Makololo Chiefs (Malawi)
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The Makololo chiefs recognised by the governments of colonial Nyasaland and independent
Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...
have their origin in a group of porters that
David Livingstone David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of t ...
brought from Barotseland in the 1850s to support his first Zambezi expedition that did not return to Barotseland but assisted Livingstone and British missionaries in the area of southern Malawi between 1859 and 1864. After the withdrawal of the
Universities' Mission to Central Africa The Universities' Mission to Central Africa (c.1857 - 1965) was a missionary society established by members of the Anglican Church within the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and Dublin. It was firmly in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of t ...
those Makololo remaining in the Shire valley used firearms provided by the Europeans to attract dependants seeking protection, to seize land and to establish a number of chieftainships. At the time that a British
protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over m ...
was established in 1891, there were seven Makololo chiefs of which six were recognised by the government. Five survived to be given local governmental powers in 1933, and these powers continued after Malawi became independent. Although called Makololo or Kololo, after the ruling group in Barotseland in the 1850s, the majority came from peoples subject to the Makololo who adopted the more prestigious name. As, regardless of their origin, they took wives from among the inhabitants of the Shire Valley, their modern descendants have little connection with the
Kololo people The Kololo or Makololo are a subgroup of the Sotho-Tswana people native to Southern Africa. In the early 19th century, they were displaced by the Zulu, migrating north to Barotseland, Zambia. They conquered the territory of the Luyana people and ...
apart from their name.


Makololo arrival in Malawi

The missionary activities of David Livingstone in
Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
for the London Missionary Society effectively ended in 1851 when he left
Kolobeng Mission Kolobeng Mission (also known as the Livingstone Memorial), built in 1847, the third and final mission of David Livingstone, a missionary and explorer of Africa. Located in the country of Botswana, west of Kumakwane and west of Gaborone off the ...
after failing to convert more than a few local people. During his last two years at Kolobeng, Livingstone had made three journeys well to the north of the mission which convinced him that the successful evangelisation of the interior of Africa would be achieved through exploring and mapping its navigable rivers as highways for missionaries and traders to enter the continental interior. Between 1852 and 1856, Livingstone mapped most of the course of the
Zambezi The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...
, and made a transcontinental journey from
Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...
on the
Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
to Quelimane on the Indian Ocean between 1854 and 1856. This journey was accomplished with the help of 27 Africans provided as porters by
Sekeletu Sekeletu (c. 1835–1863) was the Makololo King of Barotseland in western Zambia from about 1851 to his death in 1863. Biography Sekeletu was a son of the King Sebetwane and Queen Setlutlu. He succeeded his half-sister Mamochisane, who had ...
, the King of Barotseland and chief of the Makololo or Kololo people, which had conquered Barotseland in the previous decade, for the passage from Luanda to Linyanti, now in
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
, and later with 114 men from the same source for the journey from Linyanti to Quelimane. From Sekeletu's perspective, establishing a secure route to the Atlantic or Indian Ocean, rather than relying on the dangerous and insecure one southward to the
Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...
was well worth the loan of these men and they contributed significantly to Livingstone's success. Although, following the name Livingstone gave them, these men are conventionally called "Makololo" after the ruling group in Barotseland, most of them probably belonged to the
Lozi people Lozi people, or Barotse, are a southern African ethnic group who speak Lozi or Silozi, a Sotho–Tswana language. The Lozi people consist of more than 46 different ethnic groups and are primarily situated between Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zimbab ...
or other subject peoples of Sekeletu's kingdom that inhabited the Caprivi Strip around Linyanti, and who were usually described as Makalaka.Graham-Jolly, (1966). pp. 7. Around 100 of these men were left at
Tete Tete is the capital city of Tete Province in Mozambique. It is located on the Zambezi River, and is the site of two of the four bridges crossing the river in Mozambique. A Swahili trade center before the Portuguese colonial era, Tete continues ...
in 1856 when Livingstone made his way to Quelimane and then to Britain. The local governor at Tete oversaw their welfare and they hunted elephant and cultivated land to support themselves there.McCracken, (2012). p. 41. Although on one level, the individuals involved were working for both Sekeletu's and Livingstone's goals, those that the Makololo contemptuously dismissed as Makalaka, vassals or serfs, saw the expedition as a way to gain, wealth, authority, and power that their social position denied them in their homeland. The Makololo conquest had been completed barely a decade before Livingstone's arrival and the senior Makololo indunas had gained control of the traditional sources of the country's wealth, making emigration or association with new sources of wealth the Europeans promised and the firearms that they provided the best options for the young men of the subject populations seeking advancement. After he had completed his first Zambezi expedition, the London Missionary Society told Livingstone it was unable to support him in exploration rather than missionary work, and he resigned from the society in 1857. Livingstone's second Zambezi expedition that started in 1858 was diverted up the Shire River in January 1859 after it was found that the Zambezi was not navigable beyond the
Cabora Bassa The Cahora Bassa lake—in the Portuguese colonial era (until 1974) known as Cabora Bassa, from Nyungwe ''Kahoura-Bassa'', meaning "finish the job"—is Africa's fourth-largest artificial lake, situated in the Tete Province in Mozambique. In Afr ...
rapids, which he had bypassed on his first expedition. On reaching Tete, he was reunited with the porters he had left there in 1856 and attempted to repatriate them all to Barotseland. However, by this time Sekeletu was facing increasing opposition from the Lozi majority, and a number of porters decided to remain on the middle Zambezi. These included two Makololo who had a superior status and their servants, the remainder being porters or canoemen from the subject peoples, and there were either 15 or 16 of them. They were used from 1859 onward, first by Livingstone and then by missionaries of the
Universities' Mission to Central Africa The Universities' Mission to Central Africa (c.1857 - 1965) was a missionary society established by members of the Anglican Church within the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and Dublin. It was firmly in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of t ...
(UMCA), as porters and armed guards to support their activities in the Shire valley and Shire Highlands including the freeing of slaves, and were paid in guns, ammunition and cloth. In 1861, after the original UMCA mission site at Magomero in the Shire Highlands was abandoned, the Makololo relocated with the missionaries to the Shire valley, from where the missionaries withdrew in January 1864. The Makololo decided to remain.


