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Madzi-Manga, Mhondoro and the use of oral traditions—a chapter in Barue religious and political history1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Extract

This study seeks to redefine the ritual significance of the madzi-manga through the use of Barue oral traditions. It goes beyond a redefinition of the ritual to study the entire process of investiture, the role of the senior mhondoro in Barue society, and the exact nature of the relationship between the Barue and the Portuguese. It concludes that the madzi-manga represented neither a Catholic baptism nor a syncretic religious practice, as has been previously argued. Rather, it was the traditional medium through which the sacred qualities of kingship were transrnitted.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

2 The earliest reference to the madzi-manga dates from 1794. (A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 30, Custódio de Araujo Bragança, II Apr. 1794.) The archival accounts are housed primarily at the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (A.H.U.) in Lisbon and at the Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique (A.H.M.) in Lourenzo Marques. Because of the presence of a Catholic priest among the Barue in the year 1696, Caetano Montez has assumed that the practice of the madzi-manga dated from the end of the seventeenth century. (Montez, Caetano, ‘Coroaça˜o dum rei do Barue em 1811’, Moçambique, xxvii (1941), 117–21).Google Scholar

3 For a general summary of this trade system see Isaacman, Allen, Mozambique: The Africanization of a European Institution, the Zambesi Prazos 1750–1902 (Madison, 1972), 7285. Hoyini Bhila is currently involved in an intensive examination of Manica history which should shed new light on this subject.Google Scholar

4 Montez, Caetano, ‘Coroação dum rei do Barue’, 117–21;Google ScholarIsaacman, Mozambique, 111–12;Google ScholarRanger, Terence, ‘Revolt in Portuguese East Africa—The Makombe Rising of 1917’, in Kirkwood, Kenneth ed., St. Anthony's Papers—African Affairs, xv (London, 1963), 58.Google Scholar

5 For the role of the mhondoro cults among Shona peoples related to the Barue see Abraham, D. P., ‘The Roles of Chaminuka and the Mhondoro Cults in Shona Political History’, Stokes, E. and Brown, R. eds. The Zambesian Past (Manchester, 1966), 137–70;Google ScholarGelfand, Michael, Shona Religion (Cape Town, 1962), 550.Google Scholar

6 The oral traditions were collected in interviews with Chief Makosa, 12 July 1972;Google ScholarChief Dendera, 18 July 1972;Google ScholarMugomedza, Stephen, 19 July 1972;Google ScholarSamacande, 21 July 1972;Google ScholarTsoro, 26 July 1972;Google ScholarSherin, 31 July 1972;Google ScholarNyandoro, Sande, 1 Aug. 1972;Google ScholarMushando, 2 Aug. 1972;Google ScholarKaitano, 7 Aug. 1972. (These interviews will be deposited in the Isaacrnan Collection, A.S.A. Center for African Oral Data, Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana). In addition to these interviews Mr. Hodza of University College, Rhodesia, who has done extensive fieldwork among the Barue and related Shona peoples, provided the author with important insights into Barue history. Kabudu Kagoro is also remembered in the traditions by the name of Chipapata.Google Scholar

7 Interview with Sherin; personal communication with Mr Hodza, 7 Aug. 1972.Google Scholar

8 The first Portuguese settlements in the Lower Zambezi date from the middle of the sixteenth century.Google Scholar

9 Interviews with Sherin and Sande Nyandoro.Google Scholar

10 Interviews with Chief Makosa, Sherin, and Sande Nyandoro.Google Scholar

11 Interviews with Chief Makosa, Chief Dendera, Stephen Mugomedza, Samacande, Tsoro, Sherin, Sande Nyandoro, and Kaitano.Google Scholar

13 Interviews with Chief Makosa, Stephen Mugomedza, Samacande, and Sherin.Google Scholar

14 Peters, Carl, The Eldorado of the Ancients (London, 1902), 125–6.Google Scholar

15 Interviews with Chief Makosa, Samacande and Sherin.Google Scholar

16 Interviews with Chief Makosa, Stephen Mugomedza, Samacande, Tsoro, Sherin, Sande Nyandoro, and Mushando.Google Scholar

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18 Interviews with Chief Dendera, Samacande and Sherin.Google Scholar

19 Interviews with Chief Dendera, Samacande, Tsoro, Sherin, Sande Nyandoro, and Kaitano.Google Scholar

20 The material on succession crises is drawn from the following primary sources: Montez, ‘Coroação’, 117–27; A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 65: António Jozé de Almeida to José Francisco Alves Barbosa, undated; A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 66: José Francisco Alves Barbosa, 21 Sept. 1820; A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 72: António de Avarijo to José Francisco Alves Barbosa, 25 Oct. 1822; A.H.U., Moç., Maço 8: José Luls Rodrigues to Francisco Henriques Ferrão, 22 Apr. 1829; A.H.U., Códice 1315, fol. 403: Francisco Henriques Ferrão to Paulo Jozé Miguel de Brito, 5 Oct. 1829; A.H.U., Moç., Maço 14: Joaquim Mendes de Vasconcelos e Cirne to Conde de Brito, 28 July 1830; A.H.U., Códice 1480, fol. 2: Fernando Carlos cia Costa to Anselmo Henriques Ferrão, Jan. 1844.Google Scholar

