One of the commonest themes in the pre-colonial history of Malawi is that of how many of the ethnic groups whose homogeneity we take for granted today were apparently composed from the coming together over time of different streams of immigrants.1 The migrations in question, in other words, have been discussed and analysed in terms of their political consequences. In this paper, however, our primary concern is to explore the relationship which appears to have existed between such migrations, on the hand and socio-economic change in general and agricultural change in particular, on the other. The discussion is for ease of reference limited to what took place in the Malawi section of the Great Rift Valley from the fifteenth to late nineteenth century, using such archaeological, oral and written sources on the subject as have been readily available to the writer.
Besides the famous Maravi migrations which took place at the beginning of the period with which the paper is concerned, there were three large-scale migrations or mass movements of people into the area along the western coast of Lake Malawi in pre-colonial times on which we shall be focusing. One was that of a people historically referred to as the Ngulube who migrated to the northwestern side of the lake from Ukinga or Kinga country on the northeastern side. The other was that of immigrants known as Balowoka (those who crossed over) who ended up occupying a number of areas between the middle and upper sections of the west coast of the lake after having migrated from such places as Uphangwa, Mwela and Liuli on the eastern side. And thirdly, there was the migration of the Arab-Swahili traders and their Nyamwezi and Yao allies from coastal areas of mainland Tanzania to several enclaves which they eventually created for themselves on the western side of the lake.
It should also be borne in mind that, relying as we do on oral testimonies, the kinds of change featuring in the discussion have most likely been defined with the passage of time as part and parcel of the ideology of the immigrant groups with which they have come to be associated. In other words, the claims to innovation and change associated with particular incoming groups need to be received and interpreted with a great deal of care and critical awareness. They are sometimes no more than means by which people who were once immigrants legitimise their presence in an area. Obviously, the approach to socio-economic change in pre-colonial African societies being employed in this paper has its limitations. The most serious of these is that it does nothing to meet the often repeated criticism that much of what has been written about the dynamics of African societies tends to focus on the external rather than internal determinants of change.2 A study which focusses on how incoming groups were responsible for new ideas and techniques of production can hardly be expected to form the basis of a reassessment. Of this, the writer is fully aware.
A major premise of this paper, of course, is that some notable changes took place in the pattern of agriculture and food production on the western side of Lake Malawi in the period under review, and that this was especially so with regard to adoption of new crops and intensive techniques of cultivation. One might wish to review this line of thinking against the widely held view or assumption that there were serious constraints on agricultural innovation in pre-colonial African societies.3 The view is based on the fact that storage of produce was a problem,while a market for surplus hardly existed.
The area being dealt with in this paper is for the most part low-lying, bounded as it is by the lake on the east and the escarpment on the west. Lying at an average altitude of 462 metres above seas level, it is generally well drained, with several rivers rising from the escarpment in the west and flowing eastwards into the lake. A late nineteenth century explorer described it as follows:
From the southern extremity of Lake Nyasa, there exists today a series of great alluvial flats which are approximately of the same height, and throughout their entire extent these flats show abundant evidence of having been covered with water at one time in the distant past.4
The flats in question in fact vary enormously in width from place to place. They can be as wide as 25 kilometres in some places and as narrow as 5 kilometres in others. Incidence of soils suitable for cultivation also varies from one part of the rift valley to another. Dark, alluvial soils rich in nutrients occur abundantly along river banks and around deltas by means of which a number of rivers enter the lake.5 Elsewhere, the soils can be extremely poor, being sandy and porous.
The dominant vegetation if brachystegia woodland. Unlike in other parts of Malawi where this kind of vegetation takes the form of a relatively open, savanna landscape with relatively few trees against a broad grass cover, here there is regular occurrence of thickets and large trees of which the most common is the baobab (Adansonia digitata). Annual rainfall averages between 820 and 900 cm and is all received between November and April. Temperatures are high through the greater part of the year, ranging between 25oc and 30oc. They can however drop considerably during the cool and sometimes misty season from May to July when drops of up to 10oc not unusual.6 With the usual allowance for uneven distribution, the present carrying capacity of the land in this part of the country is 80 persons per sq. km.
