Chewa people

The Chewa are a Bantu people who live mainly in the southern half of the southeast African country of Malawi, and also in the east of Zambia as well as in the regions of Niassa, Tete and Milange in Mozambique, right down to Zimbabwe. A related talk group is called Nyanja, also be distinguished Sena spokesman in Mozambique and Malawi. Portuguese records call contacts with Chewa and their sub- tribes Banda and Phiri in this area. The Chewa today form the largest and most dominant ethnic group in the Republic of Malawi, their sub-tribe or clan of Phiri focuses on management tasks, the sub-tribe or clan of Banda on healing and shamanism.

The language of the Chewa Chichewa means ( " language of the Chewa " ), outside of Malawi also Chinyanja, Chisena or Banti. Chichewa is the official language in addition to English in Malawi, where it is spoken by 50 % of the population as a first language, it is also in Central Africa the third most spoken language after Shona and Ndebele. Chichewa is also the name given to the culture of the Chewa.

History

The origin of the Chewa is suspected in the south of the Congo basin, more precisely in Malombo in the Luba area in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Chewa migrated before the end of the first millennium (according to weaker sources until around 1480) on the north by Zambia to the south, where they founded the supposedly mythical kingdom Maravi. The first written testimonies are Portuguese reports on contacts with the Chewa 1608 and 1667, but they do not have their culture and make no mention of a kingdom. By 1900, there are virtually no other sources.

Official leader of all Chewa in the three countries Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique is Fred Daka, the successor to the popular Chief Gawa Undi Kalonga since 2004. Its traditional headquarters is located east of Petauke in Zambia in Mkaika. The first president (and later dictator ) in 1966, proclaimed by himself Republic of Malawi Kamuzu Banda was Hastings ( 1896-1997 ), a Chewa from the Banda tribe, who made the official language of Chichewa.

Culture and Religion

The Chewa people believed in a God ( or Chiuta Chaunta ), who created the world on the mountain Kapirintiwa on the border between Westmosambik and the central highlands of Malawi (possibly the Kapiriuta, 1,336 meters south of Lilongwe ) during a thunderstorm. Although they believed in a God, they thought that the spirits of humans and animals with the living stay in touch. Means to that contact among all the spirits of the dead and the living is for them the dance. To differentiate these from immigrant numerous to Malawi strains, in particular the 19th century immigrant from the south Ngoni, the Chewa wont particularly their specific traditions: the tattoos, their language and the animistic secret societies ( Nyau ) that and as a burial ritual dances with masks more or less abstract animal forms practice.

The Chewa have today a matrilineal succession of ownership and rights. Mbele means " descendants of the same breast ." These form the family that Mbumba. Older Mother's brothers are called Nkhoswe, are leaders of the line and mentors of the sons of their sisters. It is believed that the white rock paintings in Chongoni area which were taken as part of female initiation rites.