The high country east of Lake Malawi in northern Mozambique.
Yao tradition places the people's homeland in these hills, between the lake and the Lugenda river; their long-distance trade to the coast and to the lake belongs to the sixteenth century and after. In 1200 the plateau holds scattered Bantu farmers, forebears of the Yao and of the lake's Nyanja fishermen.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known: no leader is named for this date
- Title
- Heads of lineages, villages and clans
- Since
- Not pinned
- Confidence
- low
How things stand that morning
Independent.
Assemblies
Village and lineage elders settle disputes and allocate land; there is no chief over the whole people that the evidence can show for 1200.
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- Through 1200No dated event is known.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Tradition and language history only.
On the map: Drawn from modern language areas, physical geography and a few dated sites; the 1200 extent is a rough guess.
Sources and studies
- Ehret, An African Classical Age (1998) and Nurse and Spear, The Swahili (1985), on the language history of the East African interior and coast (cited from memory of the literature)
- UNESCO General History of Africa, vol. 4, and Cambridge History of Africa, vol. 3, chapters on East Africa and the interior (cited from memory of the literature)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.