The Makonde are an ethnic group in southeast Tanzania and northern Mozambique. The Makonde developed their culture on the Mueda Plateau in Mozambique. They presently live througout Tanzania and Mozambique and have a small presence in Kenya. They speak Makonde and other languages like Swahili and English in Tanzania, and Portuguese in Mozambique. The Makonde are originally a matrilineal society where children and inheritances belong to women and husbands move into the village of their wives. Their traditional religion is animistic form of ancestor worship and still continues although Makonde of Tanzania are nominally Catholic and those of Mozambique are Catolic or Muslim. The Makonde successfully resisted predation by African, Arab, and European slavers. They did not fall under colonial power until the 1920s. During the 1960s the revolution which drove the Portuguese out of Mozambique was launched from the Makonde homeland of the Mueda Plateau. At one period this revolutionary movement known as Frelimo derived the majority of its financial support from the sale of Makonde carvings. The Makonde are best known for their wood carvings and their observances of puberty rites.

Makonde art

Ethnic groups in Mozambique | Ethnic groups in Tanzania | Indigenous peoples of Africa | Indigenous peoples of East Africa

Makonde | Makonde