THE MALILA Preliminary notes on language,

history and ethnography

Martin Walsh

#1, April 1998

Introduction

The Malila are a relatively unknown ethnic group in south-west Tanzania. Very little
has been written about the language, history and ethnography of the Malila and they
appear never to have been the subject of research except in the context of studies of
neighbouring and related peoples. The following notes comprise a first attempt at
compiling information on the Malila and their language from existing sources, both
published and unpublished. This first draft is necessarily incomplete, being based
upon a review of sources and notes in the author’s possession.

Location

The traditional territory of the Malila is in the highland area of the same name (Malila
or Umalila), located to the south-west of Mbeya, roughly half-way between the
regional capital and the Malawian border. The highlands rise to a peak of 2,456
metres above sea level at Mbogo, and, according to Cribb and Leedal, they are
primarily drained by the northern Songwe River into Lake Rukwa (1982: 3-4).

The traditional boundaries of Umalila are not shown clearly on available maps.
Historically the Malila appear to have shared borders with the Songwe (Safwa) and
possibly Poroto to their north and north-east, the Mbozi Nyiha to their west, the
northern Lambya and Ndali to their south and south-east, and Nyakyusa speakers to
their east (including the Nyika and Penja of Rungwe district?). According to notes in
Mbeya District Book, the territories of the following Nyiha chiefs once bordered
Umalila: Mwezimpya (in the north), Mwamlima, Mwamengo, Mugaya, and
Mwembe (in the south) (‘Tribal history and legends: WaNyiha tribe’). The Songwe
(lowland Safwa) chief whose land bordered Umalila appears to have been Mirambo
(‘Sketch Map of Usongwe’, also in Mbeya District Book).

It seems that most Malila now live in the south of Isangati division in Mbeya district,
with some in the northern part of Ulambya division in Ileje (formerly part of Rungwe)
district. Mariam Slater’s map shows two principal areas of Malila settlement, one
focusing on the village of Isangati itself and bordering Safwa territory, and the other
around Ilembo, close to Lambya country (1976: ix). Both of these places are in
Isangati division. Van Hekken and Thoden van Velzen, however, worked in the
Malila village of Ibala, which lies on the southern fringe of Umalila in Ulambya
(Bulambia) division (1972: 21).

1
Population

The German administration estimated that there were about 1,700 Malila, 567 of
whom were ‘men fit for bearing arms’ (Admiralty 1920: 66, describing conditions
c.1910-11). Judging by later British census returns, this was probably a gross
underestimate. The Native Census of 1921 reported a population of 7,996 Malila in
Rungwe district (this was before the creation of Mbeya district). The 1931 census,
however, indicated a total of only 5,878 Malila throughout the Southern Highlands
province. This apparent drop in numbers is perhaps no more than a reflection of the
comparative inaccuracy of the earlier census, though it is also possible that shifting
perceptions of ethnic identity (and in particular the desire to be identified with more
salient neighbouring groups) influenced the census returns.

In the 1957 population census of Tanganyika, 20,745 people identified themselves as

Malila (Polomé 1980: 4). This is the most up-to-date figure available for the Malila:
subsequent Tanzanian censuses have not incorporated data on ethnic affiliation.

Ethnographic classification

In her survey of The Peoples of the Nyasa-Tanganyika Corridor (1958), Monica

Wilson classed the Malila and closely related peoples under the heading ‘Nyiha’:

“The Nyiha consist of a number of scattered groups living mostly on the drier parts of the
table-land between the Lakes. They include (i) the Nyiha around Mbozi in Mbeya district;
(ii) the Lambya who adjoin them in Rungwe district; (iii) the Lambya to the south of the
Songwe in Nyasaland [now Malawi]; (iv) the Wandya who adjoin them (to be distinguished
from the Wanda at the south of Lake Rukwa); (v) the Lambya of Northern Rhodesia [now
Zambia]; (vi) the Nyiha of Nothern Rhodesia [Zambia]; (vii) the people of the wet Malila
plateau adjoining the Lambya of Rungwe district; (viii) scattered groups on the Fipa plateau;
and (ix) the Nyiha of Rungwe district.” (1958: 28)

Wilson, famous for her earlier work (together with Godfrey Wilson) among the
Nyakyusa, walked through Malila in 1954, but has very little to say about the place
and its people:

“The Malila plateau adjoins both Nyakyusa and Lambya country, and people living there said
that in language and custom they resembled the Lambya, as they did in their style of dress and
building. [The explorer Joseph] Thomson refers to Nyiha villages on the Malila plateau in
1879 so the cultural similarity is nothing new.” (1958: 28)

“Lambya and Malila are names of localities which have come to be applied to the people who
occupy them.” (1958: 29)

“Traditionally the Nyiha wore skin clothing and elaborate bead ornaments, and this dress was
still visible in 1955 [sic] in remote villages on the Malila plateau.” (1958: 32)

In concluding her survey, Wilson listed ‘A study of the Nyiha ‘people’ as one of a
number of ‘obvious topics’ for ethnographic research:

“They are the only large group in the area on whom there is no professional study either
published or forthcoming. They appear to have been very early inhabitants of the Corridor,
and they have been so conservative that detailed field work might yet provide a great deal on

2
traditional history and culture. Are the various ‘dialect groups’ here classed as Nyiha indeed
similar in language and custom?” (1958: 61-62)

When Wilson wrote these words she appeared to be unaware of the collection of 14
northern Lambya texts published by Joseph Busse (1939/40) and the same author’s
forthcoming monograph on the language of the Nyiha of Mbozi district (1960).
Nonetheless, her survey did stimulate a significant body of subsequent ethnographic
and historical research among the Nyiha of Mbozi (the published results of which
include Brock 1963, 1966, 1968; Knight 1970, 1974; Slater 1976; and Gartrell 1979).
This research, together with anthropological work on the Fipa, has also added (though
not much) to our knowledge of the Nyika who live to the west of Lake Rukwa (Willis
1966). The precolonial history of the Lambya in Malawi has been studied more
recently as part of a wider investigation of the history of the Ngonde kingdom
(Kalinga 1974; 1978). The Malila and most of the other groups mentioned by Wilson,
however, remain largely unstudied, and, although some of their linguistic
relationships are now clearer, we are still in no position to provide a definitive answer
to Wilson’s closing question.

Language

The language of the Malila has never been subject to detailed investigation, though
sufficient information (mainly lexical) has been collected to provide an indication of
its position in a genetic classification of the better-known Bantu languages of south-
west Tanzania.

