MAJUBA (properly AMAJUBA, Zulu for "the hill of doves"), a mountain in
northern Natal, part of the Drakensberg range, rising about 7000 ft.
above the sea and over 2000 ft. above the level of the surrounding
country. It overlooks the pass through the Drakensberg known as Laing's
Nek, is 8 m. S. of the Transvaal border and 18 m. N. of the town of
Newcastle. The railway from Durban to Johannesburg skirts the base of
the mountain. During the Boer War of 1880-81 Majuba was occupied on the
night of the 26th of February 1881 by some 600 British troops under Sir
George Pomeroy Colley. On the following morning the hill was stormed by
the Boers under Piet Joubert and the British routed, Colley being among
the slain.
MAKALAKA, a general designation used by the Bechuana, Matabele and
kindred peoples, for conquered or slave tribes. Thus many of the tribes
subjugated by the Makololo chief, Sebituane, about 1830 were called
Makalaka (see David Livingstone's _Missionary Travels and Researches in
South Africa_, London, 1857). By early writers on south-central Africa
certain of the inhabitants of Barotseland were styled Makalaka; the name
is more frequently used to designate the Makalanga, one of the tribes
now classed as Mashonas (q.v.), who were brought into subjection by the
Matabele.
MAKARAKA, or IDDIO ("Cannibals"), a negroid people of Central Africa,
closely related to the powerful Azandeh or Niam-Niam race, occupying the
Bahr-el-Ghazal west of Lado. They came originally from the country of
the Kibas, north of the Welle. Dr W. Junker described them as among the
most trustworthy, industrious and intelligent people of the
Bahr-el-Ghazal. They are a reddish-black, with nose less flat and
cheek-bones less prominent than the ordinary negroes, and, unlike the
latter, do not extract the incisors. Their long silky hair is built up
in the most fantastic form by means of vegetable substances. They are
well-known for strength and staying power.
See W. Junker, _Travels in Africa_ (1890-1892).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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