The zimba and the lundu state in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries

The Journal of African History

Volumn 28, Issue 3, 1987, Pages 337-355

  Schoffeleers, Matthew ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84928466112     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700030073     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. Lundu is both a positional title, comparable to chief or king, and a dynastic name. We speak of the Lundu, when the title stands by itself, and of Lundu, when it is attached to a proper name.
2. E. A. Alpers, North of the Zambezi, in R. Oliver (ed.), The Middle Age of African History (London, 1967), 78-84; E. A. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa (London, 1975), 46–55.
3. M. D. D. Newitt, The early history of the Maravi, J. Afr. Hist., 23 (1982), 145–62.
4. P. D. Curtin et al., African History (London, 1978), 172.
5. Newitt, Early History, 158.
6. W. H. J. Rangeley, Bocarro's Journey, Nyasaland Journal, Vii, i (1954), 15–23.
7. Newitt, Early history, 149.
8. E. Axelson, Portuguese in South Africa, 1600–1700 (Johannesburg, 1969); A. F. Isaacman, Mozambique-The Africanization of a European Institution: The Zambezi Prazos, 1750–1902 (Madison, Wis., 1972); M. D. D. Newitt, Portuguese Settlement on the Zambesi (London, 1973); P. Schebesta, Portugals Konquistamission in Siid~ost Afrika (St. Augustin, 1966).
9. See, e.g., R. G. Willis, On historical reconstruction from oral-traditional sources, Herskovits Memorial Lecture (Edinburgh, 1976); J. C. Miller, The dynamics of oral tradition in Africa, in B. Bernardi et al., Fonti Orali. Antropologia e Storia (Milan, 1978), 75-101; J. Vansina, Oral Tradition as History (London, 1985).
10. Newitt, Early history, 151.
11. F. Monclaro, Relação da Viagem que fizeram os Padres da Companhia de Jesus com Francisco Barreto na Conquista de Monomotapa no Anno de 1569, in G. M. Theal (ed.), Records of South-East Africa, 3 (London, 1899), 235.
12. Ibid., 229, 234–5.
13. Ibid., 234; João dos Santos, Ethiopia Oriental, in Theal, Records, 7 (London, 1902), 234-235.
14. A critical discussion of Silveira's missionary activities and the possible reasons for his murder are to be found in Schebesta, Portugals Konquistamission, 66–99.
15. Monclaro, Relação, 247.
16. Ibid., 235–6.
17. Details of Santos missionary career are to be found in Schebesta, Portugals Konquistamission, 92–102.
18. Santos, Ethiopia Oriental, 292.
19. Ibid., 293–4.
20. Ibid., 295.
21. Ibid., 296.
22. Ibid., 295.
23. Ibid., 297–9
24. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves, 53.
25. Both Alpers (ibid., 50) and Newitt (Early History, 156) assume that there were two Zimba campaigns, one before and one after 1590. However, if we leave out the Zimba horde which ravaged Kilwa and Mombasa as unrelated to Lundu's Zimba, there is no evidence left of any Zimba action in Makualand prior to the 1590s. Even Lupi's account, which is one of Alpers main sources of information, implies no Zimba activity on the east coast before that date. It is therefore possible that the Zimba conquest of Makualand took place only after 1590 or even 1593.
26. Santos, Ethiopia Oriental, 368–9.
27. W. B. Morgan, The lower Shire valley of Nyasaland. A changing system of agriculture, Geographical Journal, cxix (1953), 459-69; E. C. Mandala, Capitalism, ecology and society: the lower Tchiri (Shire) valley of Malawi, 1860-1960 (Ph.D. thesis, University of Minnesota, 1983).
28. Santos, Ethiopia Oriental, 268; J. P. R. Wallis (ed.), The Zambezi Expedition of David Livingstone (London, 1956), 268.
29. W. E. Chafulumira, Mbiri ya Among'anja (Zomba, 1948), 20; A. C. P. Gamitto, King Kazembe, 1 (Lisbon, 1960), 127.
30. A. Bocarro, Decade written by Antonio Bocarro, His Majesty's Chronicler for the state of India, of the performances of the Portuguese in the east, in Theal, Records, III, 395.
31. The name Muzura may have been derived from the verb /-zula/ to pull up by the roots. /Mu-/is a common actor prefix, and the consonants /r/ and /l/ are interchangeable in Chimang'anja. Cf. D. C. Scott, A Cyclopaedic Dictionary of the Mang'anja Language (Edinburgh, 1982), 681, s.v. zula.
32. A. Gomes, Viagem que fez o Padre Ant. Gomes, da Comp. ade Jesus, ao Imperio de Manomotapa; e assistencia que fez nas ditas terras d.e. Alg'us annos (ed. and notes by E. A. Axelson), Studia, 3 (January, 1959), 199–200. The detail about Muzura having been a powerful hunter is probably a legendary cliche (cf. Vansina, Oral Tradition, 139).