Linguistic data

Unfortunately, most of the linguistic data on Malila which has been used to classify
the language remain unpublished. The only published lexical material is a list of 22
plant names recorded by the botanists Cribb and Leedal (1982: passim.). Their list,
together with botanical identifications, is reproduced in a later section of this paper.
Given the manner of its collection, it is unlikely that these terms are recorded with any
phonological accuracy. Using his own lexical material, Derek Nurse has recorded the
reflexes of proto-Bantu consonants in Malila (‘Malela’) and three other ‘Nyika’
languages: Mbozi Nyiha, northern Lambya, and Tambo (1988: 104). In this table he
shows Malila as a seven vowel language with no contrast between long and short
vowels. However, it should be noted that not all of the entries for other languages in
this table (which is incomplete) are confirmed by other sources, and it should
therefore be treated as no more than a provisional guide to Malila phonology.

Linguistic classification

Malila was not mentioned in Harry Johnston’s A Comparative Study of the Bantu and
Semi-Bantu Languages (1922), although he had earlier travelled across the Nyasa-
Tanganyika Corridor and collected data on some of its languages. Johnston classified
Malila’s closest neighbours in his Group M, ‘The North-West Nyasa Languages’, a
grouping which includes a selection of languages from all three Corridor sub-groups
(as currently defined) as well as Tumbuka and related languages in what is now
Malawi (1922: 59-63). Guthrie (cited in Polomé 1980: 17) also classified Malila

3
(M24) in his own Group M, the composition and sub-grouping of which has remained
largely unchanged in subsequent classifications. Guthrie’s Group M corresponds to
Heine’s ‘Fipa-Konde’ group in the latter’s genetic classification of the ‘Eastern
Highland’ Bantu languages, based on 100-word lists (cited in Polomé 1980: 18). In
Derek Nurse’s more recent classification of the languages of south-west Tanzania,
this group is renamed ‘Corridor’, and Malila (or ‘Malela’) is placed in a sub-group of
the Corridor languages labelled ‘Nyika’, together with Nyiha, Lambya and Safwa
(1988: 20).

Nurse’s classification is based primarily upon 1,000-word lists (collected in Dar es

Salaam in the 1970s with Gerard Philippson), from which 400-word lists were drawn
for lexicostatistical comparison (1988: 18). The lexicostatistical analysis presented by
Nurse shows that Safwa is the most divergent member of the Nyika sub-group, with
Lambya splitting off from Malila and Nyiha only slightly before they separated from
one another (1988: 91). While the linguistic (and cultural) divergence of Safwa from
other members of the sub-group is apparent to most observers (Mwakipesile’s claim
that the Malila are a Safwa sub-group being an exception, n.d.: 35), the precise nature
of the relationship between the other members is less clear. Consider the differing
perspectives offered by Busse and Knight:

“We can say the following about the relationship between Nyiha and neighbouring languages.
Lambya stands particularly close and is spoken as a dialect of Nyiha. Whether this has come
about as a result of long geographical proximity, or whether it has always been the case,
cannot be established. Nyiha is also closely related to Safwa, Kinga, Ndali, Malila and
Poroto. In the lexicon, phonology and grammar the connection is apparent.” (Busse 1960: 84)

“The Malila are related to the Nyiha, their languages being virtually identical. Malila claim to
be able to converse much more easily with Nyiha than Safwa or Songwe [the western or
lowland Safwa].” (Knight 1974: 27)

Given the imprecision of lexicostatistical analysis at this level, especially when based
upon a limited sample of dialects, it would be prudent to say that the available data
are insufficient to clarify these relationships further at present. It may well be that
Malila and its close relatives form a dialect continuum: whether or not they do, and
what direction linguistic relationships take, will only be revealed through further
research.

Linguistic classification has, at least, clarified some of the wider connections of

Malila. It is evident that the Safwa and Nyiha ‘peoples’ belong, both linguistically
and culturally, to the same sub-group (Nurse’s ‘Nyika’), as Monica Wilson herself
suspected (1958: 41). It is also apparent that the ‘Nyika’ languages form a higher-
level grouping together with their western neighbours, members of the ‘Mwika’ sub-
group (which includes Nyamwanga, Mambwe, Lungu and Fipa). The genetic relation
between the Nyika-Mwika languages and the Nyakyusa-Ndali languages (in Nurse’s
terminology) is less certain, though there are reasonable grounds for classifying them
together in a wider Corridor group, as Guthrie and others have also done. There is,
however, a sharp dividing line between the Corridor languages and the Southern
Highlands languages to the east, a linguistic boundary which cuts across Monica
Wilson’s original conception of the Nyasa-Tanganyika Corridor as a much broader
cultural area extending to the east and north-east of the northern end of Lake Nyasa.

4
Despite continuing uncertainties (for example over the immediate external
relationships of Corridor and Southern Highlands), this genetic linguistic
classification has obvious historical implications. It puts paid to Kalinga’s notion of a
historically related group of peoples (the so-called ‘Ngulube peoples’) united by
common ritual traditions, unless the distribution of these traditions is understood in
terms of later cultural diffusion. Unfortunately, anthropologists and conventional
historians have been slow to catch on. The most recent anthropological / historical
overview of the cultures of south-west Tanzania almost completely ignores the
implications of Nurse’s linguistic analysis, despite the fact that it was written to
complement Nurse’s paper (Park 1988; Nurse and Park 1988).

History

Nothing has been written specifically about the history of the Malila, though there are
scattered references to them and their rulers in the published and unpublished
literature. Geography and the available linguistic evidence suggest that the Malila
may only have emerged as a distinct ethnic group in the relatively recent past. It is
possible that they developed a separate identity (separate from that of their other
Nyika neighbours) largely as a result of their comparative isolation in the highlands of
Malila, and that this isolation fostered a degree of unity which persisted through into
the colonial period.

Apart from geographical location (recalling Monica Wilson’s observation that Malila
was originally the name of a place rather than a people), the focus of Malila ethnicity
in at least the recent past appears to have been a single chiefship, all of the known
rulers sharing the same family name, Mwaluvanda (which is variously transcribed in
the literature). It is impossible to deduce from existing sources, however, when and
how this particular lineage came to prominence. It may originally have been only one
among a number of localised polities, in which the ritual components of leadership
were as important as (or more important than) the political (as Harwood emphasises
in his study of the Safwa, 1970). What, if any, impact the institution of Indirect Rule
by the British may have had in this context is also obscure.

