Medieval Kings and their Vassals from N to S.
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Taken from: Swahili origins: Swahili culture and the Shungwaya phenomenon; Allen, James de Vere 1993.
The Portuguese are sometimes reproached for their failure to discern tribal groupings in eastern Africa north of Kilwa. Such reproaches are not merited, for until the very end of their time no such groupings really existed. Their Mossequjos were almost certainly the same as our Katwa-Segeju, for they are marked on Portuguese maps as living all the way from somewhere near Kiluluma to the middle Juba and beyond. Their Mossungalos were numerous little separate communities of farmers, hunters, or (most often) mixed farming and hunting peoples scattered about between and behind the Swahili settlements. Though they are most often mentioned in the hinterland of Mombasa (where at least three separate groups were discernible in the early seventeenth century), they may well have lived as far north as the Juba, and perhaps also some way further south. The Portuguese name must come from Musunguli or an earlier version of it. The African term, when used by pastoralists, refers to anyone who is not of pastoralist stock, and who accordingly stands (or used to stand) in the relationship of a client to themselves.
Till about 250 years ago most people in East Africa lived in families or clans as units, not tribes. The start of the period of creation of tribes and states in Tanzania and Kenya can also be noticed in Archaeology.
Taken from: A Thousand Years of East Africa John Edward Giles Sutton · 1990
P41/45
Five-hundred years ago the whole of Kenya’s western highlands, between Sotik and Mount Elgon and east-wards as far as Nakuru, was the territory of the Sirikwa. These people are thought to be ancestral, broadly speaking, to the present Kalenjin (some of them however being absorbed into Luyia and Maasai). Although nowadays no-one calls himself Sirikwa, the memory of that period is very much alive, with the signs of ancient activity remaining so clear on the ground. Anyone who has stayed or travelled in Kericho, Nandi, Uasin Gishu and adjacent districts will have noticed the saucer - shaped depressions, each ten metres or so wide, known as 'Sirikwa Holes'. They occur on the hillsides in groups numbering anything between five and fifty, sometimes even a hundred. Often covered with grass or bush, or with big trees standing in them, their antiquity is obvious enough.
P49
During the 17th and 18th centuries Sirikwa Holes ceased to be made as homestead arrangements and devices for guarding livestock. The simple reason for this must be new methods of attack with bigger - scale cattle - raiding. For Sirikwa Holes had been designed as protection not against armies, but against small stealthy bands of rustlers. Once large bodies of organized far ranging cattle - raiders threatened ready to break or burn defences and challenging to a fight, Sirikwa holes were rendered vulnerable, indeed useless. Different more mobile techniques of protecting stock had now to be devised. Later, the favourite system was to relay the alarm from ridge to ridge across the pastures so that the herds could be combined and run into the forest glades where the enemy, should he dare pursue, would be ambushed by concealed archers. Thus larger - scale communal methods of attack were countered by a revolution in the scale and organization of defensive tactics. These changes were part of a broader transformation taking place in herding strategies, social organization and military techniques and weaponry across a large part of East Africa 250 years ago.
Taken from: Fortifications et urbanisation en Afrique orientale; Stéphane Pradines 2004.
(Medieval) Swahili town walls are characterized by their low thickness, one to two cubits, from 46cm to 1m, and their low height of 2.5m to 3.5m. The height of the walls always exceeds the height of a man, but is not intended for a long-term siege. The Portuguese also noted that the Swahili did not practice climbing. The enclosure is designed to face primitive weapons, arrows, slingshot balls and spears.
In Tanzania some Iraqw still build underground houses to make themselves invisible for small groups of raiders. They had to give up on it when armies came into being.
Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol VIII
ACCOUNT OF THE JOURNEY MADE BY FATHERS OF THE COMPANY OF JESUS WITH FRANCISCO BARRETO IN THE CONQUEST OF MONOMOTAPA IN THE YEAR 1569.
By Father Monclaro, of the said Company.
