Maganja De Costa | #zambezia#africa

The name probably derives from that of the Mang'anja people, now mainly resident in southern Malawi. However, from the 17th century onwards, Portuguese explorers used the name Manganja as a territorial designation, and called the people living in that area Maganjas. The original area occupied by the Mang'anja, and the area called Manganja, extended south and east of the area this people currently occupy, and the name of the town Maganja da Costa ("Maganja of the Coast"), about 20 kilometres inland from the Indian Ocean near Pebane records their former eastern extent. At present, the population of the area is mixed, and the largest group consists of Makua people from northern Mozambique who first arrived in the 19th century. The area does not now contain any Mang'anja people, but in 1960 the oldest inhabitants recalled that a few survivors of the original population still spoke the Mang'anja language and used to visit rain shrine of M'Bona in southern Nyasaland, a cult exclusive to Mang'anja people.[1]