Barotseland

by D. E. C. Stirke

BAROTSELAND:
EIGHT YEARS AMONG THE BAROTSE PEOPLE

Lewanika

Late Paramount Chief of the Barotse Nation

Frontispiece. Photo by Mrs. Marshall

BAROTSELAND:
Eight Years among the Barotse

BY
D. W. STIRKE
Native Commissioner Northern Rhodesia

WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER BY
SIR HARRY JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.
At one time H.M. Commissioner &c., for Northern Zambezia

LONDON:
JOHN BALE, SONS & DANIELSSON, LTD.
OXFORD HOUSE
83-91, GREAT TITCHFIELD STREET, OXFORD STREET, W.1

PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR.

In presenting this book to the public I would like to register my appreciation of the kindness of various friends who have materially assisted me in its production. My brother-officials Messrs. Helm and Palmer and my friend the Rev. V. Ellenberger, of the Paris Huguenot Mission, have greatly assisted me with advice and information, while my sincere gratitude is due to Mr. Coxhead (Secretary for Native Affairs), Mrs. Marshall, Mr. Walton (Assistant Native Commissioner), and Mr. Thomas (Vice-Principal of the Barotse National School) for photographs.

The greatest care has been taken in checking and rechecking any and all portions of the book and several items have been deleted as lacking confirmation, which was unavoidable in handling such a mixed race as the present day Barotse.

I would also wish it to be fully understood that this work has been compiled by me, aided by my friends as mentioned before, but with no official assistance from the Administration, and this work must in no way be considered “Official” or “Approved by the British South African Co.” The information to be found in the book is however fairly accurate, in spite of not being written under the ægis of the Administration.

Since finishing the book the death of the Paramount Chief Lewanika has occurred, and he has been succeeded in his position by his eldest son, Yeta, who has taken the title of Yeta II.

Lewanika was a man of about 70 years of age, and had a hold on his people that no Murotse chief will ever have again. He will, for generations, be remembered as the chief who did most for the improvement and consolidation of his people. Lewanika travelled to England for the late King Edward’s coronation, and it was always a great delight to him to talk about the friends he made and the sights he saw while going to, staying in, and returning from England.

Early in his reign he was deposed by a relative of his named Tatila; but Tatila had not the grip over his people nor the statesmanship to hold the chieftainship, with the result that Lewanika was reinstated after a couple of battles. To the surprise of all he showed great clemency and pardoned most of the rebels. A notable example of his clemency is the induna Noyōō, who was very prominent in killing off Lewanika’s women and children during Tatila’s brief rule. Lewanika told me himself that his reason for sparing Noyōō was because he and Noyōō had herded cattle together when very small boys.

Lewanika led many successful raids against the neighbouring tribe of the Mashukulumbwe, and he was the first Barotse Chief who accepted their homage and counted them as a portion of his people.

He had a great belief in acquiring knowledge of other native races and chiefs, and sent embassies to Chitimukulu the Awemba Chief and to Khama the Bamangwato Chief (the Bamangwato being better known nowadays under the general term Bechuana).

Lewanika was a man of most charming and courteous manners and had always a very sincere regard for Europeans, while his loyalty to the Empire has repeatedly proved itself, more especially since the beginning of the German War. A visit by a European, accompanied by his wife, was always considered a great compliment by the late chief.

Missionaries always received support from Lewanika, and were given grants of land for their stations and many other privileges. The Chief himself never professed Christianity, but set an example to his people by attending church services and by supporting the Missions generally.

D. E. C. S.

CONTENTS.

	PAGE
Preface by the Author	[v]
Introductory Chapter by Sir Harry Johnston	[1]
CHAPTER I.
The Barozi and their Origin	[37]
CHAPTER II.
The Administration of Barotseland	[42]
CHAPTER III.
Native Administration	[46]
CHAPTER IV.
Barozi Industries	[55]
CHAPTER V.
Customs (Mikwa)	[61]
CHAPTER VI.
Riddles and Conundrums	[80]
CHAPTER VII.
Barozi Songs and Dances	[85]
CHAPTER VIII.
Barozi Legends	[93]
CHAPTER IX.
Barozi Laws	[108]
CHAPTER X.
General	[115]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

