To-day these Makalanga, who are essentially an agricultural race, have covered the erstwhile devastated country with their plantations, and converted these parts into the “Granary of Rhodesia,” and the leading grain-producing district of this part of Mashonaland. Standing on Zimbabwe Hill either at sunrise or sunset, one sees scattered over the open country scores of columns of smoke rising from the villages, each with its large area where the Makalanga work in absolute security, and one is forced to realise that untold benefit has undoubtedly been conferred upon the natives by the British occupation.
The Makalanga of Zimbabwe district are considered to be, in intellectual and physical qualifications, above many of their tribes elsewhere. In some respects they are marvellously intelligent and quick to perceive, shrewd, calculating, and clever, while in others they are astonishingly dull, so that it is almost impossible to get them to understand the simplest matter. They certainly evince far more feeling and sensitiveness, are more amenable to direction, and readier and more anxious to work, and are more honest and reliable than the average Matabele. Physically, they are as a whole somewhat shorter in height, are less robust, and have not the weight and strength of the Matabele, but their vigour and agility give them the greater advantage. Yet there are very many Makalanga in this district equal to any Matabele in height, strength, form, and endurance.
More than the French nation among Europeans, the Makalanga are distinguished for their taste, tact, and courtesy among the Kafir races of South-East Africa, only in their case the graceful movement, kingly walk, politeness, neatness, rhythm of speech, and poetic expression, are not the outcome of study, but are perfectly natural qualities bred in the race.
The contact of these people for many generations with the Portuguese is shown in their speech. This is a feature noticeable in all native tribes in Mashonaland, which were at any time located in or near Portuguese territory. As stated below, Mogabe’s people originally came from the direction of the border. The terminations of some of their words are as distinctly Portuguese as one may hear at Lisbon or Oporto. Their connection with the Portuguese caused them to follow the rule common to that and some other Latin nations, viz. the interchange of _R_ and _L_. _Selukwe_ thus becomes _Serukwe_, _Belingwe Beringwe_, _Bulawayo Burawayo_, while in almost every word used by their people further west containing _L_ the latter is substituted for _R_. Locally they call themselves Mokaranga (_mo_ is a Chicaranga plural prefix), “the people of the sun.” The Portuguese writers, De Barros (1552), Dos Santos (1570), and Livio Sanuto (1588), give their name as _Mocaranga_. _Makalaka_, the name of derision bestowed upon them by the tribes in Bechuanaland, is known to them, but is never used by them, nor is _M’Holi_ (slaves), a title which some of the more degenerate Makalangas in Matabeleland have adopted as their personal and tribal name.