Mwana ndi Mwanangwa, both patrilineal and matrilineal

For almost a decade, several seasons, months, and days, we have been inundated with questions seeking a clear explanation about the Tonga people of Malawi.  Are they matrilineal like the Chewa or patrilineal like the Ngoni or the Sena? Is the chieftaincy lineage through the mother or the father?

Our answers have ranged from a smile to a cordial laugh.  The Tonga people of Malawi, mostly concentrated in the districts of Nkhotakota, Mzimba, Nkhata Bay, Mangochi, Salima and Likoma, both patrilineal and matrilineal. They practice traditions that might qualify them, tour a tour, as patrilineal or matrilineal.

Typically, patrilineal societies practices include kulowola (man paying dowry to the parents of his bride). Some people have likened kulowola to bride purchasing, that is, kulowola is perceived as parents selling their daughters much like slaves are sold to the highest bidder. And after the purchase, the bride becomes property of the husband.  

Our answer to such absurdity has been that there is no free bride or wife in Malawi.  The cultural groupings that claim not to practise kulowola may be paying even higher premiums for their brides.  They pay bride service, such as farming for the bride, constructing homes for their brides or wives. In some typically-matrilineal groups this bride service is called chiongo (thanks).  Malowolu and and chiongo serve the same purpose. A man thanks his bride’s parents and extended for a job well done. Malowolu are charged and negotiated. The bride service is never.  Or is it?

So, if you are a man and married and thought ill of kulowola,  sit down, take your calculator and quantify and monetise the bride service you have rendered and come back to us for a conversation, to use Kenya’s beleaguered President Dr William Ruto’s most-loved term.  After that candid conversation, you will thank us for opening your eyes that no woman is free to marry; even for oyendayenda, the man must pay to marry them for the short haul.

The other tradition or custom that makes many people think the Tonga are matrilineal is the taking of the wife to live in the husband’s home.   Well, what is chitengwa? When you have defined that, please privately thank us for guiding you.

In some tribal cultures, a child belongs to the father or to the mother.  In typical patrilineal cultures, like British, the Ngoni, and others worldwide, the child may inherit property and wealth including traditional leadership roles like kingship through the father. In typically matrilineal cultures like Chewa a child can inherit property and traditional leadership roles through his mother only.

However, among the Tonga of Malawi, the traditional practice is totally different. A child is born free (mwanangwa) and belongs to both his father and mother. Every Tonga child is told and knows this.  In short, a Tonga child stands a chance of inheriting property and traditional leadership roles from his mother’s father and his mother’s mother and from his father’s mother and his father’s father. Four chances.

That is why when a Tonga chief dies, it is the khamu (the royal family that decides) who should ascend to the throne. Several sifting criteria are used in choosing the new chief. These include behaviour, abilities, capabilities to unite the mutundu (family) or khamu.

The government has embroiled itself in Tonga chieftaincy inheritance wrangles because of its lack of understanding of the Mwana ndi Mwanangwa cultural principle. 

So, if your mother is not Tonga but your father is, you are a Tonga. If your father is not Tonga but your mother is, you are a Tonga and you have a claim to property, especially land in Tongaland, through both parents.

If you did not know and you were going about wayawaya, thank us today for opening your eyes.