Chikunda, sometimes rendered as Achicunda, was the name given from the 18th century onwards to the slave-warriors of the Afro-Portuguese estates known as Prazos in Zambezia, Mozambique. They were used to defend the prazos and police their inhabitants. Many of the chikunda were originally chattel slaves, raised to the status of soldiers, traders or administrators of parts of the prazo as a client or unfree dependent.
The prazo system based on agriculture broke down as a result of drought and disease in the early 19th century and was replaced by a small number of virtually independent states in the Zambezi valley that were based on the trade in slaves and ivory. The name ‘’’Achikunda’’’ was then applied to groups of professional soldiers in these minor states, who were rewarded with a share of the profits of those trades. Although these minor states were mainly in Mozambique, a small number extended their influence into what are now parts of Zambia and Malawi.
The minor states in and around the Zambezi River valley were brought under closer Portuguese control as a result of the Scramble for Africa, which required colonial powers to bring territories they claimed under their jurisdiction, the doctrine of "effective occupation". Between 1891 and 1902, the Mozambique Company took control of this area and the former roles of the chikunda in securing slaves and ivory and providing internal and external security for those states became redundant, although many ex-chikunda were involved in the Barue uprising of 1917 to 1918 against the Portuguese government. A few communities along the Zambezi and Luangwa river valleys preserve their chikunda heritage, although most former chikunda have merged into their host communities.
Chikunda origins
The prazos Since the 16th century, the Portuguese Crown, which claimed ownership of the land in Mozambique, had leased crown lands in the Zambezi valley to Portuguese subjects under grants termed “prazos da coroa” (crown leases), nominally for three lives, with the aim of promoting development and enabling possible European settlement. In theory, a prazo grant could be cancelled if the lessee (or prazeiro) did not occupy and develop the land, or later deserted it, although in practice the prazo grants were renewed and became hereditary.Newitt (1973), Portuguese Settlement on the Zambesi, p. 111. The prazo holder was responsible for administering justice in the land comprised in his grant and also collecting taxes from its inhabitants, out of which he was supposed to pay an annual rent to the crown, and to maintain sufficient armed retainers to keep the peace.Newitt (1973), Portuguese Settlement on the Zambesi, p. 121. The prazeiros only rarely removed the local chiefs resident on their estates, preferring to retain them as subordinates, and few attempted to start commercial agriculture, but expropriated the surplus products of their peasants and also profited from the trade in ivory and slaves.Isaacman and Peterson (2003), Making the Chikunda, p. 260. The prazos varied greatly in size and number, but in 1763 there were 22 in the captaincy of Sena and 54 in the captaincy of Tete, of which three extended over hundreds of square miles but others included only a few villages.Newitt (1973), Portuguese Settlement on the Zambesi, pp. 87-90.
The Afro-Portuguese prazo holders, known locally from at least the early 17th century as “muzungos”, signifying a white man, boss or patron,Dicionário Online de Português were of diverse origin and, although most claimed at least some connection with metropolitan Portugal, many had original links with Portuguese India and all, after many generations of intermarriage with African women, were African in appearance and culture.Newitt (1995), A History of Mozambique, pp. 127-9. By the mid-18th century, as the largely African prazo owners followed local customs of matrilineal inheritance, a number of women, known as the Zambezi donas, became owners of prazos and were succeeded by their daughters rather than their sons.Newitt (1995), A History of Mozambique pp. 228-30.Rodrigues (2006), As donas de prazos do Zambeze, pp 18-19, 25.
The early chikunda In the 17th and early 18th centuries, the term “chikunda” was not in general use for the armed retainers of a prazeiro, who could include chattel slaves.Newitt (1995), A History of Mozambique, p. 143. However, although many chattel slaves were acquired by capture or purchase to undertake agricultural work, mining or as house-servants or craftsmen on the prazos, it was normal from the mid-18th century for the retainers who became soldiers or administrators to offer themselves as voluntary unfree dependents in return for protection and a prospect of advancement and enrichment. By the mid-18th century, the term chikunda, which probably derives from the bantu word kunda means “to conquer”,Isaacman and Peterson (2003), Making the Chikunda p. 268. was reserved for the armed clients of the prazo owners, and other designations were used for personal or household slaves.Newitt (1995), A History of Mozambique pp. 233-4. The chikunda of each prazo came from diverse backgrounds, because prazeiros preferred recruits without local ties, but they developed a loyalty to the group to which they belonged. They were often recruited from areas of conflict or famine, offering themselves voluntarily or, in some cases, coming as captives.Isaacman and Peterson (2003), Making the Chikunda pp. 261, 263.
