Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South AfricaAnderson, Andrew A.
History
Twenty-Five Years in a Waggon in South Africa: Sport and Travel in South Africa
Anderson, Andrew A.
Africa, Southern -- Description and travel; Anderson, Andrew A. -- Travel -- Africa, Southern
The country in places is noted for its immense ant-hills, almost as
large as those I have described in another part of this work. The
southern boundary of Umzela's territory is not at present ascertained;
the country south of that already described is known under the name of
Umhlenga, where the Queen Mafussi, of Inhoxe, rules a portion, which is
a vast, open, undulating country, through which the Limpopo flows for
over 200 miles to the sea, at Port Alice. The Lundi river, a tributary
of the Sabia, joins it in Umzela's country. It is the continuation of
the Ingwesi, mentioned in the Mashona description. To the south of this
region, and inland from the town and port of Inhambane, is the region
called Makwakwa or Marangwe--a strong, powerful race of the same tribe
as the Chobis, Bala Kulu, Basiga, Mashongonini, and Mandandas.
Inhambane is situated on the sea-coast. The territory is very narrow,
not exceeding twenty miles inland, and eighty miles along the coast.
A small river, the Inyanombi, falls into the bay, and the river Zavara
drains the country of the Makwakwa's tribe--a low, flat region. There
is still a tribe occupying a part of Umzela's territory that call
themselves the powerful Makololo race, of the same family that ruled an
extensive region on the Zambese river above the Victoria Falls, and
became a terror to the neighbouring tribes. The Barutse people fought
and nearly exterminated them, scattering those left far and wide amongst
other tribes, and broke up the race entirely. This Makololo nation on
the Zambese extended as far as that white tribe mentioned, living on the
Quito and upper portion of the Cubango--now become mixed with the black
races, and from reports, a wild and savage race, eating human flesh.
May not these two tribes have travelled up the Zambese together at some
remote time? It seems singular that the Makololos in Umzela's country
should call themselves the once-powerful Makololo tribe; and we find
them on the Upper Zambese, the most powerful tribe in all that central
part of Africa, 400 miles away from those in Umzela's land. It is an
interesting study to trace the various periods, as they advanced south
from Egypt, and to find at the present time many Arabian and Jewish
customs amongst them; and another interesting feature of those races is
that many names of places in Central Africa are precisely similar to
many names in the islands of the South Pacific Ocean. So far as is
known of this country, we come across limestone, slate shale, red
sandstone, green stone, quartz, porphyritic rocks, gravel, and on the
western slope of the highlands, granites.
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