The Makhuwa people

Makhuwa, also known as Makua or Macua, is a major Bantu language spoken in northern Mozambique and parts of Tanzania. It is the native tongue of the Makua people, an ethnic group concentrated primarily in Mozambique’s Nampula Province. With approximately 8.6 million speakers as of 2017, Makhuwa is the most widely spoken indigenous language in Mozambique.

The Makhuwa language is part of the Niger–Congo language family and falls under the Southern Bantu subgroup. Its unique characteristics set it apart from other Bantu languages. For instance, it has replaced the typical consonant-vowel prefixes found in many Bantu languages with an “e” prefix. For example, “rain” is expressed as epula in Makhuwa, whereas it is pula in Tswana.

Makhuwa has a relatively sparse vowel system for a Bantu language, distinguishing only five vowel qualities: /i, e, a, o, u/. These vowels can be either short or long, leading to differences in meaning. For example, omala means “to finish,” while omaala means “to paste or stick.”

The consonant system in Makhuwa is more diverse, featuring sounds like tt and tth, as well as both aspirated and non-aspirated p. Unique to the language are the postalveolar sounds and some regional variants, such as θ (as in “thorn”) and ð (as in “seethe”).

Makhuwa is primarily written using the Latin alphabet and has several dialects, including Makhuwa-Shirima and Makhuwa-Meetto. It is an important cultural and linguistic cornerstone of northern Mozambique, reflecting the rich heritage of the Makua people. Despite its widespread use, efforts are ongoing to document and preserve the language in the face of growing influence from Portuguese, Mozambique’s official language.