Muslims in Zimbabwe: origins, composition and current strength(1)

Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs. Joual

Muslims in Zimbabwe: origins, composition and current strength

Ephraim C. Mandivenga a

a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies, Classics and Philosophy , University of Zimbabwe , Harare

Published online: 21 Mar 2007.

The Coming of Muslims to Zimbabwe

Islam was introduced into the Mutapa Empire before the sixteenth century A.D. by Muslims from the East Coast of Africa.' Within the first decade of that century the Portuguese built a fort at Sofala, preparing to penetrate the Mutapa Empire with a view to exploiting the mineral wealth of the region. They also wanted to take over the Indian sea trade from the Muslims, who they designated as Moors.2

Well before the penetration of the Portuguese, Muslims had established a number of trading posts along the East African coast. There were, from north to south, Mogadishu, Brava, Malindi, Mombasa, Pemba, Zanzibar, Mafia, Kilwa, Mozambique, Angoche, Kilimane and Sofala. At these Muslim ports, especially at Sofala and at Kilwa, Muslims exchanged cloth and beads for the gold, ivory, pearls, hippo hide, gum and ambergris of the African hinterland.

Beyond Cape Correntes, south of Sofala, the Muslims did not travel in their coir-sewn vessels, for the Mozambique current flowed southwards with great force. Besides, the resort lacked the monsoons which were greatly depended upon in the north. Thus it was the southe-most limit of Muslim trade interests along the coast.

At Sofala, near the mode port of Beira, the Portuguese built a fort in 1505. It was to be an intrepot and a base for future trade with the African interior, in particular the gold trade with the Mutapa Empire.

The Muslims, who had long formed trade links with the people of the interior plateau, dreaded the impending coming of the Portuguese, realising that the latter would inevitably jeopardise the gold trade monopoly of the former. In the second half of the sixteenth century, when the Portuguese invaded Nogomo Makunzagutu's (Mutapa) Empire — following the martyrdom of Father Goncalo da Silveira in 1561 — they discovered that Muslims were not only well established at the King's court, they also exercised considerable influence in the Mutapa state generally.

The Jesuit priest, da Silveira, who had been sent by the Portuguese in 1560, had been murdered on the orders of the young Mutapa who had been told by Mafamede, a Muslim from Mozambique Island, that the Missionary was a spy on a mission to pave the way for the eventual invasion of the empire by the Portuguese. It had also been alleged by Mafamede and other Muslims that Silveira, through the water of baptism, was bewitching the king and his people. Mafamede was the leader of local Muslims who were either Arabs, Persians or of mixed breed. In fact, "those who called themselves Arabs, including the descendants of the Persian immigrants, were undistinguishable in colour and features from the ordinary Bantu."3 Members of Silveira's party later persuaded the Mutapa to dismiss the charges of the Muslims as unfounded and to regret his wicked deed. The Mutapa, full of remorse, ordered the killing of all local Muslims and his mother too who, like the Mutapa himself, had been converted by the executed padre.

Seven years later the Portuguese sent an army to the Mutapa Empire to avenge the death of da Silveira. The expedition led by Francisco Barreto, travelled upstream along the Zambezi and camped at Sena in what is now Northe Mozambique. While at Sena, preparing for the invasion of the Mutapa Empire some of the men died of dysentery and many horses died from trypanosomiasis. The Portuguese priest who had been sent along with Barreto, Father Monclaro, ascribed the alarming deaths of men and beasts to alleged nefarious activities of the local Muslims. Accordingly, Muslims in adjacent areas were mercilessly put to the sword. However, although the Muslims lost this round of the gold trade contest with the Portuguese, their presence and influence in the area did not cease completely.

The Varemba People

For three centuries little is heard of Muslims in and around Sena or Tete in the Upper Zambezi area. Yet there were signs that the Muslims had not been exterminated in the two massacres which we have briefly described. Boer trekkers and European adventurers who travelled north of the Mutapa Empire discovered a number of African tribal groups whose habits and customs were largely Islamic or at least Semitic. The adventurers from South Africa designated members of the tribes "Islamic Kaffirs" since their way of life was rather like that of Malay Muslims of the Cape.'

