Lomwe-Chuabo Protest Songs

The following songs were transcribed in the 1970’s and express the bitter hatred that many Mozambican Africans had towards the chiefs and headmen that had been appointed by the Portuguese during the colonial era.

A villager describes the manner in which chiefs were selected — “The chief was chosen by the government. When they came in a village like this one, they would gather everybody together and look for a clever one and name him a chief, and everybody would have to respect him for his title. Even a bad one”. (1)

These chiefs became the administrators of Portuguese rule, collecting taxes, recruiting forced labour and enforcing schemes for the compulsory production of rice and cotton. Though the chiefs themselves were subject to punishment by the Portuguese if they failed to enforce colonial policy, they were well-paid and protected by the state. The chiefs rapidly became hated by their “subjects” for their arrogance and unearned sense of entitlement.

The first poem was sung in Chuabo by Janta Lakriman and Luis Prazo of Maganja da Costa, at Checanyama Compound village in Luabo, August 30, 1975. The song makes reference to the fact that the chiefs had the power to force families to send their children into labour for the colonial state, whilst being above any reproach from the communities they oversaw.

The following poem was sung in Chuabo by Parose Kwiri of Baixo Licungo, at Jacunda Compound village, Marromeu, Beira District, September 7, 1975.

Whilst chiefs had the power to dispatch men as migrant labourers, they also often sexually-harassed the wives of the men that they had sent away. The following poem was sung in Lomwe by two women, Armena Muhinayula and Helen Souzinho of Mulevala, Ile, at Checanyama Compound village, Luabo, August 30, 1975. The women express their scorn for the chiefs with a range of insults: aNankhollo (“he-goat”), aNamthullu (“impotent bull”), aMullalleya (“court messenger”) and aMukhopella (“upstart”) with the name “hoe-handle” used in reference to the chiefs constant state of licentiousness.

Capitalism and Colonialism,
by Leroy Vail and Landeg White.
University of Minnesota Press, 1980

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Footnotes

1. Vail and White, Capitalism and Colonialism
2. Luabo: site of a major sugar plantation.
3. São Tomé: site of a major sugar plantation.