Origin traditions

The oral traditions of at least two traditional Nyiha polities, the Mwamlima and
Nzowa chiefships, claim a common origin with the Malila ruling line. This historical
connection was first alluded to in writing in Mbeya District Book:

“Mwalima’s ancestors originally came from Uwanje and may be that departure there from
coincided with that of Nzowa’s forefathers. It is interesting to note that Mwalima is related to
Mwaruanda, the present chief of Umalila.” (‘Tribal history and legends: WaNyiha tribe’,
written c.1926)

A rather different and more detailed version of this tradition, which makes explicit
reference to the common origin of the Mwamlima and Mwaluvanda (‘Mwaruanda’)
lines, together with other chiefs in the region, was given to the anthropologist
Beverley Brock in 1961:

5
“The elderly Mwamlima chief, Msawira, traces his ancestry back to Gogo country, with a
suggestion of Somaliland origin (Ubarawa) before that. He says one of the party stayed in
Gogo country, another dropped out to found the Merere line of chiefs among the Sangu, a
third founded the Zumba line, chiefs of the Guruka (or Galuha) division of the Safwa, and a
fourth became the Malila chief, Mwaruanda. When Mwamlima’s ancestor reached the hills
around Iyula, he found people already in occupation. These people are often said to have
been the ancestors of the present Mgala clan, although Mwamlima will not concede this.”
(Brock 1963: 126)

A similar version was given to John Gay in 1981 by Juma Mwamlima, the son and
heir to the title of Brock’s informant:

“His distant ancestors came from Ugogo, and his grandfather told him that the most remote
ancestors had come from Balawi in Somalia. They didn’t stop in Kenya but came straight on
to Ugogo in Tanzania… The family stopped in Njombe, along with the ancestors of Zomba,
Melele and Malwanda.” (from an interview dated 29 August 1981, unpublished field notes on
the Nyiha)

It seems reasonable to assume that the latter two versions both derived from the same
source: Shimamula Mwamlima, who ruled in the immediate pre-colonial period and
was the father of Msavila (Brock’s ‘Msawira’) and grandfather of Juma. Both Brock
(1963: 256) and Gay were given similar chiefly genealogies, of nine and eight
generations depth respectively, from Juma Mwamlima (who acted as chief from 1948
(or 1949) until Independence) to an ancestor called Sisole. The genealogy given in
Mbeya District Book only counts six generations of chiefs, from Mwamlima
(probably Msavila, who was already ruling in 1914) back to an ancestor called
Mwakombe, not Sisole.

Brock discusses this tradition as a ‘mythical charter’. A few years before her
fieldwork some members of the Mgala clan had laid claim to the chiefdom on the
grounds that they were the original inhabitants of the land. At the resulting hearing
before a district officer they had produced a copy of the second volume of Kootz-
Kretschmer’s Die Safwa, highlighting the following passage:

“But Mwamlima left this land (Mwaruanda’s) and went through the forest Irindi to Unyiha
and came to Vugara and took the land away from the Vagara (Wagala or Mgala) and settled
there.” (1929a: 243; Brock’s translation)

Their claim was dismissed, but feelings still ran high in 1961 and it was evident that
different versions of the origin tradition given to Brock reflected competing positions
– each side claiming to have been the source of all the local accoutrements of
civilisation, including fire and iron tools (Brock 1963: 126-127). As Brock points out,
such traditions do not provide easy material for the determination of objective history,
and this is borne out by the analysis of other aspects of them, in particular the cross
references to shared origins with other chiefs.

The recorded Mwamlima traditions do not make any explicit link with the traditions
of other lines of Nyiha chiefs, though there are clear parallels with the origin myth of
the Nzowa chiefship, as suggested by the anonymous British contributor to Mbeya
District Book, quoted above. The version of the Nzowa’s history which he recorded
has the founder of the line (called Nyambo) also coming from Uwanji:

6
 “Nyambo originally came from Uwanji in the hills above Chosi. Upon leaving there he
passed North through Usangu and proceeded first to Ukimbu, before finally arriving in
Unyiha, where he was permitted to settle down in the neighbourhood of Shiwinga Hill by the
people already living in those parts.” (‘Tribal history and legends: WaNyiha tribe’, written
c.1926)

Beverley Brock was given contradictory versions of the ultimate origin of the first
chief of the Nzowa line (called Shamuntu); one suggestion being that he came from
Somaliland, another that he was a ‘Mang’ati’ (the common name of the Barabaig and
other Southern Nilotic peoples in northern Tanzania). All were agreed, however, that
he and his party travelled via Ugogo and Ukimbu, before settling among and
becoming chief over the fire-less, hunter-gathering, indigenous inhabitants of the
Mbozi plain, members of the Shupa clan (1963: 125). Brock discusses the parallels
between this story and the versions of the Mwamlima tradition which she collected in
some detail (1963: 131-132).

Mariam Slater also heard different versions of the Nzowa tradition: Gilbert Nzowa,
the last chief of the line, gave her an account which made the Mwamlima link
explicit:

“Although a former literate chief had written down the history of the Nzowas, there was no
official arbiter in such matters. Recitations differed with every telling. Gilbert started with a
founding ancestor from Kenya, perhaps a Gogo, he said… ‘He was a warrior and a hunter.
He traveled to Tanganyika and married a Kamba… He fought the Nyika and also the
Nyamwanga and Nyakyusa. After conquering, he became chief of the Igamba Nyika… The
Mwamlima chief…came from the same place…’” (1976: 50-51)

Although the recorded Mwamlima traditions do not make explicit reference to

Nzowa, they do claim a common origin with the chiefs of Umalila (Mwaluvanda),
Uguruka (Zumba), and Usangu (Merere). The link with Mwaluvanda is also affirmed
in the tradition recorded by Kootz-Kretschmer and cited above. Unfortunately we
have no information on the parallel Malila traditions, assuming that they exist. In the
case of Zumba, we merely have the statement, recorded in Mbeya District Book, that
“His ancestors are reported to have come originally from Usangu.” This is not
improbable, given that Uguruka borders Usangu, though it does add weight to a
suggested link with the chiefs of Usangu. The detailed traditions of the Sangu
themselves are, however, perhaps the most interesting in this context, not least
because they provide an indication of the possible source of some of the claims in
both the Mwamlima and Nzowa origin myths among the Nyiha.

Sangu trace the descent of their royal family from a powerful stranger called
Mbalawe. According to the detailed version of this tradition in Mbeya District Book,
the stranger was a tall and fair-complexioned medicine-man who declared that he
came from Barawa (Brava) on the Somali coast. He arrived in Usangu via Uwanji,
impregnated the daughter of a local ruler, and left after showing her the medicine of
chiefship and war. With the help of this medicine (and a subsequent gift of iron
spears), their son, Njali, struggled to conquer all of the other local rulers in Usangu, a
job eventually completed by his own son and successor, Mwahavanga (from ‘A
History of Usangu. Related by the Wazee of Utengule’, dated 6 January 1930).

7
As in the Nyiha case(s), there are many different versions of this story, though the
basic outline remains the same. Mwahavanga is the first Sangu chief about whom
anything certain is known: he appears to have died at a ripe old age in the late 1850s.
A bitter succession dispute followed, from which his maternal grandson,
Tovelamahamba Merere, emerged victorious. Merere, the most notorious of Sangu
chiefs, died in 1893, having established a dynasty which has held on to the Sangu
royal stool through to the present. Pro-Merere versions of the Sangu origin tradition
tend to gloss over the circumstances of Merere’s accession (the Mbeya District Book
history is no exception), and members of his family continue to claim descent (often
direct patrilineal descent) from Mbalawe (Walsh 1984: 37-40, 106-124).

