Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:37:38.037Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The peoples of Southern Mozambique: an historical survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Alan K. Smith
Alan K. Smith
Affiliation:
University of Syracuse
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The purpose of this article is to attempt to clarify some of the outstanding controversies in the historical and ethnographic literature on southern Mozambique. It contends that by the eighteenth century, three distinct ethnic groups— the Tsonga, Chopi, and Tonga—lived in the area. It seeks to demonstrate how and why these groups differed from each other, and how these differences affected the ethnographic map. It argues that state formation among the Tsonga began at an early date, largely because of influences emanating from the adjacent western plateau regions of south-central Africa. Most of the neighbouring Tonga peoples, however, were shielded from these influences, and did not evolve political units larger than the village authority. The exception to this generalization occurred in the south of the Tonga-speaking region, where peoples were subject to an invasion by groups of Shona origin. The resultant differences between the two Tonga-speaking groups were to be of extreme importance when both subsequently would be invaded by peoples of Tsonga origin. In the south the arrival of Tsonga speakers resulted in the formation of the Chopi; in the north Tsonga speakers absorbed and assimilated the Tonga, who might have disappeared as a distinct cultural entity had other factors not intervened before the process had been completed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , October 1973 , pp. 565 - 580
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Junod, Henri A., The Life of a South African Tribe, 2 vols. (London, 1927);Google ScholarJunod, Henri A., Grammaire Ronga (Lausanne, 1896). Though the terms Chopi and Tshopi are used in the literature, I use Chopi to conform with the practice of the Tsonga language cornrnittee.Google Scholar

2 Fuller, Charles Edwin, ‘An Ethnohistoric Study of Continuity and Change in Gwambe Culture’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1955);Google ScholarFuller, Charles Edward, ‘Ethnohistory in the Study of Culture Change in Southeast Africa’, in Bascom, Charles and Herskovitz, Melville, eds., Continuity and Change in African Cultures (Chicago, 1959), 113–29.Google Scholar

3 Earthy, E. Dora, Valenge Women (London, 1933).Google Scholar

4 Binford, Martha, ‘Stalemate: A Study of Cultural Dynamics’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1971).Google Scholar

5 Junod, Henri-Phillippe, ‘Notes on Tshopi Origins’, Bantu Studies, III, no. 1 (07, 1927), 62.Google Scholar

6 Junod, Henri-Phillippe, ‘The Vachope of Portuguese East Africa’, in Duggan-Cronin, A. M., The Bantu Tribes of South Africa, IV, section 2 (Cambridge, 1936), 46.Google Scholar

7 Montez, Caetano, ‘AsRaças Indígenas de Moçambique’, Moçambique, no. 22(June, 1940), 82, 89.Google Scholar

8 Cabral, Augusto, Raças, Usos, e Costumes dos Indígenas do Districto de Inhambane (Lourenço Marques, 1910).Google Scholar

9 Santos, P. Luiz Feliciano dos, Gramática da Lingua Chope (Lourenço Marques, 1941).Google Scholar

10 Both terms date from the arrival of the Nguni. Chopi meant archer, and Tsonga meant slave or servant. Perhaps much of the difficulty with the name Chopi sterns from the fact that the Nguni only applied the name to a certain group which defended themselves particularly well. Thus others have tended to deny that they too are Chopi.Google Scholar

11 Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Documentos Anexos As Plantas, Parecer do govemador de Mossambique António Cardim Froes, em corrobaçao da informaçāo de Cap. e Feitor de Inhambane Bernardo de Castro Soares, I Aug. 1729.Google Scholar

12 Many people have confused the use of this term and have often thought it to mean Nguni peoples. In origin it may have been a term which meant no more than a ‘black man’.Google Scholar

13 A.H.U., D.A.P., Castro Soares, 1 Aug. 1729.Google Scholar

14 Father Thereza, Santa, ‘Plano e Relaçāo da Bahia Denominada Por Lourenço Marques’, in Montez, Caetano, Descobrimento e Fundacao de Lourenco Marques (Lourenço Marques, 1948).Google Scholar

15 Netherlands Royal Archive, Koloniaal Archive 12201, van de Capelle to Cape, 3 July 1726, 31–2; K. A. 12205 ‘Berigt van Hoeman Mahoemane’, 17 Mar. 1730, 574.Google Scholar

16 Cabral, Raças, 16.Google Scholar

17 K. A. 12201, ‘Dagregister… der Revier van Manisse’, 228.Google Scholar

18 K. A. 12200, van de Capelie to Cape, 18 Dec. 1725, 361.Google Scholar

19 K. A. 12205, ‘Extract uit de dagelijx aantekenen’, 12 Apr. 1730, 589.Google Scholar

20 Ehret, Christopher, et. al., ‘Outlining Southern African History, A.D. 1000–1500’ (Unpublished paper, UCLA, April 1972), 2a.Google Scholar

