Makalaka - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

MAKALAKA, a general designation used by the Bechuana, Matabele and kindred peoples, for conquered or slave tribes. Thus many of the tribes subjugated by the Makololo chief, Sebituane, about 1830 were called Makalaka (see David Livingstone's Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, London, 1857). By early writers on south-central Africa certain of the inhabitants of Barotseland were styled Makalaka; the name is more frequently used to designate the Makalanga, one of the tribes now classed as Mashonas (q.v.), who were brought into subjection by the Matabele.