Makua (people)

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The Makua are the largest ethnic group in northern Mozambique, and also have a large population across the border in the Masasi District of Mtwara Region in southern Tanzania. They live in the region to the north of the Zambezi River. The total Makua population is estimated to be 1,160,000, with 800,000 living in Mozambique (as of 1997) and 360,000 in Tanzania (as of 1993).[1]

Most Makua are Christians (whether Roman Catholics or Protestants) or Sunni Muslims, with some animists.

Other Makua people were known to be residing in South Africa in a Durban city called Bluff. However, due to the Group Areas Act, they were forcibly removed from Bluff and settled in Bayview, Chatsworth, Durban in 1960. Although the majority of the Makua people in South Africa were settled in Bayview, some live in Wentworth, Marianhill, Marianridge, Umlazi, Newlands East and West, Pietermaritzburg, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

The Makua people in South Africa are all Muslims and follow the Islamic religion. The Makua language, a Niger-Congo language, is still predominantly spoken among the people, alongside Afrikaans and Zulu (in South Africa), Portuguese in Mozambique, some Swahili by the elders of the community but still spoken by many on the Tanzania-Mozambican border, and English in South Africa and Tanzania.