How Chikulamayembe became a king

[Mzondi W.J. Moyo]

I must declare that my background is teaching science but have always been intrigued by Chikulamayembe history which appers to a maze of carefully woven facts and claims. I must also declare that I come from Mzimba whose Ngoni chiefs are said to have decimated Nkhamanga kingdom and reduced its size and influence to where it is now-small district of Rumphi. I have failed to find time to put a comprehensive scholarly paper but I will discuss a few areas by way of assertions and statements.i also have pasted scholarly original writings. I have deliberately not used any Malawian published texts in search of real truth.  Certain areas have been left with question marks suggesting my shortcoming in that aspect or simply to jog the readers mind.  I will give a lead to anyone wishing to produce a scholarly paper before I do.

The Tumbuka

Came from the west around 1400AD

Like their amaravi cousins they had matrilineal leanings

The most important loyal house for Tumbuka of Rumphi were Luhangas. What about Tumbukas of Southern Mzimba?

When was the Kingdom founded and how long did it last?

This section requires one to do time accounting and analysis.

Chikulamayembe led a band of traders in 1780 according to the narrative at Gonapamuhanya memorial.  Sawira wondered around Nkhota kota, Mzimba, Malambo (Zambia part) before settling in Rumphi-how many years did he wonder around?

He settled and become a wealthy benefactor and was gifted with NyaLuhanga as first wife-how long did he have to wait before the people became grateful enough to gift him?

She was barren and was given a second wife-how long did it take before hope was lost in first wife he was given a second wife?

NyaKumwenda gave birth to Gonapamuhanya the first king-was he grown up when assuming the position- was he 20 years or more?

From 1780 to Chikulamayembe 1-how many years. Could the kingdom, after adding all the years, have been founded after 1800? i.e. more than 20, or 25 years or even more after their arrival?

Conclusion: AT THE TIME OF NGONI FIRST ARRIVAL IN 1840 THE NKHAMANGGA KINGDOM WAS NOT MORE

THAN 40 YEARS.

What was the boundary of his kingdom?

If the boundary was Dwangwa, why did the Ngoni find Chief Chulu at Mabiri(near Embangweni) in 1840 in charge of the area {relics of Maravi (Chewa) Instead of Nkhamanga}?

Why is it that Chewa chief kaluluma still rules up to Jenda very close to Mawiri. Did Chikulamayembe really ever rule that part?

According to the narrative at Gonapamuhanya ceremony the Nkhamanga chiefs headquarters are more or less where they still are now. How did they rule up to Dwangwa without chiefs.

Are there any Nkhamanga chieftain lost due to Ngonis?

Is Nkhamanga Kingdom claiming that whoever bought hoes from them or received a gift was presumed to be in the kingdom? Or can trade routes be taken as part of any kingdom?

The narrative is saying they know the boundary of the kingdom by Tumbuka language. Are they suggesting that they brought Tumbuka or they spread it to where it is as they were trading?-A KEY DELIBERATE DISTORTION OF FACTS

CONCLUSION: Leroy Vail and Landeg White conclude it for us in “Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi” The actual historical reality was, however, quite different. The original Chikulamayembe chieftainship had been territoriall' small, and there had been no such thing before the coming of the Ngoni as a unified empire, state, or 'tribe' encompassing the Tumbuka.^[34]

 

Kyungu Connection

Who was leading between Kyungu and Chikulamayembe if the later claims that they came together are correct?

Read Kalinga, Owen J. M. 2012 Historical dictionary of Malawi. Also read Kalinga History of Ngonde.

Kyungu came around 1400 and they came from North Africa, probably Chad.

Cullen Young (1933) in,’Tribal Intermixture in Northern Nyasaland, the Ngonde themselves say they came from Kyali. “This was worth getting, for Kyali in the Ngonde tongue is just Chali in other dialects, and Chali is one of the half dozen variants which exist to-day in parts of west Central Africa, all pointing back by race memory to the Shari river, which feeds Lake Chad.

CONCLUSION: A DELIBERATE BLATANT LIE ON KYUNGU

Kabunduli connection

Who is making false claims? Chikulamayembe claims kabunduli. Chewa heritage claim kabunduli. What does kabunduli say?

