ABSTRACT
Witho.ut a detailed and co.mprehensive survey o.fthe Ushi co.untry it is impo.ssible to. provide even a semi-quantitative acco.unt o.f the productio.n and trade but we can o.utline so.me o.fthe main features.
shinga and the Mukulu) who were 'formerly widely reputed for their iron working' (3) and carried on extensive trade with the Bemba, the lakeside-Bisa and the Unga (4). None of our informants remembered an export trade of importance, though the exchange of iron for salt in the Katanga was mentioned, and it is not impossible that the Ushi were importing iron before the European traders came to their country. Chief Kalaba's spontaneous reply when asked 'Where did you get iron from before the Europeans came?' was 'N yasaland'. This proved to be a reference to the Arab-organised slave trade based on Lake Nyasa. The slavers brought iron goods, probably from the great, N'goni(?) (5) iron-producing area west of the lake noted by Livingstone (6), and exchanged them for ivory and slaves. We have, however, discovered no other evidence of an early import trade and it must be assumed, particularly since the slave trade did not penetrate to this region until late in the nineteenth century (7), that the Ushi were generally self-sufficient in.iron goods.
