Isaacman, Allen. The Prazeros As Transfrontiersmen

Board of Trustees, Boston University
The Prazeros as Transfrontiersmen: A Study in Social and Cultural Change

Author(s): Allen Isaacman and Barbara Isaacman
Source: The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1975), pp. 1-39
Published by: Boston University African Studies Center
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/217484 .
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THE PRAZEROS AS
TRANSFRONTIERSMEN: A
STUDY IN SOCIAL AND
CULTURAL CHANGE1
Allen Isaacman and BarbaraIsaacman
Fifteenth-century maritime expansion precipitated an unprecedented exchange of ideas and technology between Europeand the indigenous societies of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.2While scholars
have focused on the broadpoliticaland economic impactof the overseas exploration,they have been less concerned with patternsof local
interaction and the concomitant processes of social change. Recently
social scientists have developed a number of analyticalmodels to interpret the outcome of culturalcontact between Europeanoverseas communities and the indigenous populations. These forms range from
pluralsocieties, with their separatistideologies, to new hybridcultures.
While interculturationhas been recognizedas a common phenomenon
on the frontier,3scholars have failed to consider the possibility that
'This paper originallywas preparedfor the SchoulerLectureSymposiumon Creole
Societiesin the Americasand Africa held at the Johns HopkinsUniversity,9-10 April
1973.The authorsare gratefulto Jack P. Greene, departmentof history,Johns Hopkins
University,and to his colleaguesfor the opportunityto participatein the symposiumand
for permissionto publish the paperin its present form.We also wish to thank Franklin
Knight for his concurrence;he will be editing a volume in which the Schoulersymposium, includinga version of this paper,will appear.We are indebtedto Peter Carroll,
Philip Curtin, Paul Lovejoy,StuartSchwartz,and StuartWagner for their penetrating
criticismsof an earlierdraft of this paper.Susan Isaacmanalso added significantcomments to a preliminaryversion,and John Modellprovidedextremelyvaluableassistance
was firstadvancedby Philip
with the demographicdata.The concept of transfrontiersmen
Curtinduringa series of lectureson comparativetropicalhistorywhich he presentedin
1966 at the Universityof Wisconsin.
2SeeW.H. McNeill, TheRise of the West(Chicago,1963), for an examinationof this
process of cross-fertilization.
3Fora general discussionof variousapproachesto the frontier,see Paul Bohannan
and Fred Plog, eds., Beyondthe Frontier(Garden City, 1967); Owen Lattimore,"The
Frontierin History,"in Owen Lattimore,ed., Studiesin FrontierHistory(London, 1962),
469-491.
TheInternational
JournalofAfricanHistoricalStudies,VIII,1 (1975)
ALLENISAACMANand BARBARAISAACMAN
Europeansettlers could be absorbedinto the dominant local cultures.

Because of generally held assumptions about the superiority of
Western civilizationand a narrowgeographicperspectivelimited to the
Europeanside of the frontier,few historianshave seriously examined
the processof acculturationin what Paul Bohannanhas called thegreat
beyond.4Nevertheless, the process of indigenization occurred with
some frequency.Allowing for differencesin detail, the coureursde bois
of Canada,the lancados of the Guinea coast, the sertanejosof Angola,
the prazerosof Mozambique,and perhapsthe sertanistasof the Amazon
lived in similarcircumstances,underwentcomparableprocessesof culture change, and evolved into a distinct social type which Philip Curtin
has termed transfrontiersmen.5
Within the context of maritimeexpansion, transfrontiersmenare defined as people of Europeandescent who permanentlysettled beyond
the limits of Western society. They included traders,hunters, mercenaries, deserters,and social outcasts. Because of their relativelysmall
numbers,the absence of metropolitanwomen of child-bearingage, and
their total isolation from Europeansocializing institutions, they were
progressivelyabsorbedinto the dominant population.Their adoption
of indigenous cultural elements extended beyond the borrowing of
local artifacts,techniques,and languages,which facilitatedtheir adaptation to a new and difficultenvironment, to include the transformation
of institutionsand values which were at the core of their respectivecultures. As such, acculturationwas substitutive ratherthan additive,and
differedfrom the process of hybridizationwhich characterizedmany
frontier societies.
This paperseeks to examine the originand historicaldevelopmentof
one such transfrontiersociety: the prazeros of the lower Zambezi
Valley of Mozambique.It places specific emphasis on both the frontier
conditions which affectedthe process of acculturationand the cultures
of the indigenous societies with whom the settler community interacted.The discussion is limited to the period from 1675 to 1850, a
somewhat arbitrarydelineation since Portuguesetraderswere already
present in 1675 and the descendants of several prominent prazeros
reside in the areatoday.Nevertheless, the evidence suggests that a profound change in the racialand social composition of the prazerocommunity occurredduringthis period which was intimately relatedto its
subsequent culturaltransformation.
4Paul Bohannan, introduction, Beyond the Frontier,xii.
5Curtin has used the term transfrontiersmento refer to "people who cross the frontier
of their own culture area, often taking up a new way of life." Personal communication, 27
Feb. 1973.
THE PRAZEROSAS TRANSFRONTIERSMEN
Portuguese interest in the Zambezi Valley began as early as 1505

when they founded a small refueling station and trading post at Sofala,
located on the Indian Ocean coast (see map 1). Within twenty years
small groups of traders and adventurers had moved into the Zambezi
Valley seeking the Biblical gold mines of the queen of Sheba and hoping to dislodge the infidel Arab merchants who controlled inland and
coastal commerce. By the middle of the sixteenth century the Portuguese had established administrative centers at Sena and Tete as well
as a number of inland trading fairs, where they purchased gold, ivory,
copper, and tropical products from the surrounding peoples.6 Although
they never located the mythical mines, they effectively eliminated
their Arab competitors during the second half of the sixteenth century
and quickly came to appreciate the commercial potential of the Zambezi Valley. As a result, a small but sustained migration of Portuguese
continued throughout the seventeenth century.
Political events within the principal Zambezian chieftaincies facilitated the intrusion of Portuguese traders. During the fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries, Korekore invaders had conquered the small
Sena and Tonga polities located along the southern margins of the
6For the most insightful primary account of the early commercial patterns, see Joao
dos Santos, "Ethi6pia Oriental," in G.M. Theal, ed., Records of South East Africa (9 vols.,
Capetown, 1898-1903) [hereafter RSEA], VII, 1-370.
ALLENISAACMANandBARBARAISAACMAN
Zambezi River and had incorporated them into the famous

Muenemutapa kingdom (see map 2). Within this large empire the
southern Zambezi chieftaincies were considered marginal and there
was no real attempt to effectively integrate them either politically or
culturally. Consequently the Sena and Tonga were able to exploit a
series of civil wars and succession crises to reassert their independence
by the middle of the sixteenth century.7 A similar, although somewhat
later, pattern of state formation followed by rapid decentralization
characterized political relationships in the Malawian kingdom just
north of the Zambezi River (see map 2).8
The instability within these two major political systems precluded
their effective control over the Zambezi Valley, which both states considered a frontier zone of little significance. Within this power vacuum
several powerful Portuguese traders were able to establish military and
political preeminence. Through conquest or the threat of punitive action, Portuguese gained recognition as the political chiefs of specific
Sena, Tonga, and Malawian chieftaincies located on the margins of the
Zambezi River. Although the indigenous amambo, or land chiefs, retained religious and secular responsibilities for the health and wellbeing of their polities, they were compelled to pay taxes and provide
'Allen Isaacman, Mozambique:TheAfricanizationof a EuropeanInstitution.The Zambesi
Prazos, 1750-1902 (Madison, 1972), 5-11.
81bid 11-15
THE PRAZEROSASTRANSFRONTIERSMEN
services to their new overlordsmuch as they had previouslyto the local

representative of either the Muenemutapa or the Malawian king,
Kalonga.9This division of powerbetween land chief and politicalchief
was a common phenomenon in precolonialAfrica.10
By the middleof the seventeenth century ManoelPaes de Pinha,Sisnando Bayao, Antonio Lobo da Silva, and others had carved out personal empires which included most of the polities around Sena and
Tete as well as the outlying provinces of the Barue kingdom.11Their
power was based upon control over warriorslaves, or achikunda,whom
they had acquiredthrough trade,slave raids,and the indigenous practice of voluntary enslavement.12A number of more prominent Portuguese owned and armedseveral thousand achikunda,and one settler
was reputed to have been able to mobilize 15,000.13
Although Portuguesepreeminence is generallyascribedto conquest,
involvement in local African politics was equallyimportant.It was not
uncommon for a mamboto attempt to protect himself from threats to
his sovereigntyby seeking an alliancewith a powerfulPortuguese.14
By
9Ibid., 5-15.
'?SeeJan Vansina,"A Comparisonof AfricanKingdoms,"Africa,32 (1962), 324-335.

"The most complete primaryaccountof the activitiesof these earlyprazeroscan be
found in Manuel Barretto,"Informacaodo Estado e Conquistados Rios de Cuama,
1667," RSEA, III, 436-508.
12E.Axelson, ed., "Viagemque fez o PadreAntonio Gomes...," Studia,III (1959),
203; Barretto,"Informagao,"475.For a shortsummaryin English,see EricAxelson, The
1962),40-42. For an analysisof
Portuguesein South-EastAfrica1600-1700(Johannesburg,
ch. 4.
the variousslave systems on the prazos,see Isaacman,Mozambique,
'3ArquivoHistorico Ultramarino,Lisbon [hereafter AHU], Mozambique,Caixa 2:
unsigned, undated.
'4Archivaldata for the seventeenth throughnineteenth centuriesand oraltraditions
supportthis generalization.See ArquivoNacionalda Torredo Tombo,Lisbon[hereafter
ANTT], Documentos Remittidosda India, Livro Arquivoda Torre do Tombo, Lx, fol.
230, cited in Francisco de Arag5o e Mello, Memoria e Documentos 4cercados Direitos de
Portugal aos Territoriosde Machona e Nyasa (Lisbon, 1890), 122; Charles Boxer, "Sisnando Dias Bayao: Conquistador do Mae d'Ouro," PrimeiroCongressoda Histdria de Expansao
Portuguesano Mundo,III (1938), 107-109;Jose Fernandes,Junior,"Hist6riade Undi"

(unpublished manuscript,Makanga,n. d.), 17; AHU, Mop.,Cx. 1: Dom Nuno Alferes
Pereira,Ambroziode Feitas da Camara,Franciscode Lucena, 16 March 1631; AHU,
Moc.,Cx. 14: Petitionwrittenby RicardoJose de Limafor Dona Ignez Pessoad'Almeida
Castello Branco, with supportingstatements from various inhabitantsin Sena; AHU,
Mo9.,Cx. 20: unsigned, 11 and 16 July 1783; AHU, Mo9.,Cx. 31: unsigned document,
probablywritten for Macombe,the king of Barue,2 Feb. 1795; Arquivo Historicode
Mozambique,Louren?oMarques[hereafterAHM], Fundo do S6culoXIX, Quelimane,
Governo do Distrito,Cx. 1: Venancio Raposo de Amarel, 28 Jan. 1849; AHU, Moq.,
Pasta13: AntonioCandidoPedrosoGamittoto S.M.T.,31 Dec. 1854;AHU, Codice1462,
fol. 50: CustodioJose da Silvato Jose MariaPereirade Almeida,1 Sept.1860;"Viagemas
Terrasde Macanga,Apontamentoscolhidos d'um relatoriodo padre VictorJose Cour[hereafterBOM],29 (1886),
tois, vigairiode Tete, 1885,"BoletimOficialde Moqambique
361; interviewswith ConradoMsussaBoroma,Simon Biwi, Jasse Camalizene,Antonio
Vas, and Renco Cado;joint interviewwith Gente Renco and QuemboPangacha.See appendix for more detailedinformationon informants.
combining such arrangements with a judicious use of force, a number

