Classification of tribes. Physical characters. Keloids and tribal marks. Ear ornaments. Tooth-chipping. Hair.
The principal tribes inhabiting British Central Africa are as follows:
In the Protectorate proper:—
- 1. The Anyanja, or Mang’anja.
- 2. The Yaos (Wayao or Ajawa).
- 3. The Alolo.
- 4. The Awankonde.
- 5. The Batumbuka.
- 6. The Angoni.
The Angoni are placed last, as being the most recent arrivals in the country. They are, as will be explained later on, rather a ruling caste than a distinct race. The Makololo, as we shall see, cannot be counted as a tribe; neither can the Achikunda of the Middle and Lower Zambezi, ‘compounded of the old slaves of the Portuguese, brought from many different parts of Eastern and Central Africa,’[2] who, moreover, scarcely come into British Central Africa, though some of them are to be found on the Shiré.
Of the above, 1 and 6 extend beyond the Protectorate into North-eastern Rhodesia, where we find, in addition,
- The Awemba (Babemba).
- The Alunda.
- The Alungu.
- The Batonga—above Zumbo on the Zambezi.
The Anyanja extend, under several different names, from the Shiré valley to the Luangwa, and as far north as the middle of Lake Nyasa. At one time they seem to have occupied this country continuously, but they have been displaced and broken up by intrusions of strange tribes. The Makalanga (of whom the Mashona are a subdivision) appear to have formed a powerful kingdom in the sixteenth century, and they are nearly related to the Anyanja, if not actually the same people. Their language so closely resembles Anyanja that a European, who had acquired the latter at Likoma, could make himself understood without difficulty in Mashonaland. The languages called by some writers ‘Sena,’ and ‘Tete’ (Nyungwe) are dialects of Nyanja, and the following tribes may all be reckoned as closely united branches of the same stock: Achewa, Achipeta (Maravi), Basenga, Makanga, Badema (north bank of the Zambezi, near Kebrabasa Rapids), Anguru, Ambo, and Machinjiri, the last-named in Portuguese territory, between the Ruo and the coast.
Livingstone first came across these people under the name of the Maravi, when he descended the Zambezi from Linyanti in 1855. ‘Beyond Senga,’ he says, ‘lies a range of mountains called Mashinga, to which the Portuguese in former times went to wash for gold, and beyond that are great numbers of tribes which pass under the general name Maravi.’ A little above Zumbo, he first came across women wearing the characteristic lip-ring (pelele), and adds: ‘This custom prevails throughout the country of the Maravi.’ It is now more prevalent among the Yaos—the Anyanja, from whom they adopted it, having more or less disused it. Between Kebrabasa and Zumbo there were two independent Anyanja chiefs, Mpende and Sandia; all the rest were subject to these. ‘Formerly all the Mang’anja were united under the government of their great chief, Undi, whose empire extended from Lake Shirwa (Chilwa) to the river Luangwa; but after Undi’s death it fell to pieces, and a large portion of it on the Zambezi was absorbed by their powerful southern neighbours, the Banyai.’[3]
These are the people marked on the Portuguese maps as ‘Mang’anja d’alem Chire’ (beyond the Shiré).