Maravi

Called Malawi by the Portuguese who colonized their homeland, the Maravi controlled a powerful confederacy in the 15th and 16th centuries in what is today Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique.

The Maravi, meaning “people of the fire flames,” a heterogeneous group comprising several distinct ethnic groups such as the Chewa, Chipeta, and Nyanja, migrated to the area between the Shire and Zambezi Rivers from Katanga (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) around the 13th century. By the 15th century they controlled a powerful alliance that dominated the ivory trade in the region. The Maravi Confederacy included connections with the Lundu peoples to the north and, after 1497 and the arrival of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese. Ruled by hereditary kings from the Phiri clan, the Maravi Confederacy collected tribute in the form of grain, which was redistributed in times of famine. These kings also controlled the lucrative trade in ivory and iron, valuable goods demanded by Swahili traders engaged in markets along the eastern coast from Mogadishu to Mozambique. As the Portuguese made their way farther up the Zambezi River, they increased their trade with the Maravi peoples for guns, ammunition, cloth, and beads. Although this new avenue of trade brought the Maravi prosperity, it also brought conflict over who would control the trade in ivory and gold. The Maravi attempted to open new Trade routes to the Indian Ocean free from Portuguese interference by conquering Makua territory in Mozambique. Lundu opposition forced the Maravi Confederacy to ally with the Portuguese, resulting in a Lundu defeat and open access for the Maravi to the Indian Ocean. By the late 17th century the Maravi Confederacy was in decline and in the process of disintegrating into several smaller political entities.

Further reading: “Before European Colonization,” in Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa, eds. Roland Oliver and Michael Crowder (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 77-155; “Malawi,” in Historical Dictionary of Malawi, Cynthia A. Crosby (London: Scarecrow Press, 1993), 80-81; “Mozambique,” in Africana, The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, eds. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Basic Civitas Book, 1999), 1,351-1,356; Ari Nave, “Malawi,” in, Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, eds. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999), 1,229-1,233; “The Peoples,” in Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa, eds. Oliver and Crowder, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 57-86.