of settlers from the seventeenth century onward were able to gain the
generalized position of political chief. In addition to protection the
overlord provided the mambowith cloth, salt, and jewelry.15 These gifts
increased the prestige of the latter and through their selective
redistribution helped to secure the loyalty of his principal subordinates.
By the middle of the seventeenth century the Portuguese government viewed the Zambezi situation with alarm, since after nearly a
century of colonization Lisbon's position still remained precarious.
In those [Zambezitowns] which I saw, particularlyQuelimane,I noticed
nothing to represent a captaincybeyond a wooden stockade with four
houses thatched with straw, but I observed several iron guns lying on
the shore full of sand, in proof of which an ear of green millet was growing from the touch-hole of one of them, showing the greatfertilityof the
soil and the great care which is taken of the king's property.16
Although the early settlers and traders generally were loyal, the absence of a well-trained administrative bureaucracy and the government's dependence on a small, poorly-trained military force limited the
extent to which this backwater region could be effectively integrated
into the colonial empire. Thus the crown was forced to depend on the
settlers as colonizing agents. Such a policy yielded few benefits because
much of the energy of the badly factionalized European community
was dissipated in prolonged internal feuds.17 One knowledgeable observer noted in 1667 that "about thirty years ago there were more than
sixty married Portuguese, for the most part rich and powerful, and
many quarrels and deaths arose from each one wishing to be chief; today there are not more than thirty houses."18 These conflicts not only
prevented the pacification of the Zambezi but also enabled a number of
local amambo and the Barue king to regain their independence.19
In a move designed to assert the legal basis of its control and to
bolster its sagging position Lisbon nationalized the Zambezi Valley in
the middle of the seventeenth century. While acknowledging the
rights of the settlers to retain the use of their lands, the government
"Interviews with Jasse Camalizene, Renco Cado, and Antonio Vas; AHU, MoC.,
Documentos, Annexos, e as Plantas: Francisco de Mello de Castro to Marques de
Tavora, 10 Aug. 1750.
'Barretto, "Informacao," 506.
7Ibid.,473; Eric Axelson, "Portuguese Settlement in the Interior of South East Africa
in the Seventeenth Century," Congresso Internacionalda Historia dos Descobrimentos,V
(Lisbon, 1961), 11.
'8Barretto, "Informaao," 473.
'9lbid., 488.
THEPRAZEROSASTRANSFRONTIERSMEN
claimed ultimate ownership of these estates, which were legally to be

known as prazos da coroa.Theoretically, the crown's assertion of its feu-
dal rights defined a highly structuredrelationshipin which the settlers

remainedtotallysubordinateto the government.The estate holders, or
prazeros,were requiredto pay an annual tax, providespecifiedservices,
and obey laws promulgatedin Lisbon. Failure to fulfill these stipulations meant immediateexpulsion from one's estate.20
In practice,Lisbon lacked the capacity to enforce these regulations
and had to rely on the patriotismof the colonists. In returnfor a titled
deed, the government sought recognition of its feudal rights of territoriality.It also hoped to use the nationalizedland to induce largescale immigrationand to insure the perpetuationof a Portuguesecommunity in the Zambezi.Towardthis end tractsof land were offeredexclusively to Europeanwomen who might be reticent about settling in
such a backwaterarea.An additionalprovisothat the estates could only
be transmittedthrough the female line was established but often ignored.21
In terms of composition,life style, and loyalty,the seventeenth-century prazero community fulfilled the broad expectations of the Por-
tuguese crown. The small group of prominent families included individualswho had been awardedestates in recognitionof their standing in metropolitansociety as well as royal agents who had performed
outstandingservices for the crown.Othersrepresentedin the elite were
priests, successful merchants,and former militaryofficers.As a group
they rigorously adhered to Lisbon's colonizing principles and saw
themselves as the progenitorsof a permanent Portuguese racial and
culturalcommunity.
Throughout the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth centuries, the principal families enjoyed a virtual monopoly of wealth,
power, and prestige. As in Lisbon, they formed carefully calculated
marriagealliancesdesigned to reinforceand perpetuatetheir privileged
positions.22Perhapsthe most successful were the descendants of Sisnando Bayao.By graduallyexpandingtheir web of maritalunions, the
family created a personal empire which by the middle of the eighteenth century included nine prazos,several thousand warriorslaves,
2For a general discussion of the contractual relationship between the state and the
prazero, see Isaacman, Mozambique,95-101; Alexandre Lobato, ColonizaqdoSenhorial da
Zambezia (Lisbon, 1962), 97-116; Alexandre Lobato, Evolufo Administrativae Econ6mica
de Mo%ambique
(Lisbon, 1957), 209-225.
2"Lobato,Evolufao, 209-225.
22Barretto,"Informaao," 463-478; ANTT, Ministerio do Reino, Maco 604: Antonio
and a substantial income in taxes.23Inheritance patterns tended to

reinforce the closed nature of the elite by keeping the estates in the
hands of a small number of families who willingly bequeathed their
holdings to each other when they lacked properheirs.24
Despite their local power, the majorprazerofamilies shared a profound commitment to king and nation and viewed themselves as conquestadoresexpanding the majesty of Portugal.They pacifiednew territory for the king, defended his most remote holdings, acted as his
principalambassadors,and held importantbureaucraticpositions within the local government.25The example of Bayaois a case in point. Not
only did he subjugatepartsof the surroundingkingdomof Quiteve and
voluntarilysurrenderthe lands to the king, but he used his largeslave
army to protect Lisbon's interests against the Changamiraand other
majorAfrican powers.26He also held the highest administrativeposition in the Zambezi as Capitao-morde Sena e os Rios de Cuama. Ant6nio
Lobo da Silvaand Manoel Paes de Pinha performedservices of similar

In returnthey sought recognition through royaldecrees
proportions.27
and honors. Of Ant6nio Lobo da Silva one contemporarywrote: "He
wished for nothing but a patentof nobility and the habit of the orderof
Christ."28
As the reportedaspirationsof Ant6nio Lobo da Silva suggest, the

elite conspicuouslymaintainedits allegianceto Portugueseculture and
tradition.It rigorouslyadheredto a Catholicheritage,often at greatpersonal expense. A number of prazerosbuilt large churches on their
estates,29and many sent their sons to Portugalor Goa for a proper
Pinto de Miranda,"Memoriasobre a Costade Africa,"undated,30-51.
23AHU,Cddice1314,fol. 82: Pedrode Saldanhade Albuquerqueto Ant6nio Caetano
de Campos,16 April1759; AHU, Moc.,Cx. 9: MarcoAnt6niode Azevedo de Montaury,
18 June 1752.
24AHU,Mo., Cx. 34: FranciscoJose'de Lacerdae Almeida to the king, 22 March
1798; AHU, Moc., Cx. 12: BalthazarManoel Pereyrado Lago, 17 Aug. 1766.
25Bibliotecada Ajuda, Lisbon [hereafter Ajuda], 51-VI-24, No. 67, fol. 291: "Tres
Papeisfeitos pello Mourosem Francasobre os Rios de Cuamae sobre India,"unsigned,
1677; Barretto,"Informacao,"463-488.For the role of the settlersin the sixteenth-centuryconquestand theirupper-classbackgrounds,see FatherMonclaros,"Accountof the
Expeditionunder FranciscoBarretto,"RSEA, III, 157-253; Antonio Bocarro,"Decada
da India,"RSEA, III, 254-435.
26AHU,Codice 1439, No. 2051, unsigned, 30 Oct. 1832. The year that Baya6 presented the gift to the crown was either 1672 or 1673. In additionto CheringomaDona
Ines ownedprazosGorongoza,Bumba,AgoraSanta,Tungue,Maringuede Inhambu,and
MaringueBumbu. AHU, Moc., Cx. 20, unsigned, 11 and 16 July 1783.
2'Barretto, "Informarao," 463-488.
28Ibid.,473.
cathedralswere builton prazosLuabo,Cheringoma,Caya,and Monga,among
29Large
others.
Christian education. Among the European-educatedsons of Manoel

Paes de Pinha were a highly regardedpriestand several laymen actively
involved in the CatholicChurch.30Bayao'simmediatedescendantsincluded officers and statesmen who were awardedthe Habit of Christ
and Foro de Fidalgo.31
Although less is known about their social organization,the evidence
suggests that the elite accepted the same basic concepts of marriage,
Their
family,and rankas did their privilegedcounterpartsin Portugal.32
life style was also conspicuously upper-class Portuguese; furniture,
jewelry, and wines were regularlyimported from the metropolis. In
short, the firstfamilies initiallylived in a social milieu which remained
outside Africansociety, and throughclosed maritalpatternsand a contempt for "halfbreeds"jealouslyguardedtheir racialexclusiveness and
culturalidentity.
The earlyprazerocommunity,however, was homogeneous neither in
composition nor in life style. From the outset Lisbon recognized the
claims of a number of estate holders who belonged to the lower
echelons of Portuguesesociety. They included petty merchants,minor
officials,shipwreckedsailors,and a growing number of degredadosand
other social outcasts.3 While some of the estate holdersof more humble origin emulated the elite and were distantly linked to it through
alliances, many evidenced less concern about maintaining racial and
cultural purity.The absence of an adequatenumber of eligible European women led to extensive miscegenation. By 1667 one observer
noted the presence of a significantnumber of mulattos,known alternatively as mizungu(sing., muzungu)or filhosdopais34The tendency to
marry African women and raise offspring in the indigenous social
milieu carriedobvious social andculturalimplicationswhich were reinforced both by the inability of less affluent prazerosto send their
children to Lisbon and by the virtualabsence of Europeansocializing
institutions outside the small Zambezi towns of Sena and Tete. Although it is difficult to measure the exact nature and direction of
30Barretto,"Informavao," 479.
31AHU, Moy., Cx. 14: Petition written by Ricardo Jose de Lima for Dona Ignez Pessoa
d'Almeida Castello Branco, undated.
32Barretto,"Informa9ao," 463-478; ANTT, Ministerio do Reino, Mayo 604: Antonio
Pinto de Miranda, "Membria sobre a Costa de A'frica," 30-51, undated; ANTT,
Ministerio do Reino, Ma9o 604: Francisco de Mello de Castro, 28 Dec. 1753.
33Axelson, "Portuguese Settlement," 13; M.D.D. Newitt, "The Portuguese on the
Zambesi from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries," Race, 9 (1968), 479;
Jer6nimo Jose Moguiera de Andrade,"Descriqao do Estado em que ficava os negocios de
Capitania de Moqambique nos fins do anno de 1789," Arquivodas Colonias, 1 (1887), 119.
34Barretto,"Informagao," 473.
10
culturalchange during this early period, some members of the inland

community practiced polygamy, visited herbalists, believed in
witchcraft,and adoptedmuch of the materialcultureof the indigenous
population.35 One chronicler disgustedly remarked in 1696 that "some
of the muzungos live more like Africans than the kaffirs live like
Christians."36
Throughoutthe eighteenth centurythe social and racialcomposition
of the prazerocommunitychanged dramatically.In partthe shift can be
attributed to the failure of several elaborately planned immigration
schemes, the largestof which resultedin the settlement of only seventy-eight men, women, and children.Of this group,fourteendied almost
immediately upon arrival.37As late as 1750 the governor of the Rivers
of Sena lamented the virtualabsence of industriouswhite settlers who,

he felt, were essential for the Portuguese community to survive.38 n a
desperate attempt to maintain a nominal presence in the Zambezi,

Lisbon began to distributeestates to anyone, regardlessof background,
skills, and loyalty. Those who received aforamentos,or titled deeds,
were lower-classresidentsof Portugal,impoverishedinhabitantsof the
Zambezi, degredados,mulatto wives of Europeansoldiers, and Asians
from Goa.39
The image of the ZambeziValley as insalubriousundoubtedlydeterred many Portuguese families from immigrating.They preferredinstead the more desirable climates of Brazil, Goa, or other parts of
Africa. As a result, the number of metropolitan-bornsettlers living in
the Zambeziregion was extremely small. This is most clearly reflected
in the demographiccompositionof the inhabitantsof Sena and Tete in
1777, a year for which precise statisticsare available.Of the 713 Christians in the two principaltowns, only 95, or 12 percent, had been born
in Portugal.40
Within this small groupthere was a noticeableabsence of
women of child-bearingage. In Sena there were seventeen men from
35Santos, "Ethi6pia Oriental," 199, 360; Ajuda, 51-IX-3, fol. 41: "Rezumo breve de
algtas notfcias que da Custodio de Almeida e Souza do Estado dos Rios de Senna e
Sofalla," undated.
36Ajuda, 51-IX-3, fol. 41: "Rezumo breve de alguas not(cias que da Cust6dio de
Almeida e Souza do Estado dos Rios de Senna e Sofalla," undated.
37Axelson, "Portuguese Settlement," 15.
38Francisco de Mello de Castro, Descripcpodos Rios de Senna, Anno de 1750 (Lisbon,
1861), 110.
39Barretto,"Informaa;o," 463-478; ANTT, Ministerio do Reino, Ma;o 604; Antonio
Pinto de Miranda, "Mem6ria sobre a Costa de XLfrica,"30-51, undated; ANTT,
Ministerio do Reino, Maco 604: Francisco de Mello de Castro, 28 Dec. 1753; Axelson,
"Portuguese Settlement," 13; Newitt, "Portuguese," 479.
40AHU, Mo;., Cx. 15: pe Manoel Pinto de Concei;ao, Vigario, 5 July 1777; AHU,
Mo;., Cx. 15: Ant6nio Jose Lobo, Senna, 20 July 1777.
11
Portugal but no women.41 Tete exhibited a somewhat less extreme

