² Newitt, M. D. D., ‘The Portuguese on the Zambesi: An Historical Interpretation of the Prazo System’, J. Afr. Hist. x, i (1969), 67–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Portuguese Settlement on the Zambezi (London, 1972); Isaacman, Allen, ‘The Origin, Formation and Early History of the Chikunda of South Central Africa’, J. Afr. Hist. xiii, iii (1972), 443–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Mozambique: the Africanization of a European Institution, the Zambezi Prazos 1750–1902 (Madison, 1972); idem, The Tradition of Resistance in Mozambique: Anti-Colonial Activity in the Zambesi Valley 1850–1921 (London, 1976).

³ The oral traditions drawn upon in this article were collected when I was a Ṛesearch Affiliate of the Institute for African Studies, University of Zambia, supported by a University of London Postgraduate Studentship. An oral archive (fully transcribed and partially translated) has been deposited in the libraries of the University of Zambia and School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Subsequent references to this oral archive are indicated by ‘VT’. It was the principal source for my Ph.D. thesis, ‘The Historical Tradition of the Peoples of the Gwembe Valley, Middle Zambezi’ (London, 1976).Google Scholar While I have not yet had the opportunity of searching the Portuguese and Mozambican archives, the published material in Portuguese and the publications of other scholars provide only a few scattered references to the Gwembe.

⁴ Stefaniszyn, B. and de Santana, H., ‘The Rise of the Chikunda Condottieri’, Northern Rhodesia Journal, IV, iv (1960), 361–8.Google Scholar

⁵ Colson, E., ‘The Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia’, in Colson, E. and Gluckman, M. (eds), Seven Tribes of British Central Africa (London, 1951), 100n.Google Scholar; idem, The Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, 1962), 84; cf. idem, Social Organisation of the Gwembe Tonga (Manchester, 1960), 162.

⁶ Somewhat confusingly, in view of the similar categorization of regions of the Zambezi itself, the Gwembe is conventionally sub-divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower River areas and each has a distinct character. For their definition, see Colson, , Social Organisation, 4.Google Scholar

⁷ The extract drawn on here, translated by E. Axelson, appears in Fagan, B. M. et al. , Iron Age Cultures in Zambia, 11 (London, 1969), 148Google Scholar; the complete text appears in O Chronista de Tissuary, 11 (Nova Goa, 1867).Google Scholar

⁸ Axelson, E., Portuguese in South East Africa 1600–1700 (Johannesburg, 1960), 90.Google Scholar

⁹ White, J. D., ‘Some Notes on the History and Customs of the Urungwe District’, NADA x, iii (1971), 47.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Cf. Torrend, J., An English-vernacular dictionary of the Bantu-Botatwe Dialects of Northern Rhodesia (Mariannhill, 1931), 45.Google Scholar Torrend gives the meaning of the Ila ‘mbulukutu’ as ‘beads of past times’. I have not been able to discover the origin of ‘Balegate’ which may have antedated the Portuguese.

¹¹ David, and Livingstone, Charles, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries (London, 1865), 238.Google Scholar

¹² Newitt, , Portuguese Settlement, 238.Google Scholar

¹³ Mudenge, S. I., ‘The Rozvi Empire and the Feira of Zumbo’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1972), 200, 311–12.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Newitt, , Portuguese Settlement, 296–7.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Matthews, , ‘Historical Tradition’, 260–3, 267–9.Google Scholar

¹⁶ VT iii, Makiyi Sikoongo and Cipani Cisango, 9 Aug. 1974.

¹⁷ Livingstone, , Narrative, 240.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Livingstone, David, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (London, 1857). 532.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Livingstone, , Narrative, 231Google Scholar; Wallis, J. P. R., The Zambezi Expedition of David Livingstone (London, 1956), I, 155.Google Scholar

²⁰ Livingstone, , Narrative, 230Google Scholar; Newitt has identified Chissaka as Pedro Caetano Pereira: Newitt, , Portuguese Settlement, 237.Google Scholar

²¹ Wallis, , Zambezi Expedition, 1, 176Google Scholar; National Archives of Zimbabwe, LI 3/1/1, Charles Livingstone to F. Fitch, 5 Aug. 1892. Sekute or Sekuti is the hereditary title of a Tonga chief under the Mukuni in the Livingstone area: Clark, J. D. (ed.), The Victoria Falls (Livingstone, 1952), 70.Google Scholar

²² Livingstone, , Missionary Travels, 88, 524.Google Scholar

²³ Livingstone, , Narrative, 240Google Scholar; Schapera, I. (ed.), Livingstone's African Journals, 1853–1856 (London, 1963), 384.Google Scholar Livingstone's fear that he was ‘opening up the country through which no Portuguese durst previously pass’ is belied by his own evidence.

