The largest population of northern Mozambique — Makua (Makhuwa) of the interior and coast with the closely-related Lomwe (A-lolo) to their south-west — organised in matrilineal chiefdoms under mwene rulers rather than a single kingdom. They controlled the routes between the Lake Malawi interior and the Swahili ports of Mozambique Island, Angoche and Quelimane, and from 1749 fought a long war of attrition against coastal sultans, the Portuguese and slave-raiding neighbours.
Not an ending: Portuguese 'effective occupation' and the chartered Niassa and Mozambique Companies absorbed Macuana around the turn of the 20th century, though Namarral resistance ran on for years. The Makhuwa remain the largest ethnic group in Mozambique.
A dedicated study of the Makua-Lomwe lineage and chiefly system — the polity-specific work on how these matrilineal chiefdoms were actually organised.
The standard history of Mozambique, covering the Makua chiefdoms, the coastal sultanates and the Portuguese conquest of Macuana.