The Sangu traditions are silent on the claims of other chiefs to a common origin with
their own. Indeed, there are good grounds for suspecting that the Mwamlima and
Nzowa chiefs (and probably the Zumba as well) borrowed the relevant elements of
their own traditions from the Sangu. The Sangu were the dominant political force in
Usafwa and Unyiha in the latter part of the nineteenth century, especially after they
had established a capital-in-exile in Safwa country (in Mwalyego’s chiefdom) in the
early 1880s. They appear to have begun modifying their own royal myth to reflect the
growing importance of trade with the East African coast much earlier, during
Mwahavanga’s reign. The name Mbalawe was almost certainly reinterpreted to mean
‘person from Barawa’ under the influence of coastal traders and advisers at the Sangu
court; while the frequently-made claim that he was an Arab no doubt also derives
from the same period. It is most likely that the two Nyiha chiefs then tacked the same
traditions onto their own. Nzowa in particular seems to have had a good reason to do
so, having allied with Merere at a time when other Nyiha chiefs (including
Mwamlima) were still resisting Sangu domination. Ultimately all of the local chiefs
were forced to capitulate, including, we can assume, the ruler(s) of Umalila.

The persistence of certain ‘praise-names’ may give some indication as to which

elements have been recently borrowed and which not in these different traditions,
though there is no guarantee that these praise-names have not been ‘invented’
themselves at some point in the past. Members of the Sangu royal family (both the
Mereres and the usurped Mwahavangas) still use the praise-name ‘Mbwanji’, and the
claim to a Wanji ancestor almost certainly predates the tradition of a coastal origin.
According to Brock, the Mwamlima chiefs use the praise-names ‘Mugogo’ and
‘Mwanjesingogo’ (1963: 256). This suggests that the Gogo connection alluded to in
both the Mwamlima and Nzowa traditions may have some historical validity: it
almost certainly does not derive from the Sangu sources. The first part of the name
‘Mwanjesingogo’ looks like a Nyiha equivalent of the Sangu ‘Mbwanji’, lending
some credence to the local claims to a Wanji origin. This element may equally have
been borrowed from Sangu traditions. Given the present state of our knowledge, it is
difficult to choose between these and other alternatives. It is also possible, for
example, that the Mwamlima and Nzowa families have borrowed traditions from one
another.

In the absence of corresponding Malila traditions, this does not tell us much about
their own chiefly origins, mythical or otherwise. It does, however, point to some of
the contextual factors that may have to be taken into account when they are available
for analysis. By the same token, it is quite likely that they will enrich our
understanding of the origin traditions of their neighbours.

8
The immediate precolonial period

Our main sources of information on the Malila in the immediate precolonial period
are the Safwa narratives recorded by the missionary Elise Kootz-Kretschmer before
the outbreak of the first world war (1929a: 164-337). Although there are no more
than scattered references to the Malila and Umalila in these narratives, they do
provide some indication of the place of the Malila in the history of the wider region
and the impact of regional events upon them.

The most traumatic events for all of the Nyika peoples in the nineteenth century were
the raids of the Ngoni, which began around 1840, and the raids of the Sangu, which
escalated in intensity after 1877 when the Sangu were exiled from their homeland by
the Hehe, took up residence in Usafwa, and sought to make most of the Nyika their
subjects. Before the coming of the Sangu, the Bemba and Wungu (in some cases
acting on behalf of coastal slave-traders) also raided in the area, albeit less frequently
and more locally. Conflict between local leaders added to this grim pattern, as a
result of which the Nyika suffered from recurrent famines, considerable loss of life,
and frequent displacements of population.

The Malila were not spared these events. Movements of population, often of small
family groups, evidently predated the coming of the Ngoni, and a number of Safwa
and Nyiha lineages claim origins in Umalila (Kootz-Kretschmer 1929a: 255-256, 287,
331; Brock 1966: 1). The Mbwila, a small group of people settled between the Poroto
and the Sangu, also claim to have come from Umalila according to one version of
their origin recorded in Mbeya District Book:

“Mahinya [the name of a Mbwila chief] people came from Malila under chief Mwanjewa
their old country which they state was near Mwaruwanda’s.”

Another, more detailed version, however, places their origin further west, in Unyiha.
In any event, the British administration eventually recognised that they were
sufficiently distinct from the Poroto and other Safwa to warrant recognition (in 1931)
as a separate ‘Tribal Unit’ (‘WaMbwila tribe’, Mbeya District Book).

Other groups of people sought refuge from local conflicts in Umalila itself. One of
Kootz-Kretschmer’s informants described how his great-grandfather, Ntengwi (or
Untengwi), who was the ruler of Izumbwe, “fled to the land of chief Mwarwanda, in
Marira” after losing a two-day battle with the Safwa chief Nsweve (whose own father
had migrated to Usafwa from Ungonde). The Malila chief Mwaluvanda gave
Ntengwi and his people land on which to settle and over which he could retain
authority. When Ntengwi died he was succeeded as local ruler by his son Mwanyima.
However, for reasons which are not made clear, Mwanyima migrated east to Unyiha,
ejected the local people (the ‘Vagara’ of ‘Vugara’) from their land, and settled there.
His brother Unsera, the informant’s paternal grandfather, remained behind in Umalila
(Kootz-Kretschmer 1929a: 242-243). Brock identifies the ‘Mwanyima’ who settled
in Unyiha with the Nyiha chief Mwamlima, and members of the Mgala clan who later
disputed the Mwamlima chiefship appear to have done likewise (see above). The
name Ntengwi, however, does not appear in recorded Mwamlima genealogies,
including that given to Brock herself. This makes the two stories difficult to

9
reconcile, unless Kootz-Kretschmer’s Ntengwi is identified with the ‘Ntunje’ who
appears in John Gay’s list of former Mwamlima chiefs. The fact that the ‘family
name’ of Kootz-Kretschmer’s informant was ‘Mugogo’ – also a Mwamlima praise-
name according to Brock – may be significant, but further elucidation is clearly
required.

These events took place before the coming of the Ngoni. The general outlines of
Ngoni history are well known (for one version see Ebner 1987), although the precise
details of their movements in the Nyasa-Tanganyika corridor in the 1840s and 1850s
remain obscure. The fission of the Ngoni into different groups under different
leaders, and their long history of raiding in this area, make it difficult to reconstruct
chronology and events with any precision, though there is considerable scope for
further research using the multitude of existing sources. The Ngoni repeatedly raided
the Nyika peoples with devastating effect (Kootz-Kretschmer 1929a: passim.; Brock
1966: 3). On one occasion Safwa are recorded as fleeing to Umalila (Kootz-
Kretschmer 1929a: 191). On at least one other occasion, the Ngoni attacked in
Umalila itself. The narrative of Mpori Nkwitixa Sishivozya, a woman who was born
in Igwirizya village in Ufyomi (a part of Umalila mentioned as the original home of a
number of Kootz-Kretschmer’s informants), describes how the Ngoni came and
destroyed their crops and stores of grain, the resultant famine, and the subsequent
flight of her family to Nzowa’s in Unyiha (1929a: 331-332). Unfortunately, it is not
possible to date this particular raid, nor gain a clearer impression of how often the
Ngoni raided Malila settlements in particular.

