First comprehensive account of the origins and early history of the
Chewa as revealed by oral tradition and archaeology that allows a more
accurate picture of a pre-literate society.
The Chewa are the largest ethnic group in Malawi, representing a third
of the population of approximately 19 million, and their language -
Chichewa - is Malawi's national language. Yet the last book on the
history of this group was published in 1944, and was based on oral
history, or tradition. As with much African history, oral history
started to be recorded only in the late 19th century. This is the first
book to use not only oral history, but also documents written by early
Portuguese explorers, traders and government officials, as well as
archaeology, to piece together the early history of the Chewa. The
author is an archaeologist, who discovered the first major Chewa
settlement, Mankhamba, near the southern part of Lake Malawi. His
excavations have enabled a more scientific chronology of the migrations
of the Chewa into what is today Malawi and have provided physical proof
of their early history as well as their material and spiritual culture
and way of life. Professor Yusuf Juwayeyi has written and documented a
very readable history and description of archaeology, which reveals the
value of combining oral tradition together with archaeology to arrive at
a more accurate picture of the history of a pre-literate society. This
book will be of value not only to historians, archaeologists and
anthropologists, but also the general reader interested in
Africanhistory.
YUSUF M. JUWAYEYI is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Long
Island University, Brooklyn, New York.
South Africa: UCT Press
