Throughout their history, the Mang'anja were in contact with their neighbors, fighting or trading with them, and emigrating to or accepting immigrants from the surrounding, culturally related regions. This interaction was intensified in the nineteenth century as southern Malawi became the focus of numerous migrating groups, including Ngoni, Yao, Kololo and British settlers. It is with two of these groups, the Yao and Kololo, who established themselves as political authorities in southern Malawi in the 1860s and 1870s, that this paper is concerned. The quantity and quality of available evidence, both oral and written, makes it possible to examine these migrations in some detail. A closer look at certain aspects of these migrations; their composition, the factors which pushed and pulled the migrants, the impact of economic and political circumstances in the "host" region, and the factors which determined their ultimate success or failure, will produce a clearer picture of these migrations, and suggest some general observations about the process of migration in pre-colonial Africa.2