It is apparent from the archaeological record and evidence of the more detailed of oral historical narratives that the area under study has been inhabited by branches of the various peoples found there today since the later Iron Age (AD 1200-1500). In other words, the peoples who could be found even at that early point in time included the ancestors of the Ngonde and Tumbuka-Phoka speaking groups in the north, of the Tonga in the middle, and of the Chewa or Nyanja in the south. Up to about 1600, most of these would have migrated into the area from the west or northwest i.e. from the direction of the Luba-Lunda region of central Africa.7 These early communities were small in scale politically; each was for the most part confined to the number of people who recognised the supremacy of a particular ritual leader. Indeed, their strength lay not so much in numerical numbers but in a religiously determined sense of cohesion. "Earth priests", rain-making and fertility cults were key elements in the way communities of the time were organised.8 A complex rain and fertility cult centred around the veneration of a big snake and the sacred pool in which it was said to live commanded great influence all along the shores of Lake Malawi then. For example, in Karonga plain in the north, rituals connected with this cult took place at Kisindile Lagoon.9 Among the Tonga in the middle, they were held at a pool called Chateka near Usisya,10 and among the Chewa in the south they were observed at Salima, among other places.11
Economically, one infers from oral testimonies that these early communities were characterised by a mode of production in which the family in its extended form worked as a unit. The main occupations were a simple hoe-based, bush-fallow system of farming and fishing. There was also a division of labour along sex lines, with women concentrating on agriculture and foraging while their menfolk specialised in agriculture and fishing. The farming operations of the time were geared to the production of the main staples which then included sorghum (sorghum vulgare), millet (eleusine coracana) and cowpeas (vigna unguiculata). To optimise yields, gardens were usually cleared in well-watered, fertile soils along the river valleys. As noted by the archaeologist' Keith Robinson, "hoe cultivation along the river banks has gone on over a long period. The early agriculturalists concentrated their settlements where both water and easily worked alluvial soil were located."12
In comparison with the situation that obtained later on in the nineteenth century when the early Europeans to visit the area were amazed at the complexity of some of the agricultural systems then in vogue, later Iron Age farming practices appear to have been relatively simple and undifferentiated, and they were characterised by clearance of small patches of forest, light tilling of the soil, and interplanting of a limited variety of cereals and pulses. Even the advent of the Maravi state builders at the end of this period, that is, close of the fifteenth century or beginning of the sixteenth appears to have changed little at the agricultural level. The political impact of the Maravi was indeed very great. Following their occupation of the land and conquest of pre-existing peoples, the Maravi created a number of highly centralised states along the southern shores of the lake and adjacent hinterlands. In time, they came to dominate much of what is now central and southern Malawi.13 Their economic and technological innovations, however, were confined to the stimulation of craft production. In particular, industries geared to the production of machila cloth, salt and ironware received considerable boost in the heyday of Maravi imperium.14 This was apparently because Maravi rulers derived much of their revenue from collecting tribute in salt, iron products and machila cloth. In the area of food production through agriculture, however, the Maravi were either passive innovators or merely accommodated themselves to the cultivation practices which they found already established among the proto-Chewa and other more indigenous inhabitants. In that case, we have to look at the contribution of those who came after the Maravi for changes greater than those that would have been manifest during the Later Iron Age.
