[3] The area to the west of northern Lake Malawi was occupied by two established indigenous peoples, the Tumbuka and Ngonde, and the recently arrived Ngoni.
Although the Tumbuka were already involved in the East African ivory trade, in the 1820s and 1830s Swahili traders from the Indian Ocean coast entered the area and displaced the earlier local merchants.
At the start of the 18th century, they formed a number of groups, of which that known as the Henga was an important one, and they lived in small, independent communities without a central organisation, that were spread thinly over this area.
[4] By the mid-18th century, traders dressed “as Arabs”, although coming from the Unyamwezi region of what is now Tanzania, were involved in trading for ivory and to some extent slaves as far inland as the Luangwa valley.
[6] Because the environment of the Karonga plain was favourable for their mixed farming practices, the Ngonde gradually extended the area they occupied, but were not involved in ivory trading networks before the late 19th century.
[12] Around 1880, a group of Swahili traders who were established in the elephant-rich Luangwa valley sent one of their number, Mlozi bin Kazbadema from Ujiji, now in Tanzania, to act as their agent in the area to the north-west of Lake Malawi.
[17] The popularity of the so-called Arab traders arose from the ready supply of a wide range of trade goods they brought, not only guns and ammunition, but also iron tools and utensils, and cloth.
The Henga, who were trained soldiers, could not adapt to life as farmers and remained unassimilated into Ngonde society, although they initially prevented Nyakyusa raids.
[22] In addition to the internal conflict within the Ngonde state, the Henga leader died in 1887 and his following split into two groups, one led by his son, which represented the warriors, the other included those that had adapted to agricultural life.
Both Fotheringham and Lugard's accounts are written from the British perspective and give no clear indications of the size of the forces employed by the Swahili and their allies or the Ngonde.
[26][27] After the African Lakes Company set up its Karonga trading base, it brokered a settlement between the Ngonde and Nyakyusa, and as the threat of Ngoni raids also declined, the usefulness of Henga and Swahili as buffers was reduced.
[28] Fotheringham's own account admits that one of the main sources of the company's problems in 1887 was that it had bought a large quantity of ivory from the “Arabs” on credit, more than could be paid for by a single boat-load of trade goods, and the creditors and their armed followers were forced to wait for several months for satisfaction, expecting the local Ngonde to supply food in the interim.
However, after further fighting in which the Ngonde were defeated and their paramount chief's village was sacked, many fled to Karonga, where they were given shelter in the African Lakes Company's compound.
On 23 December 1887, the company force with its Nyakyusa and Ngonde allies attacked Mlozi's headquarters, resulting in an indecisive skirmish, after which the majority of Europeans returned to the south.
As a result, O'Neill returned to Mozambique, but Hawes also quarrelled with John Moir, the African Lakes Company's representative in Blantyre who was supported by most of the European settlers that settlement.
The Swahili apparently agreed to evacuate the Ngonde country and destroy their stockades, but later declined to sign an agreement to that effect, so Buchanan left.
[46] Lugard returned to Karonga in October and, on 28 November, he there met an envoy of Sultan of Zanzibar, Khalifa bin Said, who claimed suzerainty over Swahili communities in East and Central Africa.
The envoy failed to convince Mlozi and his associates to reach a settlement and, in December, hostilities resumed with a Swahili attack on the Chilumba stockade, which Lugard had repaired and garrisoned the previous month.
[33] Lugard never returned to Nyasaland but his activities put pressure on the British government to intervene and, in November 1888, it appointed Harry Johnston as Consul in Mozambique, with an area of consular authority covering Central Africa as well as the Portuguese controlled coast.
[50] Johnston arrived at Blantyre in March 1889: at that time he had no significant military forces, and agreed a truce with Mlozi in October 1889 to avoid confrontation with him and other slave traders in the north.
[51] However, despite the provisions in the truce agreement for the Swahili to allow the Ngonde to return to their villages unmolested and to reduce the number of their stockades, Buchanan, who visited Karonga in March 1891 and met Mlozi, reported to Johnston that, rather than expelled Ngonde being allowed to return, others were still being forced out of their homes, and the Swahili traders were building more fortified villages and restricting the African Lakes Company's trading activities.
[53] Johnston first secured the neutrality of the Swahili ruler of Nkhotakota by paying him a subsidy and prepared to attack the Mlozi and the so-called “north end Arabs”.