A mythical legend, in the oral tradition of the Makua people, tells that their ancestor were the first man and woman born of
Namuli which is their original home, while other living creatures came from nearby mountains. Scholars are uncertain whether their origins are in the mountains, or west of Lake Malawi, or northern lands such as in Tanzania or the south.
Metals, manufacturing and trade The Makua people have a documented history of metal ore processing and tools manufacturing. The colonial era Portuguese naturalist, Manuel Galvao da Silva for example, described iron mines of the Makua people. The extracted metal was then worked into axes, knives, spear, rings and other items. The Makua people have traditionally been dedicated to agriculture and hunting, yet medieval era documents suggest that the Makua people were also successful traders that controlled the trade routes between
Lake Malawi and the Atlantic coast doing brisk business with the Swahili (East Africa) and Gujarati (India) merchants before the start of the colonial era. In the 18th century there was a dramatic increase in the ivory trade which required large scale killing of elephants.
Colonialism and slavery The Portuguese who arrived in Mozambique in early 16th-century describe them for their trading relationships and expertise. The colonial settlers contacted the Makua people in early 16th century. The Makua people retaliated with a war of attrition from 1749 onwards, against the Arabic Sultans of the African coast bordering the Indian Ocean, the Portuguese and the other African ethnic groups that supported colonial interests. In early 18th-century, states historian Edward Alpers, the primary demand for slaves out of Makua people, and Mozambique in general, came not from Portugal or its Indian Ocean colonies such as
Goa because labor was readily available in South Asia and Portuguese colonial empire in Asia was small. In the 19th century, the Makua chiefs joined the lucrative trading by becoming a supplier of slaves and raiding ethnic groups near them, selling the captured people to the same merchants and exporters. The exports of Makua people has led to this ethnic group's presence in many islands of the Indian Ocean such as Madagascar, the
Caribbean, the
United States and elsewhere. According to Palmer and Newitt, one of the strategies deployed by Africans and Arab slave raiders and traders was to dehumanize the Makua and Lomwe communities, by publicly stereotyping them as "barbarous and savage tribes", which made slave buyers between 1800 and 1880 feel justified and righteous in "exploiting, civilizing" them from their barbarous ways. In truth, state modern era scholars, the historical evidence and economic success of Makua people suggest that they were peaceful and industrious. ==Religion==