BY M. D. D. NEWITT
IN the last sixteen years a particular version of the history of northern Zambesia in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century has gained very wide acceptance. This is due to the work of E. A. Alpers, who has developed a coherent and significant interpretation of the region's history in a series of publications going back at least to 1966. This interpretation can he seen to best advantage in the following extracts from Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa.1
(i) The Maravi kingdoms came into being as a result of the immigration of a group of chiefly invaders, the Phiri, who came irons the Congo basin in the fourteenth century...
(ii) ...the Maravi found themselves dominating a large area which had lucrative trading connections, based on ivory, with the Muslim traders from the coast ...
(iii) ...In their eagerness to exploit the Zirnbabwian gold trade, the Portuguese ignored the ivory trade with the Maravi...
(iv) ... this negative Portuguese attitude to the northern Zambesia ivory trade was probably instrumental in straining the relations of power that existed between the two principal Maravi chiefs...
(v) ...it was his (Lundu's) attempt to dominate the ivory trade of northern Zambesia that led to his lengthy struggle with the Kalonga for supremacy there...
(vi) ...control of this trade fell to Lundu. who then used it to deny the Kalonga Muzura contact with the Muslim traders operating in the Shire valley. Seeking a way to break through this enclosure, Muzura attacked the Portuguese...
(vii) ...When he was defeated at Chicorongue, however, the Lundu decided that the moment had come for Ions to extend his challenge to his paramount chief. This he did by unleashing his army, the Zimba...
(viii) ...the ',undo made natural allies of once natural enemies. Both the Kalonga and the Portuguese hoped to eliminate a powerful antagonist ... The account then continues with the rise to power of chief Muzura in the seventeenth century. This interpretation has not only been repeated hy Alpers himself but has found its way virtually en bloc into theses and other publications dealing with northern Zambesia. A slight variation has indeed crept into Alpers' chapter in the Cambridge History of Africa. I fere it is suggested that the unleashing of the Zimba was not done as a 'challenge to his paramount chief'. Instead another explanation is offered. Ambitious and seeking an outlet for the increasingly impatient energies of his followers, the Lundu at last, in the mid-1580s, turned loose his forces in a campaign directed locally against the Portuguese and eastwards against the Makua-Lomwe peoples of northern Mozambique.2
It is typical of Alpers' work that he is not content merely to give an account of long-dead events or work at an antiquarian reconstruction of the early.....
To Be Continued Soon
Footnotes
(ii) ...the Maravi found themselves dominating a large area which had lucrative trading connections, based on ivory, with the Muslim traders from the coast ...
(iii) ...In their eagerness to exploit the Zirnbabwian gold trade, the Portuguese ignored the ivory trade with the Maravi...
(iv) ... this negative Portuguese attitude to the northern Zambesia ivory trade was probably instrumental in straining the relations of power that existed between the two principal Maravi chiefs...
(v) ...it was his (Lundu's) attempt to dominate the ivory trade of northern Zambesia that led to his lengthy struggle with the Kalonga for supremacy there...
(vi) ...control of this trade fell to Lundu. who then used it to deny the Kalonga Muzura contact with the Muslim traders operating in the Shire valley. Seeking a way to break through this enclosure, Muzura attacked the Portuguese...
(vii) ...When he was defeated at Chicorongue, however, the Lundu decided that the moment had come for Ions to extend his challenge to his paramount chief. This he did by unleashing his army, the Zimba...
(viii) ...the ',undo made natural allies of once natural enemies. Both the Kalonga and the Portuguese hoped to eliminate a powerful antagonist ... The account then continues with the rise to power of chief Muzura in the seventeenth century. This interpretation has not only been repeated hy Alpers himself but has found its way virtually en bloc into theses and other publications dealing with northern Zambesia. A slight variation has indeed crept into Alpers' chapter in the Cambridge History of Africa. I fere it is suggested that the unleashing of the Zimba was not done as a 'challenge to his paramount chief'. Instead another explanation is offered. Ambitious and seeking an outlet for the increasingly impatient energies of his followers, the Lundu at last, in the mid-1580s, turned loose his forces in a campaign directed locally against the Portuguese and eastwards against the Makua-Lomwe peoples of northern Mozambique.2
It is typical of Alpers' work that he is not content merely to give an account of long-dead events or work at an antiquarian reconstruction of the early.....
To Be Continued Soon
Footnotes
- E. A. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa (London, m75). The extracts are taken from pages 46-9 and page 53.
- E. A. Alpers and C. Ehret, 'Eastern Africa', Cambridge History of Africa, in (Cambridge, 975), 517.
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