CONCLUSION: Kabunduli, supported by Fukamapiri No 7 and Zilakoma told me that they are Chewa but speaking Tonga. They thus registered themselves with Gabaundi and go to Kulamba at Katete every year. I can link any reader to these chiefs

Architects of error

Does anyone know Saulosi Nyirenda?

The source was Saulosi Nyirenda,supported by Boti Manda, Andrew Nkhonjera and other educated. They found one companion-Rev Cullen Young. He plagiarized Nyirendas work.

 

On Saulosi

Leroy Vail and Landeg White, “Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi “Saulos Nyirenda, a telegraph clerk educated at the Mission who was later to be considered the Tumbuka's 'Father of History', produced a lengthy political history in 1909. Related by marriage to the chief, he wrote with but one purpose: to glorify the history of the Chikulamayembe chieftainship and to denigrate the Ngoni for having 'spoiled our country'.^[30] Manda …..In 1932, he proposed that the new chief should rule over all 'Utumbuka', 'the Land of the Tumbuka'. Although this included territory never under past Chikulamayembes, Cullen Young's work was cited to justify the claim.^[54] In the following year the Chikulamayembe and his supporters 'invaded' the neighbouring Mwafulilwa area to 'annex' it, earning an official reprimand.^[55

On young

Leroy Vail and Landeg White in “Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi ^[1] write the following about young. Soon after his arrival, Young began studying the customs of the local people. He was in an area free from Ngonde and Ngoni political interference, and he was witness to the beginnings of the new formulation of Tumbuka history. For his historical research he depended largely on Nyirenda's history and on oral evidence gathered in Chief Chikulamayembe's area. His data was thus substantially biased towards the new chief's 'official' version of the past.^[32] His principal thesis was the same as Nyirenda's: that in the pre-Ngoni period there had existed a large Tumbuka empire, founded by the first Chikulamayembe, Mlowoka, and sustained by his successors.^[33] This empire, it was argued, included not only all speakers of the Tumbuka language, but also the Lakeside Tonga and the Ngonde peoples as well as some Chewa-speakers, extending from the Dwangwa river in the south to the Songwe river in the north, from the Luangwa valley in the west to the Lakeshore in the east, an area of some 20,000 square miles. The actual historical reality was, however, quite different. The original Chikulamayembe chieftainship had been territoriall' small, and there had been no such thing before the coming of the Ngoni as a unified empire, state, or 'tribe' encompassing the Tumbuka.^[34]

 

Dr Peter G. Forster in Cullen Young, Yesaya Chibambo and The Ngoni observes the following,

“Young's own writings, however, were clearly pro - Tumbuka and depicted the Ngoni as unwelcome imperialists. His first source of inspiration for this standpoint was undoubtedly an anonymous manuscript that he received in the post in 1909. This contained a history of the Tumbuka, and was particularly concerned to press the claims of the Tumbuka chiefs against those of the Ngoni invaders. The author turned out to be Saulos Nyirenda, a former teacher who had left the North to work for the African Trans-Continental Telegraph Company. In 1931 Young had the manuscript published in Bantu Studies, as a parallel text in English and Tumbulca.⁸ Young's subsequent exposition of Tumbuka-Ngoni relations follows Nyirenda very closely, and he nowhere contradicts Nyirenda on any important matter.”

 

More on Young

Young at the time he was chasing kamuzu from exams in 1915 at Chilanga was a junior missionary sent all the way from Livingstonia to invigilate   

"In the year 1915," The number of examinees was large, the examination hall - actually the Station Church - was small, but the unlucky small pupil-teacher [Hastings Banda] found himself in a distant seat, too far from the blackboard easily to see the questions thereon written. At one point he stood up in order to see more clearly over the shoulder of the man in front of him. The European [Cullen Young] misconstrued the action and debarred the boy from further participation in the examination." MEMORIES OF DR. BANDA

by Professor Emeritus George Shepperson, C.B.E.

 Upon retirement or death of veterans like Robert Laws, Elmsie etc he rose and since he hated any form of violence, including first world war he could not be scholary in his approach.

 i have left out more literature.

mzondi moyo

[Justin Mthawanji]

I love this feedback, very educative

--
Justin Mthawanji
0888642854
So foul a sky, clears- not without a storm!

[cuthbertkachale]

I would like to thank you so much,  Ba Mzondi Moyo for the very brilliant  critique on the Gonapamuhamya narrative. 

Of course there are easily discernible gaps in the Gonapahanya narrative. 