Formation of chiefdoms

What is now southern
Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...
was relatively peaceful, prosperous and densely populated by the
Mang'anja The Mang'anja are a Bantu people of central and southern Africa, particularly around Chikwawa in the Shire River valley of southern Malawi. They speak a dialect of the Nyanja language, and are a branch of the Amaravi people. As of 1996 their popul ...
people at the time of Livingstone's first visit in early 1859, but was about to become the focus of disruption caused by the large-scale migration of Yao people. The early Yao migrations from the 1830s involved few people and were relatively peaceful but, whether forced out of their earlier territory in
Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
by the Makua people, by famine, by slave traders, by internal Yao conflicts or some combination of these, larger numbers of Yao moved, firstly, into the
Niassa Province Niassa is a province of Mozambique. It has an area of 129,056 km2 and a population of 1,810,794 (2017). It is the most sparsely populated province in the country. Lichinga is the capital of the province. There are a minimum estimated 450,000 Ya ...
of Mozambique east of Lake Nyasa and then into the Shire Highlands in the 1850s. These incursions disrupted agriculture and caused widespread famine in the Shire Highland in the early 1860s as the local people abandoned their farms. The Mang'anja were one of the
Maravi Maravi was a kingdom which straddled the current borders of Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, in the 16th century. The present-day name " Maláŵi" is said to derive from the Chewa word "malaŵí", which means "flames". History At its greatest ex ...
cluster of peoples who moved into the Lower
Zambezi The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...
and Lower Shire river valleys before the end of 16th century and coalesced into a number of loosely connected chieftainships which, under pressure from the Portuguese in the Lower Zambezi valley, recognised paramount chiefs with the titles of Lundu, Kalonga and Kaphwiti. These paramount chiefs derived some of their prestige through guardianship of the main shrines of the M'Bona Cult, and the Lundu kingdom, which included most of the Mang'anja people, controlled the main M'Bona shrine until the early 19th century. At that time, pressure from supposedly subordinate chiefs controlling other shrines and attacks from Afro-Portuguese
chikunda Chikunda, sometimes rendered as Achicunda, was the name given from the 18th century onwards to the slave-warriors of the Afro-Portuguese estates known as Prazos in Zambezia, Mozambique. They were used to defend the prazos and police their inhabitan ...
raiding for slaves left the Lundu state with little real power over what had become a loose confederation of local chiefdoms. In the early 1860s, members of Livingstone's expedition or UCMA missionaries described the Mang'anja as being ruled by a hierarchy of chiefs and headmen of varying power and influence. In theory, the Lundu was still the paramount ruler with the power to appoint local chiefs, but his influence was limited. Several major chiefs within the Lundu sphere had more real power the than the Lundu himself, although their inability to defend their people against attacks by the Yao and chikunda was beginning to reduce their prestige. As a result of those attacks, some of the Mang'anja in the Shire Highlands were killed or exported as slaves to the Indian Ocean coast, others died of famine or famine-related disease and yet others fled to the Shire valley or the uplands beyond. The loss of population in the Shire Highlands was very great, and much land went out of cultivation and reverted to forest. Even thirty years later at the start of the colonial period, large areas of the Shire Highlands were underpopulated and remained so until the large-scale immigration of
Lomwe people The Lomwe people are one of the largest tribes residing in Mozambique and Malawi. In Mozambique their language is spoken by many in central Mozambique. In Malawi they are second largest tribe after the Chewa Tribe They speak the Malawi Lomwe lang ...
fleeing famine and forced labour in Mozambique at the end of the 19th century. Those Mang'anja remaining in the Shire Highlands were either slave wives or domestic slaves in Yao households or occupied defensible hilltops and inaccessible lakeshores. Once the Makololo had relocated to the Shire valley, they maintained themselves though hunting elephants for ivory and attracted Mang'anja dependents seeking protection, many of whom were slaves liberated from slave caravans who had lost contact with their original homes. The freed women became polygamous wives of the Makololo and the men cultivated farmland seized from its original inhabitants. After the 1864 departure of the UMCA mission, which left behind supplies of arms, munitions and trade goods, the Makololo and their armed dependents attacked local Mang'anja chiefs and established chieftaincies in the present-day
Chikwawa District Chikwawa is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Chikwawa. The district covers an area of 4,755 km² and has a population of 356,682. The district lies in a malaria endemic area in Africa and has recently been the ta ...
. Graham-Jolly records the names of 16 original Makololo, but nothing is known of six of them beyond their names, and they were probably absorbed into the local population, losing their Makololo identity. The other ten became chiefs or headmen: two of these, Kasisi and Mloka, were said to be true Makololo rather than coming from subject peoples, and these were the first leaders of the group. The chiefs or headmen that were not originally Makololo soon also adopted what they considered the more prestigious, if fictitious, name of Makololo. The Mang'anja put up little resistance to Kasisi, Mloka and their men and, apart from the deaths of the Lundu and Kaphwiti paramounts and a few followers, the takeover was relatively bloodless. Some Mang'anja chiefs were willing to cooperate with the Makololo against other Mang'anja who were their enemies, whereas the Makololo remained united among themselves and determined to build up their power. At first, Kasisi and Mloka divided the land they had occupied between them, with Kasisi as senior ruler. Kasisi enjoyed reasonably good relations with the Yao which, together with his guns, kept him and his dependents safe from Yao attacks. The Makololo were also some distance away from two other potential enemies. The more powerful and active were the Maseko Ngoni in present-day
Ntcheu District Ntcheu is a district in the Central Region of Malawi. It borders with the country of Mozambique. The district headquarters is Ntcheu, known as BOMA in the local language, but is most commonly called Mphate. It is run by Yeneya, the village headm ...
, and Kasisi set up fortified villages at fords along the Shire River as protection against Ngoni raids. Several Makololo and some of their Mang'anja dependents were installed as headmen in these villages and, on the death of Mloka, Kasisi divided his former territory between three of the original Makololo. Until the death of their leader, Paul Marianno II in 1863, the Afro-Portuguese
chikunda Chikunda, sometimes rendered as Achicunda, was the name given from the 18th century onwards to the slave-warriors of the Afro-Portuguese estates known as Prazos in Zambezia, Mozambique. They were used to defend the prazos and police their inhabitan ...
had considerable power and influence in the Lower Shire valley. However, as Marianno's son was then only 8 years old, he required a long minority, during which there were power struggles between the child's mother, his aunt and a prominent chikunda leader, which made it difficult to resist growing power of the Makololo, and the chikunda retreated further down the Shire.


