Maganja da Costa District

Its founder, António Alves da Silva, came from the province of Beira in Portugal in the early 19th century and established a trade in ivory and slaves, engaging a number of African soldiers or "sipais" from the Sena district.

His two sons, João Bonifacio and Victorino Romão, became prominent slave traders operating in the Luangwa and Lower Shire valleys.

As they were unable to use the port of Quelimane after the banning of the legal slave trade in 1830, they built a number of fortified villages called “aringas”, consisting of a wooden stockade and earthworks in the form of a ditch and bank in the district.

They were recruited from enslaved captives, but after some years of satisfactory service, they gained a degree of freedom and were granted privileges, including a share of the tribute extracted from the local population.

Once resistance in other areas had been suppressed, Maganja da Costa was itself occupied in 1898, by Portuguese forces, in alliance with several local chiefs opposed to the chikunda.