Written by Inno Chanza
Chikuse.. The Ngoni King didn’t know that his impis had invaded Blantyre and the Shire Highlands.🔥
He thought they had gone to Mocambique on the other side of the Kingdom to look for cattle.🙊
The impis would take 3 to 4 months and return with cattle to the royal kraal.🔥
Meanwhile the commander…. known to the local Nyanjas as Nyamuka… and the other two commanders Mpalale and Kanono were reigning havoc in the Shire Highlands where the King had promised never to attack.🙊
Despite Dr Scott, Henderson,Hetherwick and Kuntaja not meeting the Ngoni commanders at Malabvi in Limbe… they left a message that Chikuse said Blantyre should never be attacked.💥
When the message was delivered…
Kanono, Mpalale and Nyamuka emerged and called the Missionaries back to assure them that they were going back to the Ngoniland and pleading with them… that the whiteman should not report to Chikuse of the Blantyre invasion. 🙊
The Missionaries agreed to keep their mouths shut. 😢
The Missionaries were never to be molested by the Ngoni..that was Chikuse’s order. 💥
The Ngoni fought at Malabvi raided the Nguru first immigrants to Nyasaland who left their beans [the poisonous beans which killed a part of their regiments] after the Nguru refugees fled. 🏃🏃🏃
Not all Ngoni soldiers ate the beans hence the famous commander Mpalale legendary quote translated in Nyanja as … “Angoni samafa onse!”🔥
Thereafter to their word… Nyamuka, Kanono and Mpalale left Blantyre for Zomba.💥
They had literary attacked parts surrounding Blantyre Mission including Chilomoni,Ndirande, Mpemba and Chileka…especially attacking the Yao villages.🔥🔥🔥
Blantyre Mission seeing that the Ngoni had left Blantyre for Ngoniland.. sent Dr Hetherwick to Zomba,, Domasi Mission.🙊
Dr Clement Scott, his wife and Dr Peden were hosted at Chikuse’s headquarters where Chikuse slaughtered a cow for them a month before……pledging that non of his commanders would attack Blantyre and the Shire Highlands.💥
On their way home the three commanders decided to pass through Zomba. They had kept their promise to leave Blantyre but Zomba was on their way home.🙊
Now instead of going through Matope to cross Shire… Kanono, Mpalale and Nyamuka diverted to Zomba proper.🔥🔥
John Buchanan and his brothers then were cultivating their coffee on the slopes Zomba plateau in mid 1880s.🙊🙊
Dr Hetherwick heard that the Ngoni were in Zomba….when he was near Thondwe. 🙊
He proceeded alone seeing villages in Zomba rampaged by the Ngoni. 🙊
His servants refused to follow him to Zomba and were captured by Ngoni fighters who brought them to Nyamuka and were only released when Nyamuka heard they were Dr Hetherwick’s servants.😂😂😂
That day……. Dr Hetherwick and John Buchanan sat where Ku Chawe is…. today watching the Ngoni.. Under Nyamuka Kanono and Mpalale fighting the Yao down at the Gymkhana ground.💥🔥🔥🔥
The Yao were decimated in a battle which Dr Hetherwick estimated lasted for 6 hours.🙊
The Yao survivors of that fight kept hiding in the caves at Zomba plateau and some even escaped up the plateau and stayed there up to now… and are suspected to be the cultivators of strawberry at Zomba. 🔥🔥🔥
Chief Malemia was widely believed to have invited the Ngoni to attack Zomba, Blantyre and the Shire Highlands.💥
Chief Malemia had problems with his brother and is believed to have invited the Ngoni commanders to wage the war in the Shire highlands. 🙊
Malemia in Zomba is the only Mangochi Yao chief and the rest are Machinga Yao who were basically his enemies. 🔥
In the early days there was hatred between the Mangochi Yao and the Machinga Yao.🔥
Some blame the Ambo subtribe of the Nyanja under Kalindankoo as having a part in inviting the Ngoni. Kalindankoo was raised by the Makololo chiefs and was put on the upper Shire as a chief. Kalindankoo assisted the Ngoni to cross the Shire near Matope 🙊
The Ngoni could not have crossed the Shire unless there was someone to cross their fighters… .and Kalindankoo was the man..🔥🔥🔥
The Ngoni while at Malabvi dispatched so many outposts which never came back. One of them was young commander who had a difficult South African name. 🔥🔥
The young commander was tasked to tasked to look for cattle but never found them. He ended taking every livestock in his wake specially chicken in the Cholo area with his troops. 🐦🐦
The locals just gave him the name Bvumbwe.🐹
He never returned to Malabvi to the main group and remained at the main post north Cholo.🙊🙊
Some other Ngoni outposts were sent to Chiradzulu and were never alerted when the main body was withdrawing.🙊
Another regiment which was sent to Mpemba never returned to the main group at Malabvi. 🙊
A few which were sent to Chileka defied the Commanders that they were not going back. 🙊
Now you have the whole Singano village claiming that they are Ngoni. Kachamba Matafale and Fumulani clans.💥
They are Ngoni..the Singano Ngoni are surrounded by the Nyau Nyanja and Yao villages.. but they are not Nyanja or Yao either.🔥
Mpemba.. You will find the same traces…as in Chiradzulu. 👌
Bvumbwe was so adamant to keep his big body and made himself the supreme ruler of North Cholo.💥
Chiradzulu Ngoni outpost were not also informed on the withdraw thats why so many Chiradzulu Ngoni villages.🙊
And so was Zomba….. isolated Ngoni villages 💥
In Blantyre the Ngoni remnants were scattered all over but really dominated in Chilomoni.. the oldest township in Blantyre. ✊
The few Ngoni who were sent from Malabvi to Chilomoni managed to stay there and in the long run established themselves. 💥
Chilomoni became the greatest outpost in Blantyre of the Malabvi Ngoni with Ngoni families establishing there and later inviting fellow Ngoni families to consolidate their power. 🔥
The Chinkwende, Maputulira, Chakhumbira, Kanthula, Chikaonda etc are the Chilomoni dominant Ngoni families who settled there first during the Malabvi Ngoni attack and later times during the colonial progression.🔥🔥
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