	To face p.
Lewanika, late Paramount Chief of the Barotse Nation	[Frontispiece]
The Skull of Homo rhodesiensis from the Specimen at the British Museum	[1]
The Giant Sable Antelope of Eastern Angola	[28]
The Mokwai Mataŭka of Nalolo with her husband (standing) and interpreter (sitting)	[37]
One of Lewanika’s Aunts with Attendant	[40]
Lewanika’s Band (Mirupa and Silimba)	[40]
A Lujazi Village	[44]
Lewanika’s Head Paddlers	[44]
Arrival of the Nalikwanda	[52]
The Secretary for Native Affairs and the late Paramount Chief	[52]
The Nalikwanda	[56]
Government Messengers and a Post-runner at Nalolo	[56]
Crossing Cattle over the Zambezi	[58]
The Mokwai’s House and Fence at Nalolo	[58]
Capture of a young Crocodile	[62]
Arrival of Lewanika’s Subsidy at Lialui: carried by British South Africa Company’s Messengers	[62]
Tax-payers	[66]
Royalty travelling by Boat	[66]
Mankoya Women dancing	[70]
“Well in swing”	[70]
Mambalangwe “Nuts”	[74]
Mat-makers, with Mats for Sale	[78]
A Mambalangwe Family	[78]
Gang of Natives proceeding to the Mines in Southern Rhodesia	[82]
Shooting Rapids	[86]
Ngonya Falls at Sioma, Barotseland	[86]
Food for Sale	[88]
The End of the Day’s Journey	[88]
“Liyumbo,” or Food-tribute	[92]
Travelling in Barotseland	[92]
The Author and the Mokwai of Nalolo	[100]
A Mrozi Boat and Crew	[100]
The Author and Lewanika	[104]
A Mumbunda Witch Doctor telling Fortunes	[106]
A Barotse Village	[106]
Start of a River Trip	[110]
Interior of Lewanika’s Dining-room	[110]
A Mambalangwe Belle	[114]
A Mankoya Chief and Retinue	[118]
A Traveller on the Zambezi	[122]
The Mankoya Chief, Mweni-Mutondo, and Band	[122]
Village School Boys, with Parents in foreground	[128]
Hauling Boats through Rapids	[128]
Portion of a Lubale Village	[134]
The Lunda Chief, Sinde, and Harem	[134]

The Skull of an ancient North Rhodesian Type of Man (Homo rhodesiensis).

(From a photograph kindly lent by Dr. Smith Woodward, British Museum).

Face p. 1

INTRODUCTION.

By Sir HARRY JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.

Sometime H.M. Commissioner, &c., for Northern Zambezia.

Barotseland at the present day is mainly defined as the kingdom of the recently dead Lewanika which lies both to the east and west of the Upper Zambezi, north of Sesheke, the Katima Rapids, the “Caprivi” boundary line of former German South West Africa. The western boundary line of Barotseland is the east bank of the Kwando river up stream to its intersection with the 22nd degree of E. longitude; the northern boundary is the 13th degree of S. latitude; and the eastern limit is a line drawn from the 13th degree of S. latitude to the upper waters of the Kabompo-Lulafuta, and then southward to the Majili river and along the Majili down to its union with the Upper Zambezi near Sesheke.

The master people, still, in this Upper Zambezi state are the A-luyi, who seem to have entered the lands of the Upper Zambezi from the direction of Eastern Angola, if vague tradition be anything to rely on. At any rate the A-luyi became the dominant tribe in this region some three hundred years ago, if not much earlier. Prior to their dominancy the Upper Zambezi regions had been invaded by terrible armies of cannibals, the “Bazimba” of Portuguese East African records and the “Giagas,” “Jaggas” of Portuguese Congo and Angola history. The term “Jagga” seems to have been derived from the title Jaga, which they gave to their chiefs; amongst themselves this tribe or congeries of tribes which played such an amazing part in the history of Central Africa in the latter half of the 16th century was known either as the “Imbángala” of the middle course of the Kwango river or the Va-chibokwe, Va-kioko, Va-chokwe, Bajoko (according to Livingstone), or Ba-jok of South-west Congoland and the Kasai sources. This boiling over of the Va-chokwe—as they are nowadays termed in their original home—caused terrific, population-destroying raids to be made across Northern Angola into Luango and the Congo coast region, and southwards over Barotseland, Central Zambezia, Southern Nyasaland and Moçambique, and northwards up the East Coast to the surroundings of Mombasa. The Va-chokwe were known by several names in the Portuguese records, the Jagga, Ba-zimba, and Bambo (sing. “Mumbo.”) “Ba-zimba” seems to have died out as a tribal name, but the Bambo still inhabit the region through which the Lower Shire flows, and the original Va-chokwe, Va-kioko, Va-chibokwe, or Ba-jok are prominent inhabitants in the basin of the extreme upper Kasai, and come into Barotseland or Angola on trading expeditions. They are a singularly independent, quarrelsome, warlike people, not unlikely to give trouble yet to the Belgian controllers of Congoland, to the British peace-keepers in North-West Zambezia, or to the Portuguese in Eastern Angola.