At their height in the 17th century, individual prazeiros such as António Lobo da Silva could have upwards of 5000 chikunda, some reputedly owning as many as 15000.Isaacman and Peterson (2006), Making the Chikunda p. 99, in Arming Slaves: From Classical Times to the Moderno Age edited by Christopher Leslie Brown and Phillip F. Morgan. Yale University Press, New Haven and London In the mid-eighteenth century, the total chikunda population in Zambezia was estimated at 50000.Isaacman and Peterson (2006), Idem. In a survey of 1766, the two largest prazos were said to have around 700 and 500 chikunda. In early times, the chikunda were usually armed with bows and spears but, by the mid-18th century, some were armed with muskets.Isaacman and Peterson (2003), Making the Chikunda pp. 266-7. The chikunda usually lived in small fortified villages, often near the margins of the larger prazos. Each chikunda village was headed by the owner's deputy called a capitão, or headman. These villages generally produced food to support the chikunda and also made a contribution in cash or goods to their master. If the prazo owner was strong, the chikunda acted as a defence and police force, keeping order and collecting tribute, but under a weak owner or in times of famine, they could become little more than bandits, preying on local communities and disregarding their nominal patron.Newitt (1995), A History of Mozambique pp. 235-6, 240.
Individuals were incorporated into the ranks of the chikunda through a ritual under which they swore lifelong loyalty to the prazeiro. However prosperous or anarchic they might become, the chikunda could only rarely become completely free of their patron, who guaranteed their status as warriors and their security.Isaacman, Mulwafu and Mulwafu (1999), From Slaves to Freedmen, p. 2.Newitt (1995), A History of Mozambique, p. 237. Some chikunda did manage to break away from their masters, leave their prazo and hunt for ivory in the Shire valley, where they competed with Yao traders in the mid-18th century McCracken (2012), A History of Malawi, p. 18.
Decline of the prazos The great Mozambique drought of 1794 to 1802 and subsequent droughts and smallpox epidemics lasting into the 1830s destroyed the agricultural economy of the Zambezia prazos, as the cultivators could not feed themselves, let alone produce surpluses to maintain the chikunda and prazeiros. Many chikunda deserted their prazos and some formed armed bands seeking any means to survive, thus worsening the situation created by drought.Lovejoy (2011), Transformations in Slavery, p. 138.Newitt (1995), A History of Mozambique, pp. 253-4. Other former chikunda returned, or attempted to return, to their homelands and resume their old lives, or merged into the local peoples as peasants. A few used their military skills to become elephant hunters and, in the time of Ndebele incursions, they used their guns against the invaders.Isaacman (2003), Chikunda: Transfrontiersmen and Transnational Migrations, pp. 117-8, 121. Some chikunda elephant hunters travelled as far north as the area around Nkhotakota and the Luangwa valley in search of new herds to exploit. They married women from the local Chewa and Tumbuka peoples and their offspring soon lost their identity as chikunda.Isaacman, Mulwafu and Mulwafu (1999), From Slaves to Freedmen, p. 16.
The 19th century chikunda The Afro-Goan statelets By the 1840s, many of the former prazo owners that had survived the droughts and epidemics had left Zambezia and were replaced by five powerful families along the middle Zambezi, the da Cruz, Caetano Pereira, Vas dos Anjos, Ferrão and Alves da Silva, who were joined in the 1860s by a sixth family, the de Sousa. There were also several less prominent Afro-Portuguese families in this area and on the fringes of Portuguese influence. Most of these families were of Indian, or specifically Goanese, origin, although the original Alves da Silva were from Portugal, and all relief on the slave trade, despite its legal abolition in 1830, or elephant hunting, rather than agriculture. Through intermarriage with the families of leading African chiefs, they were recognised as the legitimate holders of several chieftaincies by their African subjects and they adopted African titles and the indigenous symbols of kingship and patronised local religious cults, yet also received Portuguese offices or military ranks that gave them an official status.Isaacman and Isaacman (1976), The Tradition of Resistance in Mozambique, pp. 29-30.Newitt (1995), A History of Mozambique, pp. 306-7.
The areas controlled by the main families far exceeded those of earlier prazos, and they maintained large numbers of armed chikunda, said to number several thousand, although estimates vary. Their military strength was based on a combination of strong defensive fortifications and European firearms, including breech-loading rifles later in the 19th century. Their centres were fortified towns, called , which were a development of the traditional stockaded village. Each consisted of a wooden stockade, supported by earthworks in the form of a ditch and bank, often with inner walls protecting the more important sections of the town. One large , Massangano, had fortifications 1,300 metres long and 150 to 180 metres wide.Newitt (1995), A History of Mozambique, pp. 253-4.