Sena: Hinterland of Kuvama

Taken from: Hilário Madiquida; Archaeological and Historical Reconstructions of the Foraging and Farming Communities of the Lower Zambezi.

Based on written sources, Newitt (1995, p. 12, pp. 53‒54) concludes that by the 1570s Sena had five Muslim families under a leader and ten Portuguese residents.

In the account of the expedition of Fransisco Barreto by Father Monclaro (“Company of Jesus”) in the year of 1569 (in Theal 1964, Vol. 3, p. 223), Sena is described as a small village of straw huts in a thicket. Sena was ruled by a Moor, the son of Mopango, who was a great chief but vassal to Monomotapa. Father Monclaro (in Theal 1964, Vol. 3) also provides information about the death of cattle in this country (probably related to the presence of tse-tse) but that the cattle were brought from the kingdom of Butua.

Father Monclaro likewise describe how the Kalanga ruler the Monomotapa had overruled over these Fumos (locally elected ruler) and that his rule was similar to that of a king, by the obedience he demanded from subjects and through the succession of his oldest son. The Monomotapa was described as very powerful, with large territories and smaller kingdoms that were his vassals (including Butoa and Manica).

Father Monclaro (in Theal 1964, Vol. 3, p. 229): “Generally they are all dressed in pieces of cotton cloth, but are poorly covered. These cloths are made on the other side of the river [Zambesi], and are woven on low looms, very slowly. I saw some at work near Sena. These cloths are called machiras, and are about two varas and a half long and one and a half wide. They gird these machiras round their bodies and cross them over the breast, and the rest of the body is uncovered. They wear horns in their hair by way of finery, which are made of their own locks strangely twisted. These horns are in general use in all Kaffraria, and they shelter the head very well. […] The women wear upon their arms and legs many bracelets of copper drawn very fine, and gold is also drawn very fine, and then made into bracelets.” From this quote it is clear that there was a local production of textiles and also imports such as copper bangles, probably imported from the Zimbabwe plateaux. Father Monclaro (in Theal 1964, Vol. 3, p. 224)

The LFC (Late farming community) ceramics of Sena, date typologically between 11th–12th centuries AD and are similar to that of the site Mavudzu, in southern Malawi (Davison-Hirchmann 1984; Juwayeyi 1993).

Additionally, more than 50% of the Sena pottery includes both surface finishes with burnished red ochre and graphite and incised/punctated decorations. Red and graphite burnished bowls have been reported from coastal assemblages, including Chittick’s (1974) so-called Early Ware at Kilwa, associated with glassbeads. Most researchers have linked these wares to the Comoro Islands, where they constituted a substantial part of the local ceramic assemblages (Fleisher and Wynne-Jones 2011, p. 271).

For stamped ceramics, some elements are very similar to the ceramics of Lumbo tradition, from the coast of Nampula province near Mozambique Island (Sinclair 1987; Duarte 1993; Madiquida 2007). This ceramic tradition is often found in a series of archaeological sites throughout the north coast of Mozambique and dated between the 13th and 14th centuries AD (Sinclair 1985; Adamowicz 1987; Liesegang 1988; Duarte 1993; Duarte and Meneses 1996).

In the excavations in Sena we found different kinds of beads made locally using bones or tusks. All the local beads have white color and no other colors were found. Their shapes are mainly tube, oblate, cylinder and sphere (Wood 2012, p. 69). The value of the beads for the local communities was so high that the beads made from this raw material are likely to be found today in Mozambique in almost all the archaeological sites linked to the long-distance trade network (Sinclair 1985, 1986; Adamowicz 1987; Morais 1988; Duarte 1993; Madiquida 2007; Macamo and Risberg 2007).

As to porcelain imports: all were from after the 15^th century from Europe or China. As to glass beads some from India might have been from the medieval period.

Conclusion: Sena on the river Zambezi 190km inland from the delta seems to have been connected to many kingdoms in the interior and sultans on the coast. It does seem to have been without elite that acquired status goods like Chinese or Persian ceramics.

 End of the Middle-Ages View of Kuvama by the Portuguese.

Taken from: Da Ásia de João de Barros, dos feitos que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento e conquista dos mares e terras do Oriente ;  João de Barros 1552. (first decade)

(In 1498 when the ships of Vasco da Gama start leaking). Because of fear they sailed so fast, that he passed without seeing the town of Cofala, so celebrated in those parts because of the much gold that the Moors had taken from the Negroes of the land via trade, and he had gone ahead; and he went to enter a very large river fifty leagues (a Portuguese Maritime League is 5.5km * 50=275km past Sofala puts us right at the place of Kuvama) further, seeing boats with palm sails coming into it. The entrance of which river, after they saw the Gentile who dwelt on the edge of it, it gave great encouragement to everyone, despite how broken they were, having sailed so much without finding more than barbaric Negroes, ……… Here most of them had blue-dyed cotton cloths around them, and others had headdresses, silk cloths, and even colored caps. With signs, that against the rising of the Sun there were white people, who sailed in ships, like those of theirs, whom they saw passing below, and above that coast ……

Taken from: A description of the coasts of East Africa and Malabar, in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa 1514. Transl Stanley.