²⁴ VT 9, Siainga and Kanyemba, 3 May 1974; VT 10, Enock Syabbalo, 4 May 1974.

²⁵ Matthews, , ‘Historical Tradition’, 153Google Scholar; Livingstone, , Missionary Travels, 318.Google Scholar

²⁶ Livingstone, , Missionary Travels, 555.Google Scholar

²⁷ Ibid., 579; Livingstone, , Narrative, 235.Google Scholar

²⁸ Schapera, I. (ed.). Livingstone's Private Journals 1851–1853 (London, 1960), 130–1Google Scholar; Chapman, J., Travels in the Interior of South Africa (London, 1868), I, 179, 11, 98–9Google Scholar; Posselt, F. W. T., ‘Mzilikazi, The Rise of the Amandebele’, Proc. Rhodesian Scientific Assoc, xviii, i (1919), 13.Google Scholar

²⁹ Matthews, , ‘Historical Tradition’, 174–89.Google Scholar

³⁰ Wallis, , Zambezi Expedition I, xliiiGoogle Scholar; Tabler, E. C. (ed.), The Zambezi Papers of Richard Thornton (London, 1963), 117, 153–4, 171.Google Scholar The island was most probably Kasôko which was used as a base by the traders in the 1870s.

³¹ VT 1, Johan Siamayuwa, 11 April 1974; VT 8, Johan Siamayuwa and Simuchembu Dininga, 3 May 1974; VT 9, Siainga and Kanyemba, 3 May 1974; VT 13, Siankondo Mugonko, 7 May 1974; VT 23, Zyagola Siamanhonze, 18 May 1974; Livingstone, Museum, G 104 TONGA, Nabuyanda, M. T., ‘The Pure Batonga Tribal History’ (1941)Google Scholar; Selous, F. C., Travels and Adventures in South East Africa (London, 1893), 242.Google Scholar

³² VT 71, Komece Siambabala, 27 June 1974; VT 72, Siabwengo, 27 June 1974; VT 75, Syagola Sianjalika, 1 July 1974; Colson, E., ‘A Note on Tonga and Ndebele’, Northern Rhodesia Journal, I, ii (1950), 40.Google Scholar

³³ Lower River informants were unanimous about the role of Kaungwa (see VT 79–112); White, ‘History’, 59. Livingstone observed an abandoned Ndebele camp near the upper reaches of the Lusitu in 1855, and in 1860 he met ‘the generous chief Moloi’ (predecessor of Kaungwa?) in the Lower River who had recently visited the Ndebele king, Mzilikazi. Livingstone, , Missionary Travels, 568Google Scholar; Narrative, 220–3.

³⁴ White, , ‘History’, 58–62.Google Scholar

³⁵ Chaplin, J. H., ‘Notes on Some Sites in Soli History’, Northern Rhodesia Journal, v, i (1962), 50–5.Google Scholar

³⁶ Many Lower River informants described this event; see VT 94, Simuyoba Cepa Munyumbwe and Masainda Cafugwa, 27 July 1974; VT 97, Siamasandu Cibwalu, 1 Aug. 1974; VT 109, Siamabuyu Siamukwaya and Meki Siamasandu, 7 Aug. 1974. White supplies useful information from the Shona side (‘History’, 49, 60), while Chaplin's Soli traditions add confirmation (‘Notes’, 50).

³⁷ In 1892 an Ndebele party came into conflict with a Lozi force near the Kafue confluence; National Archives of Zimbabwe, HIST MSS WI 6/1/2, Lewanika to Lobengula, 4 Jan. 1893 (cited by Cobbing, J. R. D., ‘The Ndebele under the Khumalos, 1820–1896’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Lancaster, 1976).Google Scholar Cobbing dates the Kafue battle to 1892 on the basis of this document which refers to one Ndebele soldier being killed by the Lozi, because the name given for the Ndebele war leader,‘ Kwambeni’ is identical to that cited by White. The balance of the evidence seems to indicate two separate incidents, however, with the one described here falling in the late 1860s or early 1870s. White's Urungwe traditions record that Mzilikazi was the Ndebele king at the time of the raid, which reinforces my proposed chronology (White, ‘History’, 49).

