ABSTRACT
The Makonde of the Mueda plateau in northern Mozambique, whom this book concerns, were among the last African groups to have been “pacified” and colonised by European powers. Prior to 1920, when they finally submitted to the well-armed forces of the Nyassa Company, the Makonde had successfully resisted numerous previous attempts to invade their plateau stronghold. The remoteness of the Mueda plateau and its difficult environmental conditions evidently worked in their favour here, indeed, I propose that the creation and maintenance of a strong Makonde ethnic identity were, from the earliest times, partly bound up with the plateau environment and with traditional practices of defence against aggressive invasions.
