The Ajaua are one of the major ethnic and linguistic groups based at the southern end of Lake Niassa, which played an important role in East African history during the 1800s. They speak the Ajaua language. The Ajaua are predominantly a Muslim people group of about two million spread across three countries, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania. The Ajaua/Yao people have a strong cultural identity that transcends national borders. The Ajauas constituted matrilineal communities known as Mbumba whose ultimate authority was designated ASYENE MBUMBA. Before the great economic and political changes that took place during the 18th and 19th centuries, with the ivory and slave trade, it can be said with some certainty that Ajaua society was characterized by an agricultural economy, cultivating various cereals. The matrilineal lines were organized locally on the basis of a group of sisters, their married daughters and unmarried sons, all under the leadership of an older brother designated by ASYENE MBUMBA, which we can translate as Guardian of the lineage. ASYENE MBUMBA, in order to exercise his position, was obliged to move his residence and that of his wives to the village of the sororal group. As most of the agricultural work (sowing, weeding and harvesting) was done by women and unmarried children, adult men were dedicated to hunting and fishing on a large scale. In addition to agriculture, hunting and fishing, the Ajauas developed the manufacture of iron tools: hoes, axes, weapons. They traded tobacco, ironworks, animal skins and ivory for salt, cloth and beads.From 1840/50, the great Ajaua States of the Mataca, Mtalica, Makanjila and Jalasi dynasties, had the slave trade as the mainstay of their economy. The young slaves obtained in the raids were made the wives of free men. The productive work of slaves (men and women) in agriculture and of men in handicrafts considerably increased the economic and political power of the chiefs and changed the housing arrangement in the Ajaua territory. It was at this time that the large housing agglomerations where the wives of the chiefs lived grouped together. The first Mataca sovereign had 600 wives scattered over eight villages, of which a third lived in the capital, Mwembe. The massive introduction of firearms and gunpowder contributed to the gigantic enterprise of hunting man and to the affirmation of the warrior and mercantile power of the Ajaua dynasties. The Islamization of the Ajaua aristocracy further strengthened the theocratic power of the Mataca rulers. Mtalica that came to be designated and considered by Xeicados. When the Arabs arrived on the east coast of Africa they began to trade with the Yao people, mainly slaves and ivory, in exchange for clothes and weapons. Due to their involvement in this coastal trade they became one of the wealthiest and most influential tribes in Southern Africa. The great Yao monarchies were born as the powerful Yao chiefs took control of the Niassa province of Mozambique in the 19th century. During that time, the Yao started moving from their traditional home in present day Malawi and Tanzania, which resulted in the Yao populations they now have. The most important result of the great (chiefdoms) was the return of the entire nation to Islam around the turn of the 20th century, and after the First World War. Because of their trade with the Arabs, the Yao chiefs (sultans) needed scribes who could read and write Arabic. The Muslim teachers who were employed and lived in the Yao villages had a significant impact on the Yao people because they could offer them literacy, a holy book, smart clothing and square rather than round houses. Furthermore, the sultans staunchly resisted Portuguese, British and German colonial rule, which was seen as a major threat to them. The British, who were seen as Christian like the Portuguese, tried to stop the slave trade by attacking some Yao slave caravans near the coast. They freed the slaves and confiscated the ivory, which the slaves had transported. The highest chief Yao Mataka, decided to become a Christian which would have a negative economic impact on her people, at the same time offered them a social system of Islam, which would assimilate their traditional culture. Due to the chiefs’ political and ritual domination, their conversion to Islam caused their individuals to do the same. Islam, which they adopted, is not the orthodox religion, which is found in countries like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. But it’s totally mixed up with your traditional animistic belief system. It is often referred to as “Folk Islam”.