Tumbuka people

The Tumbuka are a Bantu- speaking ethnic group in the district to Mzuzu in Malawi, east of Zambia and southern Tanzania.

The origin of the Tumbuka is suspected in Cameroon, from where they have migrated 500 to 800 years ago. In the 17th and 18th centuries, further waves of settlement from the north and northwest, whose people lived among the Tumbuka and assumptions of their language and customs came. Middle of the 19th century conquered the Nguni from Natal to the field, but took on the language of the Tumbuka ( Chitumbuka ).

The Tumbuka in the north of Malawi Rumphi district were still ruled until the mid 19th century, after an interruption during the colonial period by chiefs of Chikulamayembe Dynasty.

The Tumbuka are mostly farmers, growing corn and tobacco, and livestock are common. Their number is estimated at 750,000 to one million to Malawi, Zambia to 400,000. Johnstone / Mandryk 2001 Write 940,000 and 392,000. The Tumbuka value a good education, but many graduates leave the north of Malawi to work in Lilongwe or Blantyre.

Traditional musical instruments for entertainment are played only by women mouth bow mtyangala that lamellophones malimba, reinforced with under hung calabashes xylophone and various rattles, which are used in dances. A dance form is listed in the possession cult Vimbuza and accompanied in addition to the costs borne by the singers metallic rattle of drums called ngoma. The calabash musical bow ugubu is hardly hear.