Later history

The territories of the two largest Makololo chiefdoms were each about in extent, the others being smaller. Between the 1870s and 1910s, the original ten Makololo that became chiefs or headmen died and several of their lines of descent died out or merged with others, so that there were seven Makololo chiefs in 1891. Since 1888, the most powerful of these was Mlauri, who tried to use the position of his village on a hill above the Shire River to dominate traffic on the river in the 1880s and impose tolls on European steamers using it. He became increasingly hostile to both British and Portuguese influences and, in 1889, he attacked a Portuguese military force under Major Alexandre de Serpa Pinto and was severely defeated, later fleeing from his village. As he had previously shown hostility to British as well as Portuguese forces, the British government did nothing to restore him and declined to recognise him as a chief. Mlauri was never restored although he lived until 1913. The other six Makololo chiefs were recognised, and five of their chiefdoms survived to be recognised as a
Native Authority Since 1933, various traditional chiefs in Nyasaland have been designated as Native Authorities, initially by the colonial administration, and they numbered 105 in 1949. . They represented a form of the Indirect rule which had become popular in Briti ...
by the Nyasaland government in 1933 under the policy of Indirect rule, their titles were Kasisi, Makwira, Katunga, Masea and Mwita. Apart from Mlauri, most of the Makololo chiefs valued their former connection with Livingstone and were favourably disposed to British missionaries and traders entering their area. They traded ivory in exchange for guns, ammunition and trade goods from the 1870s until a
protectorate A protectorate, in the context of international relations, is a State (polity), state that is under protection by another state for defence against aggression and other violations of law. It is a dependent territory that enjoys autonomy over m ...
was established by John Buchanan in 1889 and extended into the British Central Africa Protectorate in 1891.White, (1987). pp. 67, 76. The Makololo had a virtual monopoly over the collection of ivory in the lower Shire valley, which they sold to the
African Lakes Company The African Lakes Corporation plc was a British company originally set-up in 1877 by Scottish businessmen to co-operate with Presbyterian missions in what is now Malawi. Despite its original connections with the Free Church of Scotland, it operated ...
as they were unable to use the Shire-Zambezi route to the coast through Portuguese territory. There was a certain amount of friction between the Makololo and the African Lakes Company by the mid-1880s, because the company was unwilling to supply them with firearms and ammunition, which it did supply to independent African hunters competing with the Makololo. The Makololo in turn tried to bypass the company by trading with independent European traders, until one of these killed a Makololo chief in a dispute over trade goods and was in turn killed by the chief's men. Relations with the Portuguese were difficult because they controlled the main access route to the coast and also laid claim to the Shire valley and Shire Highlands. The guardians of the young Paul Marianno III had been forced to withdraw south of the
Ruo River Ruo River is the largest tributary of the Shire River in southern Malawi and Mozambique. It originates from the Mulanje Massif (Malawi) and forms of the Malawi-Mozambique border. It joins the Shire River at Chiromo. The Ruo River watershed incl ...
on the eastern bank of the Shire, and their power on the western bank of the Shire virtually ended. In an attempt to regain these lost territories, an alliance of the ''
prazeros The Prazeiros were the Portuguese and Afro-Portuguese landowners who ruled, in a feudal-like manner, vast estates called ''prazos'' that were leased to them by the Portuguese Crown, in the Zambezi Valley from the sixteenth through to the eighteenth ...
'' of the middle Zambezi attacked the Makololo and were heavily defeated in 1877. In the same year and until 1881, the Makololo chiefs attacked the ''
prazo A ''prazo'' (or ''prazo da coroa'') was a large estate leased to colonists, settlers and traders in Portuguese Africa to exploit the continent's resources. ''Prazos'' operated like semi-feudal entities and were most commonly found in the Zambezi ...
