Narwimba

Narwimba was a Safwa woman who lived in mid-to-late 19th century Tanzania.

Historical context The Ngoni had migrated through the Gaza Kingdom, between the Limpopo River and Save Rivers, reaching the land surrounding Lake Tanganyika, Luangwa River, and Lake Malawi. The Ngoni raided the lands they migrated through, gathering food, cattle and captives.

In the region that would later become Tanzania, daughters could be placed in a chief's court to work if her father was unable to feed her, to have his daughter returned he would pay the chief back in goats, should her father not be able to pay for his daughter she remained a slave. Other forms of women's enslavement or servitude were through marriage, she would be sold as a wife without the full rights of a wife whose husband paid her relatives. Kondeland was within the protection of the Kyungu chiefdom. There she, per agreement with her parents, met and married a man named Sambi. Forced marriage legally safeguarded purchasers from breaking anti-slave trade laws. Elite men trafficked women by giving them to loyal soldiers or ‘looting’ them from a successful raid, whereas elite women and non-elite free men gave away women to pay fines or even as part of the dowry for a legitimate bride. The presence of many wives showcased a man's wealth and influence. Elite eastern African families perceived enslaved women as submissive and assumed that enslaved women assimilated into new societies more easily than men.

Narwimba's captors beat her and began transporting her to Kiwere to sell into enslavement. Before the trip's completion, Narwimba snuck away and escaped into the mountains in the night. She found refuge in a village where the chieftain's daughter, Samuene, protected her from being executed for escaping enslavement. After some days, she returned to Chiete. Though they kept contact with each other, each enslaved marriage attempted to make them ‘kinless.’ Slave raiders considered ‘kinless’ women the most assimilable and profitable for elite slave purchasers. Some years after her interview with Kootz, she disappeared from Utengule where she lived with her daughter and granddaughter.

Legacy

Scholarly impact Historian Marcia Wright published an English translation of “Grandmother Narwimba” in her essay “Women in Peril,” and discussed Narwimba further in later publications. Wright examined Narwimba as a case study to draw further conclusions about the social status and changing conditions of women more broadly.

Narwimba's testimony has become a crucial reference point for historians and other scholars of east African slavery and historical gender studies. “Grandmother Narwimba” has been translated in multiple languages, reprinted in several scholarly books, and cited in over 200 academic essays.