P357-359-361
And thus, in November 1572 we set out (from Mozambique Island) for the voyage distributed among well nigh 20 vessels; a caravel and a small galleon of the Corrientes trade, being sea-going vessels, immediately put out to sea leeward to approach the Cuama river at the mouth of (blank space). The smaller ships sailed along the coast calling at many harbours, the first being in the island of Angoja.
These islands are peopled by a mixture of Moors and Kaffirs. They are low-lying land, with many marshes, and rather unwholesome. They produce much coir owing to the great abundance of palm trees, wherewith they also make delicate mats. Tortoises are caught here, serving to make very gracefully-wrought coffers and boxes. This coast has great abundance of hens, this being the best meat in these parts, though the hens we generally found be lacking in flavour. There are no cows, only on the coast of Malindi there are some and they are small. ………………
……… They have no king in this entire coast, only some whom they call fumos, who are like lords in the land, some mighty and some petty, and always at war with each other. Together with them there are also some Moors, and all this coast is tainted with this infernal people. The villages consist of very small straw huts. They go about with a great many bows and iron arrows, the points being very we'll devised, and very good assegais, and only in weapons of this kind do they take pains.
Taken from: Ethiopia oriental, Volume 1 By João dos Santos. (d1622); His book is about 1580-1600.
P257
Third Book Chapter I
Of the Kaffirs on the mainland of Mozambique and their customs and how they conquered that land.
Throughout this coast that runs from the rivers of Cuama to the island of Mozambique, which is one hundred and thirty leagues (league=5555m) of land, there are no powerful kings and great as are those that I have dealt with in the first and second book (that is deeper south). And although there are many vassal lords in it with everything, none of them have the title of king, although there are some Moors who live along this coastline in small towns, which they call kings of the same places where they live and are as in the past was the king of Sofala; Zufe who killed Pero de Anhaya of little substance and vast living. Which for the most part are evils of the nation. ………
Note: This is an important text; SE Africa was filled with kings and emperors; here there are only small kings with little power. Further North in Tanzania and Kenya there will be only some small kingdoms just beginning to appear.
Taken from: Documentos Sobre Os Portugueses Em Mocambique E Na Africa Central 1497-1840 Vol III.
NOTES MADE BY GASPAR VELOSO, CLERK OF THE FACTORY OF MOZAMBIQUE, AND SENT TO THE KING
(in 1512)
Description of the voyage of the convict Antonio Fernandes into the interior of Monomotapa.
These are the kings there are from Sofala to the mine of Menomotapa, and the things to be found in each of these kingdoms.
Item, the first king that borders with Sofala is called Mycamdira and there is nothing to be had in his land save supplies and ivory.
Item, beyond this king there is another called the king of Mazira and he has nothing save supplies, and he lies two days Journey from the one above.
Item, the king of Quytomgue lies three days Journey from this other king and he has nothing save supplies.
Item, the king of Embya lies four days Journey from this other king and he has nothing save banditry.
Item, the king of Ynhacouce lies three days journey from this other king. He has supplies and ivory.
Item, the king of Ynhacouce (?) lies five days journey from this other king, he is the captain-major of the king of Menamotapa and he has great lands and in his lands they have fairs on Mondays which they call Sembaza fairs where the Moors sell all their merchandise; the Kafirs also gather there from all the lands and thus they have quantities of supplies; it is said that the fair is as big as that of the Vertudes, and the only coin is gold by weight.
Item, the king of Manhiqua lies six days journey from this other king and has a great amount of gold.
Item, the king of Amçoce lies four days journey from this other king and he mines a great amount of gold throughout his land, and this man saw it being drawn and he says that it can be seen where the gold lies because a herb like clover grows over it and that the greatest amount he saw mined in one day was a large basket full of bars the size of a finger and large nuggets, and there is nothing else save this gold, and he who mines it pays the king one half, and all their supplies come from abroad.
Item, the king of Barue (?) lies four days journey from this other king and has a great amount of gold that comes from abroad and quantities of ivory in his own land.
Item, the king of Betomgua lies three days journey from this other king and has no gold save that which comes from abroad.