But though Upper Zambezia was traditionally overrun by the Va-chokwe three hundred and fifty years ago, the A-luyi seem soon afterwards to have absorbed the invasive quota of peoples and to have settled down as the rulers of Upper Zambezia till their land was first invaded from the south about one hundred and twenty years ago.

This invasion took place from the direction of Lake Ngami and the invaders seem to have been a section of the Ba-hurutse division of the Bechuana people. They reached the Upper Zambezi—traditionally—at the end of the 18th century, whether as friends or foes, tradition does not say; probably in small numbers and with no racial feud against the A-luyi. Their descendants may be the “Njenji” or “Zinzi” tribe who still speak a dialect of Sechuana and are settled rather high up the Zambezi. They seem however to have long retained the tribal name—Ba-hurutse—which became shortened into Ba-rotse.

These Ba-hurutse colonists of the Upper Zambezi valley apparently preserved some slender connection with the remainder of the great area of Bechuanaland, and had allowed news to reach the Fatherland of their tribe regarding the well-watered region in which they had made a new home. At any rate Sebituane, the son of an erratic woman chief in Basutoland, who in the second decade of the 19th century led her people forth on a mad excursion, gradually found his way to the north-west, and finally at the close of the eighteen-twenties had crossed the Zambezi and brought his followers—now called the Makololo—to the conquest of its upper valley.

By about 1840, he had conquered the A-luyi, whom he and his people called the “Ba-rotse” (Ba-hurutse), by the name of the earlier Bechuana colonists. Livingstone found him a fine-looking, copper-coloured man. “He was far and away the finest Kafir I ever saw,” wrote W. C. Oswell at the time—1851; and many years afterwards (in 1890) he repeated the same thing to me. “Sebituane is a gentleman in life and manner” exclaimed his surprised guests in 1851, when they appreciated to the full his gracious and thoughtful hospitality.

One feels on reading the remembrances of Livingstone and Oswell how intense must have been their regret when a few days after their arrival this great chief fell ill with inflammation of the lungs and passed away. Sebituane’s last days of life were taken up with recounting in a subdued voice (he was suffering from an old wound in the lungs) his wonderful adventures since he had first reached the Zambezi and found his way into Barotseland as a ruler. To the east of his moving horde of Bechuana or Makololo, were the fierce Tebele Zulus under Umsilikazi or Mosilikatse,[1] who likewise strove to conquer for themselves a state in North Zambezia. The pressure of the Amandebele drove Sebituane to the more swampy regions of “Barotseland.”

After Sebituane’s death Livingstone and Oswell left his country, promising to return. His son Sekeletu—inferior to his splendid father in height, physique, and appearance—was placed on the throne and ruled Barotseland for some twelve years. Livingstone had returned to the Upper Zambezi in 1853, determined then to discover the whole secret of its course and of its main tributaries, and to follow up the trail of the Ba-joko traders and the “Mambari” or half-caste Portuguese, who were beginning to renew their trading enterprize with the Upper Zambezi, and ascertain if through Sekeletu’s kingdom they could find their way “á contra costa”—to Portuguese Zambezia and Moçambique.

Livingstone traversed Barotseland (or Uluyi, as it was still more anciently called). Makololo porters and soldiers—some of whom were really A-luyi subjects of Sekeletu—accompanied him to São Paulo de Loanda, and turned back with him from Portuguese civilization to deliver him safely again at Sekeletu’s capital, whence, after many adventures on the Tonga highlands and along the cataract-strewn Zambezi, he reached that river’s delta and the settled towns of the Portuguese.