³⁸ Beach, D. N., ‘Ndebele Raiders and Shona Power’, J. Afr. Hist. xv, iv (1974), 648.Google Scholar

³⁹ Chapman, , Travels, 1, 256–7Google Scholar; Thomas, T. M., Eleven Years in Central South Africa (London, n.d.), 380–1.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Selous, F. C., A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa (London, 1881), 295–6.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Phillipson, D. W., ‘Kasoko, A Portuguese Entrepôt in the Middle Zambezi Valley’, Zambia Museums Journal, 111 (1972), 35–48Google Scholar (the oral tradition quoted there was collected by C. S. Lancaster); Selous, , Wanderings, 296.Google Scholar

⁴² Selous, , Wanderings, 288.Google Scholar

⁴³ VT 54, Laisi Sianyanga Sialinda, 14 June 1974.

⁴⁴ VT 4, Cinkumbe, 13 April 1974; Newitt translates the word ‘Incumbe – an African Village. Used for territory attached to a prazo’. Newitt, , Portuguese Settlement, 382.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ VT 28, Condona Simuyuyu, 23 May 1974.

⁴⁶ Depelchin, H. and Croonenberghs, C., Trois Ans dans l'Afrique Australe (Brussels, 1883), 219Google Scholar; Reed described how, in the 1890s, Lower Zambezi traders used to make ‘a sort of base camp at Mashabba Kraal’ (probably Ciabi's on the right bank of the Upper River). National Archives of Zimbabwe, LO 5/6/8, Capt. William Reed to Acting Administrator, Bulawayo, 23 Feb. 1897 (I am indebted to Dr Cobbing for this reference).

⁴⁷ VT 1, Johan Siamayuwa, 11 April 1974; VT 28, Condonda Simuyuyu, 23 May 1974; VT 110, Sialuselo Siamayuni, 7 Aug. 1974; Tabler, E. C. (ed.), Zambesia and Matabeleland in the Seventies (London, 1960).Google Scholar ‘The Journal of Richard Frewen, 1877–1878’, 192. Frewen wrote that ‘The Portuguese… come in boats to within 100 miles of Wankie, where there are rapids, and then make the journey overland.’ Selous observed the Chikunda using small canoes in the Middle River, and he described a typical Lower Zambezi flat-bottomed boat reaching Kasoko from Zumbo; Wanderings, 289–90, 296. A few years later Selous described these same boats near Zumbo as ‘capable of carrying about three tons of cargo’; Travels, 60.

⁴⁸ Thomas, , Eleven Years, 380–1Google Scholar; Terörde, P., Vom Cap sum Sambesi (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1882), 331Google Scholar; one informant claimed the Chikunda used donkeys in the escarpment foothills, but this remains unconfirmed and may simply be an echo of Selous’ expedition in 1877; VT 65, Siatimbula Munjobe, 24 June 1974.

⁴⁹ Significantly, in 1862, when in the upstream part of the Upper River, Chapman heard about Mamba and learned that the Simamba possessed firearms: Tabler, E. C. (ed.), J. Chapman, Traveller in the Interior of South Africa, 1849–1863 (Cape Town, 1971), 11, 101.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ See below.

⁵¹ Livingstone, , Missionary Travels, 321–2Google Scholar; Chapman, , Travels, 11, 210Google Scholar; cf. Mohr, E., To the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi (London, 1876), 315.Google Scholar

⁵² Selous noted that elephant were already ‘very scarce’ in the northern parts of Zimbabwe by 1880; Selous, F. C., African Nature Notes and Reminiscences (London, 1908), 188.Google Scholar