The Sangu began raiding the Nyika peoples, in particular the Safwa, some time before
the first appearance of the Ngoni. The Sangu chief Mwahavanga is said to have killed
the Safwa chief Nsweve (see above), forcing his son Nswira to flee to Ungonde. The
latter then returned to chase the Sangu away in turn (Kootz-Kretschmer 1929a: 196).
This was before the coming of the Ngoni, who later forced Mwahavanga himself to
flee eastwards from Usangu (some years before his death in Usangu at the end of the
1850s). Sangu attacks intensified, however, during the reign of Mwahavanga’s
successor, Tovelamahamba Merere, who was forced to turn his attentions increasingly
to the west of Usangu as a result of constant pressure from the Hehe in the east.
Ultimately Merere was forced to flee from Usangu and settle among the Safwa.
Sangu warriors raided for cattle, women and slaves throughout the eastern half of the
Nyasa-Tanganyia corridor. In the process Merere conquered most of the Safwa and
Nyiha chiefs, who remained subject to the Sangu until the closing years of the
nineteenth century, when the German administration restored the Sangu (under
Merere’s son and successor, Mugandilwa Merere) to their homeland.

Merere’s final exile from Usangu began in 1877. Fleeing from the Hehe through
Uwanji and (on some accounts) Ukinga, he made his first base at Idweri in the Poroto
Mountains, fighting against the Poroto themselves. From there he moved to Ukukwe,
where he settled by force on the lands of chief Mwakalinga. The cold and damp
climate of Ukukwe, however, proved intolerable to the Sangu, who then pressed
further west:

“Merere could not stay even in Kondeland: his people could not bear the dampness of the
Konde climate, being accustomed instead to the high and dry steppe [of their homeland,
Usangu]. That is why Merere sent some of his subjects to Usafwa; but they were killed by the

10
Safwa. Merere then broke out of Kondeland and moved to the north-west over the Marira
mountains, through the land of chiefs Mwamurima and Jirima, and into the country of chief
Mwaxyambwa, on the boundary between Usafwa and Unyixa. He came to Mbinza, the
village of the chief’s son Serengeni, overran and drove him away, destroyed the village,
abducted women and children, and then made himself a stockade in the ruined village.”
(Kootz-Kretschmer 1929b: 157; my translation, retaining original spellings)

Although there are a number of references in the narratives recorded by Kootz-

Kretschmer to Merere’s passage through Umalila, they do not tell us what, if any,
effect this had on the local population (1929a: 172, 209, 260). One account is,
however, a little more specific about the route taken by the Sangu chief: from the
Rungwe area (‘Nkonde’), over ‘Magandja’ and the mountains in ‘Marira’ and
‘Jirima’, and on into chief Mwamlima’s country (1929a: 172).

By the early 1880s Merere had established a more permanent base in Usafwa, in
Mwalyego’s chiefdom. This large village was subsequently surrounded by a stone
fortification and became the Sangu capital-in-exile, called Utengule like earlier (and
later) Sangu royal villages. Safe behind the walls of their new capital, the Sangu
successfully resisted subsequent Hehe attacks, and, when not on the defensive,
launched numerous raids from it against their weaker neighbours throughout the
region.

There are two references in the accounts collected by Kootz-Kretschmer to raids in

the Malila area, one an attack on the ‘Vapigu’ (1929a: 249), a name now associated
with the northern Lambya. The other attack is described in the narrative of Murotwa
Ntamanta, a great-grandson of the Safwa chief Nsweve (who was killed by the Sangu
chief Mwahavanga) and grandson of Nswira (who returned from exile to chase the
Sangu away). The informant’s father, Ntamanta Nswira, fled to Isongore in chief
Jirima’s country, to escape the Sangu under Merere; and this is where he was born:

“However, while my parents were living there, the owners of the land, the Marira,
complained and said: ‘The Safwa should leave our country. Since they came here wild pigs
have eaten the potatoes in our fields, whereas in the past we had no wild pigs. The Safwa are
responsible: they change into wild pigs at night and eat our potatoes!’ And this is what they
said to my father and his brother: ‘Go back home to Usafwa!’ This is when they realised that
the Marira hated them. However, their enemies, the Sangu, were ruling in their own land. So
they sat down to discuss matters and decided: ‘We must go to Merere and humble ourselves
before him.’ My father took a mat and a dog, and went with them to Utengule to see Merere,
the ruler of the Sango. My father said to him: ‘Oh ruler, we have come to surrender
ourselves to you; we willingly return to our country, Ivindji; we will be your subjects and
work for you.’ Merere gave his consent, telling him: ‘You can build a home in your own
country; I have not once taken it from you.’ Thereafter my father left Marira, returned home
and built a house in the village of Igongo.
After we had left Marira, the Sango went there, killed a number of people, and took others
captive and brought them back to Utengule.” (1929a: 198-199; my translation)

Jirima is mentioned in a number of Kootz-Kretschmer’s texts. However, it is not

clear whether he was an independent chief or was subordinate to Mwaluvanda.

11
First European contact

A European presence at the north end of Lake Nyasa was first established in the late
1870s. In 1875 Scottish missionaries of the Livingstonia mission landed on the
northern shore of the lake (in Ngonde), and in 1877 the British Consul in Zanzibar, J.
Frederic Elton, became the first European to lead an expedition over the mountains to
the north. The first European to travel through Umalila, however, was the young
Scottish explorer, Joseph Thomson. In 1879 he travelled across the lakeshore plain of
Unyakyusa, through Ukukwe, and on into Umalila, en route to Unyamwanga and
Ufipa.

Thomson described a ‘Nyika village’ in Umalila as follows:

“Owing to the almost constant state of warfare in which they live, the Wanyika are compelled
to live in stockaded villages. The huts are huddled as closely together as possible, leaving
barely room to creep about among them. The area to be defended is thus lessened. At night
their cattle are brought within the stockade, filling up all the odd spaces; and as the filth is
never removed, the frightful condition of the interior or a Wanyika village may be
conceived.” (1881: I, 285-286)

In the 1880s Livingstonia missionaries extended their work in the region, but did not
establish a permanent presence north of the lake. Shortly thereafter they were
displaced by German Lutheran and Moravian missionaries, who began work in this
area in 1891. Although mission stations, both short- and long-lived, were founded
among neighbouring peoples, none was established among the Malila themselves
during this early period. Umalila appears largely to have been bypassed by both
missionary and military travellers, and as a result we possess no detailed published
reports about the Malila and their country (Wright 1971: passim.; Wilson 1977: 15).

