ARCHAEOLOGY AND ORAL TRADITION IN MALAWI, origins and early history of the Chewa

242pp., illus., maps, paperback, First SA Edition, Cape Town, (2020) 2020

First published in the UK in 2020.

The Chewa are the largest ethnic group in Malawi, representing a third of the population of approximately 19 million, and their language, Chichewa, is Malawi's national language. The last book on the history of this group was published in 1944, and was based on oral history, or tradition.

Archaeologist Yusuf M. Juwayeyi uses not only oral history, but also documents written by early Portuguese explorers, traders and government officials, as well as archaeology, to piece together the early history of the Chewa.

"This book is not a site report; that was published a decade ago (Juwayeyi 2010). It is instead an accessible and well-written introduction for general readers with an interest in the history of Central Africa and it therefore includes a chapter on the aims and methods of archaeology, as well as a section tracing the development of both historical and archaeological studies of the Chewa from the colonial period to the present." Azania

"The book's list of cited works is also a gold mine of references. Juwayeyi has provided an immensely multi-purpose text in The Archaeology and Oral Traditions of Malawi that will be of wide interest: for archaeologists looking to utilize Malawian material (and/or oral traditions), for historians looking to incorporate more archaeology into their research, for lecturers looking for accessible readings to bring into syllabi, or simply for readers with a general interest in Malawian/Chewa history." African Archaeological Review

Yusuf M.  Juwayeyi is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York.