The peoples of Southern Mozambique

The purpose of this article is to attempt to clarify some of the outstanding controversies in the historical and ethnographic literature on southern Mozambique. It contends that by the eighteenth century, three distinct ethnic groups— the Tsonga, Chopi, and Tonga—lived in the area. It seeks to demonstrate how and why these groups differed from each other, and how these differences affected the ethnographic map. It argues that state formation among the Tsonga began at an early date, largely because of influences emanating from the adjacent western plateau regions of south-central Africa. Most of the neighbouring Tonga peoples, however, were shielded from these influences, and did not evolve political units larger than the village authority. The exception to this generalization occurred in the south of the Tonga-speaking region, where peoples were subject to an invasion by groups of Shona origin. The resultant differences between the two Tonga-speaking groups were to be of extreme importance when both subsequently would be invaded by peoples of Tsonga origin. In the south the arrival of Tsonga speakers resulted in the formation of the Chopi; in the north Tsonga speakers absorbed and assimilated the Tonga, who might have disappeared as a distinct cultural entity had other factors not intervened before the process had been completed

Ancient history · Archaeology · Ethnic group · Ethnogenesis · Ethnography · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Linguistics · Plateau (mathematics · Political science · Politics · Shona · Sociology · State (computer science · Subject (documents · Xhosa · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Multilingual Education and Policy

• Central Africa from Cameroun to the Zambezi

  Open Access•David Birmingham•Cambridge History of Africa•1975

  Incluir item

• The western Maghrib and Sudan

  Open Access•Nehemia Levtzion•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• The East African interior

  Open Access•Roland Oliver•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• The East Coast, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean

  Open Access•H Neville Chittick•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• Upper and Lower Guinea

  Open Access•J D Fage•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• Central Africa from Cameroun to the Zambezi

  Open Access•David Birmingham•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• The eastern Maghrib and the central Sudan

  Open Access•Humphrey J Fisher•The Cambridge History of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• The Changamirian offshoots in South Africa

  Open Access•Mandla M Mathebula, Sekgothe Mokgoatšana•HTS Teologiese Studies /…•2020

  Incluir item

• The ‘polyonymous identity’ of the Hlengwe people of Zimbabwe and their struggle for a ‘collective proper name’

  Open Access•Mandla M Mathebula, Sekgothe Mokgoatšana•HTS Teologiese Studies /…•2020

  Incluir item

• The Cambridge History of Africa

  Open Access•John D Fage, Roland Anthony Oliver et al.•The Cambridge history of Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• A Historical Ecology of the Limpopo and Kruger National Parks and Lower Limpopo Valley

  Open Access•Anneli Ekblom, Lindsey Gillson et al.•The Journal of Archaeology and…•2023

  Incluir item

• As timbila de Moçambique no concerto das nações

  Open Access•Sara Morai, Sara Figueirêdo De Alcântara Morai•Locus - Revista de História•2020

  Incluir item

• Imperceptible realities

  Plan Shenjere-Nyabezi•Azania Archaeological Research in…•2016

  Incluir item

• Technology in Culture

  Open Access•Anthony F C Wallace•Science in Context•1995

  Incluir item

• Years of Tsonga publications, 1883-1983

  Mary C Bill•African Studies•1984

  Incluir item

• The Early Farming Communities of Southern Mozambique

  Martin Hall, M M Hall et al.•The South African Archaeological…•1989

  Incluir item

• New Light on Venda Traditions

  Open Access•Gerhard Liesegang•History in Africa•1977

  Incluir item

• Pastoralism and Zimbabwe

  Open Access•P S Garlake•The Journal of African History•1978

  Incluir item

• Le sacrifice, le mariage, la mort et la folie chez les Thonga Sacrifice, marriage, death and madness among the Thonga

  Luc De Heusch•Systèmes de pensée en Afrique noire•1978

  Incluir item

• An Investigation of Manekweni, Mozambique

  P S Garlake, Peter Garlake•Azania Archaeological Research in…•1976

  Incluir item

• The Consonant Inventory of Proto-Tsonga-Copi

  Open Access•Isabel Eaton•Languages•2025

  Incluir item

• Travelling While Sitting Down

  Open Access•Julie Soleil Archambault•Africa•2012

  Incluir item

• Excavation of a zimbabwe in Mozambique

  Open Access•P S Garlake•Antiquity•1976

  Incluir item

• Portuguese contacts with the Bantu languages of the Transkei, natal and southern Mozambique 1497-1650

  P E H Hair•African Studies•1980

  Incluir item

• Continuity and Change in African Cultures

  Melville J Herskovitz, William Russell Bascom•Continuity and Change in African…•1962

  Incluir item

• Outlining Southern African History

  Christopher Ehret•Ufahamu A Journal of African…•1972

  Incluir item

• Life in a South African Tribe

  William O Brown, Eileen Jensen Krige et al.•The Journal of Negro Education•1945

  Incluir item