In view of what has been said about developments of the Maravi period, it appears that the first migration to have been associated with fundamental changes in the area of agriculture was that of the Ngulube, the people who established ruling lines or families among the Ngonde. Thanks to the work of Kalinga, the history of this particular migration and its political consequences is now well documented.15 At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the people who took part in the migration in question started out from Ukinga on the northeastern side of Lake Malawi. After failing to locate a suitable new settlement area in the Tanganyika-Nyasa corridor, they turned so the eastwards until they struck the Karonga plain. There, under the leadership of their fighter-hero, Syora, they dislodged the indigenous prote-Ngonde inhabitants from positions of political influence by military or ritual means. Following this conquest of the indigenous groups who included the Mwenekisindile, Mwenefumbo, Mwenekaluma and Mwenelupembe, the Ngulube immigrants organised a compact state centred around their divine king, the Kyungu, and administered with the help of half a dozen or so men of title and high rank the makambala.
It was in a bid to enhance and guarantee the material strength of their state that the Ngulube ended up having the effect of restructuring the economy of the Karonga plain. They are said to have introduced the rearing of cattle and the cultivation of banana groves. Later on in the eighteenth century, as the population of their state expanded, they made it possible for cassava to be adopted as a supplementary staple. It has been argued that unlike sorghum and millet, both bananas and cassava were capable of supporting more people per given hectarage, thus making it possible for the remaining amount of land to be freed for the more prestigious business of cattle keeping.16 Thus, the needs of a growing population and interests of a state that was anxious to increase the value of its stock dovetailed to bring about one of the most advanced forms of agriculture in pre-colonial Malawi.
Indeed by the nineteenth century,the Ngonde had "one of the most self-sufficient subsistence economies". They were then producing enough millet, sorghum, cassava and bananas for their own consumption, "with a surplus which they were able to export to the Kisi and Kinga to their northeast". Their system of farming had become one of the most intensive, comparable only to that of the Nyanja of the Shire Highlands and Mang'anja of the Lower Shire. It involved fertilising the soil with the help of weeds, woodashes and village refuse, and the construction of large mounds to cover the vegetable manure underneath.17
Of even greater significance in the socio-economic transformation of the area than the Ngulube intrusion, was the coming in of the Balowoka from the eastern side of the lake. These colonised several parts of northern Malawi in particular in the eighteenth century. Their migrations have, on the whole, been well studied and documented particularly in relation to the establishment of states in southern Karonga and Rumphi districts.18 Because these migrations occurred within easy reach of human memory, we know something about the ethnic origins of the migrants on the other side of the lake. They came from among the Nyamwezi, Bena, and Phangwe, but the collective name given to them on the western side of the lake was "Wa Mwela" (Easterners). From them are descended such prolific clan-groups as the Gondwe, Chawinga, Hango, Mwafulirwa, Mwaungulu, Mponela, Thindwa, Mwatandala, Kondowe and Kayira, found in many parts of northern Malawi. It is now clear that the migrations which brought the ancestors of these groups to the western side of the lake took effect over a long period, from perhaps as early as the 1720s to the beginning of the nineteenth century. For some indication of when they occurred, the generational method of dating appears useful, for in most cases the genealogies of the families concerned can be reconstructed back to the time of migration from the east.
In their accounts of how they migrated into Malawi, the different Balowoka groups play on variations of a common story. This is that from their respective places of origin east of the lake, they used the ferry between Manda Bay on the east side and Chilumba or Mtawali's on the west. It is furthermore claimed that they were lured westwards by prospects of discovering abundant supplies of ivory.19 A typical example is that of how the Mwafulirwa clan migrated across the lake from Uphangwa on the east side to Chilumba on the west where its members eventually created the Fulirwa state remnants of which have survived to the present day. The group is said to have left its original home on the southern edge of the Livingstone Mountains under the leadership of Malongo, ladden with Kisi pots and Phangwa iron hoes. Upon landing at Chilumba, the indigenous inhabitants whom it found in occupation of the area led it to Mwilang'ombe Mkandawire who controlled the hinterland. Here, Malongo subsequently married one of Mkandawire's daughters after what is said to have been a secret romance. As testified by one informant:
Malongo came to this country ladden with conus (mphande) shells, beads, anklets, and brass coils (sambo). With the help of these he won a special place in the hearts of the Kandawire. They offered him the domestic services of one of their daughters, the most beautiful of them all unknown to her parents, she fell in love with Malongo and soon became heavy with child.20
The colour and imagery the oral narrative evokes aside, the crucial issue here is that of the wealth as well as skills which the Balowoka brought to the west side with them and the extent to which these could have been used to enrich local cultures and economies.