s'' of Marianno III and his allies, which were in areas of Portuguese jurisdiction. Fears that the Makololo were part of a British attempt, also including the Scottish missions and African Lakes Corporation, to claim the areas attacked persuaded the Portuguese government to reinforce its claims to the area by sending a number of expeditions there. As a result, the Scottish missionaries in Blantyre protested to the British government, asking it to oppose any Portuguese claim the Shire Highlands. After Serpa Pinto's battles with Mlauri, Serpa Pinto's second-in-command took two armed steamboats up the Shire River to overawe the Makololo and some of their chiefs fled to the European settlement of
Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...
for safety, provoking the declaration of a British protectorate over the disputed area. The first two colonial administrators of the British Central Africa Protectorate, Harry Johnstone and
Alfred Sharpe Sir Alfred Sharpe (19 May 1853 – 10 December 1935) was Commissioner and Consul-General for the British Central Africa Protectorate and first Governor of Nyasaland. He trained as a solicitor but was in turn a planter and a professional hunte ...
, did not wish to involve African chiefs in the governance of the protectorate or to acknowledge their authority, but the small number of colonial officials in the protectorate and its poverty meant that many chiefs continued to exercise their traditional powers unofficially. As the administration did not recognise chiefs, it only removed those that had opposed them and made no attempt to replace Yao, Ngoni or Makololo chiefs that ruled people of different ethnicity. A government Ordinance of 1912 sanctioned the governmental appointment of Principal Headmen, with limited authority as government agents in their areas. Most were prominent local chiefs, including six Makololo chiefs. In 1933, a form of Indirect rule was introduced by the governor of Nyasaland, Sir Hubert Young, who appointed chiefs as local government officials with wider powers than in 1912, but with no jurisdiction over European-owned estates and no financial responsibilities. The Provincial Commissioner in the south of Nyasaland wished to deal with the anomaly that the five Makololo chiefs in
Chikwawa District Chikwawa is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Chikwawa. The district covers an area of 4,755 km² and has a population of 356,682. The district lies in a malaria endemic area in Africa and has recently been the ta ...
ruled over predominantly Mang'anja populations, whereas seven Mang'anja chiefs in the neighbouring
Nsanje District Nsanje is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Nsanje. The district covers an area of and has a population of 194,924. In addition to the city of Nsanje, it has the important cities of Bangula, Marka, Tengani, and Fat ...
had a majority of
Sena Sena may refer to: Places * Sanandaj or Sena, city in northwestern Iran * Sena (state constituency), represented in the Perlis State Legislative Assembly * Sena, Dashtestan, village in Bushehr Province, Iran * Sena, Huesca, municipality in Huesc ...
immigrants as their subjects, but no changes were made. The Native Authority scheme generally worked well until the mid-1940s, but in the post-
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
period, most chiefs lost legitimacy by enforcing unpopular government policies. By the early 1950s, Indirect rule was barely operating in many areas and the political initiative had passed to the
Nyasaland African Congress The Nyasaland African Congress (NAC) was an organisation that evolved into a political party in Nyasaland during the colonial period. The NAC was suppressed in 1959, but was succeeded in 1960 by the Malawi Congress Party, which went to on decisiv ...
. However, after the country gained independence as
Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...
in 1964, the Malawian government halted the decline of Indirect rule and, under the presidency of Hastings Banda, the chiefs, including the five Makololo chiefs, regained their lost status and became an essential part of the state apparatus.Cammack, Kanyongolo and O’Neil (2009), pp. 5-6.


