Mozambique Ethnic Groups

SHONA OR XONA
Shonas or Xonas– Shonas are a group of Bantu-speaking peoples who inhabit Zimbabwe, north of the Lundi River, and in southern Mozambique. The Shona occupy the territories between the Save and Zambezi rivers, subdividing into three distinct groups: Ndau, Manika and Tewe. In general, they appear scattered throughout the provinces of Manica, Tete and Sofala and also in some provinces of Zimbabwe. This ethnic group is associated with the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, among other stone walls in the region.
It is believed that the name “xona” appeared in the 17th century. The Hindi word for “gold” is sona, and the corresponding Gujarati word is sona or sonu. Sonu means “beautiful” in Sanskrit. In Panjabi language, sohna means “beautiful”. The Monomotapa Empire was known as the “land of sona”. Ken Mufuka, in his book Dzimbahwe, cites the example of the Arab traveler Ibu Said (1214-1286), who wrote about a certain people called Soyouna who inhabited Zambezia.
They were notable for their pieces of iron, ceramics and music. Numbering around 8 million people, they speak a number of related dialects whose standardized form is also known as Shona (Bantu). A small group of Shona-speaking immigrants from the 1800s also live in Zambia, in the Zambezi River valley, in the Chiawa Chieftainess area.

Ronga

Ronga (XiRonga; sometimes ShiRonga or GiRonga) is a Bantu language of the Tswa–Ronga branch spoken just south of Maputo in Mozambique. It extends a little into South Africa. It has about 650,000 speakers in Mozambique and a further 90,000 in South Africa, with dialects including Konde, Putru and Kalanga.

Ronga is grammatically so close to Tsonga in many ways that census officials have often considered it a dialect; its noun class system is very similar and its verbal forms are almost identical. Its most immediately noticeable difference is a much greater influence from Portuguese, due to being centred near the capital Maputo (formerly Lourenço Marques).

The Makonde

Coming from the Bantu people who lived in the south of Lake Niassa, the Macondes are located in the northeast of Mozambique, along the Rovuma River. They are also found in southern Tanzania, in greater numbers than in Mozambique and a small presence in Kenya. Their particular cultural traits are wood carving, the use of masks in ceremonies related to initiation rites and the performance of the traditional dance known as mapico. They are excellent sculptors in blackwood, and their art is known worldwide. The Makondes always resisted being conquered by other African peoples, by Arabs and by slave traders. They were not subjugated by the colonial power until the 20s of the 20th century, when the Portuguese managed to overcome the dense forests and steep areas that protected those people. As a result of this late contact with other cultures, their customs maintained a strong tradition and cohesion. During the colonial period and due to the political regime of the time, many Macondes took refuge in Tanzania, FRELIMO (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique), when starting its guerrilla campaign against the Portuguese, in 1964, defended the sculptors, trying to ensure of the artists’ permanence in the interior of the Mozambican country, so that they can continue their work. It was in Mueda, the center of the Makonde, that on June 16, 1960, the Portuguese authorities repressed a political demonstration by the local population, murdering several hundred people, a phenomenon that became known in history as the Mueda Massacre. It was in the Makonde region, in the administrative post of Chai, that on September 25, 1964, the Armed Struggle for National Liberation was launched. International solidarity, for the Mozambican nationalist cause, led to those sculptures, ancestral symbols of cooperation and fraternity, becoming symbols of resistance and Mozambican popular unity, thus reflecting a new political era.

Chopes

The Chopes are a people from southern Mozambique, mainly from zavala and inharrime districts, in Inhambane province and also north of Gaza province.
The Chopes have their own language which is a tonal language belonging to the Bantu language family. Many also speak guitonga or Portuguese as a secondary language.
The Chopes are one of the smallest ethnic groups in Mozambique and inhabit a small portion of land bathed to the south and east
across the Indian Ocean. These people have traditionally lived on subsistence agriculture. Historically, some Chopes have been enslaved and others have become migrant workers in South Africa.. The Chopes form a small bag in a very wide area of
people normally referred to as tsongas or changanes. In terms of
of their general social and cultural characteristics, the Chopes present
many similarities with the tsongas that surround them; however, in some respects they are significantly different. They are known internationally for the mbila musical instrument and associated dance, a cultural manifestation known since the time of Gungunhana, which was considered by UNESCO as oral and intangible heritage of humanity.