The eighteenth century was therefore a period when the area west of Lake Malawi was drawn into a complex pattern of interaction with what is now the southern part of mainland Tanzania. This had far-reaching results on economic developments especially in northern half of the western side of the lake. One of these effects was that local economies underwent an expansion of scale. An important accomplishment of the Balowoka wherever they settled was that their trading activities resulted in the incorporation of these economies into regional and international trade networks. In areas like the Henga valley, Nkhamanaga plain and Hewe, the Balowoka stimulated the growth of long-distance trade in ivory which they also controlled. In the process, they also organised the people in the midst of whom they settled for the production and export of ivory and other ancillary products. In return, the area began to import a wide range of goods such as Indian and European-made cloth, brassware, glass beads, conus shells, Kinga and Phangwa iron hoes and Kisi pots. The influx of hoes and pots from the eastern side of the lake in particular increased dramatically during this period. Compared to Phoka hoes that were manufactured locally, Kinga and Phangwa ones had a thicker backbone and were therefore more durable. The Phangwa in particular produced hoes that were famous throughout the northern end of the lake.21 Their importation thus apparently increased the agricultural potential of the area. Kisi pots were equally in great demand, being normally exchanged for grain and salt. They were sturdy and finely glazed. Lacking suitable land for agriculture, the Kisi became entirely dependent on pottery and fishing for their livelihood.22
The Balowoka are also credited with having introduced some new crops into the agricultural system of the people they found on the west side of the lake. This is particularly said of the cassava plant (manihot esculenta) with whose use they apparently became familiar in the course of pursuing the ivory trade between Katanga in the interior and Lindi on the East Coast.23 Its point of entry in Malawi was Chintechi in Nkhata Bay but its quick adoption elsewhere along the lake suggests that it was seen as a boost to the agricultural system of the communities involved. As noted by the authorities on the subject, cassava has a low labour requirement, thrives even in less fertile soils, is highly resistant to to droughts and locusts, and has a higher yield potential than most crops. It can also be left in the ground for up to three years after maturation.24 Thus, it had many advantages to offer in spite of its low nutritional value. From the time of its introduction around Nkhata bay and Nkhota-Kota in the late 18th century, it spread rapidly, to as far as Karonga in the north and Salima in the south.25 By the mid-nineteenth century, it was the staple food crop over an extensive belt, from Chilumba in the north to Chia Lagoon in the south. According to oral tradition, the first variety to be grown in most of the areas concerned was called chitekambwani (the water drainer) and had its origin at Lindi on the East Coast.26 It had as one of its advantages the fact that women and children could virtually grow enough of it on mounds (matuto) raised on even the relatively poor, sandy soils.
In the nineteenth century, migrations from the eastern side of the lake into Malawi were mostly connected with the expansion Swahili-Arab and Yao commercial influence, itself the result of growing demand for ivory and slaves at the East Coast. The period witnessed the movement from the coast into the interior of east-central Africa of many Swahili-Arab traders and their Nyamwezi as well as Yao allies.27 Several of these new commercial introducers operated as far as the Lake Malawi region and beyond. In crossing the lake, they often made use of the ferries between Manda Bay and Chilumba in the north where it took dhows only six hours to cross the lake, Loseqa and Nkhota-kota in the centre, and Ng'ombo and Senga or Chiphole in the south. In time, Swahili-Arab influence along the western side of the lake became particularly strong at such places as Chilumba, Mlowe, Usisya and Chintechi in the north, and Nkhota-kota and Salima in the South.