References


Sources

*N. R. Bennett, (1970). David Livingstone: Exploration for Christianity in R. I. Rotberg (editor), Africa and its Explorers. Harvard University Press.. *D. Cammack, E. Kanyongolo and T. O’Neil, (2009). Town Chiefs in Malawi: Africa Power and Politics Programme Working Paper No. 3. London, Department for Overseas Development. *T. Jeal, (2013). Livingstone: Revised and Expanded Edition, Yale University Press.. *W. T. Kalusa, 2009. Elders, Young Men, and David Livingstone's "Civilizing Mission": Revisiting the Disintegration of the Kololo Kingdom, 1851-1864. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 42, No. 1. *J. McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966, Woodbridge, James Currey pp. 130–2. . *M. D. D. Newitt, (1970). The Massingire Rising of 1884, The Journal of African History, Vol. 11, No. 1. *M. D. D. Newitt, (1982). The Early History of the Maravi, Journal of African History, Vol. 23, No. 3. *N. Northrup,(1986). The Migrations of Yao and Kololo into Southern Malawi: Aspects of Migrations in Nineteenth Century Africa. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1. *B. Pachai, (1978). Land and Politics in Malawi 1875-1975, Kingston (Ontario), The Limestone Press. . *R. I. Rotberg, (1965). The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa: The Making of Malawi and Zambia 1873–1964, Harvard University Press... *M. Schoffeleers, (1972). The History and Political Role of the M'Bona Cult among the Mang'anja, in T. O. Ranger and I. N. Kimambo (editors), The Historical Study of African Religion. University of California Press. . *L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, Cambridge University Press. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Makololo Chiefs Nyasaland History of Malawi Ethnic groups in Malawi