At Gun Point

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The municipality white painted stainless steel banner with the coat of arms at the right corner ,with the words:

'Welcome To Mallambaka, Enjoy your stay and Remember to keep it clean' stood still on top of an anthill behind the remains of the old walls, as we drove past it, veering the concave bent that leads to the city's downtown. As we move past the concave, the highest mountain in the country, Mount Goza came into view. This vertiginous mountain with its steep sides that causes vertigo to most people who climb it was home to the Mallimba tribes, who in the end of the seventeenth century occupied the valley below it. Their soldiers trained and had their camps in the mountains and close to gold mines below. They stood guard against raiders and any hostility. The mountain was a sacred place and only initiated soldiers were the only ones allowed in it.

The Mallimba people and descendants of immigrants occupied the area till today. My father used to tell me that we descent from one of the Mallimba tribes. Their dialect is the one spoken by the majority of the people in the country, besides the two foreign languages of Portuguese and English.

The Mallimba were well known for trading and mining of gold and other precious minerals which were and are still found in the area. There are reefs in the east of city which are rich with gold ore close to the lake that is beneath the Goza mountain. This is where they mined and purified the mineral using medieval tools and traded for food, clothing, tools,weapons and women. Many people from places far and close came to trade with the Mallimba people, and this created a big trading centre that a century later became the Mallambaka we know today.

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The written lore of this area says that the people collected gold ore without knowing what it was for many years before those who knew had come into contact with them. An explorer named Josiah Cath from Cyprus came in 1783 to explore the lands of lower Africa, looking for animals found in the savanna ,artefacts, minerals and any objects of value to trade with in India and the Middle East. The history says he was the one who educated and helped these people to mine and purify the gold ore. He also taught them to make metal alloys and jewelry from gold and introduced organized trade with people from foreign lands.

When Cath went back to India to sell his findings, he accidentally spread word about this place full of gold. The news spread like wildfire to the Middle East, Russia, Europe and Great Britain. Causing the scramble for Africa to spread further south. It was the survival of the fittest. When he later returned to Africa, he was attacked by a disease called eczema and later from it. The local people buried him in a tomb that was erected in a cave in the Goza mountain.

As the word spread worldwide, it caused a spiralling of immigrants into the valley. As a result,a large settlement began to form and triggered land related quarrels between the local people and the immigrants. A civil war broke out in 1812 and ended five years later after the Portuguese had come with guns to fight against those who opposed the rule of King Poga of Mallambaka. The immigrants said he favoured the native people of the land and mistreated them,causing them to revolt against him. The war ended after those who were hostile were driven out of the valley and pushed further south to the present day Buntuland.

Peace was established and an interracial law enforcement body was formed, comprising of the noble Mallimba people and the Portuguese. King Poga and a Portuguese representative worked together as rulers. They ruled alongside the council of law makers. Together they introduced a police force and taxation to both miners,traders and the general public. It was to be paid in gold at first but later there was a gold coated currency that was used in trade and for tax payment.
This interracial government had its influence spread until it was ruling most of Malimbuku, Archipelago and the Democratic Republic of Changazia(the neighboring country to our north). They also controlled travelling and farming. A highway was erected from the harbour town of Aquasia on the southern coastline of DRC to Mallambaka, the trading centre. This route was used by overseas traders and local ones to travel with their goods. A controlling administrative board was placed at Aquasia,giving trading permission to foreign traders. The Portuguese urged their counterpart that they were to erect a high wall around Mallambaka which had now became a city, in case a hostile enemy was to attack them. They agreed and it was build.