Chapter 105: The Portuguese
October 5, 1867
Eastern Lake Malawi Zone
Mitomoni Village, located over 100 kilometers south of Songya City
The Eastern Lake Malawi Zone is covered with dense forests, its towering trees a stark contrast to the endless grasslands of northern East Africa.
Even in the 21st century, Tanzania maintained a forest coverage rate of around 50%. In this era, that rate was likely even higher.
Unlike tropical rainforests or subtropical jungles, East African forests had wide gaps between trees, with grasses growing in between and very few shrubs—making them easy to traverse, though without a compass or map, it was easy to get lost.
This made the zone one of the least developed regions in East Africa.
Grasslands could be cleared quickly with fire, but felling trees was far more labor-intensive—a serious challenge given the colony's limited manpower.
Yet this had its upsides: abundant forests meant abundant timber.
Though exports were hindered by transport constraints, local needs—housing, fuel, tools—were fully met.
At current population levels, the forest seemed inexhaustible.
As one of the southernmost villages in the Eastern Lake Malawi Zone, Mitomoni was also a minor military outpost.
It had low walls of mud and stone, crude wooden watchtowers, and wooden chevaux-de-frise at its gates—lavish defenses compared to nearby native settlements.
Strictly speaking, East Africa had not yet reached a direct border with Portuguese-controlled Mozambique.
Although Mozambique had a significant native population, Portuguese colonizers were few and mainly coastal.
Portugal didn't control Mozambique in full; its presence resembled a feudal relationship with inland tribes.
As long as those tribes swore allegiance to the Portuguese crown, they were considered subjects.
This setup was more evident inland. On the coast, natives were fully subjugated—treated as beasts of burden, abused at will.
Before the slave trade was abolished, Mozambique was a major source of human cargo for Portugal.
Their colonization followed a clear pattern: seize coastal ports first, then expand inland via rivers.
Portugal also aimed to crush Arab influence—making their expansion partly a religious war.
They succeeded in coastal Mozambique, where Arab power was too weak to resist.
But pushing north, they ran into the Zanzibar Sultanate at its peak, resulting in a draw.
Eventually, Portugal shifted from conflict to cooperation with Zanzibar, jointly exploiting the western Indian Ocean.
At its height, Portugal reached into parts of Zimbabwe and Zambia.
But outbreaks of disease forced a retreat back to Mozambique—Europe's first major failure at inland colonization in Africa.
Since then, Portugal hadn't managed another successful inland push.
At best, it was an influential outsider to local tribal politics.
...
A Portuguese patrol unit, fully armed, was marching north.
Leading the team was Tulio Penili, a colonial officer in Mozambique.
Having spent years in the colony, Tulio was familiar with the region.
The unit was small—just forty-seven men—following traditional routes to monitor tribal activity under Portuguese rule.
Eventually, Tulio neared the border between the East African and Mozambican colonies.
He knew little about East Africa's expansion, only that the Germans had defeated the Zanzibar Sultanate, which now clung to its island refuge.
He assumed the Germans, like the Portuguese, focused on coastal zones and perhaps influenced nearby tribes.
Portugal had tried and failed to expand inland over centuries—surely the newcomer Germans were no different.
Mitomoni, not far from Lake Malawi, counted as deep inland.
So Tulio and his men advanced northward without concern.
Upon reaching Mozambique's northernmost tribe, the local chief updated Tulio on recent events.
"Many people have fled here from the north. We captured them. They say their tribes were driven out by pale-faced people. Many who resisted were killed. Those who survived either fled west or hid in the forest—and ended up here," the translator reported.
"Pale-faced?" Tulio muttered. "Could it be the Germans?"
He pressed the chief: "Describe their appearance, clothing, and weapons."
"Our scouts saw a fortress in the north—what they call a castle (Mitomoni Village). Their skin looked like yours (though most were Chinese). Their weapons were like yours too—guns. Their clothes looked similar, but more uniform and not as colorful as yours.
The northern captives say these people belong to a tribe that uses a lion as its totem," the chief replied.
"It must be the Germans," Tulio said to his men.
"In that case, we'll pay them a visit. But follow my orders—no conflict with the Germans."
Soon, guided by the chief, Tulio's team approached Mitomoni Village.
From afar, they saw the crude fortifications and, just as the chief described, the lion emblem raised above it.
Tulio recognized it—not as a tribal totem, but as a European noble banner: the coat of arms of the Hohenzollern family, also used as the East African colonial flag.
He didn't know the Hohenzollerns by name—after all, Europe had countless noble families, especially in German territories.
Tulio, a Portuguese commoner, couldn't possibly remember them all.
But he knew it was a European noble flag because the lion symbol was widely used across Europe.
Any family using lions or eagles in their crest was usually high-ranking.
Regardless, Tulio understood one thing—it was the German flag.
Portuguese traders on the eastern coast often picked up news from East Africa.
At the mouth of the Ruvuma River (the border between East Africa and Mozambique), German flags like this one were often seen flying.
What shocked Tulio was how deep the Germans had advanced—into the heart of East Africa—building sizeable outposts.
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