39 2 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
country. 1 The Makololo, as already related, were brought by Livingstone and 
were mostly Bechuana and Baloi people from the Upper Zambezi. In their 
case they are scarcely even a ruling caste, having simply furnished some twenty 
headmen and chiefs to the Mananja people who dwell on the Central and 
Lower Shire ; but inasmuch as their tribal name of Makololo has been adopted 
by most of their subjects, and has become famous by the resistance offered 
in days gone by to the Portuguese, it is better not to leave them out of this 
catalogue. 
In the northern part of the British Central Africa Protectorate there are a 
few Wa-nyamwezi hunters and adventurers who are mostly in the employ of 
Arabs, or free lances on their own account. These men sometimes go by the 
nickname of “ Ruga-ruga.” A few mongrel Arabs and Swahili Coastmen may 
still be seen no doubt in the Marimba district of the Protectorate, at the north 
end of Lake Nyasa, and in the Yao country; but there are numerous Arab 
settlements south of Tanganyika and near Lake Mweru. Here the Arabs are 
of a better class, and having managed to keep on good terms with the 
Europeans they remain there undisturbed. Arabs are also said to have formed 
trading stations to the west of Lake Bangweolo. Where the Arab is not of 
African birth (a man of Zanzibar for instance) he is usually a native of 
Maskat, in South Eastern Arabia. 
The following information in regard to the Anthropology' 2 and Ethnology 
of the negroes of British Central Africa may be taken to have a general 
application to the natives of the eastern portion of this territory, except where 
any particular tribe is instanced, and where special features, manners and 
customs are noted in relation to one tribe which may not be shared by another. 
ANTHROPOLOGY 
All black negroes possess a certain uniformity of type apparent to the 
European: that is to say, all the negroes inhabiting the coast regions of Western 
Africa, the basins of the Lower Niger and the Benue, the shores of Lake Chad, 
the basins of the Shari River and the Congo, of the Upper Nile and the Great 
Lakes, the East Coast, the Zambezi, and South West and South East Africa. 
The Nubians, Fulas, Hausas (perhaps) and the Mandingos may be excepted 
1 This is the history of the Angoni (Zulu) invasions of British Central Africa according to various 
authorities, especially Dr. W. A. Elmslie of the Livingstonia Mission, Upper Nyasa, who has worked for 
many years among these people : A tribe of Zulus originally conquered by Chaka at the beginning of this 
century assumed the name of Ngoni (Aba-ngoni). They were only partially conquered however, and 
retained their old chief under Chaka’s suzerainty. But becoming dissatisfied with the central tyranny of 
the Zulu monarchy they started off in a body with women, children, and cattle for the north. They 
crossed the Zambezi at Zumbo, marched up between Nyasa and Bangweolo, and entered the Fipa country 
(which they conquered) south-east of Lake Tanganyika. From Fipa (where they settled for a long time) 
some stragglers under the name of Watuta reached as far north as the Victoria Nyanza; others struck to 
the south-east and by dominating the indigenous people of Hehe and Ngindo stock east of Lake Nyasa 
founded the tribe of mongrel raiders known as the Magwangwara. Then came a disruption of the Zulu 
kingdom in Fipa. The Ngoni-Zulus quitted that country and turned back to the West Nyasa countries. 
One section under Mombera settled in the Tumbuka country ; another under Mpezeni in the lands between 
the Nyasa watershed and the River Luangwa; and a third established the small Zulu kingdom in Central 
Angoniland which is now ruled by Chiwere. Where Chikusi’s Angoni came from is not very clear: 
perhaps they branched off to South-west Nyasa at the time of the original crossing of the Zambezi, which 
took place in June, 1825 (the date is marked by an eclipse of the sun). Angoni is the Chi-nyanja form of 
their name in the plural and has become the customary term ; but Ngoni or Abangoni is more correct. 
2 Anthropology is the science descriptive of the physical characteristics of man ; Ethnology the 
consideration of his mind and the result of his mental processes, that is to say his arts, his customs, his 
beliefs. The first treats of man purely as one amongst many mammalian types ; the other deals with him 
in his progress towards the demi-god. 
