The Tonga of Malawi are distinct from the people of the same name who live in Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique.
The Lakeshore Tonga live on the western shore of Lake Malawi between Nkhata Bay and the Luweya River in the Northern Province of the Republic of Malawi. They are a heterogeneous people formed from at least four different groups who settled the area in the late 18th century.
This lakeshore region of rolling grassland and wooded hills is intersected by the tributaries of the Luweya River and surrounded by Mtoghame Mountain in the north, the Vipya mountain range in the west and the Kuwirwe and Kawadama Mountains in the south. The climate is tropical with a rainy season from November to May (average rainfall, 185 cm) and a dry season from May to November.
The Tonga of Malawi are numbering 554,000n (Peoplegroups.org, 2025)
The Tonga language is part of the Manda group of the Central Narrow Bantu section of the Southern Bantoid part of the Niger-Congo family. Tonga is related to both the Ngoni and Tumbuku languages.
The Tonga claim for themselves a distinct cultural identity and history, saying they migrated from the 'far north' a long time ago. However scholars believe a more recent and local origin for the Tonga, who show affiliation with the neighboring Tumbuka and Cewa peoples, descendents of ivory traders who settled the country west of Lake Malawi at the end of the 18th century. In the 19th Century, a powerful group of Zulus, the Ngoni, raided the Tonga countryside for food and manpower. Tonga slaves were raised as Ngoni and served in their army. In 1875 the Tonga slaves rose up in revolt and fled back to their homes. They soundly defeated a Ngoni army sent after them in the battle of the Chinteche River. During the period of Ngoni domination, the Tonga lived in large stockade villages, a condition that van Velsen asserts contributed to the formation of Tonga identity.
The first European missionaries arrived during the Tonga's troubles with the Ngoni. David Livingstone passed through the country in 1861 and Drs. Stewart and Laws came to stay in 1877 and 1878. They set up the Livingstonia Mission of the Free Church of Scotland in Bandawe in 1881. The mission school was well attended and enrollment reached 1330 by 1889, including 700 girls. By 1896 there were 30 schools teaching 4,361 students. The school produced a class of white-color workers, trade union leaders, and politicians, who worked across the southern continent, establishing a pattern of
In 1888 Tonga fought alongside the British against Arab and Yao slave traders. They signed treaties with Britain in 1889 and 1894, which established the British protectorate of Nyasaland. A district administrative system was set up in 1897 and the first tax collector arrived in 1902. The District Administrative (Native) Ordinance of 1912 led to indirect rule five years later under five Principal Headmen. However there was no precedent among the Tonga for such a hierarchical political system and under Tonga pressure, the British were eventually forced to establish the Atonga Tribal Council (ATC) of 32 chiefs. In 1933 Native Authority and Native Courts Ordinances vested juridical powers in the traditional chiefs, further devolving political power. However, the British deemed the ATC as unworkable and broke it up in 1947. On July 6, 1964, Nyasaland became the independent nation of Malawi.
The Tonga live in hamlets (MIZI), which average two to six huts dispersed alongside rivers and in the bush and forest. Most of the population is concentrated on the lakeshore. Several hamlets form a village. Villages are the basic political units defined by their leadership; their actual physical boundaries not clearly discernable. Tonga can choose among several villages to live in depending on kinship, economic, political, and personal considerations. Headmen from different villages try to persuade kin to live with them in order to increase their following and power.
The Tonga practice a subsistence economy of fishing and gardening, supported by income from outside wage labor. The staple crop is cassava, which is grown by women. It is served as a thick porridge (NSIMA) with a fish and vegetable relish (DENDI) made of mushrooms, peas, or beans. 'Dendi' also means fish and well being. Except for fish and chicken, the Tonga eat little meat. Men of the village fish collectively and store their gear in the men's house (MPHARA).
The Tonga grow some crops for either domestic or export markets, including rice, maize, tobacco, and millet. There are several rubber and tea estates in the region, which employ Tonga administrators and workers.