Item, the king of Ynhaperapara lies four days journey from this other king and mines gold throughout his land and is a great king.
Item, the king of Boece lies five days journey from this other king and has gold that comes from abroad and is a great king.
Item, the king of Mazofe lies four days journey from this other king and there is much gold in his land and he who mines it pays him half.
Item, thence to Embire, which is a fortress of the king of Menomotapa and is now made of stone without mortar, which is called Camanhaya, and where he is always to be found, is a journey of five days and from there on is the kingdom of Menomotapa which is the source of the gold of all this land, and he is the greatest of all these kings, all of whom obey him as far as Sofala.
Item, beyond this king there is another who does not render him obedience and who is called the king of Butua and they lie ten days journey one from the other. He has much gold which is mined in his land along the fresh water rivers, and he is as great as the king of Menomotapa and is always at war with him.
Item, the king of Mombara lies seven days journey from the king of Menomotapa. In this land there is much ... much copper and it is from there that copper is brought to Menomotapa in loaves like ours, and throughout this other land. These men are ill proportioned and not very black and they have tails like sheep and a big river lies between this king and the king of Menomotapa which is crossed in almadias when they come to sell their merchandise; and they set it ashore and cross again to the other side, and then come the Moors or Kafirs who take the merchandise if it pleases them and leave there the cloth and whatever other merchandise they carry and then come the men with the tails, and if they are pleased with the merchandise the others have left they take it; if they are not pleased they go away and leave it until more is put there or other is brought, since they understand each other by signs. And the men with the tails worship cows and if one of them dies they eat him and bury a cow, and the blacker a negro is the more they pay to eat him, and they say that the meat of white men is more salty than that of black men.
Item, the king of Ynhoqua is at war with the king of Menomotapa and it is a kingdom with much gold and lies a journey of five days from Menomotapa; and this man did not go further than this kingdom due to the many wars there between these kings, and also because he had no gifts to give the kings since it is a custom in the whole land that when any stranger arrives, he must, for his safety and if he wishes to speak to the king, render some Service to the king otherwise he may not speak to him; and the kings shew their satisfaction by giving double. And from here he turned back and came to the kingdom of Monzambia by way of Sofala but not by the way he had gone that he might see other lands. In this kingdom there is cotton cloth which is taken to Menomotapa to be sold.
Item, from Ynhoqua he came to the kingdom of Moziba by way of Sofala. In this land there is nothing save cotton cloth which is made there and taken to Menomotapa to be sold.
Item, from there he came to the kingdom of Quytenge which lies seven days journey from this other kingdom. In this land much gold is mined and it borders with Batongua where there is much gold and ivory; the gold is mined in the land itself and there is much of it; in this land there is a river that runs to Cuama and flows into the sea sixteen leagues from the bar of Sofala; in this same river into the land of Quitengue a factory house can be built on an islet that lies in the middle of the river and which is about as long as a horse race course and as wide. If this house were built there Your Highness could have all the gold of this land and also that of Menomotapa because this islet lies ten days journey away and, besides, there is much ivory that could he traded and taken to India or to these kingdoms; in this way could be set right the trade of Sofala which is marred by a smaller river which runs from Angoxe to join this on at Quitengue and along which come many sambuks (type of dhow, a traditional wooden sailing vessel) loaded with cloth which is traded throughout the land. And once Your Highness has built this house a brigantine could be kept there to patrol these rivers and to stop any merchandise coming from Angoxe or from any other part, as the Moors of all this coast do all they can to injure Your Highness’s trade because they think that if they can injure the trade Your Highness will order the fortress of Sofala to be dismantled; and they place great hope in this now that the fortress in Kilwa is closed and a factory built in Malindi, and also because they know that Angediva and Socotra have been closed, and so they think Your Highness will order the same to be done in Sofala. And if this house were to be built Your Highness would make the trade of Sofala safe and take possession of all the gold of this land of Quitengue as well as of Menomotapa because it lies very dose by.