In Chapters 3 and 4, I have used both published and unpublished sources to summarise the current state of knowledge regarding the early history of the Chewa. Oral traditions were the basis of nearly all the consulted works, with the most prominent being Mbiri ya Achewa. All researchers investigating the history of the Chewa, following Ntara's publishing of his work, have consulted the book, which is considered seminal and the ‘the fullest body of oral tradition’. Ntara's work is of great value to researchers not only because it was the first authoritative study of the Chewa, but also because of the manner in which he presented his work. Ntara did not offer much analytical or interpretive detail, narrating instead the traditions in a summarised format. As a result, it afforded subsequent scholars the opportunity to use his work as if they were using unmodified oral traditions. They commented, analysed and interpreted it to suit the needs of their research. One researcher who made very elaborate comments was Langworthy who, having written an introduction to the translated 1973 edition of the book, proceeded to provide general and interpretive comments to most of its chapters. While this has the disadvantage of making it unavoidable to view Ntara's work from Langworthy's perspective, it rendered the work readily comparable with other subsequent scholarly works on the history and culture of the Chewa. Besides the literature based on oral traditions, there are seventeenth-century documents written by the early Portuguese that refer to the Maravi. The very mention of ‘Maravi’ in the documents is significant in that it confirms that the Maravi, as a distinct group of people, did indeed exist. Some of the documents have helped clarify oral traditions.

Oral traditions

Oral traditions are messages from the past that go beyond the present generation, which are transmitted orally and concern events that occurred beyond the lifetime of the informant. They are expressions of the past or what Vansina referred to as ‘the representation of the past in the present’. Often, oral traditions ‘contain names, titles, or sayings with metaphorical content that also appears on material culture’. Because of this, oral traditions can be useful to archaeologists if properly analysed and interpreted, although it is important not to confuse oral traditions with oral history, which involves messages or statements about the present generation.