21 The sketchy nature of the archival data precludes the establishment of a fized date, although it seems likely that a new Makombe was selected either in 1830 or in 1831. Makombe Bingo died in 1826.Google Scholar

22 From 1880 until 1918 the Barue Kingdom was involved intermittently in a series of succession crises which pitted the royal branch of Chipapata against the descendants of Chibudu. The situation was complicated by internal rivalries within both major sections of the royal family. This subject will be treated at length in an article the author is now writing examining the political history of the Barue kingdom during the nineteenth century.Google Scholar

23 Garbett, G. Kingsley, ‘Religious Aspects of Political Succession among the Valley, Korekore (N. Shona)’ in Stokes, and Brown, (eds.) Zambesian Past, 152.Google Scholar

24 Interviews with Chief Dendera, Samacande, Sherin, Sande Nyandoro, and Kaitano; António Candido Pedroso Gamitto, Successão e Acclarnação dos Reis do Barue’, Archivo Pittoresco, I (18571858) 28–9;Google Scholarde Azevedo Coutinho, João, A Campanha do Barue em 1902 (Lisbon, 1904), 40.Google Scholar

25 Gamitto, ‘Successa¯o e Acclamação’, 28.Google Scholar

26 Interviews with Chief Makosa, Chief Dendera, Samacande, and Sande Nyandoro; Coutinho, A Companha, 40.Google Scholar

27 Interviews with Chief Makosa, Chief Dendera, Samacande, Tsoro, Sherin, Sande Nyandoro, and Kaitano.Google Scholar

28 Interviews with Chief Dendera, Samacande, Sherin, and Sande Nyandoro.Google Scholar

30 Interviews with Stephen Mugomedza, Tsoro, Sherin, and Mushando; personal communication with Mr Hodza on 8 Aug. 1972.Google Scholar

31 Personal communication with Mr Hodza on 8 Aug. 1972. Other informants noted that Kabudu Kagoro received secret medicines just prior to his death which transformed him into a mhondoro, but they did not indicate that this occurred in the Sena region.Google Scholar

32 Interview with Tsoro. Information collected previously from informants in the Sena region of Mozambique corroborates that the Barue considered the homeland of the Sean to be sacred and therefore immune from military attack. (Interviews with Tito, Gimo on 9 Aug. 1968, and Esmail Mussa Valy, 10 Aug. 1968.)Google Scholar

33 Interviews with Stephen Mugomedza, Sherin, and Mushando.Google Scholar

34 Interviews with Chief Dendera, Samacande, Stephen Mugomedza, Tsoro, Sande Nyandoro, and Mushando.Google Scholar

35 See Vansina, Jan, Oral Traditions: A Study in Historical Methodology (London, 1965), 76133.Google Scholar

36 Most of the archaeological evidence comes from sites in neighbouring Rhodesia. Work by Garlake, Fagan, Philipson, Robinson and Summers clearly establishes the presence of agriculturalists before the invasion of the Korekore and the subsequent Barue migration. Interviews with Cristóstomo, Joã, 18 July 1968;Google ScholarBoroma, Conrado Msussa, 28 July 1968;Google ScholarCarnalizene, Jasse, 6 Aug. 1968;Google Scholar and Mavico, Chacundunga, 27 Sept. 1968.Google Scholar

37 Interviews with Chief Makosa, Chief Dendera, Samacande, Tsoro, Sherin, Sande Nyandoro, and Mushando.Google Scholar

38 Interviews with Chief Dendera, Samacande, Sherin, and Sande Nyandoro.Google Scholar

39 A.H.U., Códice 1480, fol. 2: Fernando Carlos da Costa to Anselmo Henriques Ferrão, 5 Jan. 1844 A.H.M., Fundo do Século XIX, Governo Geral, Cx. 2.37: Manuel de Abreu to Rodrigo Luciano de Abreu, 4 July 1845. Numerous accounts of Nongwe-Nongwe can be found in the Rhodesian National Archives A3/18/38/1–5.Google Scholar

40 A.H.U., Códice 1480, fol. 2: Fernando Carlos da Costa to Anselmo Henriques Ferrão, 5 Jan. 1844 A.H.M., Fundo do Século XIX, Governo Geral, Cx. 2.37: Manuel de Abreu to Rodrigo Luciano de Abreu, 4 July 1845; Coutinho, A Companha, 17.Google Scholar