THE AJAUAS OR YAO

The Ajaua are one of the major ethnic and linguistic groups based at the southern end of Lake Niassa, which played an important role in East African history during the 1800s. They speak the Ajaua language. The Ajaua are predominantly a Muslim people group of about two million spread across three countries, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. The Ajaua/Yao people have a strong cultural identity that transcends national borders. The Ajauas constituted matrilineal communities known as Mbumba whose ultimate authority was designated ASYENE MBUMBA. Before the great economic and political changes that took place during the 18th and 19th centuries, with the ivory and slave trade, it can be said with some certainty that Ajaua society was characterized by an agricultural economy, cultivating various cereals. The matrilineal lines were organized locally on the basis of a group of sisters, their married daughters and unmarried sons, all under the leadership of an older brother designated by ASYENE MBUMBA, which we can translate as Guardian of the lineage. ASYENE MBUMBA, in order to exercise his position, was obliged to move his residence and that of his wives to the village of the sororal group. As most of the agricultural work (sowing, weeding and harvesting) was done by women and unmarried children, adult men were dedicated to hunting and fishing on a large scale. In addition to agriculture, hunting and fishing, the Ajauas developed the manufacture of iron tools: hoes, axes, weapons. They traded tobacco, ironworks, animal skins and ivory for salt, cloth and beads.From 1840/50, the great Ajaua States of the Mataca, Mtalica, Makanjila and Jalasi dynasties, had the slave trade as the mainstay of their economy. The young slaves obtained in the raids were made the wives of free men. The productive work of slaves (men and women) in agriculture and of men in handicrafts considerably increased the economic and political power of the chiefs and changed the housing arrangement in the Ajaua territory. It was at this time that the large housing agglomerations where the wives of the chiefs lived grouped together. The first Mataca sovereign had 600 wives scattered over eight villages, of which a third lived in the capital, Mwembe. The massive introduction of firearms and gunpowder contributed to the gigantic enterprise of hunting man and to the affirmation of the warrior and mercantile power of the Ajaua dynasties. The Islamization of the Ajaua aristocracy further strengthened the theocratic power of the Mataca rulers. Mtalica that came to be designated and considered by Xeicados. When the Arabs arrived on the east coast of Africa they began to trade with the Yao people, mainly slaves and ivory, in exchange for clothes and weapons. Due to their involvement in this coastal trade they became one of the wealthiest and most influential tribes in Southern Africa. The great Yao monarchies were born as the powerful Yao chiefs took control of the Niassa province of Mozambique in the 19th century. During that time, the Yao started moving from their traditional home in present day Malawi and Tanzania, which resulted in the Yao populations they now have. The most important result of the great (chiefdoms) was the return of the entire nation to Islam around the turn of the 20th century, and after the First World War. Because of their trade with the Arabs, the Yao chiefs (sultans) needed scribes who could read and write Arabic. The Muslim teachers who were employed and lived in the Yao villages had a significant impact on the Yao people because they could offer them literacy, a holy book, smart clothing and square rather than round houses. Furthermore, the sultans staunchly resisted Portuguese, British and German colonial rule, which was seen as a major threat to them. The British, who were seen as Christian like the Portuguese, tried to stop the slave trade by attacking some Yao slave caravans near the coast. They freed the slaves and confiscated the ivory, which the slaves had transported. The highest chief Yao Mataka, decided to become a Christian which would have a negative economic impact on her people, at the same time offered them a social system of Islam, which would assimilate their traditional culture. Due to the chiefs’ political and ritual domination, their conversion to Islam caused their individuals to do the same. Islam, which they adopted, is not the orthodox religion, which is found in countries like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. But it’s totally mixed up with your traditional animistic belief system. It is often referred to as “Folk Islam”.

Macua

The Macuas are a people originally from Mozambique and the Mtwara region, in Tanzania, whose religion is a mixture of monotheism and animism, and whose villages were run by local sobas, with the advice of a council. Society is strongly matriarchal.
In Mozambique, the Macua people lead most of the northern part of the country, and the north of the province of Zambézia. Emakuwa is the official language of the Macua people. It is the largest ethnic group in Mozambique.
The Makuwa, sometimes considered as two different entities, constitute the ethnic group of Mozambique dispersed over a vast territory that in the past extended from the Zambezi River to the Messalo River, in the South and North, respectively, from the Indian Ocean, in the East, to the current border with Malawi, to the west;
Currently, with the center in Nampula, the Makhuwa-Lomwe are spread to parts of the provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Zambézia. Important Makhuwa clusters are also found in Madagascar, in southern Tanzania and in Malawi, also in the south. According to tradition, the Makuwa claim a common mythical origin, as are their socio-family organization and the language they speak. Some studies argue that this is the oldest Bantu group in this part of southern Africa.
The Macua people have a documented history of ore processing and tool making. The colonial-era Portuguese naturalist Manuel Galvão da Silva, for example, described the Macua people’s iron mines. Similarly, the French explorer Eugene de Froberville described Macha’s methods of producing iron from ore in a wood-fired oven. The extracted metal was then turned into axes, knives, spears, rings and other artifacts.
Traditionally, the Macua people have been dedicated to agriculture and hunting, although documents from the medieval era suggest that the Macua were also successful traders and controlled the trade routes between Lake Niassa and the Atlantic coast, doing quick business with Swahili traders. (East Africa) and Gujaratis (India) before the beginning of the colonial era. However, prior to the 18th century, the Makua people primarily traded food, ivory tusks, and metal products for cloth, salt, and other products, but were not involved in the ivory or gold trade.
Among the Makuwa, family lineages are extensively represented throughout the territory, leading us to the conclusion of the close kinship that exists between the peoples that constitute what has been used to call Macua “tribes”. Likewise, the same family lineages (mahimo) are found in all the Macua and Lomues “tribes”, each referring to the same founder ancestor. This allows us to recognize that all the so-called Macua and Lomues “tribes” are after all the same people, although sometimes assuming regional variations.
About seventy percent of the Macua people mainly follow their traditional religion, which reveres ancestors and nature spirits. The exception is the coastal population, whose Makuan traders, under the influence of their Swahili-Arab customers, converted to the Shaffeite school of Sunni Islam.
The Macua people call coastal Muslims Maka, which may derive from “Mecca” according to Kroger, but may also derive from the Macua word for “salt” and “coast” according to Alpers.