Chikunda

The Chikunda were slave soldiers and hunters of the Zambezi valley in Mozambique, originally the armed retainers of the Portuguese prazo estates. In the 19th century, after the prazo system collapsed, many served warlords such as the Pereira family of Makanga and the da Cruz family of Massangano, hunting elephants and raiding for captives. Their descendants form a distinct people in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.