41 Peters, The Eldorado, 126.Google Scholar

42 See Vansina, Jan, Kingdoms of the Savanna (Madison, 1968), 73–4;Google ScholarVansina, Jan, ‘A Comparison of African Kingdoms’, Africa, XXXII (1962), 324–35;CrossRefGoogle ScholarKyerematen, A., ‘The Royal Stools of Ashanti’, Africa, XXXIX (1969), 19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43 A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 65: António Jozé de Ahneida to José Francisco Alves Barbosa, undated; A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 72: António de Avarijo to José Francisco Alves Barbosa, 25 Oct. 1822; A.H.U., Moç., Maço 8: José Luis Rodrigues to Francisco Henriques Ferrão, 22 Apr. 1829; A.H.U., Moç, Maço 4: Joaquim Mendes de Vasconcelos e Cirne to Conde de Basto, 28 July 1830; A.H.U., Códice 1480, fol. 2: Fernando Carlos da Costa to Anselrno Henriques Ferrão.Google Scholar

44 Gamitto observed that many of the victors were very distant members of the royal family who were able to attract large followings (Gamitto, ‘Successão e Acclamação’, 28.)Google Scholar

45 A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 3: José Francisco de Oliveira, 11 Apr. 1752.Google Scholar

46 A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 18: João de Almeida et. al., undated.Google Scholar

47 The famous prazero Gouveia was able to gain a preeminent position in Barue society in part by assisting them against the Nguni invaders.Google Scholar

48 In the case of Gouveia the Government initially supported his efforts until they realized that he was forging a personal empire independent of Lisbon (see Isaacman, Mozambique, 147–50).Google Scholar

49 A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 30: Custódio de Araujo Bragança, 11 Apr. 1794; A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 31: unsigned letter from the King of Barue, 2 Feb. 1795; A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 48: António Jozé Costa e Almeida, 21 Sept. 1808; A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 65: Ricardo da Costa Soares to José Francisco Alves Barbosa, 3 July 1820; A.H.U., Moç., Pasta 13: Galdinho Jozé Nunes to Gov. de Rios de Sean e Tete, 18 Jan. 1854.Google Scholar

51 Barretto, Manuel, ‘Informação do Estado e Conquista dos Rios de Cuama, 1667’, Records of South East Africa, ed. Theal, G. M., (Capetown, 1899) III, 488. Neither the short-term conquest of the outlying regions of the Barue state by António Lobo da Silva nor the presence of a Catholic priest in the kingdom during the year 1696 challenges the Barue traditions which date the madzi-manga back to the death of Kabudu Kagoro. While it is possible that the traditions transposed the origin of this practice to an earlier period (e.g. the death of Kabudu Kagoro) there is no evidence that the circumscribed Portuguese presence in the kingdom resulted in the use of the baptism as part of the installation of the king as was the case of the Muenemutapa during the seventeenth century. In the latter situation, the Portuguese presence was quite significant and there is ample evidence of the conversion of several rulers. The situations were, therefore, not at all analogous and the end products were distinctly different.Google Scholar

52 A.H.M., Fundo do Século XVIII: Miguel José Pereira Baio, 8 July 1768.Google Scholar

53 Isaacman, Mozambique, 147–50.Google Scholar

54 Ibid, 98.

55 A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 30: Custódio de Araujo Braganca, 11 Apr. 1794;Google ScholarA.H.U., Moç., Cx. 48: António Jozé Costa e Almeida, 21 Sept. 1808;Google ScholarGamitto, ‘Successao e Acclamação’, 28–29.Google Scholar

56 A.H.U., Moç., Cx. 65: Vicente Fiscira de Souza et. al., undated; A.H.U., Códice 1315, fol. 403: Francisco Henriques Ferrão to Paulo Jozé Miguel de Brito, 5 Oct. 1829;Google ScholarA.H.U., Códice 1480, fol. 2: Fernando Carlos da Costa to Anselmo Henriques Ferrão, 5 Jan. 1844.Google Scholar

57 While there are documented cases of Portuguese officials who sought to withhold the madzi-manga to gain a better bargaining position, they quickly shifted their tactics when the Barue applied economic or military pressure.Google Scholar

58 Arquivo de Companhia de Moçambique, no. 3321, 1892–1898. This valuable private archive, located in Lisbon, has been totally ignored by historians conducting research on central Mozambique.Google Scholar

59 It is very possible that Nongwe-Nongwe was also invested in this way. There is some disagreement among my informants on this point, and additional research is needed to resolve the question.Google Scholar

60 The author is currently completing a study of the Tradition of Resistance in Central Mozambique which focuses on the role of the Barue in the anti-colonial struggle.Google Scholar

61 Vansma, Kingdoms, 45–58.Google Scholar

62 Isaacman, Mozambique, 111–12; Montez, ‘Coroação’, 117–21; Ranger, ‘Revolt’, 58.Google Scholar

63 The informants universally agreed that attendance at this sacred ritual was limited to members of the royal family, spirit mediums and venerated elders.Google Scholar