Yao people (East Africa)

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Yao

Chiyao, Kiswahili
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Bantu peoples

Person	'Myao
People	WaYao
Language	chiYao
Country	Uyao[5]

The Yao people (or WaYao) are a major

. The Yao have a strong cultural identity, transcending national borders.

History

The majority of Yao are subsistence farmers and fishermen. When Arabs arrived on the southeastern coast of Africa, they began trading with the Yao people for ivory and grains, exchanged for clothes and weapons. They also traded in slaves.^[6] Due to their involvement in this coastal trade, they became one of the richest and most influential tribes in Southern Africa. Large Yao kingdoms came into being, as Yao chiefs took control of the

area) adopted Islam as his personal and court religion.

Subsequently, through business relations with Arab and Swahili traders, the Yao chiefs (who called themselves “

belief systems.

In Mozambique

The Yao originally lived in northern

were the main driving forces behind Portuguese expansion in the region. However, later in the 19th century, the Portuguese were also involved in a large slave trade that transported Bantu African slaves from Mozambique to Brazil. By the late 1800s, the Portuguese Empire was one of the greatest political and economic powers in the world. Portuguese-run agricultural plantations started to expand, offering paid labour to the tribal population, yet the Yao increasingly became poor plantation workers under Portuguese rule. However, they preserved their traditional culture and subsistency agriculture. As Muslims, the Yao would not withstand domination by the Portuguese, who forcibly offered them a Christian faith-based education, spoken in the Portuguese language.

At least 450,000 Yao people live in Mozambique. They largely occupy the eastern and northern part of Niassa province, and form about 40% of the population of Lichinga, the province capital. They keep a number of traditions alive, including following the wild greater honeyguide birds to find honey. They will, ultimately, smoke the bees out from the beehive, collect the honey and leave behind the wax for the honeyguide birds, whom relish the treat along with any honeybee larvae they find. A 2016 study of the Yao honey-hunters in northern Mozambique showed that the honeyguides responded to the traditional brrrr-hmm call of the honey-hunters. Hunters learn the call from their fathers and pass it on to their sons.^[8] The chances of finding a beehive were greatly increased when hunters used the traditional call. The study also mentions that the Yao consider adult and juvenile honeyguides to be separate species, and hunters report that the former but not the latter responds to the specific honey-hunting call.^[9]

Outside Mozambique

The Yao moved into what is now the eastern region of Malawi around the 1830s,

, stating that he was open to trade but not willing to submit to German authority. After further engagements, however, the Yao ended up surrendering to German forces.

In Zimbabwe, the Yaos arrived as immigrants and established a society in Mvurwi under the leadership of the Jalisi clan (also known as Chiteleka or Jalasi). They were among the first to bring Islam to Zimbabwe on the Great Dyke Mountain Pass. The Yao also played a major role in the Maji Maji Rebellion in German East Africa.

Language

The Yao speak a

in Mozambique. and in majorine college mulawa uganda notes published by Karungi Ivan s.2 student at macom mulawa uganda .

Health

Illnesses in Yao culture are believed to originate through physical reasons, curses or by breaking cultural taboos. In such situations where illness is believed to come from the latter two sources (folk illnesses), government health centers will rarely be consulted. Some folk illnesses known to the Yao include undubidwa (an illness affecting breastfeeding children due to jealousy from a sibling), and various "ndaka" illnesses that stem from contact that is made between those who are not sexually active with those who are (cold and hot).[13]

• 
  A Yao traditional doctor shows his homemade stethoscope he uses for treatment
• 
  A Yao woman brings her child to a well baby check where it receives an injection in a rural village in northern Mozambique
• 
  This young Yao mother tries to protect her child through charms worn around the neck
• 
  This child being weighed in a Mozambican village screams in fright. This image illustrates the desire for good health from both charms worn around the neck and use of the local health program on offer.
• 
  A peek inside the health post of Lissiete near Mandimba in Niassa, Mozambique
• 
  A pharmacist in Lissiete near Mandimba, Niassa Province poses with hospital medication
• 
  This Muslim Yao sheik in Malawi practices creating Islamic charms
• 
  This Yao woman in Mandimba suffers her final days
• 
  A happy grandmother holds a new baby after a successful delivery at the health post in Mandimba, Niassa Province, Mozambique
• 
  This drama troupe practices for a village-based drama about a sick man who refuses to treat his HIV/AIDS with proper medication

Notable people

• Jacob Wainwright, attendant to David Livingstone
• Bakili Muluzi, Malawian former state president
• Shaaban bin Robert, Tanzanian poet
• Yohanna Barnaba Abdallah, linguist and historian
• Hassan bin Omari or Makunganya, freedom fighter murdered by the Germans in 1895
• Sidi Mubarak Bombay, early Tanzanian explorer

See also

• Dances of the Yao

References

• J. Clyde Mitchell, The Yao Village: A Study in the Social Structure of a Malawian Tribe Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1956, 1966, 1971