Mukariva

Mukariva lies on the peninsula where the Luangwa meets the Zambezi, in the country of the Lenge and the chiefs of Mburuma. The junction of the two rivers placed it on routes linking the Zambezi valley with lands farther north, where traders sought ivory.

In 1788 the merchants of Zumbo moved their fair across the Luangwa to Mukariva, on land previously ceded by a chief of Mburuma. The settlement became known as Mukariva do Zumbo, but relations with neighbouring chiefs were not always peaceful. After the move, its traders increasingly looked north for ivory as the gold trade south of the Zambezi declined. Its inhabitants included free people of mixed ancestry and many enslaved men and women, some of whom lived in surrounding chiefdoms and cultivated land for their holders.