adult sex ratio with a metropolitan-born population of thirty-six males
and ten females of child-bearing age.4 Thus Mozambique's adverse
image reduced the number of potential immigrants and thereby undermined the possibility of perpetuating a European community.
For those who did immigrate to the Zambezi Valley, the intense heat
and prolonged winter rains created serious problems of acclimatization.43 Moreover, the European community suffered from such fatal
diseases as malaria and belharzia as well as a number of less serious
afflictions. According to Dr. Francisco Jose de Lacerda, the harsh climate and foul water "produced lesions, bilious fevers, blemishes, dyssentary, cataracts, and other debilitating illnesses."44 He concluded that
in such an environment it was impossible for the Portuguese community to survive, citing as evidence that in 1796 there had been fifteen
deaths and only three births in Quelimane.45
Of the small numbers who moved to the Zambezi during the second
half of the eighteenth century, the majority were of Indian extraction,
and their arrival was intimately related to economic reforms in 1752.
Before this period the government controlled the export of all ivory
and gold in the Zambezi through a complex factoral system,46 and most
Goans preferred to settle in northern Mozambique where this mercantile system was not operative. There they dominated the commerce in
tropical products and established a complex trading network which extended throughout the Indian Ocean to the Indian subcontinent.47
When Lisbon abolished the factoral system, the Goans enlarged their
trading empire to include the Zambezi Valley, and within twenty years
they had established a preeminent economic position.48
Th, small infusion of settlers and the high mortality rate profoundly
41AHU, Mop., Cx. 15: Antonio Jose Lobo, Senna, 20 July 1777.
42AHU, Mo;., Cx. 15: pe Manoel Pinto da Conceicao, Vigario, 5 July 1777.
43Francisco Jose de Lacerda e Almeida, Travessia da Afriica(Lisbon, 1936), 83.
44bid. Lacerda's observations were corroborated by most eighteenth- and nineteenth-century travelers who passed through this region.
45Ibid.,94.
4See Isaacman, Mozambique, 75-76, and Lobato, Evoluao, 250-256, for a general
description of the factoral system.
47Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa, Lisbon [hereafter BNL], Fundo Geral 826: "Noticias
dos Domtnios Portugueses Actuaes na Costa da Africa," fol. 13, unsigned, 21 May 1762.
48BNL, Fundo Geral 826: "Noticias dos Dominios Portugueses Actuaes na Costa da
Africa," fol. 13, unsigned, 21 May 1762; Ajuda, 52-X-2, No. 3: Jose Francisco Alves Barbosa, "Analyse estatistica," 30 Dec. 1821; AHU, Codice 1473, fol. 50: Izidro Manoel Carrazido to Commandante de Quillimane, 31 July 1835; AHU, Codice 1368, fol. 230: Francisco Guedes de Carvalho e Menezes da Costa to Jeronimo Pereira, undated; Lacerda e
Almeida, Travessia, 109.
12
ALLEN ISAACMAN and BARBARA ISAACMAN
affected the demographic structure of the Portuguese community. Although detailed statistics for this period are unavailable, parish records
from Sena and Tete at the end of the eighteenth century illustrate the
joint effects of these variables (see tables 1 and 2). Despite the questionable quality of the statistics and the failure to distinguish actual
births from baptisms, the data reveal a dramatic loss of total population
each year. Such a conclusion is consistent with that drawn from a comparison of the general censuses of 1722 and 1802, which provides
graphic evidence of the inability of the Portuguese to perpetuate themselves. During this period the "white population" decreased from 300
to 282, of which a substantial number were recently arrived Indians.49
TABLE 1
The Christian Population of Tete, 1786-1792

MALES
YEAR
AGE:
1786
1789
1790
1791
1792
0-7
7-15
15-60
8
17
19
30
42
18
22
22
22
24
375
379
375
369
358
over 60
6
9
9
8
8
Total
407
427
427
429
432
FEMALES
YEAR
AGE:
1786
1789
1790
1791
1792
0-7
7-12
12-40
over 40
Total
7
10
12
12
16
14
18
18
18
28
193
196a
196b
196b
239c
42
49
49
49
49
256
273
275
275
322
a15-40 age group
b 14-40 age group
c15-50 age group

SOURCES:
A.H.U., Moc., Cx. 23: Vigario, 1787; A.H.U., Moc., Cx. 27: Vigario
de Tette, 31 Dec. 1789; A.H.U., Moq.,Cx. 27: Vigariode Tette, 31 Dec. 1790;
A.H.U., Moc., Cx. 28: Fr. Vicente de Jezus, Vigario, 29 Dec. 1791; A.H.U.,
Moc., Cx. 29: Fr. Felix de S. Antonio Silva, 31 Dec. 1792.
49Cited in Newitt, "Portuguese," 479.
13
TABLE 2
Fertility and Mortality of the Christian Population of Tete,

1786-1792
CHILD-
YEAR BAPTISMSDEATHS
BEARING
WOMEN
(12-40)
FERTILITY MORTALITY
RATE
RATE
1786
19
21
193
98
32
1789
1790
1791
1792
14d
17
24
24
39
34
30
35
196a
196b
196b
239c
71
87
122
100
56
49
43
46
a15-40 age group

b14-40 age group
c15-50 age group
dnumber of actual births
SOURCES:
A.H.U., Moc., Cx. 23: Vigario, 1787; A.H.U., Moq., Cx. 27: Vigario
de Tette, 31 Dec. 1789; A.H.U., Moc., Cx. 27: Vigario de Tette, 31 Dec. 1790;
A.H.U., Moc., Cx. 27: Fr. Vicente de Jezus, Vigario, 29 Dec. 1791; A.H.U.,
Moc., Cx. 29: Fr. Felix de S. Antonio Silva, 31 Dec. 1792.
This demographic trend can be explained either in terms of low fertility, high mortality, or a combination of the two. The data from Tete at
the end of the eighteenth century (see table 2) will be used to illustrate
the ways in which these variables interacted. The Tete community had
a rather high average fertility rate of 98 per thousand. Converted into
individual rates of reproduction, this meant that women who survived
to age forty would average between five and six live births. Nevertheless, the high rate of reproduction was outweighed by an even higher
average raw mortality rate of 42.5 deaths per thousand. Given the age
structure of Tete and assuming that it was a stable population,50 the intrinsic mortality rate would jump to 48 deaths per thousand.5 Viewed
50A theoretically stable population means one in which the birth rate and death rate
do not vary over several generations and which is characterized by neither in- nor outmigration.
5'From the information in table 2 an average fertility rate was computed for the
period by averaging both the number of child-bearing women and the number of births.
This figure was then used as a guide to locating a population with a similar birth rate and
age structure from the model life tables compiled from historical data on Europe and the
United States. See Ansley J. Cole and Paul Demeny, Regional Model Life Tables and Stable
Populations (Princeton, 1966). The Tete population was found to correspond best to the
southern variant. Utilizing the intrinsic fertility and mortality rates associated with the
southern variant and assuming a normal age distribution, which was far from the case, a
mortality rate of 48/1000 was calculated.
14
from a somewhat differentperspective,the high raw mortalityfigures

would have been even greaterbut for the unexpectedlylow proportion
of people over sixty yearsof age. In short, a relativelyyoung to middleaged population was reproducingitself rapidlybut dying at an even
faster rate.
Demographicdata from Sena for the period from 1788 to 1795 suggests similarconclusions.Because of the somewhat more favorableage
structure, the gap between the birth and death rates was narrower.
Nevertheless, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births by
thirty-three percent for the period under examination.5 The ratio
would have been even greaterwere it possible to differentiatebetween
the number of live births and the baptismsof converts, both of which
were subsumed under the same heading in the annual parish reports.
Given the inabilityto improvehealth conditions, foster immigration
of metropolitanwomen of child-bearingage, or increase the already
high fertilityrate,prazeroswere compelledto incorporatenew members
from outside the Portuguese community. A number of prominent
families resolved the problemby marryingprosperousGoans, despite
social resistance to such unions.53 This tactic ultimately proved unsuc-
cessful, because males predominatedamong Indianimmigrants.In the

1777 census of Tete, for example, there were thirty-eightAsian males
and only one woman.54The influx of Goans, therefore, only exacerbated the existing sexual imbalance and forced Europeansto cohabit
with either Africanwomen, most commonly daughtersor sisters of the
amambo,55or mulatto offspringof previous interracialunions. Once
begun, this processnever reversed,and successive generationsswelled
the ranks of the growing mulatto population.
52During this period there were forty-eight deaths and thirty-two births in Sena.
AHU, Mog., Cx. 26: Francisco Joao Pinto, 1788; AHU, Moc., Cx. 27: Francisco Joao Pinto, 3 Feb. 1790; AHU, Moc., Cx. 27: Francisco Joao Piito, 15 Feb. 1791: AHU, Moc., Cx.
27: Francisco Joao Pinto, 1 Jan. 1792; AHU, Moc., Cx. 29: Francisco Joao Pinto, 1 Jan.
1793; AHU, Moc., Cx. 31: Francisco Joao Pinto, "Relaqao dos Habitantes da Villa de
Senna...," 1 Jan. 1794; AHU, Mo;., Cx. 32: Fr. Ant6nio de Santa Arma, Prior, 3 Jan.
1796. The data for the year 1794 is missing from the archives.
53AHU, Mo;., Cx. 3: Fr. Fernando Jesus (MA), 13 April 1752; AHU, Moc., Cx. 19:
Comerciantes Portuguezes (Vitorino Joze Gracias, et al.) to Jeronimo Jose Noqueira, 29
April 1783; Ajuda, 52-X-2, No. 3: Jose Francisco Alves Barbosa, "Analyse estatistica,"
30 Dec. 1821.
54AHU, Moc., Cx. 15: pe Manoel Pinto da Concei ao, Vigario, 5 July 1777.
"The famous nineteenth-century prazeros Gambete, Ferrao, Bonga, and Chicucuru
were all married to daughters of the mambo.
15
TABLE3
ChristianBirths and Deaths in Sena, 1740-1801

RACIAL
CATEGORY
Mulattos
Whites
BIRTHS
(1740-1801)
1340
188
DEATHS
(1775-1801)
179
120
SOURCE:
A.H.U., Moc., Cx. 40: "RellacaoCircunstanciadode Nascimentos, Cazamentos,e.... havidos nesta Frequeziade SantaCatharinade Villa
de Senna" (unsigned, undated).
By the middle of the eighteenth century there were enough people

of color within the prazerocommunity to warrantrecognitionas a discrete racialentity known as muzungu.56Members of the most prominent and powerful families of the old prazeroelite, including D. Ignes
Pessoa de Almeida Castelo Brancoand D. Catherinade FariaLeytao,
were described as mulattas muita escuras.57Parish records of all Chris-
tian births and deaths in Sena clearlydemonstratethe natureand direction of racialchange throughoutmuch of the eighteenth century (see
table 3).
There is no reasonto believe that a similarpatterndid not hold for Portuguese living in or near the towns of Quelimaneand Tete. Since most
of the prazerocommunity resided in isolated ruralareas, the growing
racialimbalancewas probablyeven more pronouncedamong this sector of transfrontiersociety.
Scatteredracialand demographicdata from Sena and Tete provide
diachronicindicatorsof the direction of racialchange. They, like the
previous statistics,must be treatedas suggestive, since the inaccuracy
of the figures as well as the unclear racialcategoriesused in the 1735
census limit their reliability.
The data presented above are consistent with a census of the entire
Zambezi conducted in 1819. Because this reportincluded the coastal
town of Quelimane,which historicallyhad a higher ratioof Europeans,
a somewhat smaller percentageof mulattos is to be expected. In 1819
56ANTT, Ministerio do Reino, Malo 604: Antonio Pinto de Miranda, "Mem6ria sobre
a Costa de Africa," 30-31, undated.
57Ibid., 44; AHU, MoC., Cx. 15: Balthazar Manuel Pereyra to the queen, 30 Aug. 1775.
16
TABLE4
Racial Composition of Sena and Tete

RACIAL
CATEGORY
1735
percent no.
22.8
188
16.2
147
60.0
489
1777
percent no.
1802
percent no.
14.6
103
23.3
253
Portuguese
Goans
18.5
130
Pardosa
66.9
471
76.6
666
(Mulattos)
aThe unclear categories in the 1735 census were filhos da terraand rol de
molhos.Both have been includedhere underpardos.
SOURCES:
A.H.U., Moc,.,Cx. 3: Jeronymede Sau,"Rol dos Frequesesde Santa Maria deste Frequeziade Senna," 1735; A.H.U., Mo?., Cx. 3: "Lista dos
Christaons,e Frequezosde Tette da Administracaodos Rios de Senna,"E. Fr.
Matteusde S. Thomas,6 May 1735; A.H.U., Mo?.,Cx. 15: pe Manoel Pinto da
Conceicao, Vigirio, 6 July 1777; A.H.U., Moc., Cx. 15: Antonio Jose Lobo,
"Pardose os Negros que existem nas tres villas do Districtodo Governo desses
Rios de Sena, 1802," unsigned, undated.
racially-mixed individuals comprised 61.6 percent of the total Christian
population, while Europeans and Goans represented 12.9 percent and
25.5 percent respectively.58 Oral testimonies relating to this period support this general conclusion. According to informants whose ancestors
resided on prazos in the Tete and Sena regions, the vast majority of
prazeros were mizungu.59By the middle of the nineteenth century there
were almost no Portuguese in the Zambezi Valley, suggesting that
racial absorption was virtually complete.60
Inextricably related to shifting racial patterns within the prazerocommunity was the process of cultural transformation. According to acculturation theory, the specific cultural configuration which emerges as
a result of contact is a function of whether the borrowed cultural elements are additive or substitutive, whether they are compatible with
the host culture, and whether the host culture can absorb change without fundamentally altering its core institutions. Because of the inter-
58Ajuda,52-X-2, No. 3: Jose FranciscoAlves Barbosa,"Analyseestatistica,"30 Dec.