The major export commodity the Tonga exchange is their labor. According to van Velsen's estimate, about two-thirds of adult males are away at any one time working abroad, mostly in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Women work in the garden and men fish and work outside the country.
In the 1950s when van Velsen was writing about the Tonga, there was no shortage of land and he found the patterns of ownership dispersed and vague. There are three types of land: cultivated (CHIKWETA), fallow (MASARA), and bush (DONDO). Fallow land can revert to bush and disputes arise over whether or not a piece of land is in fact fallow or wild. Localized lineages whose ancestors first settled in a location are called the 'Owners of the land.' Every man and woman has claims to land through their maternal relatives. A family may live in one village and cultivate land in another.
The Tonga are a matrilineal society. They distinguish between matrilateral and patrilateral kin: 'on the woman's side (KUCHIKAZI),' and 'on the man's side' (KUCHIRUMI).' Matrikin are further distinguished according to whether or not they are lineally related through the female line, or are non-matrilineal matrikin, i.e., from one's mother's father's family. No such distinction exists among patrikin, who are not recognized beyond the second generation. Matrilineages are the operative groups in Tonga society and are associated with a particular locality. However patrikin do have some influence due in part to the practice of virilocal residence. All that remains of clan organization are surnames that the Tonga share with surrounding tribes.
The Tonga have terms distinguishing relatives, membership in a clan or matrilineage, and siblings. Only children and headmen are called by their first names, everyone else is addressed by their surnames. The Tonga reckon genealogical depth to the fourth or fifth ascending generation.
Van Velsen distinguishes between two types of marriage: formal and informal. Formal marriage involves a go-between, negotiations, betrothal payment, marriage ceremony and exchange of bridewealth (usually just a down payment, creating what van Velsen calls a 'marital debt.') Informal marriage involves none of the above. Regardless of whether marriages are formal or informal, marriage sets up a debt relationship between the spouses' respective kin groups, which can outlast the marriage, especially if children are involved. The transaction of a formal marriage begins with a go-between who is sent by the headman of the suitor's village to 'open the door' with a betrothal payment to the prospective wife's kin group. This is followed by negotiations over the amount of the bridewealth, followed by the payment of a first installment and the exchange of a promissory note (KALATA) for the balance. (Rarely is the balanced ever paid.) If the suitor himself is unable to pay the fees, which is usually the case, a member of his kin group will pay for him. The one who pays the fees is called a NKHOSWE, or attorney. The bride also has a nkhowse, usually her maternal uncle, who 'eats' the payment and is responsible for her security and welfare. Attorneys are liable for the marital debt.
A couple is considered informally married if they live together and have children. A relationship has been formed and although no bridewealth has been exchanged, it is only a matter of time before the spouses' respective kin groups come to loggerheads over marital debt, usually when the wife becomes pregnant, the couple divorce, adultery is committed, or a spouse dies.
Cross-cousin marriage (with one's maternal cross cousin) is the preferred form of marriage, because it creates a set of double loyalties to the village that strengthens internal cohesion and insures that children will stay put. However for this to work ideally, Tonga marriages would have to be endogamous for generations, which is rarely the case. More distant kin can still exert pressure on the children, who ostensibly are free to live wherever they choose.
Weddings can be big (ZOWARA) or plain (MTIMBA). A big wedding involves dancing, eating of beef, and gambling, and attracts people from the surrounding villages. The mtimba is a more modest affair.
Households consist of a nuclear family. Women from each household tend a garden. Several related households form a hamlet. The ideal form of residency is matrilocal, however, patrilocal and virilocal residency are also practiced.
In Tonga law property should go to the sister's son, but in practice sons also receive a share.
