Chopi people

The Chopi are an ethnic group of Mozambique. They have traditionally lived primarily in the Zavala region of southern Mozambique, in the Inhambane Province. They traditionally lived a life of subsistence agriculture, traditionally living a rural existence, although many were displaced or killed in the civil war that followed Mozambique's liberation from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975. In addition, drought forced many away from their homeland and into the nation's cities.

The Chopi speak Chichopi, a tonal language in the Bantu family, with many also speaking chiTonga and Portuguese as secondary languages. Their neighbors include the Shangaan ethnic group who live to the west, in the Gaza Province, and who invaded Chopi territory in the 19th century. Historically, some Chopi were enslaved and others became migrant laborers in South Africa.

The Chopi identify culturally, as a people, with the elephant.

They are famous for their traditional music, the most famous of their instruments being the mbila (plural: timbila), a xylophone played in large groups. This music was proclaimed a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005.[1]

Other instruments used by the Chopi include panpipes, whistles, animal horns, rattles, drums of various sizes, musical bows, and a globular flute with three holes made from the dried shell of the nkuso fruit (bush orange).

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