Liazzat J.K. BON ATE, Lusotopie 2003 : 115-140

The Ascendance of Angoche

The Politics of Kinship and Territory in Nineteenth Century Northern Mozambique

his paper deals with the nineteenth century history of the northern

Mozambican territory called Angoche. The name «Angoche » is a

proper name given by the Portuguese to the archipelago consisting of a cluster of islands, which appears on many maps as one piece of land despite the fact that each island can be reached only by water . Historically, other islands, such as Puga-Puga, Kiziwa Sultani Hassan (renamed by the Portuguese Mafamede), and Moma were also considered a part of the political unit called the Sultanate of Angoche. The coastal settlements nearest to Angoche and Moma were considered vassal territories of the Angoche sultans. Although the people that were under Angoche political or economic influence were ethnically diverse, the ethnic name of the inhabitants of Angoche Islands proper is Koti. The Koti are sometimes referred to as «Angochians » in this paper.

Nineteenth century northern Mozambique was marked by major politico-economic changes mainly stemming from its involvement in the international trading systems. The trade in slave and firearms had modified the internal social and political outlook of the region. Slaves for export were shipped to Indian and Atlantic Ocean destinations from ports such as Angoche, and the Sultanate of Angoche expanded its influence into the hinterland and became a major political power in the territory of the modern Nampula Province of Mozambique. This study attempts to reconstruct the history of this expansion on the mainland. It challenges the assumption that Angoche's interests and political orientations were directed mainly towards the Swahili world, while its relations with the mainland were only of the predatory and parasitic character of a slave raider, in which the hinterland people became its passive victims.

The Portuguese conquerors and the historians of Mozambique, such as Nancy Hafkin, Joseph Mbwiliza and Mello Machado, emphasize the Swahili or «Swahilicized » Muslim identities of the Angochians (the Koti ethnic