Centralized system of government established in southern Africa с 1480.
It was created by members of related ethnolinguistic groups who had migrated from the north into what is now central and southern Malawi . Its seat was southwest of Lake Malawi , and at its peak in the 17th century it ruled an area stretching from the Zambezi River to the Mozambique coast. Its leaders traded with the Portuguese and Arabs in ivory, slaves, and iron. By 1720 it split into several autonomous factions.