Matrilineal and patrilateral kin groups make up the hamlets and villages that constitute Tonga society. More than one matrilineage may make up a village although one is usually dominant. Although the matrilineage is the operative social unit, individuals maintain a wide network of kin, including those on the father's side of the family. A high rate of divorce and remarriage adds to the multiplicity of potential kin ties. In addition, the Tonga practice a form of institutionalized friendship (UBWEZI) for strictly political or economic ends. For example, someone who lives in the interior will make friends with a lakeshore resident in order to secure a source of fish.
The basic political distinction among the Tonga is that between freemen and slaves (MKAPORO), who are people without kin. Although slavery is now prohibited, descendents of slaves continue to hold low status, because they have no maternal relatives to back them up ('nobody behind them,' as the Tonga put it.) The status of freemen is based on their link to the village headman: if patrilateral then one is called 'son of the village,' if matrilineal then one is called 'owner of the land,' which has a higher status. The village is the basic political unit and is led by a headman (FUMU). According to van Velsen, every freeman desires to become a headman. The headman's position is inherited through the matrilineage, but his powers do not devolve exclusively from the lineage, rather they rise from his personal influence and leadership skills. The Tonga say that 'a chief without people is no chief. ' A headman gathers people through his ability to manipulate lineal and affinal kin ties, residency rules, rights to land, and marital debt. The headman engages in a 'struggle for dependents' that insures that his hamlet or village remains a viable unit. In succeeding to office, he inherits a title, which is the historical name of the first chief of a village, the person who settled the land and established the village.
Tonga leaders also vie for official positions in the district administration and Native Authority. These positions include the District Commissioner, Native Authority, subordinate Native Authority, and Administrative Headman. According to van Velsen, no institution is responsible for Tonga social cohesion as much as the dense network of relationships between individuals and small groups, which constitute Tonga society.
Headmen have always played a role as arbitrators and conciliators within the village. Outside of the village are the BOMA courts of the Native Authority which are staffed by Tonga and apply Tonga customary law. The latter have the power to arrive at a verdict and apply corresponding sanctions. Funerals are also an opportunity for kin groups associated with the deceased to hold an inquest and renegotiate residency, land, and debts issues. Villages prefer to settle internal disputes informally in order to maintain a peaceful and unified front to the outside world.
According to van Velsen, the Tonga are known to be quarrelsome and highly factious, but rarely do they resort to violence. Every man is free to be a headman if it is his ability and ambition to do so. Conflicts arise around the strategies leaders use to increase the size and power of their lineages and villages. Tensions in the village occur between the dominant lineage and other lineages or sublineages, which struggle to grow and form their own independent villages. Leadership and power comes down to a struggle for dependents, which van Velsen regards as one of the central themes of Tonga life. One of the lacunae of this struggle is the control over bridewealth.
The Tonga are Christian. The first mission was established in Tongaland in 1877 and a school opened three years later. The school was well attended since its inception. Traditionally, the Tonga believed in a supreme god, CHIUTA, and worship ancestor spirits (MZIMU). Some Tonga continue to believe in sorcery.
The Tonga held female initiation rites, which involved a period of seclusion in the chief's compound, followed by a couple days of feasting. Only the bigger chiefs had rights to hold the initiation ceremony (NKHOLI). Before the British arrived, the Tonga held colorful installation ceremonies for their headmen, the more powerful ones donning red robes.
The Tonga hold competitive dances (MALEPENGA). Dance groups (BOMA) are comprised of young men from several villages and is the only multi-village institution in the Tonga society. The dances involve miming and imitating military drills.
Funerals are local affairs bringing together all the adults from neighboring villages. They keep vigil on the corpse, wash it, prepare the grave, and attend the inquest. More distant living matrikin and patrikin of the deceased also attend. The funeral is an opportunity for the deceased's affairs to be put in order. At an informal inquest, kin resolve issues of inheritance, residency of the surviving spouse and children, land rights, debts, and any accusations of sorcery. The shaving of the heads of kinswomen marks the resolution of these issues and signals the beginning of the mourning period. If the marriage was virilocal, the husband's sister's son can 'inherit' the widow, in which case she stays in the village, otherwise she must return to her natal village.
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