Of the several Swahili-Arab migrations into Malawi which took place, a great deal is known about that which resulted in the establishment of Swahili-Arab colony at Nkhota-kota, about midway along the West Coast.28 Under the leadership of Salim bin Abdallah, later also known as the Jumbe, the Swahili-Arabs concerned settled at Nkhota-Kota after having traded their way through several places in mainland Tanzania. Here, they subsequently carved out a sphere of commercial and political influence for themselves by exploiting the divisions which existed among the local people. The Jumbe and those who came with him appear to have militarily and politically overawed the local people, i.e. Chewa, Tonga and others. Their military strength, based on the possession and efficient use of firearms, became so pronounced as time went on that the local people in need of protection sought refuge with them in large numbers. These refugees were assimilated into the Swahili settlement at such a rapid rate that by the 1880s Nkhota-kota was, by Central African standards, a large sprawling town of about 6,000 people. It was cosmopolitan too, for within it could be found men and women of various ethnicities - Swahili-Arabs, Yao, Chewa, Bisa, Tonga and Senga.29 There was also a marked degree of social stratification. The Swahili-Arabs occupied the top part of the social structure as merchants and political elites, followed in the middle by the Yao and Nyamwezi who acted as their agents, and then by the local people at the lower end of the social scale.30 The division between the immigrants and local people was also reflected in language, for Kiswahili became the language of the state and commerce, while Chichewa or Chinyanja, spoken in the surrounding villages, came to be looked upon as the language of slaves. Oral tradition also vividly recalls that there was an element of violence in the way the Swahili-Arabs and their Ruga-Ruga dealt with neighbouring Chewa communities and in particular with those who were reluctant to co-operate with them as new rulers. Small parties of heavily armed men were sent out to chastise such communities and compel their allegiance.31 However, the Swahili-Arab settlers were also responsible for a number of new economic ventures that followed their settlement in the area. Among other things, they created a large and fairly stable market for ivory and slaves. This market served almost all the surrounding peoples as well as those to the north and west of Nkhota-kota, such as the Tonga, Chewa and Bisa. The Swahili themselves exploited this market to the utmost, with the help of the Yao and Bisa, veteran traders of this part of east-central Africa.32
More important to the theme of this paper, the Swahili-Arabs introduced the cultivation of rice (-Oryza sativa) in the mid-nineteenth century.33 Initially, they grew the crop in fairly large fields along the marshes, with the help of slave labour. By the 1880s, there was a growing trade in this particular produce in the area, which provisioned not only passing trade caravans but also rising numbers of European missionaries, explorers, traders and colonial agents. It was intimated that the cultivation of rice then was the main agricultural industry in the area; it occupied the inhabitants, particularly the women, for five out of the twelve months in the year.34
It was also during the period of Swahili-Arab dominance and influence that the cultivation of maize spread to a number of places along the lake, albeit through the agency of Yao traders. The slim evidence we have on its adoption as a staple suggests that it spread to southern and central Malawi from Mozambique, along overland trade routes. By the mid-nineteenth century, it was well established as a staple along the southern shores of the lake.35 Like cassava which had been introduced earlier in the eighteenth century, maize necessitated the application of an entirely new range of farming techniques. It had to be grown on carefully raised and tended mounds or ridges. This was unlike anything that was required to grow crops such as millet, sorghum and pulses, which had a longer history in the area. These could be sown broadcast-fashion on lightly tilled soils.