⁵³ Livingstone, , Narrative, 230.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Livingstone, , Missionary Travelsi 534Google Scholar; Chapman, , Travels, ii, 203Google Scholar; Holub, E., Seven Years in South Africa (London, 1881), 11, 152.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ The vast majority of informants mentioned the purchase of slaves but see especially VT 21, Jackson Simoonga, 17 May 1974; VT 25, Stefas Siatwinda, 21 May 1974; VT 28, Condonda Simuyuyu, 25 May 1974; VT 31, Thomas Siavwela, 30 May 1974; VT 61, Cisangana, 21 June 1974; VT 77, Syaamajata Syakantu, i July 1974; VT 83, Jeki Simuyoba, 24 July 1974; VT 105, Ntaulu Kapungu, 6 Aug. 1974; cf. Posselt, F. W. T., Fact and Fiction (Salisbury, 1935), 131.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Livingstone, , Narrative, 406–7.Google Scholar Newitt assumes that these slaves were being sold to the Ndebele but there is no evidence to suggest this; Newitt, , Portuguese Settlement, 225.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Selous, , Wanderings, 290, 297.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Terörde, , Sambesi, 309–10.Google Scholar Not all the ivory used for the purchase of slaves was obtained through hunting. Mohr referred to chiefs around the Victoria Falls supplying ‘guides, provisions, and bearers in exchange for ivory’: Mohr, , Victoria Falls, 336.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Matthews, , ‘Historical Tradition’, 159–60, 198–200, 392–403Google Scholar; cf. Syaamusonde, J., Naakoyo Waamba Caano Cakwe (London, 1949), 22.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ VT 4, Chinkumbe, 13 April 1974; cf. VT 93, Sikapome and Catugwa Siakayuni, 29 July 1974, and VT 97, Siamasandu Cibwalu, i Aug. 1974.

⁶¹ Livingstone referred to this ban but added significantly that ‘many robberies occur’; Schapera, , African Journals, 84.Google Scholar

⁶² Selous, , Wanderings, 288.Google Scholar

⁶³ VT 84A, Kangwenda, 24 July 1974; VT 93, Sikapome and Catugwa Siakayuni, 29 July 1974; VT 109, Siamabuyu Siamukwaya and Meki Siamasandu, 7 Aug. 1974.

⁶⁴ VT 28, Condonda Simuyuyu, 23 May 1974; VT54, Laisi Sianyanga Sialinda, 14 June 1974; VT 78, Chief Simamba, 20 July 1974; National Archives of Zambia, KTE 2/i; Reynolds, Barrie, The Material Culture of the Peoples of the Gwembe Valley (Manchester, 1968), 188.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ VT 25, Stefas Siatwinda, 21 May 1974.

⁶⁶ VT 97, Siamasandu Cibwalu, 21 May 1974; cf. Kerr, W. M., ‘The Upper Zambesi Zone’, The Scottish Geographical Magazine, ii (1886), 400.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ VT 102, Meleki Bbuka, 5 Aug. 1974; VT 111, Makiyi Sikoongo, Cipani Cisango, and Saini Siaumbu, 9 Aug. 1974; VT 112, John Mwanja, 9 Aug. 1974.

⁶⁸ Colson, E., ‘The assimilation of aliens among the Zambian Tonga’ in Cohen, R. and Middleton, J. (eds), From Tribe to Nation in Africa (London, 1970), 43.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ VT 4, Chinkumbe, 13 April 1974; VT 28, Condonda Simuyuyu, 23 May 1974; for an illustration of the drum, see Reynolds, , Material Culture, 212, fig. f.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Selous, , Wanderings, 295.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Phillipson, , ‘Kasoko’, 37.Google Scholar

⁷² Cf. Lancaster, C. S., ‘Ethnic Identity, History and “Tribe” in the Middle Zambezi Valley’, American Ethnologist, i, iv (1974), 46–64.Google Scholar

⁷³ Selous, , Wanderings, 297.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ de Mesquita e Solla, A. de F., ‘Apontamentos sôbre o Zumbo’, Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, xxv (1907), 340.Google Scholar From 1873 Kanyemba dominated the Zumbo area to which his family had moved from Tete in the 1850s and where they held the prazo of Mazia Mutanda. His son-in-law, José de Araujo Lobo or Matakenya, was the conqueror of the Luangwa valley in the 1880s. In 1877, Kanyemba was appointed capitão mor of Inhaçoé, although he ended up by resisting Portuguese imperial expansion in the 1890s (at first successfully) and was later, in 1900, appointed an official of the Companhia de Zambèsia, from whose territory in Mozambique he raided into the Lomagundi District of Rhodesia. Finally, he settled in the Feira District of Zambia. Newitt, , Portuguese Settlement, 298–300Google Scholar; Isaacman, , Resistance, 33, 104, 108Google Scholar (Isaacman's use of the name ‘Tonga’ refers to the Barwe Tonga of Mozambique); P.R.O., DO 119/588 LoMagondi District Report, 31 March 1900.