The German colonial period

German administration at the north end of Lake Nyasa was established in January
1893, some eighteen months after the arrival of the first German missionaries. The
new administration arrived in the form of a party led by Hermann von Wissman,
Imperial Commissioner and Commander-in-Chief, with orders to take possession of
the territory in the south of German East Africa secured under the terms of the Anglo-
German Agreement of July 1890. Von Wissman’s party founded a station,
Langenburg (later Alt Langenburg), at Rumbira Bay, and began to extend their
authority over the region with a combination of diplomatic pressure and military
force. Alt Langenburg remained the administrative centre of Langenburg district until
the end of 1900, when the district seat was moved northwards to Tukuyu, which the
Germans christened Neu Langenburg (Charsley 1969: 108-114)

Umalila was administered as part of Langenburg district. A German military

handbook describing conditions in 1910-11 provides the following scant information
on the Malila:

12
The Malila in 1910-11

Name of tribe; seat of tribe; 9. WAMALILA: inhabit highland of Malila.

where thickly settled.
Population (men fit for
bearing arms).
Muzzle-loaders; other arms.
Past wars; capabilities;
methods of warfare.
Attitude towards German
Government; its influence;
tribal organization.
Language; use of Swahili.
Dwelling-places; how far
defensible.
Manner of life and
subsistence; cattle; donkeys.
1,700 (567)
Muzzle-loaders, spears.
----
Are timid and often flee at the approach of a
European. Under many small Jumbes [headmen].
Kimalila. No Swahili.
----
Agriculture and cattle. Much eleusine [finger millet]
and maize; potatoes.
(adapted from Admiralty 1920: 66-67)

The overriding impression derived from this report is that the Malila were
comparatively isolated from and only weakly integrated in the German
administration. Given that they were a minor ethnic group of no military importance,
the Germans, for their part, had little need to pay much attention to them. It is
interesting to note that the Germans did not recognise (or at least chose not to
mention) the existence of a centralised chiefship in Umalila. This may reflect no
more than a lack of information or interest: otherwise it suggests that the authority of
the Mwaluvanda chiefship was weak and/or somewhat localised in the early colonial
period.

The British colonial period

The most significant event during the early years of British administration was the
institution of ‘Indirect Rule’ in 1926, ten years after the British had taken over from
the Germans. Subsequent efforts to rationalise local administration by combining
smaller into larger units can be traced in successive Annual Reports of the Provincial
Commissioners on Native Administration. In 1925 the British recognised 30 separate
‘Tribal Units’ in the western part of Mbeya district. In 1926 this number was reduced
to seven units (Nyamwanga, Nyiha, Wungu, Malila, Safwa, Wanda and Songwe),
amalgamated for financial purposes into a single Unyamwanga (or Unamwanga)
Native Treasury. In 1928 an attempt was made to amalgamate these units further into
a single federation subordinate to the Nyamwanga chief. However, this led to
considerable resentment, and the new federation had to be dissolved in 1929: only
financial amalgamation (now of six units) was retained.

Not to be thwarted, the British continued to press for further rationalisation. At a

meeting of chiefs in September 1935 it was unanimously decided to form a new and
larger federation and council of chiefs. The amalgamated Nyamwanga Native
Treasury was combined with those of the Sangu, Kimbu and Kipembawe into one,
and the new council of chiefs was given the mandate to decide on how to apportion
revenues. The council was also given deliberative functions, although each chief

13
retained executive authority in his own area. At the same time all the chiefs’ courts
were upgraded (to Grade ‘A’), with the council of chiefs, which met quarterly,
functioning (together with the District Officer) as an appeal court.

Throughout this process, then, the Malila unit remained with a degree of autonomy.
Given the German’s relative lack of interest in Umalila, it would be interesting to
know why the British chose it as the focus of one of their smaller ‘Tribal Units’, and
to know why it endured, albeit with reduced powers like other units in Mbeya district.
It would also be interesting to know to what degree the Malila unit was dominated by
the Malila themselves, and what (if any) role other ethnic / linguistic groups played
within it. Like Usafwa, and to a lesser extent Unyiha, Umalila certainly admitted
considerable numbers of Nyakyusa immigrants from Rungwe district: this pattern
was noted in 1937, and ascribed to the weakness of the Safwa and Malila chiefs.

By 1940 it was recognised that the district federation of chiefs lacked “vitality and
unity”, though it was “a valuable forum for discussion”. As the following comments
suggest, the British became less and less happy with the native administration of
Malila as the decade progressed:

“The administration of the Umalila Chiefdom continues to be carried out satisfactorily by the
Chief…” (Annual Reports of the Provincial Commissioners for the Year 1945, Dar es Salaam,
1946: 80)

“In Mbeya, the Native Authorities of Usangu, Usafwa (proper), Umalila, Unyiha and
Unyamwanga are adequate if not brilliant.” (Annual Reports of the Provincial Commissioners
for the Year 1947, Dar es Salaam, 1948: 108)

“The Native Authorities in the Mbeya District remain with two exceptions unimpressive.
Many are reactionary, some lethargic, and some inactive through old age. Chiefs Lyoto of
Usafwa and Mwaliego of Usongwe are the only two who seem to administer their areas with
a proper attention to duty.” (Annual Reports of the Provincial Commissioners for the Year
1948, Dar es Salaam, 1949: 106)

In the 1950s attention shifted away from the chiefs and towards the development of a
hierarchical council system. By 1959 Mbeya could boast of possessing district,
divisional, sub-chiefdom, and parish councils, although it was admitted that most
divisional councils were superfluous and that parish councils only existed in Usafwa
and Umalila. The development of a local government structure which was not
dependent upon the energy and/or interest of individual chiefs effectively paved the
way for the institutional changes which were made shortly after Tangnayika was
granted independence, and which included the abolition of chiefship as a government
office.

Ethnography

Very little has been written about the Malila; in part because Umalila has only been
visited briefly by professional anthropologists working among neighbouring peoples.
Monica Wilson, who reports that she walked through Umalila in 1954, did little more
than remark on the survival of traditional skin clothing and bead ornaments in this
period (see above). Mariam Slater took in the Malila on her first tour in search of a

14
field site, but has equally little to say about them (see below). Our knowledge of
Malila ethnography is therefore extremely scant, and the following notes have been
pieced together from very disparate sources.

