HISTORICAL SETTING
In the 18th century, Sena was an important Portuguese settlement on the Zambezi and part of a wider network linking river trade with communities of the interior. Muroro’s journey begins within this world of traders, caravans and intermediaries.
Family oral tradition remembers what happened after he left Sena: the inland journey, his illness, his encounter with Chief Chirwa’s people, and the beginnings of a new family line. Historical research helps place that remembered story within the geography and wider history of the period.
THE ROUTE
The precise route cannot be known in every detail. Using family memory, geography and historical sources, we reconstructed the likely path from Sena towards the interior. Where the evidence is uncertain, we say so.
ORAL MEMORY
Before Muroro became a book, it was a story told within a family.
Passed from one generation to the next before it was written down.
Explore the genealogy, praise poetry, maps, photographs and family history that surround the Muroro story.