismael e Arbino Joao Zebunanye. Bl’lZi Sede,
Distrito de Bl’rZi, 21 September 1998.

Minyamba, Maibasi. Chibabava Sede, Distrito de Chibabava, 14 September 1998.
Moyana, Manuel. Dongunda, Distrito de Chibabava, 15 September 1998.

Muchanga, Augusto Magodo Sangulo. Muvi, Distrito de Machanga, 6 September 1998.
Muchanga, Augusto Magodo Sangulo. Machanga Sede, 7 September 1998.
Muchanga, Chimwiasi. Chibabava Sede, Distrito de Chibabava, 14 September 1998.
Mugadue, Macotore Jose Mafusse (Regulo de Muzungue). Muxungue, Distrito de
Chibabava, 16 September 1998.

Mugadoe, Matasi. Dongunda, Distrito de Chibabava, 15 September 1998.

Mussalaulo, Jose. Muvi, Distrito de Machanga, 6 September 1998.

Mutume , Amélia. Machanga Sede, Distrito de Machanga, 4 September 1998.
Ndazondwa, John. Mupini, Distrito de Machanga, 8 September 1998.

Ngilazi, David. Chibabava Sede, 15 September 1998.

Nguenha, Dajonganhi Ussene. Muvi, Distrito de Machanga, 6 September 1998.
Rafael, Amélia Chiriro. Machanga Sede, Distrito de Machanga, 8 September 1998.
Saveca, J ossias Mamba Mulhoi (Regulo de Hode). Hode, Distrito de Chibabava, 18
September 1998.

Simango, Jose’ Guacha. Machanga Sede, Distrito de Machanga, 7 September 1998.
Simango, Jose’ Paulo Maduca. Machanga Sede, 5 September 1998

Simango, Martinho Manhacha Jackson. Machanga Sede, Distrito de Machanga, 5
September 1998.

Simango, Temotio Mabesa. Machanga Sede, Distrito de Machanga, 4 September 1998.
Tuzino, Fernando Vitorino. Machanga Sede, Distrito de Machanga, 4 September 1998.
Simango, Zacarias. Dongunda, Distrito de Chibabava, 15 September 1998.

Sitole, Ana Nyamunda with Jorge Muchita Machava and Isaias Veremo Dhlakama.
Chibabava Sede, Distrito de Chibabava, 14 September 1998.

Sitole, James. Moligue, Distrito de Chibabava, 17 September 1998. -

Sitole, Marcos Siringuani. Bl’rzi - Lado de Companhia do Buzi, 23 September 1998.
Tivane, Notissa with Dorica Pangananyi Moyani. Dongunda, Distrito de Chibabava, 15
September 1998.

William, Mulenje Macama, Buzi Sede, 23 September 1998.

Note: These two interviews were conducted in the Province of Inhambane, across the
mouth of the Save River from Machanga Sede.

Group Interview with Germano Mauta Paulo Simango, Antonio Mwando Chicunisse
Simango e Cordeiro Miranda Mussequessa Simango, Mutinya, Distrito de Govuro,
Provincia de Inhambane, 10 September 1998.

Rodrigues, Joao Bassopa. Mambone Sede, Distrito de Govuro, Provincia de Inhambane,
10 September 1998.

223

Zimbabwe:

Chibuwe, Peter. Nyanyadzi, Hot Springs, Zimbabwe, 31 July 1999.
Dhlakama, Catherine. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.
Dhlakama, Hlaibandhla. Mabhiza (Rimbi/Checheche), Zimbabwe, 11 July 1999.
Dhlakama, Mucherechete. Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.
Dhliwayo, Chendinoflra. Mhakwe, Zimbabwe, 30 July 1999.

Dhliwayo, (Mbuya). Mhakwe, Zimbabwe, 30 July 1999.

Dhliwayo, Mwachitama. Rimbi, Zimbabwe, 11 July 1999.

Dhliwayo, Ndaiziyei. Jenya West, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 8 July 1999.
Dube, Daisy. Mundanda, Zimbabwe, 21 July 1999.

Dube, Maramwa. Checheche, Zimbabwe, 10 July 1999.

Gapara, Siyanzi Raphius and Ellen Gapara. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.
Gugu, Eva. Checheche, Zimbabwe, 10 July 1999.

Gumbo, Notase. Majehwe, Zimbabwe, 3 July 1999.

Hlabiso, (Sekuru). Matyukira, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 25 July 1999.
Hlabiso, Sofi. Matyukira, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 25 July 1999.

Jenya, Joyce. Rimbi, Zimbabwe, 11 July 1999.

Jenya, Meltah. At Chief Musikavanhu, Zimbabwe, 6 July 1999.

Khosa, Philemon. Pfidza Township, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.
Kumbula, Losi. Garahwa (Checheche), Zimbabwe, 10 July 1999.
Kunjenjema, John. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

Mafuta, Mukanyi. Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 27 July 1999.

Mahaka, Chizii. Chinyaduma, Chirinda, Zimbabwe, 18 July 1999.
Makasha, Munyembezi. Chikware, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 26 July 1999.
Makowe, Neli. Nyanyadzi, Hot Springs, Zimbabwe, 1 August 1999.
Makuyana, Mwatanisa. Bangira, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 8 July 1999.
Mandivhana, Sarah. Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 27 July 1999.

Manyuni, Idah. Pfidza Township, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.
Manzini, Nyadzani. Chikware, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 26 July 1999.
Maorere, Chamusi. Chikware, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 26 July 1999.
Maposa, Zisoyo. Jenya West, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 8 July 1999.