North of Nkhota-kota, Swahili-Arab influence became a major factor only among the Tonga of Chintechi (the people of Mankhambira) in Nkhata Bay, and the Tumbuka-Phoka in the vicinity of Chilumba in Karonga. However, neither the Swahili-Arabs nor their Nyamwezi and Yao agents created permanent settlements in these areas; their presence was of a transitory nature. Their influence was therefore largely projected through local agents. These included men like Kang'oma Chirwa, the notorious slave dealer at Chintechi in the 1870s, and the followers of Mwandovi and Mtawali at Chilumba.36 Indeed, the second half of the nineteenth century saw the transformation of Chilumba from a relatively small and quiet village/port depending on fishing and agriculture, into a fairly cosmopolitan town that looked to trade with the East Coast for its prosperity. There were several factors accounting for this, including the increased traffic in ivory and slaves through the area from north-eastern Zambia and influx of Swahili-Arab and Nyamwezi traders from the East Coast.37 This influx of foreign traders and goods, it should be noted, did not always have a particularly healthy effect on relations within the community and the agricultural branch of the economy. Quarrels frequently broke out between the foreign traders and their hosts, over prices, food supplies and women. The local people also became overdependent on revenue from transit tolls and other services rendered to caravaneers that fishing and agriculture, the mainstay of their economy, suffered a bit from being accorded lower priority.38 In spite of this, the ample availability of imported wealth in the form of cloth, beads and brassware, created a semblance of growing prosperity.
Headmen and other members of the traditional ruling hierarchy in particular appear to have benefitted from the situation that developed, as did some of their dependents. In the words of one informant,
The villagers of Mwandovi and Mtawali served as resting places for the Arab traders (Balungwana) as they travelled to and from between the Coast and Bisa or Senga country in the west. Sometimes the lake was simply too rough for those who wanted to return to the Coast; so they had to wait here. From here, Mwandovi and Mtawali would choose some of their followers to help the Arabs transport their cargoes across the lake to Manda on the east side. For this, they were paid in cloth - large quantities of it in trusses (mataka) as well as in beads.39
For most people around Chilumba during the second half of the nineteenth century, the most profitable undertaking was to work for transient traders, by supplying them with food perhaps, but most especially by rowing them across the lake or accompanying them into the interior for some distance as porters.
As at Nkhota-kota and other ferries to the south, these intrusions of the Swahili-Arab period were accompanied by the introduction and spread of new crops and related techniques of production. In particular, it is widely claimed around Chilumba that the Swahili-Arab traders were the ones who introduced the cultivation of rice after having imported it from Lindi on the East Coast. This view, however, needs to be carefully examined in the light of an alternative one which suggests that the crop might have spread from the East Coast to the northern shores of Lake Malawi via the valleys and highlands of southern Tanzania.40
While previous studies of pre-colonial migrants into the Lake Malawi region and their impact focused almost exclusively on the political dimension of the subject and to a slight extent on the bearing which the migrations in question had on the development of trade in the region, this paper has tried to draw attention to some of the wider socio-economic changes to which it is possible to link these migrations. As far as agriculture is concerned, an attempt has been made to demonstrate that the coming in or such immigrants as the Ngulube, Balowoka and Swahili-Arabs led to the introduction of some new crops and to the adoption of applicable techniques for their production. The trend with the passage of time, in other words, was toward the establishment, by the various peoples who then inhabited the western side of Lake Malawi, of more intensive methods of cultivation than those which obtained in earlier periods.
There are obviously serious shortcomings in an approach to socio-economic change which emphasize the role of migrations and diffusion. One is that such an approach obscures the search for internal or indigenous causation of such changes, while exaggerating the role of external influences. Another is that it often obfuscates the distinction that should exist between claims based on verifiable evidence and those based on ideology. This is because traditions about who introduced what at the time of their migration into a given area are extremely susceptible to ideological manipulation. They need to be treated with greater caution than has been done here. Meanwhile, the paper will have fulfilled its purpose if it stimulates thinking into how the issues raised can be explained in terms of processes that were ongoing within the societies concerned.
1. Owen J.M. Kalinga, A History of the Ngonde Kingdom (Berlin: Mouton Publishers, 1985); Leroy Vail, "Suggestions towards a Reinterpreted Tumbuka History" in B. Pachai (ed.), Early History of malawi (London: Longman, 1972), pp. 148-167; Kings M. Phiri, "Chewa History in Central Malawi and the Use of Oral Tradition, 1600-1920" (unpublished Ph.D. Thesis,University of Wisconsin, 1975); Nancy R. Northrup, "Southern Malawi, 1860-1891: A Case Study of Frontier Politics" (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, 1978).
