| Abstract: | The tradition of the aYao is that of traders and many of their old songs refer to the wandering habits of the ayao. To reach the ports of the Indian Ocean, these traders were forced to go round their warlike relative of the Anguru tribes, and hence they were forced to deal with the ports north of the Rovuma River. For the same reason, their trade was forced inland, for they could trade neither east nor south. It is not surprising therefore, that a people living as far away from Kilwa as did the aYao, traded as far inland as the Congo. It was from the ayao that the Arabs learnt of the interior of Africa. The aYao were purely peaceable traders who relied for free passage, wherever they went, not on force of arms, but the value of their trade. This article gives some historical, ethnographical and economic information on this tribe from Portuguese and British sources (Livingstone) and shows the place of the aYao in the history of Nyasaland. |
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Leiden University catalogue
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