⁷⁵ Mesquita e Solla, , ‘ Apontamentos’, 281.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Selous, , Wanderings, 291–2, 295, 298.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ VT 85, Johan Mutana Siamuzya, 25 July 1974; VT 104, Manjolo Jamba, 5 Aug. 1974; cf. White, ‘History’, 46. Kanyemba's raids even extended to the Ila; Smith, E. W. and Dale, A. M., The Ila-speaking peoples of Northern Rhodesia (London, 1920), I, 44.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Selous, , Wanderings, 289–90.Google Scholar

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⁸⁰ On Selous' second expedition to the Gwembe in 1888 he encountered a small Tonga army in the Upper River that had gathered at the Siampondo's to defend against an impending Ndebele raid. They were ‘about one hundred and fifty in number, many armed with guns…‘, Selous, , Travels, 204.Google Scholar

⁸¹ VT 4, Chinkumbe, 13 April 1974; VT 28, Condonda Simuyuyu, 23 May 1974; Colson, , ‘Tonga and Ndebele’, 37.Google Scholar

⁸² Colson (ibid.), identified Chisunga with Kanyemba. Chisunga was the name of a sub-chief of the Mburuma; Fripp, C. E. and Hillier, V. W. (eds), Gold and the Gospel in Mashonaland (London, 1949), 49.Google Scholar Mwanamambo was not a personal name but was the usual Lower Zambezi name for the slave captain in charge of a prazo or of all the slaves of a prazo senhor; Newitt, , Portuguese Settlement, 384.Google Scholar

⁸³ Colson, , ‘Tonga and Ndebele’, 36Google Scholar; Jalla, A., Litaba za Sicaba sa Malozi (Cape Town, 1921Google Scholar; translated by Jones, S. B. as History, Traditions and Legends of the Barotse Nation (London, 1921)Google Scholar; Bradshaw, B. F., ‘Notes on the Chobe River, South Central Africa’, Proc. Royal Geog. Soc. iii (1881), 210.Google Scholar

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⁸⁶ Coillard, F., On the Threshold of Central Africa (London, 1897), 325Google Scholar; Fripp, and Hillier, , Gold and the Gospel, 54Google Scholar; Selous, , Travels, 207.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Mesquita e Solla, , ‘Apontamentos’, 346–7.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ VT 97, Siamasandu Cibwalu, i Aug. 1974.

⁸⁹ Mesquita e Solla, , ‘Apontamentos’, 348–54.Google Scholar Axelson wrote that this aringa, named Luciano Cordeiro, was sited at the junction of the Umfuli and Umniati rivers (below this point the latter used to be called the Sanyati): Axelson, E., Portugal and the Scramble for Africa (Johannesburg, 1967), 155.Google Scholar This is an error which stems from an exaggerated memorandum by de Freitas (P.R.O. F.O. 179/279, No. 168, T. V. Lister to Sir George Petrie, 2 Oct. 1889) and has been copied by others. The location given here is based upon more immediate Portuguese sources, notably Mesquita e Solla, ‘Apontamentos’ and Ignacio, L., ‘O Zumbo (antes dos ultimos tratados)’, Boletim da Sociedade de Geographia de Lisboa, x (1891), 312.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Axelson, , Scramble, 155–6Google Scholar; Ignacio, , ‘Zumbo’, 297.Google Scholar

⁹¹ VT 85, Johan Mutana Siamuzya, 25 July 1974; VT 95, Dumbula Siabawe and Luka Siakalyabanyama, i Aug. 1974; VT 96, Siankanda Sikoongo, Melek Katabola, and Senet Syaamasandu, i Aug. 1974; VT 101, Laisi Siakaloba, 4 Aug. 1974; VT 103, Siakwanama and Cibaba, 5 Aug. 1974; VT 105, Ntaulu Kapungu, Aug. 1974; Mesquita e Solla, , ‘Apontamentos’, 385–7Google Scholar; Ignacio, , ‘Zumbo’, 320–1.Google Scholar Siagunku's treaty was filed under the name Ngoma, a traditional title of the Sikoongo.

⁹² Gibbons, A. St. H., Exploration and Hunting in Central Africa, 1895–96 (London, 1898), 260Google Scholar; Wallis, J. P. R. (ed.), The Barotseland Journal of James Stevenson-Hamilton, 1898–99 (London, 1953), 8, 30, 231–5Google Scholar; National Archives of Rhodesia, LO 5/6/8.

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