Makonde people
The Makonde are an ethnic group in southeast Tanzania and
northern Mozambique. The
Makonde developed their culture on the Mueda Plateau in Mozambique. At present
they livethroughout Tanzania and Mozambique and have a small presence in Kenya. The Makonde population in Tanzania was estimated
in 2001 to be 1,140,000, and the 1997 census in Mozambique put the Makonde
population in that country at 233,358, for a total estimate of 1,373,358.
The Makonde successfully resisted predation by African, Arab, and
European slavers. They did not fall under colonial power until the
1920s. During the 1960s the revolution which drove the Portuguese out of
Mozambique was launched from the Makonde homeland of the Mueda Plateau. At one
period this revolutionary movement known as 'Frelimo' derived a part of its
financial support from the sale of Makonde carvings. The Makonde are best known
for their wood carvings and their observances of puberty rites.
They speak Makonde, also known as ChiMakonde, a Bantu language closely
related to Yao. Many speak other languages such as English in
Tanzania, Portuguese in Mozambique, and Swahili and Makua in both
countries. The Makonde are traditionally a matrilineal society
where children and inheritances belong to women, and husbands move into the
village of their wives. Their traditional religion is an animistic form of
ancestor worship and still continues, although Makonde of Tanzania are
nominally Muslim and those of Mozambique are Catholic or Muslim. In Makonde
rituals, when a girl becomes a woman, Muidini is the best dancer out of the
group of girls undergoing the rituals.
REFERENCE
John Ndembwike (October 2009). Tanzania: Profile of a Nation.
Intercontinental Books. pp. 149–. ISBN 978-9987-9308-1-4.
1.
^ Jump up to:a b "Makonde of Kenya". peoplegroups.org.
Retrieved 16 October 2014.
2. Jump up^ David Lawrence (12
March 2009). Tanzania and Its People.
Intercontinental Books. pp. 41–. ISBN 978-1-4414-8692-9.
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