RIVER ZUAMA.

Leaving Sofala for Mozambich, at forty leagues from it, there is a very large river, which is called the Zuama and it is said that it goes towards Benamatapa (Monomotapa), and it extends more than 160 leagues. In the mouth of this river there is a town of the Moors, which has a king, and it is called Mongalo. Much gold comes from Benamatapa to this town of the Moors, by this river, which makes another branch which falls at Angos, where the Moors make use of boats (almadias), which are boats hollowed out from a single trunk, to bring the cloths and other merchandise from Angos, and to transport much gold and ivory. (The town of Mongala might be the Kuvama of Ibn Majid.)

Taken from: A general history and collection of voyages and travels, arranged in systematic order [microform]: forming a complete history of the origin and progress of navigation, discovery and commerce, by sea and land, from the earliest ages to the present time by Kerr, Robert, 1755-1813 Vol 6.

Taken from: Portuguese Asia, by Manuel de Faria y Sousa (1646).

……….. The most powerful of the independent kings is he of Mongas, bordering on the Cuama or Zambeze, which falls into the sea by four mouths between Mozambique and Sofala. The first or most northerly of these mouths is that of Quilimane, ninety leagues from Mozambique; the second or Cuama is five leagues farther south; …………….

Taken from: Ethiopia oriental, Volume 1 By João dos Santos. (d1622); His book is about 1580-1600.

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CHAPTER II

Of the rivers of Cuama and the main islands within them.

This river of Cuama, so famous and known for its riches, is called the Kaffirs. who have as a tradition of their ancestors that the river originates from a large lagoon that is in the middle of this Ethiopia from which other very large rivers arise that flow through different parts each with a different name and that through the middle of this lagoon there are many islands populated by Kaffirs, rich and abundant with creations and supplies, this river is called Zambezi because as it leaves the lagoon it passes through a large village of Kaffirs so called and from there the river takes the same name as the village. This river is very impetuous and is in parts more than a league (1) wide; some thirty leagues before it reaches the sea is divided into two arms and each of them is almost as big as the Zambezi itself and both go into the sea Ethiopian Ocean thirty leagues distant from each other. The main one and with the most water they call the Luabo river which is also divided in two branches, one of them is called Rio de Luabo Velho and the other Cuama Velha; from the waves it seems that all these rivers took the name of Rios de Cuama. …………… This river also launches from itself another very large branch which they call the Linde river. So that this great river Zambezi enters the sea with five mouths or very wide arms and lots of water. The Portuguese only sail through the two main ones. They only sail in the winter because in the summer they discover a lot of sand and wood that are embedded in the bottom of the river, where they are very dangerous for boats. Up this river, (always going to Loesnoroeste), they work to navigate of two hundred leagues up to the kingdom of Sacumbe, which is far above the fort of Tete, where the river makes a great drop of some

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rocks below and from there upwards, there is still a lot of rock in the middle of the river for a space of twenty leagues to the kingdom of Chicova where the silver mines are located, so that these twenty leagues from Sacumbe to Chicova are not sailed because of of the great current with which the waters flow from rock to rock down the river, but from the kingdom of Chicova upwards it is navigable, but we don't know how far.

Returning to the Luabo river, which is the main branch, it is called that way out of respect for the Luabo island located on its bar at a scant nineteen degrees. And on the eastern side it is cut off by a stream five leagues long that goes from one river to the other and to the south-east is the Ethiopian Sea. It is five leagues (1) long and as many more or less wide. It is populated by Moors and Kaffirs Gentiles with curly hair, very proud and almost vassals of the captain of the rivers of Cuama, who often resides on this island, taking part in the concert of boats that carry goods up the river, which they see there from Mozambique in large boats called pangaios (2) and because they are large and cannot navigate up the river, they unload on this island where the small boats that I have mentioned take their cargo and all together sail up the river to the fort of Sena, which is sixty leagues away. …….

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…… In the middle of this river there are many islands and some of them are very large. The first and largest of all going up the river is Chingoma, whose lord is a Kaffir Macua who has the same name as the island. This is very fertile and the best of all. From there the Zambezi River divides into the two arms of Luabo and Quilimane, as we said before, leaving it between them. The second island in the middle of this river is called Inhangoma, located next to the Sena Fort, which is very shallow and low and therefore this is a swamp along the banks of the river. It is ten leagues (1) long and at its widest a leagues and a half; it is very fertile and stocked with supplies. ………… The cause of this fertility is the floods of this river which often flood the fields that run along it and more particularly in the month of March and April

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when they fill other very large rivers and streams that come into this one and add their waters, with the flooding of which these lands are full …… which is why it is clearly evident that these waters come from far away and cause these floods here, just like those of the Nile River in the lands of Egypt. At this time these lands are very sick because of the thick air that ordinarily rises from the lakes and fields covered in water and then more Kaffirs die from this river than in other months of the year.

(1) leagues: Portuguese Maritime League = 5,555.56 metres.

(2) pangaios: used generically for any native wooden sailing ships made from planks without using nails in the Portuguese empire.