2. As pointed out by J.L. Comaroff in his "Dialectical Systems, History and Anthropology: Units of Study and Questions of Theory," Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1982), pp. 143-172.
3. As argued by, among others, David Beach in "The Shona Economy: Branches of Production" in R. Palmer and N. Parsons (eds.), Roots of Rural Poverty in Central and Southern Africa (London: Heinemann, 1977), pp. 40-44.
4. J.E. Moore, "The Physiological Features of the Nyasa and Tanganyika District of Central Africa, "Royal Geographical Society Journal, Vol. 10, No. 3 (1987), p.291.
5. J.G. Pike and G.T. Rimmington, Malawi: A Geographical Study, (London: Oxford University Press, 1965), p.30.
6. A. Agnew and M. Stubbs (eds.), Malawi: in Maps (London: University of London Press, 1972), pp.28-29.
7. A.K. Mbisa, "A Short History of the Pre-Kyungu Peoples of the Karonga Plain" (History Seminar Paper, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1973/74); F.R. Mkandawire, "The Corridor in Tumbuka and Chewa History: Migration and Settlement of the Tonga" (History Seminar Paper, 1978/79); J.M. Schoffeleers, "Towards an Identification of a Proto-chewa Culture," Malawi Journal of Social Science, Vol. II (1973), pp.47-60.
8. D. Birmingham, "Society and Economy in Central Africa before 1400" in D. Birmingham and P. Martin (eds.), History of Central Africa, Vol. I (London: Longman, 1983), p.1-4.
9. Oral Testimony (hereafter OT): Aron Mwenelupembe, Lupembe Village, T.A. Kyungu, Karonga, 20/8/80.
10. OT: Mdoyi Singini Mlowe Village, T.A. Mwausisya, Nkhata Bay, 29/8/80.
11. OT: Eliezari Nsadzu, Nsadzu Village, T.A. Karonga, Salima, 18/2/74; Chisamu Sajeni Banda and Eliyazeni Banda, Simaewa Village, T.A. Karonga, Salima, 19/2/74.
12. K.R. Robinson, The Iron Age of the Southern Lake Area of Malawi (Zomba: Government Press, 1970), p.24.
13. Kings M. Phiri, "Pre-colonial States of Central Malawi: Towards a Reconstruction of their History" Society of Malawi Journal, Vol. 41, No. 1 (1988), pp. 1-29.
14. Phiri, "Production and Exchange in Pre-colonial Malawi" in Centre of African Studies, Edinburgn University (ed.), Malawi: An Alternative Pattern of Development (Edinburgh, 1985), pp. 11-19.
15. Kalinga, A History of the Ngonde Kingdom, pp. 54-76; idem, "Trade, the Kyungus and the Expansion of the Ngonde Kingdom," International Journal of African Historical Studies (hereafter IJAHS), Vol. 12, No. 1 (1979), pp.17-39.
16. Owen J.M. Kalinga, "Towards a Better Understanding of Socio-Economic Change in 18th and 19th century Ungonde, "Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, Vol. XXIV, No. 1 (1984), pp.32-33.
17. P.T. Terry, "African Agriculture in Nyasaland, 1858-1894," Nyasaland Journal, Vol. 14, No. 2 (1961), pp.32-33.
18. T.C. Young, Notes on the History of the Tumbuka-Nkamanga Peoples in the Northern Province of Nyasaland (London, 1922), passim.; L. Vail, "Trade and Politics in Pre-colonial Northern Malawi" (History Seminar paper No. 7, University of Zambia, 1974/75); O.J.M. Kalinga, "The Balowoka Traders and State Builders" in A.I. Salim (ed.), State Formation in Eastern africa (Nairobi: Heinmann, 1984), pp.36-52.
