History of the Yao People of Africa and their Culture

The Yao people are a major Bantu ethnic group most commonly found at the southern end of Lake Malawi, however, they are spread across various locations such as Malawi, northern Mozambique, Ruvuma Region and Mtwara Region of Tanzania. They are predominantly Muslims, and their unique cultural identity transcends national borders. The majority of the Yao population are fishermen and subsistence farmers. Upon the arrival of Arabs on the south-eastern coast of Africa, they became business partners with the Yao people; trading ivory, and grains, and enslaving people in exchange for ammunition and clothes. Their engagement in the lucrative coastal trade made them one of the wealthiest and most influential tribes in Southern Africa. This wealth and influence gradually led to the existence of large Yao kingdoms in the 18th century, as Yao chiefs gained control of the Niassa province of Mozambique. It was also at this time that the Yao people began to migrate to the geographical areas now known as Malawi and Tanzania. 
It wasn't until the 20th century, after World War 1, that the entire Yao nation was Islamized. Formal education also became popular at that time, as their trade with the Arabs and Swahili required that they employ scribes who could read and write. They employed Islamic teachers who lived in the Yao villages and taught the Yao people to read and write. The Yao sultans, at the time, totally resisted British, Portuguese, and German colonial rule, as they believed that such would pose major cultural and economic threats on them.
The British tried relentlessly to stop the ivory and slave trade by attacking Yao trade caravans near the coast, however, their efforts were, for a long time, futile. A Yao chief, Mataka, rejected Christianity, as much as he rejected colonial rule. This is because the Yao people preferred Islam which provided a social system that assimilated their traditional culture.

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