Marijeki, (Mbuya). Mhakwe, Zimbabwe, 30 July 1999.

Mashava, Luka and Eresi Machava. Mhakwe, Zimbabwe, 30 July 1999.
Matyukira, Watch. Matyukira, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 25 July 1999.
Mauwa, Chakai Oscar. Nyanyadzi, Hot Springs, Zimbabwe, 31 July 1999.
Mhlanga, Munorwei Watch. Majehwe, Zimbabwe, 5 July 1999.

Mlambo. Albert. Gaza, Chipinge, Zimbabwe. 23 July 1999.

Mlambo, Esther. At Chief Musikavanhu, Zimbabwe, 6 July 1999.
Mlambo, Farisa. Chinaa, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

Mlambo, Jackson. Garahwa (Checheche), Zimbabwe, 10 July 1999.
Mlambo, Mannered and Dorothy Mlambo. Emerald, Zimbabwe, 20 July 1999.
Mlambo. Mary. Majehwe, Zimbabwe, 3 July 1999.

Mlambo, Moyasi. Emerald, Zimbabwe, 20 July 1999.

Mlambo, Mukapera. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 7 July 1999.

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Mlambo. Nemasi. Majehwe, Zimbabwe, 5 July 1999.
Mlambo, Unganai. At Chief Musikavanhu, Zimbabwe, 6 July 1999.
Mlambo, Vanhuvaone. Tuzuka School, At Chief Musikavanhu, Zimbabwe, 6 July 1999.
Mtetwa, Chinungu. Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

Muganga, Mary. Chimanimani, Zimbabwe, 9 July 1999.

Muhlaba, Mwatama. Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 27 July 1999.

Muhlanga, Annah. Chinyaduma, Chirinda, Zimbabwe, 18 July 1999.
Muhlanga, Magoti Edward. Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
Muhlanga, Marimanjira. Chirinda (At Chief Mapungwana), Zimbabwe, 17 July 1999.
Muhlanga, Mubayi. Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

Muhlanga, Muchemanenjira. Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.
Muhlanga, Mwaitireni. Mt. Selinda, Zimbabwe, 20 July 1999.

Muitire, Mwaoneni. Matyukira, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 25 July 1999.
Mukokota, Phoebe. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 30 June 1999.

Mukombe, Siyani and Rhodah Moyocha. Chinyaduma, Chirinda, Zimbabwe, 18 July
1999.

Mulambo, Ndapota. Rimbi, Zimbabwe, 11 July 1999.

Mundeta, Allen. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.

Mundeta, Simon and Mbuya Mundeta. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28 June 1999.
Munedzi, Bertha. Mhakwe, Zimbabwe, 30 July 1999.

Munedzi, Ruben Gocha. Mhakwe, Zimbabwe, 30 July 1999.

Mureka, Ndodini. Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 27 July 1999.

Murombo, Fibiauwe. Chikware, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 26 July 1999.
Mushoma, Riyarwu. Chinaa, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

Mutigwe, Celani and Phillip Mutigwe. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.
Mutisi, Mwatambudzeni. Chinyaduma, Chirinda, Zimbabwe, 20 July 1999.
Muyambo, Albert. Checheche, Zimbabwe, 10 July 1999.

Muzodini, (Mbuya). Matyukira, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 25 July 1999.
Mwaoneni, Jona. Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

Ndangana, Muhlanganiso. Bangira, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 8 July 1999.
Ngorima, Mwaamba. Chikware, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 26 July 1999.
Ngwenduna, Hlanganipai. Matyukira, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 25 July 1999.
Nkomo, Robert Open. Nyanyadzi, Hot Springs, Zimbabwe, I August 1999.
Nyananda, Mavisi. Nyanyadzi, Hot Springs, Zimbabwe, 1 August 1999.
Rwizi, Rushike. Rupise, Hot Springs, Zimbabwe, 31 July 1999.

Sibindi, Simon. Chimanimani, Zimbabwe, 29 July 1999.

Sigauke, Ndagumirwa. Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

Sithole, Eva. Chinaa, Zimbabwe, 1 July 1999.

Sithole, Freddy. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

Sithole, Gilbert. Shekwa, Zimbabwe, 2 July 1999.

Sithole, Nyau. Shekwa, Zimbabwe, 2 July 1999.

Sithole, Sarai Nyabanga. Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 13 July 1999.

Sithole, Sekai. Chikore, Zimbabwe, 29 June 1999.

Sithole, Taingwa Inox. Chikware, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 26 July 1999.
Sithole, Wilson. Garahwa (Checheche), Zimbabwe, 10 July 1999.

225

 

Simango, Amundidi. Shekwa, Zimbabwe, 2 July 1999.

Simango, Mateus. Zamchiya, Zimbabwe, 14 July 1999.

Simango, Nyamadzawo. Shekwa, Zimbabwe, 2 July 1999.

Tarangwa, (Sekuru) and (Sekuru) Muvhamba. Pfidza Township, Chikore, Zimbabwe, 28
June 1999.

Woka, John. Chimanimani, Zimbabwe, 29 July 1999.

Zauta, Zuwarimwe (with Garikai Chaendepi and Mary Chaendepi). Chimanimani,
Zimbabwe, 29 July 1999.

Ziomo, Machona. Chikware, Vhimba, Zimbabwe, 26 July 1999.

Ziwandi, Marieni. Nyanyadzi, Hot Springs, Zimbabwe, 1 August 1999.

226