19. Young, Notes, pp.32-40; A.K. Mhango, "A History of the Henga People" (History Seminar Paper, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1969/70); R. Chirembo, "The Mlowoka Factor in Tumbuka History" (History Seminar Paper, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1971/72).
20. OT: Petros Mwakiyembe and Yabulika Kayira, Mpala Village, T.A. Mwenewenya, Chitipa, 18/8/70 (by kind permission of Prof. Leroy Vail).
21. W.P. Johnson, Nyassa: The Great Water (London: Oxford University Press, 1922), p.43.
22. J. Thompson, To the Central African Lakes and Back, Vol. 1. (London, 1888), pp.262-263.
23. J.B. Nkhoma, "Immigrant Politics and the Mankhambira Paramountcy, 1720-1820" (History Seminar Paper, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1978/79).
24. J. Tosh, "The Cash Crop Revolution in Tropical Africa: A Reappraisal," African Affairs, Vol. 79, No. 314 (1980), pp.92-93.
25. David and Charles Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and its Tributaries (London: John Murray, 1865), p.373; J.P.R. Wallis (ed.), The Zambezi Expedition of David Livingstone 1858-63 (London, 1956), pp.200-208.
26. OT: James Dikamanja Ndovi, Lulomo Village, T.A. Mwafulirwa, Karonga, 25/8/80; Levi Chilimira Ndovi, Chimphinga Village, T.A. Mwafulirwa, Karonga, 29/7/80.
27. A.M. Sheriff, Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar (London: Heinemann, 1987) passim.
28. H.W. Langworthy, "Swahili Influence in the Area between Lake Malawi and the Luangwa River" IJAHS, Vol. IV, No. 3 (1971), pp. 575-602; M.E. Page, "David Livingstone and the Jumbe of Nkhota-kota," Rhodesian History, Vol. 3 (1972), pp.29-39; M.H.
29. L.C. Goodrich to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Bandawe, 19 February 1882, Public Record Office, London, FO84, File 1702.
30. UMCA, The Life and Letters of Arthur Fraser Sim: Priest in the Universities Mission to Central Africa (London, 1986), pp.103-107.
31. Phiri, "Chewa History in Central Malawi," pp.137-145; F. Kwaule, "The Chieftainship of Kanyenda, Mwale Expansion into Nkhota-kota and the Swahili Challenge, 1750-1895" (History Seminar Paper, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1978/79).
32. OT: Kamsamilo Chiwembu Banda and Msunga Kapichila Banda, Katimba Village, T.A. Kanyenda, Nkhota-kota, 3/4/74; Kwaule, "The Chieftainship of Kanyenda".
33. OT: Mankhanga Makuta Mwale, Makuka Village, T.A. Malengachanzi, Nkhota-kota, 5/4/74; Marimba District Notebook, Vol. 1 (Malawi National Archives) p.185.
34. Morrison's Diary; Goodrich to Secretary of State, 19/2/82; UMCA, Life and Letters, p.109.
35. Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition pp.94-121; Alan K. Smith, "The Indian Ocean Zone" in Birmingham and Martin (eds.), History of Central Africa, Vol. 1, p.211.
36. J.D. Mwenda, "Changes in the Society and Economy of Tongaland in the late 19th Century" (History Seminar Paper, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1982/83); F.G.W. Msiska, "The Balowoka Immigrants and State Formation on the Northwestern Coast of Lake Malawi" (History Seminar Paper, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, 1981/82).
37. L.M. Fotheringham, Adventures in Nyasaland (London: Sampson Low, 1891), pp.4-72.
38. O.T: Lukumba Mwaungulu; James Dikamanja Ndovi.
39. O.T: James Dikamanja Ndovi.
40. A.T. and G.M. Culwick, Ubena of the Rivers (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1935), pp21-26.