In 1726 Father Pedro do Santissima Tridade, a Dominican priest, was installed as the vicar of Zumbo. Two different settlements existed at Zumbo and Fiera. Eventually they outgrew the island and moved to Zumbo on the left bank of the Luangwa River. Francisco Pererir was the leader and earned his sobriquet of “The Terror” but kept the small community together. The Portuguese arrived here in 1546 and traded in gold ivory and copper as did a small party of Portuguese from Goa, India in 1720 that established a settlement on the small island of Chitakatira in the Zambezi. On modern maps Zumbo and Tete are about 220 miles apart. This was a Jesuit station about two and a half miles up the Zambezi from Fiera on the south bank. There is mention of a settlement called Zumbo in the Fiera district in 1546 that was abandoned in 1600. I had read a bit about this area so drove down to the town of Luangwa that in fact was originally called Fiera. This was a good few years ago so I don’t know if the camp is still there. I stayed at Bridge Camp situated just off the Great East Road in Zambia.

This little corner of our continent has a fascinating history to. Here it is that Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique meet. So my thoughts have been in Mozambique which led to remembering a trip I had to the confluence of the Zambezi and the Luangwa rivers. Now our roof could be likened that of an early wooden cathedral, it is so high and to replace the thatch is no easy matter. My daughter and I own a place in Tofo, Mozambique and during the recent bad weather the thatch blew off the roof.

Bwana meaning