Some of these broken tribes, who kosher-kill their meat animals, now flourish in Zimbabwe and in Northe Transvaal scattered among indigenous African tribes — among the Vhenda and the Sotho in South Africa and among the Shona in Zimbabwe, rather like the Jews of Easte and Weste Europe. A number of these tribes now live in the Southe Province of Malawi.5 In they are called Varemba or Vamwenvi. Some ethno-historians maintain that these peculiar "foreign" tribes show Semitic features such as a long face and a long nose. All writers state that the Varemba circumcise their sons. They are also known as Amwenye along Upper Zambezi in Northe Mozambique and in Malawi. Though the ethnic origin of these tribes with Islamic characteristics remains uncertain, they could be descendants of the Arabs or mixed breeds found at Sena by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. It is also possible that they descended from Swahili-speaking, Sena-speaking or Shona-speaking Muslims who moved north and south of the Mutapa Empire as itinerant traders. 6 Though the true ethnic origin of these tribes remains unknown, the Varemba themselves always mention Sena as their place of origin; the remoter beginnings are traced to Arabia.7

Travelling from Sena they appear to have occupied a number of centres on the way to their present locations. The Varemba main original tribes seem to be twelve, and most Varemba invariably give a list amounting to a dozen.8

The fragments of the Islamic faith and culture which suggest that the Var- emba derive from a different source than the African tribes among whom they live may be summarised thus:-

The circumcision of male infants was unknown among other southe African black tribes until the arrival of the Varemba. The Varemba are semiendogamous. Their daughters cannot be married to non-Varemba unless the potential husbands are ritually purified before the intended marriage. However, Varemba men may marry non-Varemba women provided the latter are first ritually purified. They do not eat pork, edible animals which have died from natural causes, mice, and all meat animals have to have their throats cut and all blood drained according to Islamic custom. Moreover, in Zimbabwe some Varemba clan names are derived from Swahili or Arabic, for example, Madi Sadiki, Hasani, Sarifu, Serimani, Bakari, Saidi.

Now, and this is most important, although Varemba may be regarded as nominal or informal Muslims, their habits and customs are so pronounced that in Zimbabwe they attracted the attention of Indian Muslims in Zimbabwe who are now seriously engaged in a great programme to "re-Islamise" the Varemba.'

Consequent to these re-Islamising programmes hundreds of Varemba in Gutu, Buhera, Nyajena and Majiri Districts of Zimbabwe have been or are being reintroduced to the faith of their forefathers by Indo-Pakistan Muslims based in the towns, but the Varemba contacted by Asian Muslims thus far are only a small fraction of the other Vamwenyi tribes in Mberengwa, Chibi, Guruve, Wedza and in other communal areas of Zimbabwe who are still unknown to the Indian Muslims.

Although the Varemba may be regarded as nominal Muslims, in the near future they are likely to form the largest single group in Zimbabwe, if present trends continue. Malawian Muslims in Zimbabwe are assisting the Indian Muslims greatly in re-Islamising the Varemba. Since Malawian Muslims have Alims and Sheikhs among them, and know the culture of the Varemba as well as that of the Indian Muslims to some extent, they are well equipped to bring the two sides together. To the Malawian Muslims the Varemba are fellow Africans; the Indians are fellow Muslims. They act as a bridge between the two culturally different races.

Notes

1. These Muslims were Arabs from the Hijaz and the Najd in Arabia and Persians. See G.M. Theal (ed) Records of South Easte Africa Cape Town, 1878-1903,9 vols. V. 7/ff, Abstract of Ethnographical Information, compiled by the Editor. The Mutapa Empire included what is now Easte Zimbabwe and Weste Mozambique.

2. For more details regarding Portuguese official policy towards the Muslim Indian Ocean trade monopoly, see A. da Silva Rego and T.W. Baxter (eds.), Documents on the Portuguese in Mozambique and Central Africa 1497-1840,8 vols. Lisbon: 1964, vol. 1, p. 31.

3. See G.M. Theal, op. cit., vol. 7, p. 467.

4. See T. Price, "The 'Arabs' of the Zambezi", Muslim World, vol. XLIV, 1954, p. 32.

5. See S.S. Murray,/!//and&oofco/Mtffaw,Zomba: The Govement Printer, 1932, p. 196.

6. This claim is made by D.N. Beach, see his The Shona and Zimbabwe 900-1850, Gweru: Mambo Press, 1980, Chapters 1 and 3.

7. See T. Price, op. cit., p. 33.

8. See H. von Sicard, "Lemba Clans", Native Affairs Department Annual (Rhodesia), vol. 39, 1962, p. 68.

9. For more details regarding this all-important new development, see author's Islam in Zimbabwe, Gweru: Mambo Press, 1983, pp. 30-37.

10. For a more detailed account of Indian Muslims see F. and L.O. Dotson, The Indian Minority of Zambia, Rhodesia, and Malawi, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968.

برچسبها: Muslims, Zimbabwe shiafrica...