Warfare in Northern Mozambique, Late Sixteenth to Late Nineteenth Centuries

Abstract

Studies of precolonial African warfare are still relatively scarce and northern Mozambique is no exception. This paper examines more than three centuries of African warfare among the Makua of Macuana. It emphasizes continuities in strategy and tactics, while at the same time paying attention to innovations in weaponry, above all the adoption and effective utilization of firearms. Based on a critical assessment of both primary and secondary sources, it analyzes Portuguese claims of cannibalism among the Makua in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, and the development of a “gun culture” from the late eighteenth century. It also seeks to locate Makua warfare in a broadly comparative African perspective.