33. A. Bocarro, Decade, 416–9.
34. The year 1622 is mentioned in G. Schurhammer, Die Entdeckung des Njassa-Sees, Stimmen der Zeit, xcix (1920), 449. Schurhammer's source was Father Sebastian Barreto's annual report to the Superior General of the Jesuits, dated December 15, 1624.
35. A. Bocarro, Decade, 387-95; Axelson, Portuguese, 41–2.
36. Axelson, Portuguese, 67; Schebesta, Konquistamission, 118; Newitt, Early history, 160. Newitt, Early history, 160.
37. M. Barreto, Report upon the State and Conquest of the Rivers of Cuama, in Theal, Records, 3, 480.
38. Interview with Messrs Mbukwa, Khombe and Kambalame, officials of the Mbona shrine, Mbangu Village, Nsanje District, Malawi, 4 May 1967. Interview with Mr. Joseph Thom, the shrine's spirit medium, Thole Village, Nsanje District, 1 May 1972.
39. E. Price, letter in The South African Pioneer, 40, viii-ix (1927), 103–4.
40. Details on the resistance history of the Makombe Paramountcy in Newitt, Portuguese Settlement, and A. F. Isaacman, The Tradition of Resistance in Mozambique (London, 1976).
41. Interview with Mr Fryton Malemia, Malemia Village, Nsanje District 8 August 1967. On the different meanings of the noun kholo, cf. Scott, Cyclopaedic Dictionary, 227 s.v.
42. Santos, Ethiopia Oriental, 300.
43. The prefix /chi-/ is often used in the Mang'anja language to convey the notion of something or someone great or redoubtable. Chitundu may therefore best be translated as the fearsome Tundu'.
44. D. P. Abraham, The roles of “Chaminuka” and the Mhondoro cults in Shona political history, in E. Stokes and R. Brown (eds.), The Zambesian Past (Manchester, 1966), 46.
45. Wallis (ed.), Zambezi Expedition, 76. Malawi Government, Department of Surveys, District Maps, Sheet 10, Nsanje(Blantyre, 1975). Rangeley Papers, The Society of Malawi Library, File 2/1/17.
46. T. Price, Mbona's water-hole, Nyasaland Journal, vi, i (1953), 28–33. J. M. Schoffeleers, The Story of Mbona the Martyr, in R. Schefold et al. (eds.), Man, Meaning and History (The Hague, 1980), 246–267. J. M. Schoffeleers, Oral history and the retrieval of the distant past, in W. van Binsbergen and M. Schoffeleers (eds.), Theoretical Explorations in African Religion (London, 1985); M. Schoffeleers, Ideological confrontation and the manipulation of oral history; a Zambesian case, History in Africa (forthcoming 1987).
47. On the use of the prefix /ma-/ in Chimang'anja see Scott, Cyclopaedic Dictionary, 299. Also: T. Price, The Meaning of Mang'anja, Nyasaland Journal, 14, 1 (1961), 28–33.
48. Gamitto, King Kazembe, 1, 28, and route map attached to vol. 11.
49. A likely location would have been the Lulwe Plateau, on the south-western edge of the Matundu Hills, which at an altitude of about 500 metres extends several miles into Mozambique in the direction of Sena. The stream draining this plateau is also called Tundu.
50. E. Do Couto Lupi, Angoche, Breve memoria sobre uma das capitanais-mores de Districto de Mocambique (Lisbon, 1907); Alpers, Ivory and Slaves, 51–2. Note that the Zimba were known both as Marundu and Matundu, that is to say, both as Lundu's and Tundu's men.
51. Schoffeleers, Story of Mbona, 251–2. The text was recorded during an interview with Mr Chapalapala, an elderly subsistence farmer from Misomali Village, Chapananga Chiefdom, Chikwawa District, on 31 August 1967.
52. This evidently happened after Lundu's military defeat in 1622. A more detailed discussion is to be found in Schoffeleers, Ideological confrontation (forthcoming).
53. See for instance W. H. J. Rangeley, Makewana, the mother of all people, Nyasaland Journal, 5, 2 (1952), 31–50. J. N. Amanze, The Bimbi cult in Southern Malawi (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1986). Rangeley's article is on the Chisumphi cult in the Central Province of Malawi. For a collection of essays on rain and fertility cults, which illustrate the structural rivalry between cult and state, see J. M. Schoffeleers, Guardians of the Land (Gwero, 1979).
54. The principal sources of the persecution theology referred to here are the Mbona myths. See Schoffeleers, Oral history, for a discussion.
55. Newitt, Early history, 161.
56. Newitt, Portuguese Settlement, 34–8.
57. Ibid., 37.
58. A. Bocarro, Decade, 388.
59. Gomes, Viagem, 180; Barreto, Rivers of Cuama, 475.
60. Newitt, Portuguese Settlement, 202.