Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Samuel Albert
A chapter from the book, 'After Livingstone: An African Trade Romance' by Fred L.M Moir, founder and director of The African Lakes Corporation Ltd (Now known as Mandala Group of Companies whose headquarters was and is still in Blantyre, Malawi.)
TRIAL by ordeal is practised by many kinds of primitive peoples. The common form among East Africans in our time was mwavi, bark poison. If a man or woman were accused of any crime or misdemeanour, protestations of innocence were usually accompanied by an offer to drink mwavi. Among natives near our stations it was often resorted to, usually at night, lest the white man should interfere and insist on investigations and a proper trial, with examination of witnesses.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Samuel Albert
NOTES AND DOCUMENTS
Translated and edited by Ian Linden
1 January 1891. The king issues a general warning that the Mangoni are in the vicinity, so it is dangerous to work in the gardens. Prima and Pedro, who were put up to it by Dominique, come and say "Happy New Year, father." May the coming year enable us to instruct them fully in our holy religion. At 8 p.m. we hear three rifle shots outside the mission and run out to see what is happening. A leopard had been killed. Chungwarungwaru and Chikusi are supposed to be in the neighbor-hood. We wonder if this time it is really war.
3 January 1891. As far as the "war" is concerned, it is the usual story. Matavere has sent us three chickens and asked for a little sugar in exchange-dispatched. A nice roast of lamb comes from the king for us. He has some very good ideas.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Samuel Albert
Read at the Evening Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in the United Kingdom, November 30th, 1885.
In the autumn of the year 1883 I sailed from England for South Africa with a view to satisfy a long cherished wish, namely, the exploration of African lands as yet little known, and more particularly to study the character, habits, and customs of the negro races.
Arriving at the Cape, I made all inquiries from the most reliable sources as to the probabilities of my success in accomplishing a journey alone overland to Central Africa. I did not get much encouragement, but, nevertheless, finally determined to make the attempt (whatever might be the results) to reach the Lake regions of Central Africa, and from thence to proceed towards the sea.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Samuel Albert
B. Pachai, Professor of History, University of Malawi, 1970
I
By 1904 the Ngoni of Malawi were widely distributed through a large part of the country with main and subsidiary settlements of both the Jere and Maseko communities or tribal clusters. These settlements had a number of common characteristics. The chiefs (with few exceptions) could all claim linear political descent from those who had led them through most of the way to the chosen land; they were now under British protectorate rule ; each main settlement had an administrative system with central authority, executive authority, military and judicial authority, all of which were subsequently modified to suit the protectorate government from time to time; each had started off with little more than a simple kinship organization with leadership provided by a determined individual of a well-known clan fleeing for safety and security with a hard core of kinsmen; each tribal cluster had to work out its own immediate political salvation during the period of dispersion or at the point of permanent settlement. The difference between these Ngoni and those of the Northern and Southern Nguni was that political evolution in the case of the former was based on trial and error tempered by a transference of 'home' patterns of government far removed in both space and time. Things not only happened quickly; they happened very far from `home'; they happened, too, without precedents at first. Before political patterns and social adjustments could evolve, external intrusions brought about compelling side-effects. In the end a political system emerged. Hammond—Tooke has defined a political system broadly 'as the system of power-distribution in a society'.2 In looking at this power-distribution in the Ngoni society of Malawi a number of propositions constitute a good starting point.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Samuel Albert
Author: P. H. Gulliver, 1974
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| wangoni of Tanganyika |
Before he became a professional linguist, Wilfred Whiteley was employed in anthropological research by the then Government of Tanganyika in the Southern Province of that Territory (1948-51). In 1949 he was requested to investigate the customary law on chiefly succession in the
Njelu Ngoni chiefdom of Songea District, where dispute had arisen over the appointment of a new chief. In 1952-3 I was asked to continue and to widen those inquiries, both as part of a general anthropological survey and because a succession dispute had developed in the other Ngoni chiefdom in the same District. Whiteley had left a brief memorandum and a few notes which I was able to use as a starting- point. Some of the resulting data have been published elsewhere (Gulliver, 1954, 1955, and 1971). It is fitting, however, to return to those materials in memory of my old friend and colleague, and as a reminder of his sustained interest in social anthropology.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Samuel Albert
The following are pictures and artist impressions of life among the Ngoni and fellow Nguni (i.e. the Zulus, Swazis, Xhosa, Ndebeles and ngoni) that I have collected and continue to collect. This will help the study of the similarities and differences between us the Ngoni and our brothers and sisters down south.