1821.
59Interviewswith Jose Antonio de Abreu, Antonio Vas, and ZacariasFerrao.
600f the 140 free people living in Sena in 1861-nly eight were listed as Portuguese.
BOM,44 (1862), 205 (8 Jan. 1862). A similarpatternexisted in Quelimane,which had
only eighteen Europeansin a free populationof 2433. BOM, 17 (1862), 63-64 (31 Dec.
1861). These specific censuses corroborategeneral observationsdeploringthe lack of
Europeans. AHU, Moc., Pasta 10: Antonio Candido Gamitto, "Memoria sobre uma
Systemaparaas ColoniasPortuguezas,"2 Jan. 1850.
17
relationships between cultural components, even selective borrowing

can reverberate through the entire system, and the process of change
sometimes develops a momentum of its own.61
Evidence from the eighteenth century suggests the growth of a
number of hybrid cultural forms. Syncretic religious practices were apparently common. A church edict in 1777 specifically denounced the
use of African ritual in the baptism, the public demonstration of the
bride's virginity, and the copulation of slaves in the bed of their
deceased owner, a practice which had become integral to the Christian
burial ceremony.62 That these same prazeros, who were seemingly immersed in African culture, sought and invented Portuguese titles and
honors is yet another indication of the process of hybridization.63
The paucity of detailed documentation for the eighteenth century
obscures the degree of acceptance of these hybrid cultural forms.
Furthermore, the limitations of the data make it impossible to ascertain
if these specific changes were part of a larger process of acculturation.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century, however, the prazerocommunity had become integrated into the dominant local society. It is
unclear if a transfrontier culture actually emerged at this time or
whether the availability of oral data and corroborating primary accounts merely highlighted a situation which already existed. To avoid
the problems of the ethnographic present and the ahistorical assumptions of the structural-functionalists, the discussion of culture change
will be limited to the first half of the nineteenth century.64
One additional temporal qualification needs to be made. Although
the analysis focuses on aggregates, substantial differences existed from
6'Bronislaw Malinowski, The Dynamics of CultureChange (New Haven, 1961), 58, 80;
Melville J. Herskovits and William R. Bascom, "The Problem of Stability and Change in
African Culture," in William R. Bascom and Melville J. Herskovits, eds., Continuityand
Change in African Cultures(Chicago, 1962), 6; Social Science Research Council Summer
Seminar on Acculturation, 1953, "Acculturation: An Exploratory Formulation," American Anthropologist,56 (Dec., 1954), 973-1002; M. Fortes, "Culture Contact as a Dynamic
Process," Africa, 9 (Jan., 1936), 24-55; Wilbert E. Moore, Social Change (Englewood
Cliffs, 1963), 13, 86.
62Fr. Joao de Pilar and Manoel Ant6nio Ribeiro, "Edital da Inquisicao de Goa," in
Joaquim Helidoro da Cunha Rivara, ed., O Chronistade Tissuary(Nova Goa, 1867), 274.
63Lacerda e Almeida, Travessia, 100-101.
64For an interesting discussion of the problems of the ethnographic present, see Jan
Vansina, "Anthropologists and the Third Dimension," Africa, 39 (1969), 62-68. Two
other valuable articles examining the interrelationship of history and anthropology are
Jan Vansina, "The Use of Ethnographic Data as a Source for History," in T.O. Ranger,
ed., Emerging Themes in African History (Nairobi, 1968), 97-125; Bernard Cohn, "An
Anthropologist among Historians," South Atlantic Quarterly,61 (1962), 13-29.
18
one family to another. These are best explained in terms of length of

culture contact with the local African population. Thus the cultural
variations between a family which had resided in the Zambezi for six
months and one which had been there for six generations were obviously enormous. In practice, these discrepancies were not so pronounced because of the progressively diminishing number of immigrants.
The nature of the primary sources presents a further problem. Although contemporary observers universally acknowledged extensive
borrowing by the prazeros,their comments were limited either to vague
generalizations about the corruption of the European population or to
detailed and highly prejudiced descriptions of the most exotic aspects
of prazero society, such as witchcraft and polygamy.
The Europeanswho go to reside in East Africa, principallythose who
establish themselves in the interior,instead of divesting the Kaffirsof
their grossest superstitions,adoptedthese superstitionsin an exaggerated form: with the result that the grandchildrenof the Portugueselive
absolutelylike savages.65
To compensate for these distortions, a heavy emphasis is placed on the
oral testimonies of both descendants of the prazero community and
elders whose families had historically resided on the prazos. These accounts provide valuable insights into the mundane aspects of the
prazeros'lives and their relationships with the indigenous culture. The
major shortcoming is that the testimonies tend to be particular,
describing in depth the life style of a prazero without any attempt to
generalize about the larger transfrontier community.
Used critically, however, these two very different bodies of data provide a consistent picture of the broad cultural configuration of the
prazero community during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Since a low but positive correlation between behavior and attitude is
generally recognized, profound changes in behavior are assumed to reflect a substantial modification in the value systems for which explicit
data is lacking.6 Our basic contention, therefore, is that by this period
65Jose Joaquim Lopes de Lima, Ensaios sobre a Statfstica das Possessoes Portuguezasna
Africa Occidental e Oriental(Lisbon, 1844), 53.
66See, for example, Stuart A. Rice, "Objective Indicators of Subjective Variables," in
Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Morris Rosenberg, eds., The Language of Social Research (New
York, 1955), 35-37. The interrelationship between behavior and values is also stressed in
Talcott Parsons' model of social systems. Every social system performs the four basic
functions of pattern maintenance, integration, goal attainment, and adaptation, and
changes in any one sphere will generate the changes in all others necessary to return the
system to a state of equilibrium. Talcott Parsons, The Social System (Glencoe, 1951);
Talcott Parsons, Societies (Englewood Cliffs, 1966).
THEPRAZEROSAS TRANSFRONTIERSMEN
19
the prazeros,whether of Portugueseor Goan extraction,shared a deep

commitment to the indigenous African culture. A similar conclusion
was reached by the governor of the Rivers of Sena in 1821: "In costume and belief there were no significant differences between the
mulatto [prazeros]and the African population at large."67
The remainderof this paperwill describeand explain the Africanization of the prazerocommunity. For the purpose of illustration, two
prominent nineteenth-century transfrontiersmenand their families,
the Pereirasand the Cruzes,about whom informationis abundant,will
be discussedin some detail.The generalconclusions drawnfrom these
case studies will then be tested against the less specific data on the
largerprazerocommunity. Implicit in the entire discussion is a juxtapositionof prazerosociety in the first half of the nineteenth century
with its late seventeenth-century frontierantecedents. While it is impossible to isolate intermediateforms or to determinethe natureof the
process of acculturation,such an approachenables us to make specific
diachroniccomparisonsand to suggest some preliminaryexplanations.
The Pereira family migrated from Goa around the middle of the
eighteenth century and rapidlybecame involved in the profitableivory
and slave trade north of the Zambezi River. As part of their activities
they amassed a large number of slaves. Towardthe end of the eighteenth century Goncalo Caetano Pereira,known more commonly as
Chamatowaor Dombo-Dombo, established a close relationship with
Undi, the king of the Chewa.In a gesture of friendshipUndi presented
either Chamatowaor his son Chicucuru with a maternal relative in
marriage.This marriageallianceproved mutuallybeneficial; when dissident forces within his kingdom rose against Undi, the Pereirasprovided direct militaryassistancewhich enabled him to crush the revolt.
In repaymentUndi presented the Pereiraswith the secessionist fringe
area of his empire known as Makanga.The gift not only carriedthe
customary political rights which Undi conferred on all his territorial
chiefs, but it explicitly authorizedthe subjugationof the hostile chieftaincies, which the Pereirasdid with the help of their warriorslaves.68
67Ajuda, 52-X-2, No. 3: Jose Francisco Alves Barbosa, "Analyse estatfstica," 30 Dec.
1821.
68Interviews with Chiponda Cavumbula, Conrado Msussa Boroma, Leao Manuel
Banqueiro Caetano Pereira, Simon Biwi; joint interviews with Calavina Couche and
Zabuca Ngombe and with Chetambara Chenungo and Wilson John; "Viagem as Terras
da Macanga, Apontamentos colhidos d'um relat6rio do padre Victor Jos6 Courtois,
vigario de Tete, 1885," BOM, 29 (1886), 361; Jose Fernandes, Jdnior, "Hist6ria de Undi"
(unpublished manuscript, Makanga, n. d.), 17; AHU, Moc., Cx. 8: Manoel de Caetano, 5
March 1760; BNL, Pombalina 721, fol. 300: Francisco Jose de Lacerda e Almeida to D.
Rodrigues Coutinho, 21 March 1798; AHU, Mot., MaCo 38: Nicollo Pascoal da Cruz, ca.
1810.
20
Having gained recognition as sovereigns, Chicucuru and his successors legitimated their position by stressing their marriage alliance
with Undi and their personal identification with the Chewa king.
Toward this end Chicucuru's heir apparent adopted the title chissaca
maturi, which was one of Undi's most prestigious praise names. To
strengthen their claim, they also negotiated marriage alliances with
principal amamboand village headmen and adopted a number of rituals
and symbols of kingship. Each new ruler of Makanga underwent extensive rites of investiture after the council of elders and land chiefs
had selected him from among Pereira family members, gave ritual approbation to newly appointed amambo, and helped to propitiate the ancestor spirits in times of national crises.69
While the adoption of these aspects of kingship tended to increase
their legitimacy by blurring their differences from the indigenous
population, there is no evidence that this represented a calculated effort
to enhance their prestige and power. It was more likely part of a larger
process of acculturation which dramatically altered their life style, cosmology, and mode of social organization. In 1830 one Portuguese
official described Chicucuru as "an ignorant individual of dark complexion, who lives like the Africans and their chiefs, not only dressing
like them but adopting all their customs, beliefs and superstitions going
so far as to have a house full of remedies [charms] to protect himself
against evil."70 Oral traditions collected among the people of Makanga
and from a descendant of the Pereiras confirm this general portrayal of
Chicucuru and his heirs. According to these testimonies, they dressed
in capulano, or African loin cloths, ate African foods, generally lived in
African thatched huts, and spoke Chi-Nyanja rather than Portuguese.71
Their adoption of the Chewa cosmology and religious system most
graphically demonstrates the extent of their acculturation. Like the
members of the local population they believed in ancestor worship, ac69Jose Fernandes, Jdnior, "Narra9ao do Distrito de Tete" (unpublished manuscript,
11:
Makanga, 1955), 105; AHM, Fundo do Seculo XIX, Tete, Governo do Distrito, Cx.
FunAugusto Fonseca de Mesquita e Solla to Governador de Tete, 26 June 1888; AHM,
do do Seculo XIX, Governador do Quelimane, Cx. 7: Anselmo Joaquim Nunes de
Andrade to Joao de Souza Machado, 12 April 1858; AHU, Mop., Pasta 30: Anselmo Joaof
quim Nunes de Andrade, 28 Nov. 1875; personal communication on the borrowing
the praise name with Harry W. Langworthy, 11 Dec. 1968.
da
70BOM, 3 (1861), 13: Jos6 Manoel Correia Monteiro (Major Ex-Commandante
Feira do Aruangoa do Morte, Commandante da Praca e interino da Villa de Tete) to
de
Manoel Joaquim Mendes de Vasconcellos Cirne (Governador da Capitania
1830.
Quelimane e Rios de Sena), 13 June
7Interviews with Chiponda Cavumbula and Leao Manuel Banquiero Caetano
Pereira; joint interviews with Calavina Couche and Zabuca Ngombe and with Chetambara Chenungo and Wilson John.
21
knowledgingthe midzimuas the vital link between man and the distant
deities. They maintainedburialshrines, or kucisi,and an elaborateroyal
grave site which they visited periodicallyfor religiousceremonies and
in times of crisis.72At these ceremonies they propitiatedthe midzimu
and beseeched them to providerain,insure fertility,help them against
their enemies, and give them wisdom to make importantdecisions.73
Thus before negotiating a treaty with the Portuguese in 1875,
Chicucuru'sdescendant Saka-Sakaconferred with the ancestor spirits
to determine the wisdom of such an act.74Over time the burial sites of
the Pereira family became the national shrine center of Makanga,