I would like to remind netters that on about two occasions over the past five years I did draw the attention of netters to download Leroy Vail and Lendeg White's masterpiece as a MUST READ.

I have a few observations on the former Chancol lecturers' masterpiece. 

1. I wish they included Ba Rev Samuel Mkandawire and Rev Charles Chinula's works in their research.

2. My great grandfather who was slain by the  Ngonis to silence Tumbukas was Mjuma, Chikulamyembe the 9th or IX and not Chikulamyembe the VIII.

coming to that,  they are indeed generation gaps on the dates/periods on when the Ngonis conquered the Tumbukas. You are saying 1840, Leroy and Lendeg are saying 1855 and the Gonapahanya people are saying 1881.

One interesting observation is that according to  your findings, the Ngondes from Tchad and the Tumbukas from the west or the Congo Basin all came to the area that became Malawi in 1400.

What I am not sure of is whether or not the Ngondes came as a unit under Kyungu or the Kyungu chieftainship came later. 

Another point of clarification is that I have always taken Kasungu North people as Tumbuka people and that Chief Kaluluma is himself Tumbuka and not Chewa. In fact part of my family that fled and survived the Ngonis are the Kachalis of Kanyamauli village in Kasungu North.

Could you please correct me if I am wrong. 

Mzee. 

Sent from Samsung Mobile

-------- Original message --------
From: "'Mzondi W.J. Moyo' via Bwalo la Aphunzitsi" <bwalo-la-...@googlegroups.com>
Date: 18/07/2015 11:34 (GMT+02:00)
To: Sunduzwayo Madise <sundu...@yahoo.co.uk>,Civil Society <civs...@sdnp.org.mw>,Roy Hauya' via Bwalo La Aphunzitsi <bwalo-la-...@googlegroups.com>,"Mzondi W.J. Moyo" <mzond...@yahoo.com>,Mzondi Moyo <mzond...@gmail.com>,Bwalo La Aphunzitsi <bwalolaa...@gmail.com>
Subject: [BwalolaAphunzitsi] How Chikulamayembe became a king

I must declare that my background is teaching science but have always been intrigued by Chikulamayembe history which appers to a maze of carefully woven facts and claims. I must also declare that I come from Mzimba whose Ngoni chiefs are said to have decimated Nkhamanga kingdom and reduced its size and influence to where it is now-small district of Rumphi. I have failed to find time to put a comprehensive scholarly paper but I

.....

..

mzondi moyo

[Mzondi W.J. Moyo]

Cuthbert. Thank you for response. On conquering chikulamayembe (I do not like the term Tumbuka a lot of them were in Impi that killed mjuma and ( mwendera?) It was actually not 1840. In 1840 they were at Mabiri. Three groups were at play. The b4 crossing Zambezi which included kalanga likemyselfy , the Nsengas and Tumbukas. Ever heard of tumbuka ng'angas victmising nsenga as wizards? After a stay they went to Tanzania and by 1855 the kingdom hqtrs was Ng'onga in present Rumphi. M'mbelwa 1 was crowned. Tsetse flies defeated them and moved to choma njuyu etc. At this moment in time chikulamayembe was left reasonably free under conditions. A number young people from his area had joined ngoni regiment. In 1881 these young people from rumphi section were formented rebellion. So the 1881 in history is known as nkhamanga rebellion. At this point kingdom was destroyed. Kanyoli and kambondoma run away to Karonga with Tumbuka and balowoka of henga valley instead of assisting chikulamayembe fight. The family of present chikulamayembe were in the Karonga group which did not assist mjuma. Ngonde just like chikulamayembe did not come as a government. They formed a kingdom in early 1600 when their number had reached a shreshold among other factors. Verify with Karinga. Very true Tumbukas are in North kasungu but were not under Mlowoka. These were under chewas. Kaluluma is a chewa. On a lighter note Cuthbert is not a mlowoka. Just like he is loyal to chikulamayembe others are loyal to m'mbelwa. Check influential people of Mzimba Heritage. Mose Mkandawires, Selemam Chavulas etc. Need to go. For work. NkhaGEZE.. ngoni word for bathing.  from Yahoo Mail on Android From:"cuthbertkachale" <cuthber...@gmail.com> Date:Mon, 20 Jul, 2015 at 18:33 Subject:[BwalolaAphunzitsi] Re: How Chikulamayembe became a king