Kinship and the Family

Mariam Slater’s sole ethnographic observation on the Malila is contained in the

following short statement about their kinship system:

“…I verified that although Malila, Lambya, and Nyika [Mbozi Nyiha] are mutually
intelligible, their kinship systems differ sufficiently to classify them as separate groups.”
(1976: 61)

Unfortunately Slater does not elaborate further. Given the historical relationship
between and close proximity of different Nyika-speaking peoples, we should not be
surprised to find frequent intermarriage between them, whatever the differences in
their kinship systems. Indeed, the only detailed case we have falls into this category:

One of Kootz-Kretschmer’s Safwa informants, Murotwa Ntamanta, who was born in

Isongore in Umalila during the period of Sangu rule in Usafwa (see above), returned
to Umalila to take a Malila wife (Havirimbi Ndwirije) in 1902. The bride’s father,
Mwambanga, told him either to bring a cow or to build a house in Umalila if he was
to be granted her hand. Unable to afford a cow, Murotwa went to live with his
mother-in-law, Ndipupo Namesa, who was a well-known medicine-woman. She did
not live with his father-in-law, but had borne three children by three different
husbands, divorcing and remarrying after the birth of each child (presumably
Murotwa’s bride was the daughter of an early union). Murotwa presented his father-
in-law with six goats, two hoes, and a piece of cloth worth two rupees. He also
brought a girl, his niece, to live and work for Mwambanga, saying that he would
redeem her once he had provided a cow. He was thus given Ndwirije as his wife and
built a house there.

In 1903 Murotwa’s new wife gave birth to a child, Nsatuje. He told his parents-in-
law that he must visit home with them, and they allowed him to go in July 1903
together with his wife and child. In June 1904 Murotwa went to work as a herder at
Utengule, but his wife refused to join him, remaining with her in-laws in Nswira
(Murotwa’s family home). When Murotwa subsequently returned to her, she agreed
to accompany him back to Utengule, but his mother-in-law refused to let her go.
Only when Murotwa had given her a piece of cloth (for making clothing) worth two
rupees did she relent, and in January 1905 Murotwa went back to Utengule, this time
with his wife (1929a: 203-205). Murotwa does not say whether he ever completed his
bridewealth payments or redeemed his niece: the implication of his account is that the
bride’s mother had a much stronger influence over her subsequent movements, and
therefore had to be ‘bought off’ with a piece of cloth before she would allow her
daughter to travel further afield.

Traditional medicine

Another interesting aspect of this case (which in isolation does not tell us much about
Malila marriage practices) is the reference to the mother-in-law’s vocation as a

15
medicine-woman. The practice of Malila ‘bone-medicine’ is mentioned in particular
by a number of Kootz-Kretschmer’s Safwa informants, though they do not describe
what this involves or have anything more to say about its Malila origin (1929a: 241-
242, 252, 255. Kootz-Kretschmer refers to a description of the practice in the first
volume of her Die Safwa, 1926: 251).

Ethnobotany

In their field guide to The Mountain Flowers of Southern Tanzania (1982), Cribb and
Leedal list 22 Malila plant names. This provides the only published lexical data we
have on Malila, let alone on Malila ethnobotany.

Malila Plant Names

Scientific name Malila name Comments

RANUNCULACEAE:
Clematopsis villosa (DC.) Hutch, subsp. ikuwi
kirkii (Oliv.) J.Raynal & Brummitt
ROSACEAE:
Rubus spp. Including R. porotoensis itononkwa
R.Graham mtonongwa
CRASSULACEAE:
Kalanchoe densiflora Rolfe itivwa used medicinally
Ndali itifya
LEGUMINOSAE:
Indigofera spp. Including I.atriceps ivizi
Hook.f., I.mimosoides, I.smutsii,
I.ramosissima, I.asterocalycina and
I.spathulata
Kotschya recurvifolia (Taub.) F.White intenga Ndali ndenga
Bena matenga
Kinga matenga
Lotus goetzei Harms idava
Tephrosia interrupta Engl. bazivanga Safwa ibanga
CELASTRACEAE:
Catha edulis (Vahl.) Endl. nzuruti Ndali nsuluti
Nyakyusa insuluti
OXALIDACEAE:
Oxalis spp. Including O. semiloba Sond. insevelakwale
ACANTHACEAE:
Thunbergia lancifolia T.Anders sonya
CAMPANULACEAE:
Lobelia gibberoa piriti
RUBIACEAE:
Rubia cordifolia L. ibambula Nyiha ivambula
COMPOSITAE:
Artemisia afra Jacq. ilumbati has medicinal and
magical uses

16
Cineraria grandiflora Vatke msinde
Notonia abyssinica A.Rich itivwa leaves used to draw
out blood
Stoebe kilimandscharica O.Hoffm. izaza
IRIDACEAE:
Gladiolus dalenii van Geel ishilungu
LILIACEAE:
Kniphofia thomsonii Bak. susumba
Gloriosa simplex L. (not given) an extract of the tuber
is used to cure earache
Canarina eminii Schweinf. fundofundo
ORCHIDACEAE:
Disa robusta N.E.Br. vigogwa
Epipactis africana Rendle ndungulingu
(adapted from Cribb and Leedal 1982: passim.)

Agriculture and Land

Ibala, a Malila village in the north of Ulambya (Bulambia) division, was one of the
fieldwork sites chosen by van Hekken and Thoden van Velzen in 1966-68 for their
study of Land Scarcity and Rural Equality in (the then) Rungwe district. The
published results of this study, however, provide few details of local practice (but
rather more on events in their other two field sites):

“The village of Ibala is situated in the northern part of Bulambia and on the southern fringe of
the Umalila plateau (2000-2300 m.). The people of this area are Malila by tribe. They live
scattered throughout the accidented [sic] terrain; some families live together in small hamlets,
others prefer to have their huts at some distance from the others. Ibala consists of twenty ‘ten
house groups’, seven of which were selected for intensive study. These seven TANU cells
comprise a total of 79 farmers with their wives and children.
Land is an open resource in this part of the district. Pyrethrum, however, the important and
only cash crop of the area, can only be grown on fields which have a thick blanket of volcanic
ash and a permeable sub-soil. These fields form a closed resource. Since we did not measure
the acreage of all pyrethrum plots within our group [of] seven TANU cells, [we] were
compelled to look for another indicator of economic differentiation. We decided to choose
the quantity of pyrethrum sold to the local co-operative (‘the Bulambia Co-operative Society)
by the 79 farmers whom we studied. The fact that a number of farmers sold their pyrethrum
via kinsmen or friends in order to escape the registration fee of 20 shs. detracts from the
validity of this indicator. However, after a year in this community we had the impression that
only a few farmers actually followed this practise. A general climate of suspicion in
economic dealings kept many people from selling their crops through their relatives and
acquaintances. This also becomes plain by the fact that women in polygynous households,
who reserved a few plots for themselves and may dispose of the produce as they see fit, opted
in the majority of cases for separate registration. They preferred to pay an extra 20 shs.
entrance fee rather than have their husbands sell for them.” (1972: 21-22)

Having analysed incomes from pyrethrum sales, the authors conclude that there was a
significant pattern of economic differentiation in Ibale. The main reason for this, they
argue, was the scarcity of plots suitable for cash crop production, while secondary
causes included individual differences between farmers and the number of able-

17
bodied workers per household (1972: 23). However, the evidence which van Hekken
and Thoden van Velzen produce in favour of this argument is far from convincing. It
certainly tells us very little about agricultural practices or economic development
among the Malila in general; though this was not, of course, the primary object of
study (which addressed contemporary debates about the political economy of socialist
Tanzania).