21 Ibid. 6–7.

22 Ibid. 2a; see also, Lanham, L. W., A Study of Gitonga of Inhambane (Johannesburg, 1955), 260. It should be noted that linguists differ as to the name of the language. Those who worked near Inhambane refer to it as Gi-Tonga, while others call it Chopi. The important consideration is that Tonga and Chopi are dialects of the same language, while Tsonga is a different language.Google Scholar

23 Cabral, Raças, 18–19.Google Scholar

24 K. A. 12205, van de Capelle to Cape, 2 May 1730, 208.Google Scholar

25 Perestrello, Manuel, ‘Narrative of the Wreck of the Ship St. Benedict’, in Theal, G. M., Records of South Eastern Africa, 8 vols. (Cape Town, 1898–1903), 1, 267–80.Google Scholar

26 Anon., ‘Narrative of the… Saint John’,Google ScholarIbid., I, 139.

27 Francken, Jacob, ‘Ramapoedige Reize van… de Naarstigheid’Google Scholar, Ibid., vi, 477–9.

28 A.H.U., D.A.P., Castro Soares, 1 Aug. 1729.Google Scholar

29 Fernandes to India, 25 June 1560, in Paiva e Pona, Primeiros Trabaihos (Lisbon, 1892), 27.Google Scholar

30 Fuller, ‘Gwambe Culture’, 6; A.H.U., D.A.P., Castro Soares, 1 Aug. 1729.Google Scholar

31 Letters of Silveira and Fernandes, in Paiva e Pona, Primeiros Trabalhos, 27, 29, 43, and 86; Vaz d'Almada, ‘Sāo Joāo Baptista’Google Scholar, in Boxer, C. R., ed., The Tragic History of the Sea (Cambridge, 1959), 265; A.H.U., D.A.P., Castro Soares, 1 Aug. 1729.Google Scholar

32 Junod, Life, I, 22–3.Google Scholar

33 Ibid. 24.

34 Ferrāo, Francisco, ed., Circumscri¸oes de Lourenco Marques (Lourenço Marques, 1909 ), 105–18.Google Scholar

35 Ibid. 114.

36 Nunes, Joaquim, ‘Apontamentos Sobre a Tribu dos ba-Thonga’, Boletim do Sociedade de Estudos da Colonia de Moçambique, no. 3 (06 1932), 30.Google Scholar

37 Earthy, Valenge Women, 5.Google Scholar

38 Junod, , ‘Tshopi Origins’, Bantu Studies, III, no. 1 (07 1927), 64, 66, 67.Google Scholar

39 N.R.A., K. A. 12205, van de Capelle to Cape, a May 1730, 200.Google Scholar

40 Junod, , ‘Tshopi Origins’, Bantu Studies, III, no. 1 (07 1927), 61, 66, 67. The Thimbila is a type of xylophone for which Chopi musicians are famous.Google Scholar

41 Junod, , Life, 1, 16–24;Google ScholarJunod, Grammaire Ronga, 53. See also, K. A. 12205, van de Capelle to Cape, 2 1730, 200.Google Scholar

42 d'Almada, ‘Sao Joao Baptista’, in Boxer, Tragic History, 265.Google Scholar

43 Biblioteca Nacional, Cota 4579, no. 5, ‘Rellacao de Alexandrino de Oliveira’, n.d.Google Scholar

44 P.R.O., Adm. 1/2271, Cap O 35, da Silva, ‘Description of Sofala’; Senhor Ferrāo, ‘Account of the Portuguese Possessions Within the Captaincy of the Rios de Sena’, Theal, G. M., Records, VII, 381.Google Scholar

45 A.H.U., Moç., Caixa 9, Inh. 99, de Matos to G. G., 27 Mar. 1762.Google Scholar

46 A.H.U., Moç., D.A.P., Castro Soares, 1 Aug. 1729; A.H.U., Moç., Caixa 8, Inh. 23, de Matos to G. G., 26 May 1760.Google Scholar

47 A.H.U., Maç., Caixa 9, Inh. de Matos to G. G., 27. Mar. 1762Google Scholar

48 Ibid.

49 Cabral, Raças, 19–20, 48. A.H.U., Moç., Caixa 64, Inh. 1145, de Matos to G. G., 8 July 1818.Google Scholar

50 Nunes, ‘Apontamentos Sobre a Tribu dos ba-Thonga’, Boletim cia Sociedade de Estudos do Colonia de Mocambicjue, no. 3 (June 1932), 28.Google Scholar

51 Junod, Life, 16.Google Scholar