Maravi
The kingdoms or the confederation of the Maravi extended over large parts of Malawi and northern Mozambique . The name of the district of Maravia in the province of Tete refers to the Maravi .
Originally, the seat of the King of Maravi is said to have been in Manthimba a little north of today's city of Tete in Mozambique . The royal title is said to have been "Kalonga" - "Karonga" is unlikely, as the consonant "r" does not occur in the language of the southern Maravi. The time before the arrival of the Portuguese is mentioned as the founding time of the Maravi kingdom in 1480 and its heyday in the 16th century. The fact that the Chewa were in Malawi around 1420/1480 corresponds to the result of a C-14 examination. They are said to have worked iron with which they traded.
From the 16th century there are reports of two rulers, one of the Banda near Mankhamba near Nthakataka (more in the direction of shaman and healer) and another of the Phiri near Manthimba (more in the direction of chief and warrior). The Banda and the Phiri are sub-tribes or clans of the Chewa. A unit of Maravi in the sense of Malawi is only assumed for the 17th century. This time is known as the "Golden Age". King names such as Mcepera Mwale, Mcocoma Phiri, Kampini Mbewe, Sosola Kalimakudzulu Phiri are mentioned, but all data and detailed records are missing, even from the 19th century. The area of Maravi is said to have extended in its greatest extent from the areas of the Tumbuka and Tonga on the lower Shire to the valley of the Luangwa , to the Malawi lake and the Zambezi. The residents of Maravi, the Chewa should, for "Phiri- matriarchy have heard" - still prevails in Malawi wife inheritance ( matrilineal ).
In the 19th century, the Chewa of Maravi are said to have been captured by the neighboring Yao - a tribe of slave hunters from Mozambique who immigrated to Mangochi - and taken to Zanzibar for slavery . But this cannot correspond to the facts, because the Yao hunted slaves for the Portuguese and only reached Mangochi at the beginning of the 19th century. They would only have had a short time to drag the Chewa away because the British quickly ended the slave trade, while the Arab slave traders only got as far as Nkhotakota, 600 km away on northern Lake Malawi.
See also
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Web links
- Isabella Andrej: Matrilinear societies: Das Maravi-Chiefdom (Vienna 1998, diploma thesis online)
- Sam Upton: The Maravi (Nyanja) of Malawi (Kenya 2005)
- Axis Gallery: Nyau Masks - Chewa and Mang'anja peoples (New York 2001, Culture & Masks)
- World History at KMLA: History of Maravi, 15th Century until 1889 (Korea 2005, with further links)