He returned in 1858 and, accompanied by Charles Livingstone and John Kirk, he once more entered Barotseland and sat with Sekeletu and his subordinate chiefs. But Livingstone had become by then more deeply interested in the problems, geographical and political, of Lake Nyasa and the Shiré river, the ravages of the Yao and Arab slave-traders, the courses of rivers west and north of the Nyasa watershed. Barotseland simmered on; scarcely visited by any European—unless it was some stray hunter who had found his way to the Zambezi. At last, in the year 1878, the pioneers of the great French Protestant Mission—notably Monsieur François Coillard—came into the Lake Ngami basin from Bechuanaland, and thence travelled to Upper Zambezi.

They found this former kingdom of Sebituane and Sekeletu ruled intermittently and disturbedly by a young chief of the old Aluyi dynasty—Lewanika. Sekeletu had died in 1864, and a period of struggle then arose in which the Aluyi and allied peoples, with possibly the remnant of the old settlement of the “Barotse” (Ba-hurutse), overcame the fighting caste of the Makololo, killed the males and married the females; and at the end of the struggle—about 1870—-the former dynasty of Aluyi chiefs was re-established.

The French Protestant missionaries (some of whom were Swiss) did much to keep Lewanika and his people in touch with British South Africa, after they were well-established in his country. He was made aware, at the close of the ’eighties, of German ambitions, of Portuguese desires to “protect” his territory—the journeys of Serpa Pinto and Capello and Ivens (1878-1883) had kept him advised of this; and at the same time of the formation of a great Chartered Company which had come to terms with the Matebele Zulus and was extending British political influence over the regions north of the Zambezi.

The “Barotse” people had heard something about the Arabs far back in the 19th century, for Livingstone found an intelligent, enquiring, civil-spoken Arab staying at or near the Barotse capital on the Zambezi in 1855.

Lewanika came to hear of the war with the Arabs in Nyasaland and on Tanganyika into which Germans and English were led, and his sympathies lay with the Europeans. Though Sekeletu had been a slave-trader on rather a considerable scale, Lewanika held such a policy in abhorrence. In 1891 he came to a preliminary understanding with the Chartered Company which has been strengthened by later agreements. In 1902, Lewanika, who had been born and brought up in the heart of Central Africa, travelled via Cape Town to England and was present at the coronation of King Edward VII. He looked a fine and imposing figure in Westminster Abbey, where I—recently returned from Uganda—was presented to him, after the ceremony was over. He had, indeed, as the author of this book says in his introduction, “most charming and courteous manners.” Further, it should be added that in regard to the kingdom of the Barotse, the British South Africa Chartered Company has taken no false step, has incurred no unfavourable criticism, and has received praise for its control of native customs and defence of native rights from the French Protestant and the Church of England missionaries at work in this country and its neighbour states.

The Barotse country, as defined on the sketch map accompanying this book, includes a number of interesting and distinct Bantu languages. It is even possible that a traveller who pushed his explorations to the south-western limits of the kingdom and of the British sphere might find in the valley of the Kwando river a few nomad Bushmen of more normal stature than the stunted Bushmen of Cape Colony, but speaking a tongue of Bushman and not Bantu affinities. The Bushmen were more anciently inhabitants of this land than the Bantu Negroes; but not far away, to the east of Barotseland, we have had a sensational discovery within the last twelve months of a different and peculiar species of man which once inhabited South Central Africa, prior to the penetration thither of the Negro sub-species. This was Homo rhodesiensis, the skull, jaw, and limb-bones of which were found in close association with rudely-chipped quartz knives and scrapers, and with the broken bones of antelopes still living in Rhodesia. The place of discovery was some sixty feet below the surface in a cave at the Broken Hill Mine almost in the middle of Northern Rhodesia. The bones found are attributable to at least two personages, the limb-bones and the skull having belonged to a tall man perhaps not less than six feet in height. He possessed tremendously-developed brow ridges, a feature in which Negro man is as a rule more deficient than the European. These, and the large flat face and comparatively small front teeth and other features, suggest an affinity with Neanderthal man (Homo primigenius) of Europe. Other points show some resemblance to the black Australian. But the brain-case measured in space only about 1,280 cubic centimetres—a capacity much inferior to the ordinary brain-cases of the Neanderthaloids and Australoids, though, of course, there are occasional examples of Australoid women’s skulls that have a brain capacity of under 1,000 cubic centimetres.