watched over by a guardianof the royal grave who also served as a
repositoryof Makangatraditions.75The indigenous Chewa as well as
the Pereirasperiodicallyvisited the burialsite and invoked the midzimu
of the Pereiras.
The Pereirafamily also adoptedthe Chewa belief in witchcraftand
sorcery.76A.C.P.Gamitto, writing in the 1830s, noted that Chicucuru
refused to forwardletters by messenger."This is hardlyto be surprised
at, because of his colour,his way of life and his mannerare like those of
Africansand they, includingtheir mambo and fumos, do not touch letters or allow them in their villages thinking them to be some magic of
the whites."77To protect themselves against witches the Pereirasemployed muabvi,or the poison ordeal.78In at least one case a member of
2Interviews with Chiponda Cavumbula and Leao Manuel Banqueiro Caetano
Pereira; AHU, Moc:, Pasta 30: Anselmo Joaquim Nunes de Andrade, 28 Nov. 1875;
"Viagem as Terras de Macanga, Apontamentos colhidos d'um relat6rio do padre Victor
Jos6 Courtois, vigario de Tete, 1885," BOM, 29 (1886), 361; M.D.D. Newitt, "The Portuguese on the Zambesi: An Historical Interpretation of the Prazo System," Journal of
African History, 10 (1969), 82.
73Ibid.
74Interview with Chiponda Cavumbula; joint interview with Calavina Couche and
Zabuca Ngombe; AHU, Moc., Pasta 30: Anselmo Joaquim Nunes de Andrade, 28 Nov.
1875; "Viagem as Terras da Macanga, Apontamentos colhidos d'um relato'riodo padre
Victor Jose' Courtois, vigario de Tete, 1885," BOM, 29 (1886), 360-361; Jose Manoel Correia Monteiro to Manoel Joaquim Mendes de Vasconcelos e Cirne, 13 June 1830, BOM, 3
(1861), 13.
75AHU, MoG., Pasta 30: Anselmo Joaquim Nunes de Andrade, 28 Nov. 1875;
"Viagem as Terras da Macanga, Apontamentos colhidos d'um relat6rio do padre Victor
Jose Courtois, vigario de Tete, 1885," BOM, 29 (1886), 361; Newitt, "Historical Interpretation," 82.
76Interview with Chiponda Cavumbula and Leao Manuel Banqueiro Caetano Pereira;
joint interview with Chetambara Chenungo and Wilson John; "Viagem as Terras da
Macanga, Apontamentos colhidos d'um relat6rio do padre Victor Jose Courtois, vigario
de Tete, 1885," BOM, 29 (1886), 360-361.
7A.C.P. Gamitto, King Kazembe, Ian Cunnison, trans. (Lisbon, 1960), 1, 160.
78Interviews with Chiponda Cavumbula and Leao Manuel Banqueiro Caetano
Pereira; joint interviews with Chetambara Chenungo and Wilson John, and with
Calavina Couche and Zabuca Ngombe.
22
their family was thought to have been responsible for the murder of
the reigningmonarchof Makanga,and before he could become eligible
to replace the dead ruler he had to undergo muabvi19
The system of socialorganizationalso became modifiedover time, although the evidence on this factoris less conclusive. The Pereiraswere
incorporatedinto the local clan, Malunga, practiced polygamy, acknowledged the primacy of the senior wife, and adopted a unilineal
system of inheritance rather than retaining the Indian practice of
coparcenary.80Despite these shifts, throughout much of the nineteenth century they remained committed to patrilinealityratherthan
recognizingthe preeminenceof the matrilineage.The firstfive Pereiras
to rule Makanga,for example, were all related to Chamatowathrough
the male line. The royal descent system was challenged after 1870
when matrilinealsegments of the rulingfamily,which had been frozen
out of positions of status and power, forced the selection of Chicuacha
and later Chigagawith the supportof a number of importantChewa
amambo.The local historian,Chimpazi,explained their success in the
following terms: "This was consistent with the indigenous rules of descent, by which nephews or cousins always enjoy the right of inheritance when their claims are supportedby groupsof powerfulmen with
great influence or force."81While the appointmentof members of the
matrilineagewas undoubtedlyrelatedto the adoptionof other Chewa
culturalforms by the royalfamily,the fact that each of these kings was
subsequentlyoverthrownby a member of the patrilinealsegment suggests that the descent system remained in flux. The Portugueseconquest of Makangain 1901 ousted the Pereirasbefore a clear patternof
bilateralityor matrilinealityhad emerged.
At approximatelythe same time that Chicucururuled in Makanga,
the da Cruzfamily,more commonly known by the Africanname of the
Bongas,establishedits hegemony over the patrilinealTongachieftaincies located near the confluence of the Zambezi and Luenha rivers.
Like their counterpartsto the north, the Bongas were of mixed Asian
and Africandescent. The firstCruzcame to Mozambiquein the middle
79AHU, Mot., Pasta 30: Anselmo Joaquim Nunes de Andrade (Capitao-Mor do Distrito), 28 Nov. 1875.
80Interviews with Chiponda Cavumbula, Leao Manuel Banqueiro Caetano Pereira,
and Simon Biwi; joint interviews with Calavina Couche and Zabuca Ngombe and with
Chetambara Chenungo and Wilson John; AHU, Moc., Pasta 30: Anselmo Joaquim
Nunes de Andrade, 18 Nov. 1875. For a discussion of coparcenary, or collective ownership among the three generations of male descendants (sons, grandsons, and greatgrandsons) of the deceased, see A.M. Shah, "Basic Terms and Concepts in the Study of
Family in India," Indian Economic and Social History Review, 1 (1964), 10-14.
8"Fernandes, Junior, "Narracao," 110.
23
of the eighteenth century, and by the third decade of the nineteenth

century Joaquimda Cruz,known as Nhaude, had become a prosperous
traderand elephant hunter with a substantialbody of warriorslaves.
Successive invasions by Barueand Nguni warriorsconvinced a number of Tonga amamboto seek his assistance;in returnthey recognized
Nhaude and his heirs as their legitimate overlords.Shortly thereafter
Lisbon granted Nhaude an aforamento,or titled deed, for his new
lands.82
Once in power, the Bongas strived to legitimize and institutionalize

their authority.Previously consummated marriagealliances with the
royal families of the Muenemutapaand the Barue,83both of whom
claimed suzerainty over the Tonga, enhanced their prestige, as did
select maritalunions with importantTonga amambo.Like Chicucuru,
Nhaude and his heirs adopteda number of ritualsand trappingsassociated with kingship within Tonga society. They underwent traditional
rites of investiture,carriedroyalwalkingsticks, received Africanpraise
names, were universallygreeted by handclapping,and gave ritualapproval to the newly selected amambo.84
The similaritiesbetween the two families extended beyond background and position to include racial absorption and acculturation.
Nhaude is described in contemporaryaccounts as "the kaffirson of a
negress," while his son Bonga "belonged to the African race possessing only Mongrelblood."85They and their descendants were illiterate
and communicatedsolely in Chi-Tonga.They masteredthe indigenous
arts of hunting and boating, dressed in capulana,preferred massa
(African porridge made from sorghum) and pombe(locally brewed
82Interviews with Conrado Msussa Boroma, Domingo Kunga, Antonio Gaviao, Chale
Lupia, Joao Vicente, Niquicicafe Presente, and Alberto Vicente da Cruz; AHU, Cddice
1477, fol. 144: Domingos Fortunato de Valle to Governador de Quelimane e os Rios de
Sena, 9 May 1849; AHU, Codice 1477: Domingos Fortunato de Valle to Governador de
Quelimane e os Rios de Sena, 27 June 1849; AHM, Fundo do Seculo XIX, Governo
Geral: Cx. 2.37; C.J. da Silva to Joze' Pereira d'Almeida, 27 Nov. 1858; Fernandes,
Jutnior,"Narraao," 8.
83Several independent sources noted that Bereco, the father of Nhaude, married a
member of the Muenemutapa's family. Interviews with Conrado Msussa Boroma and
Alberto Vicente da Cruz; Augusto do Castilho, Relatdrio da Guerrada Zambezia em 1888
(Lisbon, 1891), 30-31; A.P. Miranda, Nottcia Acerca do Bonga da Zambezia(Lisbon, 1869),
6; AHU, Moc., Pasta 10: Anto'nio Candido Pedroso Gamitto to SMT, 30 Dec. 1854. There
is also evidence that Bonga's family entered into a marriage alliance with the Barue royal
family. Fernandes, Junior, "Narracao," 23; interview with Conrado Msussa Boroma.
84Interviews with Alberto Vicente da Cruz, Domingo Kunga, Antonio Gaviao, Niquicicafe Presente, and Chale Lupia; Fernandes, Junior, "Narracao"; Joaquim Carlos
Paiva d'Andrada to Conselheiro Governador da provtncia de Mocambique, Relato'rio, 27
Oct. 1887, BOM, 1 (1888), 10.
85Miranda,Notlcia A4cercado Bonga, 7.
24
beer) to Portuguese or Goan foods, and lived in African thatched

huts.86
The Bongas also restructured their social organization to conform
with that of the local Tonga population. They practiced polygamy,
recognized the privileged position of the senior wife, and extended
high status to her oldest son even if he were not the first-born male
offspring of his father.87This position carried with it greater responsibilities and privileges vis-d-vis his age cohorts. Like the Tonga,
Nhaude and his heirs transmitted inheritance from senior brother to
junior brother and practiced false leverite, or widow inheritance. Thus
when Bonga died, his next senior brother, Chatala, inherited his position as well as responsibility for both the family estate and the
deceased's wives.88 Accompanying these structural changes was the
adoption of concomitant social rituals, most notably the payment of
chuma, or bride price.
The internalization of the Tonga belief system was another
manifestation of cultural change. The Bongas regularly consulted the
svikiro, or spirit medium, claimed special remedies from their midzimu,
and maintained royal burial sites. In times of crisis they invoked not
only the spirits of their own ancestors but also the national guardian
spirit, or mhondoro,of the Tonga through his svikiro. It was the senior
mhondoro who sanctified and legitimized the rule of successive members of the Bonga family and reputedly provided them with strategic
assistance and magic in times of war.89
Within Tonga cosmology the mhondorowas considered the vital link
between man, the earth, and the moral order. The Tonga believed that
breaches in the moral code created a disequilibrium in the natural order
which generally took the form of divinely inspired droughts, famines,
or pestilences, although other hardships were also explained in such
causal terms. These difficulties could only be resolved through the intercession of the mhondoro,since the supreme deity, Mwari, was con-
86Interviews with Domingo Kunga, Chale Lupia, Niquicicafe Presente, Chacundunga

Mavico; Paul Goyot, Voyage au Zambese (Nancy, 1889), 185.
8Interviews with Domingo Kunga, Chale Lupia, Niquicicafe Presenter and Chacundunga Mavico.
88Interviews with Domingo Kunga and Chale Lupia.
89Interviews with Domingo Kunga, Antonio Gaviao, Niquicicafe Presente, and Chale
Lupia; Fernandes, Jdnior, "Narra ao"; Joaquim Carlos Paiva d'Andrada to Conselheiro
Governador da provfncia de Mozambique, Relatdrio, 27 Oct. 1887, BOM, 1 (1888), 10; 0
Territoriode Manica e Sofala e a Administra9doda Companhia de Moqambique (Lisbon,
1902), 128; Augusto de Castilho, Relatdrio de Guerrada Zambezia em 1888 (Lisbon, 1891),
38.
THEPRAZEROSAS TRANSFRONTIERSMEN
25
The Bongas'relianceon the mhondoro