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| Zulu men in the 1880s mending the isicoco (headring made with wax) of his fellow. Isicoco was a badge for a matured, married man. |
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| From Zulu Photos |
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Samuel Albert
Below is a scottish missionary record of their meeting with Ngoni elders and eventually with the Paramount Chief of the Maseko Ngoni then, Chikuse. Apparently the missionaries had been trying to meet Chikuse but to no avail. They believed that he had a superstitous fear of the white man. I however think that there could have been other reasons why Chikuse did not want to meet them. In any case he might have seen them as opponents in the battle for control in his sphere of influence.
I was particulary interested in the fact that the Ngoni elders spoke the ancient zulu or nguni language while most of the young warriors spoke nyanja. This is evidenced by william Koyi, the South African Xhosa missionary who conversed with some of the elders and Chikuse's mother NaMulangeni and acted as interpreter. Below is the record of the encounters:-
Into the slow, sullen movement of village existence came another agony, the swift, arrow-like Ngoni raid—a savage war-chant in the night, blazing huts, spear-thrusts, frenzied slaughter, and a rapid ebb of naked warriors laden with maize, cattle, and goats, and every boy and girl they could lay hands upon.
Samuel Albert
Below is a very interesting and informative article on life,culture and eye witnesses testimonies on events sorrounding the killing of Inkosi yamakhosi Gomani Chikuse (Gomani I) by the British Colonial soilders in the 1890's. The article has largely been left intact, you may therefore note that names such as Chidyaonga were spellt differently by the author, who lived in
Ntcheu in the 1930s. If you have any comment and clarifications on the names and events feel free to post your comments. We need those comments to gain more insights on these important events in the history and culture of our people.
M. E. LESLIE.
NEARLY 40 years ago I was Assistant D.C. at Ncheu under Mr. S. J. Pegler D.S.O. The Paramount Chief of the
Angoni was then Philip Gomani. He, and his friend Bibole Chakumbera became, I like to think, my friends. We used to meet quite often because that was the period when the Portuguese Government was beginning to tighten its control after the Mocambique Company's Charter had run out, there was difficulty and high feeling all along the border over grazing rights, gardens and the precise boundary line.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Samuel Albert
Below are some photos that I have sourced from the
Society of Malawi on the Ngoni people during the early period of the British occupation of Malawi. The captioning is from the Society and has largely been kept intact except in a few cases where I have added a few words for clarification. Copyright Society of Malawi, all rights reserved.
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| Chikuse, the Angoni King of the Maseko Ngoni in Central Nyasaland(present day Malawi). Mentioned in Montague Keith's 'Far Interior'. |
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| From Drop Box |
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| Postcard: 'Angoni Natives.' Reverse reads: 'Issued by African Lakes Corporation, British Central Africa and 45 Renfield Street, Glasgow. Inland 1/2d, Foreign 1d.' Apparently, if this was sent to a foreign address, there could not be any text written on the back, except the address. |
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| From Some of the Earliest Pictures Of The Ngoni |
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| Troop of Angoni Dancers who came to the Coronation festivities of King George V at Zomba, 1911. Descendents of the Zulu who raided Nyasaland 50 years ago.' This photo came from the Brown Estate and was not captioned. Frank M.I. Johston in 1983 bought Arthur H. Walker's album and this same photograph was in it, captioned as above. |
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| From Some of the Earliest Pictures Of The Ngoni |
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Coronation Day, King George V , 1911. Angoni Tribesmen resting after having given a Royal Salute (Zulu Style) in the presence of H.E. the Governor, Sir William Manning, on the Gymkhana Club grounds at Zomba. From the Estate of Henry Brown. |
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| From Drop Box |
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| Chief Zlangea, Commander-in-Chief of the Angoni forces. Probably during the war with the British. |
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| From Drop Box |
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| The halt at the frontier Village of Angoni-land |
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| From Drop Box |
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| Chief Kafisi, Angoni Tribe |
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| From Drop Box |
Copyright Society of Malawi, all rights reserved.