These bony remains of Rhodesian man may have been living creatures as much as forty thousand or as little as ten thousand years ago: there is not enough surrounding evidence to fix the date of them more precisely. All we can say is that the bones of the beasts they hunted and ate are nearly if not quite identical with those of existing species. Probably at the time when this big-browed, gorilla-faced man was alive, the Upper Zambezi, which flows through Barotseland three or four hundred miles westward of Broken Hill Mine, formed a great longitudinal lake in the heart of the Barotse[2] country, the greater part of which still remains very swampy. And when it issued from this expansion it joined the Kwando, the Okavango, and the Zuga to form a vast lake in what is now the North Kalahari Desert. The Guay river was then the Upper Zambezi and the Kafue river joined it as now.

The Kalahari Desert which well nigh ruins the north-western part of South Africa is probably “younger” as a desert even than the Sahara—and the Sahara Desert is a thing of yesterday, possibly much more recent than the existing human species. In the days when Rhodesian man with the huge brow-ridges, long, ape-like face and poorly developed brain ranged across all of Northern Rhodesia that was not under water, he might have passed between the vast Zambezi Lake on the west and the sources of the Guay on the east, and have wandered down into a green, tree-besprinkled South Africa, where he was no doubt killed out by the smaller but far more cunning Bushman or the intelligent Strandloopers who painted pictures on the rock surfaces like their relatives of Europe, the Crô-Magnon men. Long after these antecedent types of invaders had died away came in the vigorous Negroes...? Two thousand years ago? ... who spoke Bantu languages. Whether, between the Strandloopers, Bushmen and Hottentots who invaded the southern portion of South Africa thousands—who yet can say how many?—of years ago and the Bantu Negroes of yesterday (so to speak), other races entered and dwelt in southern and South-Central Africa, we do not know. I have given reasons elsewhere for premising that the flocking south from Equatoria of the Zulus, Bechuana, Karaña, Nyanja, Tonga, Luyi, Hérero, Angola, Luba, Lunda, Yao and Makua tribes and their allies and embranchments was quite a recent episode in the history of Africa, perhaps not more than two thousand years old. We have at present absolutely no knowledge of the incoming of any other type of inhabitant later than the Hottentot and before the Bantu; though there may have been many Negro immigrants belonging to neither group linguistically.

Barotseland, as its recent past becomes revealed to us from the second half of the sixteenth century, seems to have had as a dominant people the Aluyi; and as other tribes of importance the Tonga group (Ila-Tonga-Subia) in the south and south-east, the Luena or Lubale, Mbunda, and Lujazi tribes of northern Barotseland and the adjoining parts of Angola, the Nkoya-Mbwela peoples of eastern Barotseland; and a section of the southern Luba folk. Sporadically there has also occurred a strong invasion of the Lunda people (Ma-bunda) into the northernmost basin of the Zambezi, but it is doubtful whether these immigrants penetrate into the political limits of Barotseland. Similarly a section of another vigorous South Congo people has colonized the Northern Zambezi basin; the Luba, who are known in North-Eastern Barotseland as the Kahonde or Kaondi. Then again the enterprising, uppish, cheeky Va-chokwe or “Ba-joko” traders—once the slave-traders of South Congoland and Eastern Angola—circulate through Northern Barotseland and add yet another type of Bantu language to its markets and meetings.

The dominant language at Court and in trade to-day is an almost artificially-manufactured tongue which had come into existence during the last fifty years—Si-kololo. This will be found illustrated in its most modern form in the first volume of my Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages (Oxford, 1919). My information has been mainly derived from the Sikololo Grammar and Vocabulary published in London by Dr. Stanley Colyer in 1917, and from a Sikololo Phrase-book produced two years’ earlier by Mr. Stirke, the author of this book, in conjunction with a very noteworthy colleague, Mr. A. W. Thomas, formerly master of the Barotse National School.