sideredinaccessible to mortals.90
reflects their commitment to the indigenous cosmology.
The adoptionof the Tongabelief structurealso included recognition
of witches and sorcerersas potent evil forces.91Bonga'sfear of witches
is evident in his explanation to David Livingstone that he refused to
meet with emissaries of the Pereirasbecause "they carriedmedicines
with them to bewitch me."92Indeed, the principalcause of the Zambezi war of 1850-1851 was Bonga's belief that the descendants of
Chicucuruwere responsiblefor his father'sdeath throughwitchcraft.93
To counteractsuch evil threats,Bonga and his heirs sought to isolate
and destroy all suspected witches through muabvi.Among his victims
were at least two of his junior wives, who had reputedlycast a spell on
him.94The Bongas also regularlyconsulted diviners to receive charms
which would both insure their good fortune and protect them against
evil spirits.
Like the Pereirasand the Bongas, other transfrontiersmenuniversally adopted African artifacts,materialgoods, and techniques. It was
common for them to dress in loin cloths, live in thatched huts, learn
the artsof hunting, fishing,mining, and planting,and eat Africanfoods
without European utensils.95 The adoption of the indigenous material
culture and skills facilitatedtheir adaptationto a new and difficultenvironment.Borrowingitself was not proofof significantculturechange,
since artifacts, except for those with symbolic value, tended to be
culturallyneutral.It createdno conflict, therefore,for the nineteenthcentury prazerosto adopt aspects of the local material culture while
maintaining others from their Portuguese past. The premium many
placed on specific wines and European luxury items supports this
point.96
90The mhondoro, or national guardian spirit, is a characteristic religious institution
among all Shona peoples. For a brief discussion of the mhondoro,see Allen Isaacman,
"Madzi-manga, Mhondoro, and the Use of Oral Traditions," Journal of African History,
XIV, 3 (1973).
9lInterviews with Conrado Msussa Boroma, Chale Lupia, Domingo Kunga, and Chacundunga Mavico; AHM, Fundo do Seculo XIX, Tete, Governo do Distrito, Cx. 11: Anto'nio Joaquim Goncalves Maceiras to Governador de Tete, 6 Oct. 1888; Castilho, Relatorio de Guerra, 35; R.P.R. Wallis, ed., The Zambesi Expedition of David Livingstone
1858-1863 (London, 1956), I, 42.
92Wallis, Zambesi Expedition, I, 42.
93Interview with Conrado Msussa Boroma.
94Castilho, Relato'riode Guerra,35.
95Interviews with Joao Pomba, Zacarias Ferrao, Jose Antonio d'Abreu, Antonio Vas;
joint interviews with Tomas Chave and Oliveira Sinto.
96Importlists from the beginning of the nineteenth century indicate a strong demand
for wine and other metropolitan luxuries. See Antonio Norberto de Barbosa de Villas
Boas Truao, Estattsticas da Capitania dos Rios de Sena no Anno de 1806 (Lisbon, 1889).
26
The wide acceptance of indigenous witchcraft beliefs and practices is

a much more significant indicator of cultural transformation. Writing in
1797, Lacerda described an incident in which a principal inhabitant of
Sena killed four of her slaves because she believed them to be
witches.7 Forty years later Gamitto, commenting on a prominent
member of Tete society who claimed that a headache had been caused
by a witch's spell, disparagingly concluded:
I might offermy reflectionon beliefs of this kind.It will be enough to say
that the very people whose duty it is to glow with the light of European
civilizationare the ones who adoptAfricanusages and customs .... This
censure is not directed only against Portuguese, for strangers who
establishthemselves in these partsalso acquiredthe same habits and followed the same road.98
From the indigenous population the prazerosborrowed a complex set
of practices to determine the identity of witches and to insure their
removal. The control of witches centered around the poison ordeal,
which according to Lacerda "is frequently practiced among the whites
whom I have observed."99 The accused was expected to drink publicly
a highly lethal potion made from the bark of a tree soaked in water. Although poisonous, the substance was difficult for the body to retain. If
the individual emitted the potion, it was considered supernatural support of his innocence and the accuser would be subject to careful
scrutiny. Those who died were assumed to have been witches, and the
society was relieved that it had removed an evil force. Muabvi therefore
provided the only mechanism to determine possession by evil spirits
which otherwise defied external recognition.
The wide acceptance of witchcraft and muabvi is a definite indication
of a shift in the cosmology of the prazeros. Although Charles Wagley
has argued that similarities between medieval Christianity, with its
emphasis on spirits, demons, ghosts, and witches, and indigenous
Amazonian religions allowed seventeenth-century frontier Catholics
to incorporate much of the latter, such an analogy does not hold for the
Zambezi Valley.100Unlike the settler community in the Amazon, most
of the late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century prazeros were of Goan
extraction, and there is no evidence that witchcraft figured significantly
in the cosmology of either the Hindu or Christian communities of
Goa.?10The data suggest rather that their adherence to witchcraft and
97Lacerdae Almeida, Travessia,115.
98Gamitto, King Kazembe, I, 35.
99Lacerda e Almeida, Travessia, 235.
'0?CharlesWagley, Amazon Town:A Study of Man in the Tropics(New York, 1964), 225.
'O'Andrade, "DescrisCo do Estado," 119; personal communication, Rocky Miranda,
department of South Asian languages, University of Minnesota, 10 Feb. 1973.
27
muabvi was inextricably related to explanations about causality, evil,
and the orderingof the universe which clearly fell outside the bounds
of Christianityand Hinduism.
The prazerosviewed witchcraftas one element in a complex belief
system which interpretedthe relationshipbetween naturalphenomena
and the moralorder.The worldwas thought to be divinely orderedby a
distantcreatorGod who in conjunctionwith ancestorspiritsprovideda
supernaturalumbrella for those mortals who acted properly. Given
these assumptions, it is not surprising that many estate holders
established ancestralshrines, participatedin first fruit ceremonies, and
invoked the midzimuin times of crisis.102The causal relationshipbetween moralityand divine intervention is a substantialdeparturefrom
both the Judeo-Christianbelief that God often lets his servants suffer
(as in the Book of Job) and the Hindu metaphysicalsystem premised
on dharma and kharma.103
The indigenous belief structureprovidedan explanationfor the random occurrence of serious illnesses, barrenness, and other misfortunes. These problems were particularlydifficult to understandif, as
often happened,the injuredpartywas a respectedmember of the community and the situation appearedto be a case of unmerited suffering.104This apparentcontradictionwas resolved by recognizingthe existence of evil forces whose power had to be destroyed-thus the
reliance on muabviand the use of charms to counteractthe threat of
sorcerers.
In addition to sorcerers, another category of diviners performed
magical feats which were not antisocial for members of the prazero
community.Before going on a dangeroustripor participatingin an im102Interviews with Chiponda Cavumbula, Leao Manuel Banqueiro Caetano Pereira,
Conrado Msussa Boroma, Chale Lupia, Domingo Kunga, Chacundunga Mavico, Andisseni Tessoura, and Dauce Angolete Gogodo; joint interviews with Tomas Chave and
Oliveira Sinto; AHU, Moc., Pasta 30: Anselmo Joaquim Nunes de Andrade, 28 Nov.
1875; "Viagem as Terras da Macanga, Apontamentos colhidos d'um relatorio do padre
Victor Jose Courtois, vigario de Tete, 1885," BOM, 29 (1886), 361; Newitt, "Historical
Interpretation," 82; AHM, Fundo do Seculo XIX, Tete, Governo do Distrito, Cx. 11: Antonio Joaquim Goncalves Maceiras to Governador de Tete, 6 Oct. 1888; Castilho, Relato'riode Guerra, 35; Wallis, Zambesi Expedition, I, 42; Joaquim d'Almeida da Cunha,
Estudo Ace'rcados Usos e os Costumes dos Banianes, Bathias, Pares, Mouros, Gentios e Indrgenas(Lourenco Marques, 1885), 93-98; Lacerda e Almeida, Travessia, 114-115.
103Dharma is defined as "action conforming to universal order" in Louis Dumont,
Homo Hierarchicus(Chicago, 1970), 251. Kharma is defined as "the effect of any action
upon the agent whether in this life or in a future one" in William Theodore de Bary, ed.,
Sources of Indian Tradition(New York, 1958), 39.
'04Lucy Mair, Witchcraft(New York, 1969), 11-12; Max Marwick, ed., Witchcraftand
Sorcery(London, 1970). The classic study of witchcraft in Africa was done by E.E. EvansPritchard, Witchcraft,Oracles and Magic among the Azande (London, 1937).
28
portant business venture, prazeros often sought the predictions of a diviner.105Livingstone portrayed the proliferation of specialized practitioners of magic in the Portuguese towns which he visited during the
middle of the nineteenth century.06 Similar practices occurred just
south of the Zambezi region in the town of Sofala and its hinterland.
The inhabitants of Sofala with the exception of the principalmen in
authority,and a few others, live in complete ignorance, being almost
rooted in the ideas and dominantsuperstitionsof the Kaffirs,in magic,
enchantments,etc., to the point of not sowing or harvestingtheir crops
without consulting a curandeirowho replies affirmativelyor negatively
accordingto the divinationof six cowry shells he carrieswith him.107
The broad system of beliefs to which the prazerosadhered was common to many African societies which lacked techniques for treating
everyday crises, most notably sickness.108To compensate for their inadequate knowledge, the prazerosnot only internalized indigenous cosmological assumptions but relied heavily on local herbalists, whom
they recognized as highly skilled medical practitioners.
[Dona Pascoa]... on hearing of Mr. Brown's death, expressed surprise
and grief, regrettingat the same time that Mr. Kilpatrickhad preferred
the Europeanpracticesto that of the natives, which she consideredto be
the only successful one.109
According to Governor Barbosa, Dona Pascoa's views enjoyed wide
support within the prazerocommunity, where any serious affliction was
immediately brought to the attention of an herbalist.110
To scandalized officials and travelers, the belief in witches and the
reliance on herbalists were unequivocal manifestations of cultural
regression. The level of illiteracy among prazeros reinforced this con'5Lacerda e Almeida, Travessia, 114-115.
106David Livingstone and Charles Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries(London, 1865), 51.
'0Cited in Newitt, "Portuguese," 492.
'08"But there must be somewhere a theory of causation which can account for the
serious cases; and this is the theory that sickness, along with other misfortunes such as
barrenness of women or cattle, destruction of crops by a sudden storm, a bad harvest
when your neighbor has a good one, or even some unexplained accident such as falling
off a ladder, is sent by personalised beings, either spirits who have authority to punish
you or humans who envy or hate you. Death too, although it is irremediable, must be
assigned a cause." Mair, Witchcraft.9-10.
109W.F.W.Owen, Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and
Madagascar (London, 1883), 81.
"OAjuda,52-X-2, No. 3: Jose Francisco Alves Barbosa, "Analyse estatfstica," 30 Dec.
1821. This is confirmed by AHU, Moc., Cx. 29: Jose Joao d'Araujo Aranha e Oliveira,
undated.
29
viction. One official report concluded that rarely could a "European

dona" speak a word of Portuguese;11 numerous documents signed
with an X demonstrate that illiteracy extended beyond the female
population.12 Allowing for both the low rate of literacy within Portugal
and the probability that many Goans were not fluent in Portuguese, it
would be still more precise to view an inability to read and write as a
manifestation of a shifting communication system. From this perspective, the prazeros and their families were part of the indigenous culture
which relied on oral communication. All were fluent in Chi-Sena, ChiNyanja, or Chi-Nyungwe, and many could converse in several of the
related Zambezian dialects.'13
By the middle of the nineteenth century the nature of the prazeros'
social system and the basic rules of social organization had undergone a
profound change. Although the data are sketchy, they indicate a rejection of monogamy, for example, in favor of local African forms with
their attendant rituals. Since marital patterns, family organization, and
inheritance practices were core institutions underpinning both Portuguese and Hindu society, shifts in these areas indicate both the extent of acculturation and the likelihood that other related practices for
which there is an absence of data were similarly modified.
Perhaps the most dramatic transformation occurred among the
prazeros of Hindu extraction, who gradually came to ignore the caste
system which historically had determined their form of social organization. When Indians, primarily from Goa, first arrived in the Zambezi
Valley, they religiously adhered to the caste system. Writing in the
1760s, one prazero explained that there were six castes, of which the
most important were the Brahmans and Chardo, and that all social relations were defined by caste position.114Forty years later the governor of
the Rivers of Sena observed that while intercaste marriages were still
prohibited, many Indians now married "Portuguese," often a euphemism for mulatto.115By the middle of the nineteenth century prazerosof
"'Capitao de Tete, 29 Dec. 1862; BOM, 48 (1863), 235.
12These can be located both in the AHU and the AHM. Since the Mozambican
archive tends to be the repository of more local documents, they are found there in
greater abundance. The nineteenth-century correspondence is in sharp contrast to that
of the earlier period. The AHU is the principal repository of highly literate letters written
by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century prazeros.
with Domingo Kunga, Chale Lupia, Joao Pomba, and Chapavira
13Interviews
Muiessa; joint interviews with Tom's Chave and Oliveira Sinto, Aleixo Jasere and Jose
Gunda, and Chetambara Chenungo and Wilson John.
'4ANTT, Ministerio do Reino, Maco 604: Antdnio Pinto de Miranda, "Mem6ria
sobre a Costa de Africa," 31-32, undated.
'5Joaquim Mendes Vasconcelos e Cirne, Memoria Sobre a Provfncia de Mo9ambique
(Lisbon, 1890), 17-18.
30
Indian extraction totally disregarded caste considerations and married

whomever they considered desirable.'16 As in the case of prazeros of
Portuguese descent, demographic pressures obviated custom.
Whatever their ancestry, the nineteenth-century prazeros practiced
and defended multiple marriages.
Polygamyis so common that it has become acceptable.It is true that it
rarelyoccurs in the town, but on the prazos,there were not any patricios
(as are called the children of the river who are a mixture of African,
Europeanand Canarian)who do not have three or more wives.17
Governor Lacerda's comments were echoed by a number of contemporary observers and by descendants of prominent prazeros.18
Polygyny enabled the prazero to negotiate a wide network of marriage
alliances with amambo and local village headmen whose assistance was
vital in protecting his role as political overlord. In addition, it provided a
basis of legitimacy for his heirs, who could claim direct, if somewhat
distant, links with the local royal family. Multiple marriages also made
it possible for the prazero to increase the size of his lineage, an important status criterion within the indigenous community.19
Polygyny required the imposition of a new ranking system within
the family with parallel role differentiation. Like their Sena and Tonga
counterparts, prazeros recognized the primacy of the senior wife. She
enjoyed a position of authority and prestige vis-a-vis the junior wives
which affected all aspects of their lives. The senior wife lived in the
largest hut, was exempt from certain undesirable activities, and, most
importantly, had the greatest claim to the prazero.'20 Such a hierarchical
relationship often generated tensions between competing wives. One
tradition relates how the prazero Gambete and his senior wife consumed special medicines to protect themselves against envious junior
wives who they feared would have them killed by a sorcerer.121
The privileged position of the senior wife extended to her first-born
son. No matter what his actual genealogical position among the male
'l6Interviews with Zacarias Ferrao, Antonio Vas, Dauce Angolete Gogodo, Joao Pomba, and Esmail Mussa Valy.
"7Lacerda e Almeida, Travessia, 113.
"8Interviews with Zacarias Ferrao, Antonio Vas, Dauce Angolete Gogodo, Joao Pomba, and Esmail Mussa Valy.
"'For an analysis of the status criteria among the Sena and related Zambezian peoples, see Barbara Isaacman and Allen Isaacman, "Slavery and Social Stratification among
the Sena of Mozambique," in Igor Kopytoff and Suzanne Miers, eds., Slavery in Africa
(University of Wisconsin Press, forthcoming).
120Interviews with Domingo Kunga, Chale Lupia, Dauce Angolete Gogodo; joint interview with Tomas Chave and Oliveira Sinto.
'2'Joint interview with Tomas Chave and Oliveira Sinto.
31
offspring,he was consideredthe legitimate heir and ultimate guardian

