BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHEWA SPEAKING PEOPLE AND HOW THE LANGUAGE NAME WAS CHANGED FROM NYANJA TO CHEWA
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHEWA SPEAKING PEOPLE AND HOW THE LANGUAGE NAME WAS CHANGED FROM NYANJA TO CHEWA.
Hon Saili Mavegie Phiri shares….
Originally there was or there is no language called Chewa.Chewa was a tribe name for the nyanja speaking people who migrated from the luba-lunda kingdom in the 16th century. Nyanja means lake, Chinyanja means a language of the lake this described the people who settled along the lake Malawi.
In 1968 Kamuzu Banda officially changed Chinyanja to Chichewa in Malawi.
In total we have about 10 million Nyanja/ Chewa speaking people in the southern Africa . Chewa people are the largest ethnic group in the southern region of Africa.The fertility rate of the Chewa people is 4.7 over twice as high as the replacement level at 2.1
Malawi. : 8000,000
Mozambique : 1300,000
Zambia. : 950,000
Zimbabwe. : 405000
Eswatini. : 5700
The 1st Chewa kingdom was established in 1480, by 1600
There are two large systems of government which was being managed by the Banda clan at Mankhamba and the other one being managed by the Phiri clan at Manthimba. With a female rain making God called masinja.The Phiri’s are associated with the kings and aristocracy while the Bandas are associated with healers and Mystics. After conquering land from other bantu speaking people we regrouped in Choma.
The Chewa managed to distinguish themselves from from their neighbors through language by having a special tattoo called Mphini and by possession of a religious secret society called Nyau..