Mozambique: Human settlement and early state formation (Up to 1498)

Updated Jan 2008

The early history of Mozambique is difficult to delineate because of an absence of hard data. Evidence indicates occupation by San hunter-gathers with a Late Stone Age technology living in small communities for thousands of years before they were displaced or assimilated by migrant agriculturalists with Iron Age technology at the beginning of the first millennium (Crawfurd 2002; Stanford Undated).

The timing of the inflow of these Bantu-speaking people is unclear with some putting it as early as 100CE while others as late as 300CE. It is clear that their economy was dependent on cattle herding and the farming of grains, roots, beans and vegetables as well as metal smelting and working and pottery production (IIASA 2001; Crawfurd 2002). Socio-political structures varied from area to area and from one ethnic-linguistic group to another:

Generally, the character of the societies that emerged in this region was defined largely by geography. In the south, the Chopi, Tonga, and Tsonga were typically organized into village-sized chiefdoms. In the central region, around the Zambezi River, the Barue, Maravi, Macua-Lomue, Shona, and Tonga lived. These were not homogenous groups. The Maravi, for instance, were composed of a series of decentralized kingdoms, while the Macua-Lomue were organized around clans (IIASA 2001).

In the early eighth century Bantu speakers on the coast were drawn into the Indian Ocean trading network and overtime urban communities began to emerge, which were drawn into the emergent Swahili culture expanding from the north (IIASA 2001; Stanford Undated; see also Emergence of Swahili Culture (600-1500CE)). Sofala was the largest of these settlements in what was to become Mozambique, which traded in ivory, animal products, coral, tropical agricultural products and later gold from Zimbabwe in exchange for spices, cloth, ceramics, glass products and metal implements (IIASA 2001; Wikipedia 2008; Ferreira 2007, 152). Smaller settlements and trading posts, such as on the Island of Mozambique, dotted the coast between Sofala and Kilwa. In the 12th century Sofala fell under the domination of the Sultanate of Kilwa in the north, which controlled it until the arrival of the Portuguese in 1498 (Sutton 2002, 4, 10; Wikipedia 2008). The fortunes of Sofala, and Kilwa, fluctuated greatly with that of the demand and price of gold internationally (Sutton 2002, 9-10).

In the interior highlands, in what is Zimbabwe, northern South Africa, eastern Botswana and western Mozambique arose the culture of zimbabwes from the 10th century onwards (see Zimbabwes Kingdoms (1000 - 1838 CE) for more detail). This culture's gold production, and the supply of other products such as ivory and later slaves, formed the basis of Sofala's trading wealth. In around 1480 the Changamire polity emerged in the south, throwing off the rule of Great Zimbabwe, but little is known of its history until 1680 (Cahoon 2000). Within southern Mozambique, 50km from the Indian Ocean, was Manekweni, which flourished between the 12th and the 18th centuries (IIASA 2001).

Between 1200 and 1400CE other states arose in the interior that traded with Swahili coastal centres, the Makua and Yao polities. In the 1400 the Thonga kingdoms developed (Crawfurd 2002). The Maravi, migrants from the Congo, established chiefdoms which coalesced into a decentralized kingdom in about 1480CE, which in time became the Maravi Confederacy, and expanded rapidly, dominating eastern Zambia as well as the south and central areas of Malawi and much of Mozambique north of the Zambezi (University of California Undated; Mandiza 2002; CMRM Undated, 4-5). In its peak, around 1500, it controlled the trade between the interior and the Swahili coast (University of California Undated; Mandiza 2002; CMRM Undated, 4-5).

At the Angoche achepeligo a sultanate emerged in 1485 comprising of the cities of Angoche and Moma, which subjugated the coastal hinterland (Wikipedia 2006). It developed rapidly into a major trading centre for gold and ivory and other goods supplied by the Moravi polity. Though it was later displaced in this role by Quelimane it became a major centre for consolidating and disseminating Islam in northern Mozambique (Wikipedia 2006).

References

CAHOON, B 2000 "Zimbabwe Traditional States", World Statesmen.Org [www] http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Zimbabwe_native.html [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

CHAMARE MUSEUM & RESEARCH CENTRE (CMRM) Undated "Introduction to the Chewa Spiritual World" IN KuNgoni, [www] http://www.kungoni.org/images/pdf_files/Chewa.pdf (0ffline 11 Mar 2010).

CRAWFURD, J 2002 "Mozambique Timeline", [www] http://crawfurd.dk/africa/mozambique_timeline.htm [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

FERREIRA, OJO 2007 "Byna was Ilha de Moçambique Hollands - en die Kaap die Goeie Hoop nie", Historia 52(2), November, pp 150-185, [www] http://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/4020/1/Ferreira_Byna(2007).pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS (IIASA) 2001 "Country Briefs: Mozambique - Chronology of History" IN Botswana's future, Mozambique's Future, Namibia's Future: Modeling Population and Sustainable development Challenges in the Era of HIV/AIDS [www] http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/POP/pde/briefs/mz-history.html [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

MANDIZA, EI 2002 "Civil-military relations in Malawi: An historical perspective" IN Williams, R, Cawthra, G & Abrahams, D (eds), Ourselves to Know: Civil-Military Relations and Defence Transformation in Southern Africa, Institute of Security Studies [www] http://www.iss.org.za/pubs/Books/OurselvesToKnow/Mandiza.pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

STANFORD, E UNDATED "Culture of MOZAMBIQUE", [www] http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mozambique.html [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

SUTTON, JEG 2002 "The Southern Swahili Harbour and Town on Kilwa Island, 800-1800 AD: A chronology of booms and slumps", [www] http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/afr/projects/BOOK/suttonrevised.PDF [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA UNDATED "Chichewa: Background and History", IN Aflang Directory, [www] http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/aflang/chichewa/background.html [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

WIKIPEDIA 2008 Sofala", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofala [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

WIKIPEDIA 2006 "Angoche Sultanate", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angoche_Sultanate [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).