This practicerepresenteda substantialdeparture
of the familyestate."22
from the patterns of inheritance within both Portuguese and Indian
society. In the former, the estate of the deceased was divided among
the immediate heirs without regardto genealogicalposition or sex.123
Unlike the Portuguesepracticeof partilhas,cooperativeholding by all
male descendants was the prevalentpattern within Indian society.124
The shift in inheritance patterns was probably related to a larger
alterationin the mode of descent. While a lack of detailedgenealogical
dataprecludesany meaningfulgeneralizations,the cases of the Bongas
and Pereirassuggest that by the nineteenth century other prazerosmay
have accommodatedto the dominant system of descent.125
The absence of a localizedprazerocommunity with its relatedEuropean institutions,the shifting racialpatterns,and the emergence of an
alternateprocess of socializationall contributedto the peculiarpattern
of acculturation which emerged in the Zambezi Valley. Although
treatedseparatelyfor the purposeof analysis,these factorswere interrelated and had an aggregateimpact on the nature and direction of
change within transfrontiersociety.
To successfully maintain their position as political overlords, prazeros
were compelled to reside permanentlyon their estates ratherthan in

These estates were
the small towns of Sena, Tete, and Quelimane.126
scattered along the margins of the Zambezi River within a region of
about 50,000 squaremiles. The enormous distance between one prazo
and another precluded sustained social interaction between the few
hundredprazerofamilies. This isolation forced the children, and often
their parents, to seek companionshipfrom a segment of the African
populationwhich residedon the prazos.Overtime the local inhabitants
became an importantreferencegroupand a vital transmitterof cultural
traits.
'2Interviews with Domingo Kunga, Chale Lupia, Dauce Angolete Gogodo; joint interview with Toma's Chave and Oliveira Sinto.
23See Armando de Castro, "Propriedade," in Joel Serrao, ed., Diciondriode Historia de
Portugal (Lisbon, 1963-1971), III, 494-497. For an excellent ethnography of rural Portugal, see Jose"Cutileiro, A Portuguese Rural Society (London, 1971).
"2Shah, "Basic Terms," 10-14; Irwati Karve, Kinship Organizationin India (Bombay,
1965), 340-378; personal communication, J. Noronha of Goa, 25 Feb. 1973.
'25Although the descendants of the principal prazero families on the southern bank of
the Zambezi have now adopted the indigenous mode of social organization, it is impossible to determine when this change occurred without genealogical data, which unfortunately is unavailable.
'26Absentee ownership was very rare. Attempts by some prazerosto appoint agents to
oversee their estates generally resulted in political turmoil. See Isaacman,iMozambique,
117-119.
32
Located beyond the frontiers of Portuguese society, few prazero

families had any access to European socializing institutions. One high
church official lamented the absence of churches and schools which
left the prazeros in a state of total ignorance.
They have never heardthe mass, and know nothing of the doctrine,because there has been no one to teach them, since the prazerosoften live
seventy or eighty leagues apartand there are only a small number of
priests scatteredthroughoutthe region.127
The situation was not appreciably better for those prazero families who
happened to live in the immediate environs of Tete, Sena, or
Quelimane. The few schools and churches located in the towns were
acutely understaffed. Moreover, the clergy, who were responsible for
the religious and secular education of the community, were totally absorbed in commerce and lacked the interest to fulfill their obligations.128The lengths to which they would go to protect their privileged
position is revealed by the account of one traveler writing in the beginning of the nineteenth century.
[When] the inhabitantsof Tete prevailedon a poor friarto undertakethe
task of instructingtheir children to read and write, the rest of the holy
fraternityrose in alarm,and instantly obtained the removal of the offender to Sena, where he was obliged to be idle, and the priest who was
there at the time of this expedition frankly owned... that he and the
other religieuxonly existed by the ignoranceof their flock.129
By 1850 few members of the urban Portuguese community cared about
such abuses or even pretended to be Christians. In that year there was
only one small church in Sena and it was more than adequate for the
few who attended.130
Demographic factors reinforced the cultural isolation of the
transfrontiersmen. A high mortality rate precluded the development of
a self-sustaining European community capable of providing spouses
for the prazeros, and failure to attract female immigrants of child-bearing age exacerbated the problem. Such a group would presumably have
been committed to the perpetuation of Portuguese culture. The lack of
127AHU, Moc., Cx. 6: Fr. Joao de Nossa Senhora, Administrador Episcopal, 8 Aug.
1758.
'"Cirne, Memdria, 28.
290Owen, Voyages, 66.
'30AHU, Mog., Pasta 10: Antonio Candido Pedroso Gamitto, "Memoria sobre uma
systema para as Colonias Portuguezas," 2 Jan. 1850. This general pattern is confirmed by
Livingstone. David Livingstone, Missionary Travelsand Research in South Africa (London,
1857), 644.
33
overseas culture bearers and the decline of the European population

compelled prazeros to marry mulattos and Africans who did not share
their concern for Portuguese custom or tradition.
Less selective marital patterns effectively precluded the maintenance
of an ideology of racial exclusiveness and social conformity. Unlike the
situation in eighteenth-century Jamaica, for example, where pressures
to remain white and European were a mechanism of social control in
the settler community,131 attempts to articulate and enforce a policy of
racial and cultural superiority proved ineffective in the Zambezi Valley.
Thus government legislation banning interracial unions was ignored
when it conflicted with social realities, as were the locally-generated
stereotypes of the primitive African and the slothful mestizo. These attitudinal modifications reflected the racial and cultural metamorphosis
which the prazeros themselves had undergone.
Social and cultural isolation, the changing racial composition, and attitudinal shifts all reinforced the process of socialization which was the
predominant factor in the Africanization of the transfrontiersmen. By
the nineteenth century most prazero children were raised by relatives
of African descent; whose values were totally alien to the cultural
matrices of the Portuguese and Indians.132This didactic process was
reinforced by the house slaves, or mabandazi, who were responsible for
the day-to-day supervision of the children, and by their African age
mates with whom they interacted.133The result was that a wide range of
indigenous beliefs and explanations became internalized and transmitted from one generation to the next. Even when limited interaction between neighboring prazero families occurred, each had become so immersed in the indigenous culture that neither served as a reminder of
their common European or Goan past. This ongoing process of acculturation was simplistically explained by one late-nineteenth-century observer: "[Portuguese] children born in this land are frequently
mestizos, who violate the traditions of their heritage ... [and] living in
permanent contact with the Africans, they lose all notion of dignity,
adopting the secret heathenistic rites of the mysterious indigenous
population."134
'31Philip D. Curtin, Two Jamaicas (Cambridge, Mass., 1955), 42-60; Edward Brathwaite, The Developmentof Creole Society in Jamaica 1770-1820 (London, 1971), 297-305.
132Joao de Azevedo Coutinho, Manuel Antonio de Sousa: Um Capitao-morda Zambezia
(Lisbon, 1936), 6-7.
'33Ibid.; ANNTT, Ministerio do Reino, Maco 604: Antonio Pinto de Miranda,
"Mem6ria sobre a Costa de 'Africa," 56-57, undated. For a general account of the slaves
on the prazos, see Antonio Candido Pedroso Gamitto, "Escravatura na'Africa Oriental,"
ArchivoPittoresco, 2 (1859), 369-372, 397-400.
34Coutinho, Manuel Antonio de Sousa, 6-7.
34
Cultural transformation had profound implications for government-prazerointeraction.Although a detailed analysis of the shifting
relationships falls outside the bounds of this paper, we suggest that
Africanizationof the transfrontiersmendirectlyaffectedtheir degree of
commitment to the metropole and motivated their resistance to Portuguese penetration from 1850 until the early twentieth century. By
operatingat a high level of generalization,it is possible to isolate trends
in their relations with Lisbon at differentpoints in time.
In the seventeenth century most prazerosthought of themselves as
imperialagents of the crown. SisnandoBayao, Ant6nio Lobo da Silva,
and Manoel Paes de Pinha, for example, were all willing to undertake
major ventures at substantial personal costs to demonstrate their
loyaltyto Lisbon.They acceptedthe feudal assumptionthat the king of
Portugalwas the legitimateand ultimate owner of all that his servants
had conquered.In returnthey askedonly that their limited holdingsbe
recognizedand that they receive symbolic rewardsfor their services to
the crown.
The highly formalizedrelationshipbetween king and subject contrastssharplywith the more typicalfrontier-metropolisconflicts of the
eighteenth century. During this period the prazerocommunity no
longer acknowledgeda subordinateposition and refusedto subsume its
interests to those of the state. Considerationsof patriotismand fealty
were replacedby a recognitionthat substantialareasof conflict existed
and that Lisbon lacked the capacity to enforce its restrictive legislation.135The prazerosmanifested their autonomy in a number of ways,
rangingfrom their refusal to pay taxes and provide militaryassistance
to explicit denials of the government'sclaim to be the ultimate owner
of their lands.136
Until the middle of the nineteenth century an uneasy modusvivendi
existed between the prazerosand the state. The inherent tension in
their relationshipwas obvious from the assessment by one officialthat
among any "groupof twenty prazeroseach one has nineteen enemies,
however all are the enemy of the Governor.'"37Hostilities remainedat
a minimum because local civilian and military officials refused to
challenge the autonomy of the prazeros;in those few cases when they
did the results were predictable."On being called up for his arrears"
one nineteenth-centuryprazero"threatenednot only the Governorof
the place but also the authorities at Mocambiquewith his slaves, in
135See Isaacman, Mozambique, 95-101.
1361bid.
'3'ANTT, Ministe'rio do Reino, Mapo 604: Inacio Caetano Xavier to Governador
Geral, 26 Dec. 1758.
35
number about a thousand.'"38 The request was subsequently dropped.