Conclusion

It is evident from this brief survey that we know very little about the language, history
and ethnography of the Malila – little, that is, that cannot be deduced from current
knowledge about some of their better-known neighbours. In particular, we lack an
understanding of what makes (or once made) the Malila different from neighbouring
and related peoples. To what extent can the Malila be differentiated from their Nyika
neighbours? Does Malila ethnic identity have strong historical roots? How was it
changed, if at all, by the policies and practices of the British colonial administration?
What does being Malila mean in the late 1990s, three and a half decades after the end
of colonial rule? These and related questions cannot be answered at present, and will
remain unanswered until more detailed research on the language, history and
ethnography of the Malila is undertaken.

Acknowledgements
This paper is based primarily upon a review of sources assembled by the author while engaged in
anthropological research on the Sangu and other peoples of south-west Tanzania (1979-85, 1995-
ongoing). I would like to thank Beverley Gartrell, John Gay, Derek Nurse, George Park and Mariam
Slater for their particular inputs to this research.

References

Brock, Beverley (1963) A Preliminary Description of the Nyiha People of

Southwestern Tanganyika, unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Leeds.

Brock, Beverley (1966) ‘The Nyiha of Mbozi’, Tanzania Notes and Records, 65,
1-30.

Brock, Beverley (1968) ‘The Nyiha (of Mbozi)’, in Andrew Roberts (ed.)
Tanzania Before 1900. Nairobi: East African Publishing House. 59-81.

Busse, Joseph (1939/40) ‘Lambya-Texte’, Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen-Sprachen,

30, 250-272.

Busse, Joseph (1960) Die Sprache der Nyiha in Ostafrika (Veröffentlichung nr.41,
Institut für Orientforschung, Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin).
Berlin: Akadamie-Verlag.

Charsley, S. R. (1969) The Princes of Nyakyusa. Nairobi: East African

Publishing House.

18
Cribb, P. J. and G. P. Leedal (1982) The Mountain Flowers of Southern Tanzania:
A Field Guide to the Common Flowers. Rotterdam: A.A.Balkema.

Ebner, Elzear (1987) The History of the Wangoni and their Origin in the South
African Bantu Tribes. Ndanda-Peramiho: Benedictine Publications.

Gartrell, Beverley (1979) ‘Is Ethnography Possible? A Critique of African

Odyssey’, Journal of Anthropological Research, 35 (4), 426-446.

Gay, John (1981) Unpublished field notes on the Nyiha, Lambya and Safwa.

Harwood, Alan (1970) Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Social Categories among the
Safwa. London: Oxford University Press.

van Hekken, P. M. and H. U. E. Thoden van Velzen (1972) Land Scarcity and
Rural Inequality in Tanzania: Some Cases from Rungwe District. The Hague /
Paris: Mouton.

Johnston, Harry H. (1922) A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu

Languages (Vol.1). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Kalinga, Owen J. M. (1974) The Ngonde Kingdom of Northern Malawi, c.1600-

1895, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London.

Kalinga, Owen J. M. (1978) ‘The Establishment and Expansion of the Lambya

Kingdom c1600-1750’, African Studies Review, 21 (2), 55-66.

Knight, C. Gregory (1970) Unyiha: The Ecology of Agriculture and Change in an

East African Community, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Minnesota.

Knight, C. Gregory (1974) Ecology and Change: Rural Modernization in an

African Community. New York / London: Academic Press.

Kootz-Kretschmer, Elise (1929a) Die Safwa, ein ostafrikanischer Volksstamm in

seinem Leben und Denken (Vol.2). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.

Kootz-Kretschmer, Elise (1929b) ‘Abriss einer Landesgeschichte von Usafwa in

Ostafrika’, Koloniale Rundschau und Mitteilungen aus den Deutschen
Schutzgebieten, 124-131, 152-161, 184-191, 220-226.

Mwakipesile, J. S. (n.d.) Mila na Desturi za Wasangu, Wasafwa na Wasagara.

Dar es Salaam.

Nurse, Derek (1988) ‘The Diachronic Background to the Language Communities

of Southwestern Tanzania’, Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika, 9, 15-115.

Nurse, Derek and George Park (1988) ‘Regional Anthropology and Historical
Linguistics’, Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika, 9, 7-14.

19
Park, George (1988) ‘Evolution of a Regional Culture in East Africa’, Sprache
und Geschichte in Afrika, 9, 117-204.

Polomé, Edgar C. (1980) ‘The Languages of Tanzania’, in E. C. Polomé and C. P.

Hill (eds.) Language in Tanzania. Oxford: Oxford University Press / International
African Institute. 3-25.

Slater, Mariam K. (1976) African Odyssey: An Anthropological Adventure. New

York: Anchor Press / Doubleday.

Thomson, Joseph (1881) To the Central African Lakes and Back: the Narrative of
the Royal Geographical Society’s East Central African Expedition, 1878-80 (2
vols.). London: Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington.

Walsh, Martin T. (1984) The Misinterpretation of Chiefly Power in Usangu,

South-West Tanzania, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Cambridge.

Willis, Roy G. (1966) The Fipa and Related Peoples of South-West Tanzania and
North-East Zambia (Ethnographic Survey of Africa, East Central Africa, Part XV).
London: International African Institute.

Wilson, Monica (1958) The Peoples of the Nyasa-Tanganyika Corridor,

Communications from the School of African Studies, New Series No.29,
University of Cape Town.

Wilson, Monica (1977) For Men and Elders: Change in the Relations of
Generations and of Men and Women among the Nyakyusa-Ngonde People 1875-
1971. London: International African Institute.

Wright, Marcia (1971) German Missions in Tanganyika 1891-1941: Lutherans

and Moravians in the Southern Highlands. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Archives and official documents

A Handbook of German East Africa, Admiralty, 1920.

Mbeya District Book, Tanzania National Archives, Dar es Salaam (microfilm copy in
Rhodes House Library, Oxford).

Tanganyika Territory. Annual Reports of the Provincial Commissioners on Native

Administration for the Year [1929-37]. Dar es Salaam: Government Printer,
1930-38.

Tanganyika Territory. Annual Reports of the Provincial Commissioners for the Year
[1938-1959]. Dar es Salaam: Government Printer, 1939-60.

Tanganyika Territory. Report on the Native Census, 1921. Dar es Salaam:

Government Printer.

Tanganyika Territory. Native Census, 1928 [original not seen].

20
Tanganyika Territory. Census of the Native Population 1931. Dar es Salaam:
Government Printer, 1932.

African Population of Tanganyika Territory. Geographical and Tribal Studies

(Source: East African Population Census, 1948). East African Statistical
Department, 1950.

Tanganyika. African Census Report 1957. Dar es Salaam: Government Printer,

1963.

21