Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1893-02-16
ONCE A POWERFUL NATION.
The Important Past of the Now Pitiful
and Timorous Mashonas.

| and Humorous Mashonas.
Mr.. Theodore Bent has made some
surprising discoveries with regard to
the inhabitants of Mashonaland, ac-
cording to the New York Sun. Eight
years ago Montagu Kerr described
these natives as very timid people
living among the rocks and crannies
of the hills, where they kept con-
slant outlook for the approach of the
dreaded Metabeles. Their enemies
for many years had kept them in q
state of terror. Mr.. Bend says that
in spite of their timid nature he be-
licved when he saw them last year
that their race had seen better days,
as they retained traces of higher
civilization in their skill in smelling
iron, their carvings and musical in
struments.-
They called themselves the Maka-
langa, name which did not signify
much to the explorer until he re-
turned to civilization, when he began
to read the works of early Portuguese
travellers.
In the book written 800 years ago
by Dos Santos, who was far more
careful and accurate writer on Africa
than most of his contemporaries, Mr..
Bent was astonished to find this state
ment referring to the region of Ma
shonaland:
"All these Kaffirs they call Mocar-
angas, because all talk the Mocaranga
language. The Monamatapa and all
his vassals are Mocarangas, name
which they have because they live in
the land of the Mocaranga, which is
the best and most polished of all the
Kaffir languages have SEEM
Here we have the same name as
the Makalanga by substituting, as the
Portuguese always did, for |. Other
conclusive testimony with regard to
the identity of the two peoples has,
been discovered by Mr.. Bent; and it
may be regarded as established that
the timid Makalangas of to-day are
the descendants of the once powerful
organization known in the sixteenth
century as the empire of Monomatapa,
a powerful Kaf1ir organization like
the Matabeles of to-day which fell to
pieces on the account of internal dis
sensions, and finally became prey to
the Zulu hOrdes. The descriptions
which Don Santos gives of the Maka-
langas of Monamatapa correspond ex-
act)y with the habits and customs of
the present inhabitants. He tells of
the annual sacrifice to the spirits of
their ancestors, the intercessors for
them between God and man, the beer
drinking, the iron smelling, the Ma
shonaland piano, the weekly day of
rest during the blowing season and
other customs which identify them
with tho people of to-day
Mr.. Brent has also been able to
avail himself of the writings of Ara
bic historians who lived 1000 years
ago, whose descriptions of the man
ners and customs of the people living
in this region connect them with the
present race. Hence, it seems very
clear that the country now called
Mashonaland has been inhabited for
at least 1000 years by the ancestors
of the present barbarOus race, a race
which at onetime had power and some
degree of civilization, due probably
toits intercourse with foreign traders;
but it has again fallen into condition
of barbarism.
During the blowing season every
sixth day is called Gods day, when
the people abstain from work. The
day is invariably devoted by the men
to drinking beer and lying on the
rocks. The Mashona piano consists
of more than twenty iron notes fixed
to scale on a square piece of wood
and played on a calabash to bring out
the sound. The natives are a musical
race, and easily pick up tunes to play
on this instrument.
The anthrOpOlogist evidently Las
an inviting field for research in the
study of the Makalanga, whose Ian
guage is as yet little known. Tho
natives are very reserved with regard
to their customs and religious OBJ
servalces.