The impending partition of Africa dramatically altered this situation.
As early as the middle of the nineteenth century Lisbon recognized the
need to conquer and pacify the Zambezi region in order to thwart growing British interest. To achieve this end, Portugal stationed large numbers of troops with modern weapons in the Zambezi Valley in the hope
that a show of force in conjunction with offers of titles, financial
rewards, and other European status symbols would convince the
prazerosto renounce their autonomy and even assist in the conquest of
the area. Although their response was not unanimous, most prazerosrejected these appeals and actively fought against the Portuguese. According to an eyewitness account, the senior member of the Pereira
family called together a number of transfrontiersmen and important
Zambezi chiefs to urge the creation of a multiethnic confederation
capable of driving the Portuguese out of the region.
The Africans of all tribes must unite in good faith, in a coordinatedattempt to acquirelarge supplies of arms and ammunition and when we
have achieved this, we must expel all the Portuguese and make an
alliance with the British who are sympathetic to the aspirationsof the
Africans.139
A similar concern was illustrated by Muenemutapa Candie's proposal
that Bonga and his descendants be recognized as the legitimate rulers
of a Sena-Tonga-Tawara union which would include his domains as
well as those of prazeros living within the territory.140
In the final analysis, these alliances and subsequent resistance movements shared a common raison d'etre with other anticolonial operations
throughout Africa: to drive out the Europeans and protect their traditions, their lands, and their way of life. Such actions run directly
counter to contentions by the Salazar and Caetano regimes that their
overseas settlers performed an important civilizing function, and implicitly challenge the assumptions underpinning the concept of
Lusotropicalism which Gilberto Freyre has articulated.
Throughout this paper we have utilized transfrontiersmento describe
the nineteenth-century prazeros.We have also suggested that this term
has value as an analytical tool for situations outside the Zambezi
138F.Torres Texugo, Letter on the Slave Trade Still Being Carriedon Along the Eastern
Coast of Africa (London, 1839), 65.
39Fernandes,Junior,"Narragao,"50;
'40JoaquimCarlos Paiva de Andrada, "Campanhas da Zambezia," Boletim.da
Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, 7 (1887), 727-728.
36
Valley. In order to properly employ the concept, distinctions between

transfrontiersmenand Jrontiersmenmust be made explicit.
The paramount difference between the two is that transfrontiersmen
resided permanently beyond the limits of the European settler community while frontiersmen remained on the European side of the frontier.
Although the latter often crossed the zone of demarcation for limited
periods of time, they were never totally isolated from the European
socializing institutions which mitigated against large-scale adoption of
indigenous cultural forms.
Transfrontiersmen rarely were accompanied by European women
and married into the local indigenous population. Frontiersmen often
had wives or concubines beyond the frontier with whom they
periodically cohabitated, but their primordial loyalty was to the kinship
network which they had established within the European community.
The location of spouse and family meant that the frontiersmen always
returned to European society while the transfrontiersmen were progressively absorbed into the indigenous racial and cultural group. A
further consequence of these marital and residential patterns was the
degree to which European mothers participated in the socialization of
subsequent generations. The lack of European women in the
transfrontier community reinforced its cultural isolation and facilitated
incorporation into the indigenous society.
Intimately related to these two distinctions were the nature and extent of acculturation. While frontiersmen tended to develop hybrid
cultures, transTrontiersmen progressively lost their European identity,
adopting the life style of the local population. Thus, unlike the prazeros,
the bandeirantesof Brazil borrowed the language, much of the material
culture, and some religious ideas from the Indian population, but also
retained a commitment to Catholicism and other European cultural
elements.41' In this way they were probably not too different from the
early Portuguese settlers in the Zambezi Valley.
A concern for the broad question of interculturation makes it important to determine the impact which the prazeros had on the indigenous
Zambezian population. Their principal contribution seems to have
been the introduction of cloth, beads, and guns. Although these artifacts may have improved the material culture of the Africans they did
not radically alter their life style, and their social organization and value
system remained unaffected by the presence of the prazeros. Tete Prov'41C.R. Boxer, The Golden Age of Brazil 1695-1750 (Berkeley, 1962), 30-84; Sergio
Buarque de Holanda, Caminhose Fronteiras(Rio de Janeiro, 1957), 13-180. For a general
description of the life of the bandeirantes,see Alcantara Machado, Vida e Morte de Bandeirante (Sao Paulo, 1965).
37
ince, for example, with a total estimated populationof 50,000 in 1821,

contained 259 Africansand mulattoslisted as Christian.Of these only
eighteen definitely lived on the prazos.'42 As a group, then, the prazeros
were the converted ratherthan the converters.The directionof culture

change was probablysimilar for all transfrontiersmen.
Finally, frontiersmenand transfrontiersmendefined their identities
and loyalties in terms of distinctly different communities. Such selfperceptions are consistent with Owen Lattimore's definition of the
frontieras a social ratherthan a geographicdelineationin which people
internalizea consciousness of belonging to an exclusive groupsharing
a specific territory.143
The overridingconcern of the frontier community was to maintainits autonomy from the metropoliswhile guarding
against threats from the indigenous society. As the case of the prazeros
demonstrates,transfrontiersmenshifted their loyaltiesto the people of

the great beyond. Throughout the nineteenth century prazerosand
their African allies attackedthe Portuguese administrativecenters of
Tete and Sena, disruptedtrade,and at the end of the centuryjoined together with a number of African polities to resist Portuguesepenetration.
The general pattern of frontier history has been one of progressive
advancement of the frontier.The westwardexpansion in the United
States is a classic example. Within the Zambezi Valley, however, the
exact opposite,the contractionof the Europeanfrontier,seems to have
occurred. While the entire lower Zambezi, including the prazos, initially
constituted a frontier zone, the shifting attitudes and loyalties of the

prazeros left the frontier towns of Sena and Tete as isolated pockets of
Europeansociety by the nineteenth century.Even within these inland

centers the evidence suggests substantial acculturation,although the
scale of defection was substantiallysmaller than among the prazeros.
This paperhas examined the frontier-transfrontierrelationshipfrom
the perspectiveof the fifteenth-centurymaritimeexpansion.However,
Lattimore's work convincingly places this form of contact within a
much broader spatial and temporal perspective. He argues that the
overseas migrationsrepresentedonly one chapterin the largerhistory
of the frontier.144As his research on China exemplifies, interaction
along geographicand culturalzones figuredprominentlyin the history
of Asia, the Americas, and Africa prior to their initial contact with
142AHU, Mo9., Cx. 64: "Mappa dos Casamentos, Baptizados e Morturios e Numero
dos Christaons da Frequeza da Villa de Tete Principanda a 1?de Junho 1821 e findo a?
Fim de Maio 1821 [sic," 22 May 1882, unsigned.
'43Owen Lattimore, "Frontier," 469-491.
14Ibid., 488.
38
ALLEN ISAACMAN and BARBARA ISAACMAN
Europe. Nomadic-sedentary conflicts, the growth of stranger communities within host populations, and the Chikunda diaspora suggest the
utility of frontiersmen and transfrontiersmenas analytical tools for the
study of aspects of precolonial African history.
APPENDIX
A List of Informants
Tape recordings of the oral interviews collected by the authors and
used in this article are deposited in the African Studies Association oral
data archives, which are housed in the Archive of Traditional Music,
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. The following is a list of the
informants interviewed, arranged by region.
REGION OFTETE
Boroma
Conrado Msussa Boroma, interview on 28 July, 17 Aug., 20 Aug., 29
Sept. 1968. T.T. #5(1), T.T. #5(2), T.T. #6(1), T.T. #6(2), T.T.
#6a(1), T.T. #6a(2); E.T. #3(2), E.T. #4(1), E.T. #4(2).
Village of Tete
Jose Antonio de Abreu, interview on 16 July, 22 July 1968. T.T. #3(1),
T.T. #3(2).
REGION OF MASSANGANO
Joao Vicente, interview on 26 Sept. 1968. T.T. #13(1); E.T. #9(2).

Domingo Kunga, interview on 27 Sept. 1968. T.T. #13(1); E.T. #9(2).
Ant6nio Gaviao, interview on 27 Sept. 1968. T.T. #13(1), T.T. #13(2);
E.T. #10(1).
Chacundunga Mavico, interview on 27 Sept. 1968. T.T. #13(2); E.T.
#10(2).
Chale Lupia, interview on 28 Sept. 1968. T.T. #13(2); E.T. #10(1).
Niquicicafe Presente, interview on 28 Sept. 1968. T.T. #13(2); E.T.
#10(1), E.T. #10(2).
Alberto Vicente da Cruz, interview on 13 Oct. 1968. T.T. #16(2).
REGION OFSENA
Sena
Jasse Camalizene, interview on 6 Aug. 1968. T.T. #8(1); E.T. #5(1).
Esmail Mussa Valy, interview on 10 Aug. 1968. Untaped.
39
Chemba
Ren9o Cado, interview on 13 Aug. 1968. T.T. #9(1), T.T. #9(2); E.T.
#6(1).
Tomas Chave and OliveiraSinto,joint interview on 14 Aug. 1968. T.T.
#9(2); E.T. #6(2).
Ant6nio Vas, interview on 13 Sept. 1968. T.T. #12(2); E.T.#9(1), E.T.
#9(2).
Caya
Joao Pomba, interview on 31 Aug. 1968. T.T. #10(1); E.T. #7(2).

Aleixo Jasere and Jose Gunda, joint interview on 1 Sept. 1968. T.T.
#10(1); E.T. #8(1).
ZacariasFerrao,interview on 2 Sept. 1968. T.T. #11(1), T.T. #11(2).
Dauce Angolete Gogodo, interview on 3 Sept. 1968. T.T. #10(2); E.T.
#8(2).
Gente Ren;o and Quembo Pangacha,interview on 4 Sept. 1968. T.T.
#10(2), T.T. #11(1); E.T. #8(1).
Cheringoma
Andisseni Tesoura,interview on 8 Sept. 1968. T.T.#12(2); E.T. #9(1).

REGION OF MAKANGA
Simon Biwi, interview on 10 Oct. 1968. T.T. #14(2); E.T. #10(2).

Chapavira Muiessa, interview on 12 Oct. 1968. T.T. #15(1); E.T.
#10(2).
CalavinaCouche and ZabucaNgombe, joint interviewon 14 Oct. 1968.

T.T. #15(1), T.T. #15(2); E.T. #11(2).
ChetambaraChenungo and Wilson John, joint interview on 15 Oct.
1968. T.T. #15(2); E.T. #11(2).
Chiponda Cavumbula,interview on 16 Oct. 1968. T.T. #15(2), T.T.
#16(1); E.T. #11(2), E.T. #12(1).
Leao Manuel BanqueiroCaetano Pereira,interview on 17 Oct. 1968.
T.T. #16(1); E.T. #12(1).

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Board of Trustees, Boston University

The Prazeros as Transfrontiersmen: A Study in Social and Cultural Change

Europeansettlers could be absorbedinto the dominant local cultures.

THE PRAZEROSAS TRANSFRONTIERSMEN

Portuguese interest in the Zambezi Valley began as early as 1505

Zambezi River and had incorporated them into the famous

services to their new overlordsmuch as they had previouslyto the local

'?SeeJan Vansina,"A Comparisonof AfricanKingdoms,"Africa,32 (1962), 324-335.

Portuguesano Mundo,III (1938), 107-109;Jose Fernandes,Junior,"Hist6riade Undi"

combining such arrangements with a judicious use of force, a number

claimed ultimate ownership of these estates, which were legally to be

dal rights defined a highly structuredrelationshipin which the settlers

and a substantial income in taxes.23Inheritance patterns tended to

Lobo da Silvaand Manoel Paes de Pinha performedservices of similar

As the reportedaspirationsof Ant6nio Lobo da Silva suggest, the

Christian education. Among the European-educatedsons of Manoel

culturalchange during this early period, some members of the inland

of Sena lamented the virtualabsence of industriouswhite settlers who,

desperate attempt to maintain a nominal presence in the Zambezi,

Portugal but no women.41 Tete exhibited a somewhat less extreme

ALLEN ISAACMAN and BARBARA ISAACMAN

The Christian Population of Tete, 1786-1792

a15-40 age group

b 14-40 age group

c15-50 age group

49Cited in Newitt, "Portuguese," 479.

Fertility and Mortality of the Christian Population of Tete,

a15-40 age group

from a somewhat differentperspective,the high raw mortalityfigures

cessful, because males predominatedamong Indianimmigrants.In the

THE PRAZEROSAS TRANSFRONTIERSMEN

ChristianBirths and Deaths in Sena, 1740-1801

By the middle of the eighteenth century there were enough people

Racial Composition of Sena and Tete

58Ajuda,52-X-2, No. 3: Jose FranciscoAlves Barbosa,"Analyseestatistica,"30 Dec.

THE PRAZEROSAS TRANSFRONTIERSMEN

relationships between cultural components, even selective borrowing

one family to another. These are best explained in terms of length of

the prazeros,whether of Portugueseor Goan extraction,shared a deep

the Pereira family became the national shrine center of Makanga,

of the eighteenth century, and by the third decade of the nineteenth

Once in power, the Bongas strived to legitimize and institutionalize

beer) to Portuguese or Goan foods, and lived in African thatched

86Interviews with Domingo Kunga, Chale Lupia, Niquicicafe Presente, Chacundunga

The Bongas'relianceon the mhondoro

The wide acceptance of indigenous witchcraft beliefs and practices is

muabvi was inextricably related to explanations about causality, evil,

viction. One official report concluded that rarely could a "European

Indian extraction totally disregarded caste considerations and married

offspring,he was consideredthe legitimate heir and ultimate guardian

were compelled to reside permanentlyon their estates ratherthan in

Located beyond the frontiers of Portuguese society, few prazero

overseas culture bearers and the decline of the European population

number about a thousand.'"38 The request was subsequently dropped.

Valley. In order to properly employ the concept, distinctions between

ince, for example, with a total estimated populationof 50,000 in 1821,

were the converted ratherthan the converters.The directionof culture

demonstrates,transfrontiersmenshifted their loyaltiesto the people of

constituted a frontier zone, the shifting attitudes and loyalties of the

Europeansociety by the nineteenth century.Even within these inland

ALLEN ISAACMAN and BARBARA ISAACMAN

Joao Vicente, interview on 26 Sept. 1968. T.T. #13(1); E.T. #9(2).

Joao Pomba, interview on 31 Aug. 1968. T.T. #10(1); E.T. #7(2).