FROM CHINAMWALI TO CHILANGIZO:

(September-December). The rainy season begins in December and ends between May
and June when people harvest their crops. The rainfall averages 800-1000 mm. Agri­
culturally, Lilongwe district is rich with maize, groundnuts and tobacco as the main
cash crops. The economy of Lilongwe, and the whole country, depends almost entirely
upon agriculture (Census report: 2000).
2.3 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The early history of the Chewa people can be traced back mainly from migrations of
two groups of people from Uluba in present Democratic Republic of the Congo (for­
merly Zaire) between the 14 th and the 16 th centuries. The first group called the proto­
Bantu (or proto-Chewa) entered Malawi from the north and forms the Banda clan ofthe
present Chewa people. The second group referred to as the Maravi (the Bantu) dispersed
into many clans or tribes and covered Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. In Malawi
they entered from the north-west and the largest group were the Chewa under Phiri who
settled in Central Malawi (Phiri 1997:22-23). Till today, the Chewa people form the
largest ethnic group in Malawi.
The life, history and much of the tribal structure of the Chewa of Central Malawi was
disrupted by various invasions during the 19 th century. The Yao from the east coast of
Africa invaded and settled along the coast from Nkhotakota down to Salima. Thus a
considerable 'percentage of the lakeshore population is Muslim.' The second invasion
came from factions of the Ngoni migration under Zwangendaba from South Africa. In
Malawi one group settled in northern Malawi while other groups settled in Central
Malawi in Kasungu, in Dowa, in Ntchisi and another in Mchinji district. I I Another
Ngoni faction known as the Maseko Ngoni settled between Dedza and Ntcheu l2 (Pauw
1980). Despite these invasions, much of the Central Region of Malawi remains more
purely Chewa, especially in Lilongwe district.
The Chewa of the Central Region speak Chichewa which was proclaimed the national
language alongside English in 1968. Generally Chichewa is a 'honorific' language. In
the normal sense a prefix 'a' is added to a word to denote plural, but it is also added to a
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