Sikololo which has gradually displaced and superceded the Sechuana or Sesuto language of the original Bechwana invaders of a hundred years ago, is a far easier language to speak and pronounce than the difficult and highly peculiar idiom of Central South Africa. To philologists, Sechuana and its later southern specialization, Sesuto, are intensely interesting. Sechuana entered South Africa at as ancient a date as any other Bantu tongue—say sixteen or seventeen hundred years ago, coming thither from South-East Africa. But since then it has become highly specialized. The most specialized form of it was the southernmost, Sesuto, scarcely distinguishable a hundred or more years ago from the Sepedi of the Western Transvaal.

The chief Sebituane, born some hundred and twenty years ago, was a Mosuto, the son of a great crazy woman-chief known as Mantatisi. He carried his Sesuto tongue with him on the amazing journey he made with half his tribe across Bechuanaland to Lake Ngami and the Zambezi. Sechuana or Sesuto was the Court language in Barotseland when Livingstone first reached the Upper Zambezi in 1851. As the years rolled by, and after the Makololo (Basuto) dynasty had given place to a restoration of the Aluyi chieftainship, the original Sesuto spoken by Sebituane and well understood by Livingstone (who could converse in it freely) became greatly changed. It has remained the governing language of Barotseland and has succeeded almost in replacing and killing the remarkable Siluyi of the old rulers; and neither of the beautiful languages of the Tonga-Subia group of Southern and South-Eastern Barotseland has been allowed to take its place.

In Sikololo the pronunciation is much simplified. The rough guttural combination kx—of Sechuana-Sesuto gives way to the simple k; a hiatus formed by a dropped consonant is filled by h; ts is generally changed to z; e in the prefixes becomes i; f which had become h in Sesuto is generally replaced; the uncouth tl, tlh or the aspirated th and kh return to the simple t and k; and in general the pronunciation of Sikololo is brought into conformity with the harmonious phonology of the Zambezi languages.

A far more interesting tongue is Siluyi, the nearly extinct language of the Aluyi; in its older form, that is to say, as it was spoken round about Lialui (the original governing centre, near the left bank of the Zambezi, in about 15° 15´). Here it was a stately language, using preprefixes, and possessing all the seventeen customary prefixes of the Bantu languages. The second (Ba-) and eighth (Bi-) of these were in an abbreviated form, because the Luyi tongue had rather a dislike to an initial b, though it turned the sixteenth prefix—Pa- into Ba-, following a practice which recurs a good deal in the Angola tongues.

The principal form in which I have presented this language in the First Volume of my Comparative Study is derived from the studies of Luyi (Siluyi) compiled some twenty to twenty-five years ago by the Rev. E. Jacottet, of the French Protestant Mission. It was soon evident, when the British South Africa Co. officials got to work, that there was at least one separate dialect of Luyi spoken to the East and North-East of the main Zambezi. This was the Si-kwango or Si-kwangwa, a tongue in which the preprefixes are dropped. Si-kwangwa seems still to be a living speech among the people in the East-Central part of Barotseland; but the much nobler Luyi of the Zambezi vicinity is dying out, even among the natives of Luyi stock, dying out in favour of mongrel Sikololo.

Allied to Siluyi apparently, is the Nyengo language of the Bampukushu people, a scattered tribe living still (perhaps) in the South-Western portion of Barotseland, on the banks of the Kwando or Linyanti river. There has been no record of this speech since that which was compiled by Livingston about 1853, and which I have reproduced (numbered 82) in my Comparative Study of the Bantu Languages.

Still farther south, in the northern part of the basin of Lake Ngami, there were, down to quite recently, the Ba-yeye or Makoba people, whose language also seemed to show kinship with Luyi as well as with the Subia-Tonga group. The imperfect record of this is numbered 81 in my book. It may be extinct as a spoken tongue by now. But its existence where it last lingered on the northern side of Lake Ngami would seem to show that this basin of the shrinking lake (which received a vast but diminishing tribute of water from the Okavango river, and earlier still from the present “Upper Zambezi”) was colonized by the Bantu from the north before it was found and peopled by the Bechuana tribes from the south-east.

So much does Sikwangwa differ from Siluyi nowadays, that it is almost a separate language. If this be so, the Western Zambezi group of my formation would contain at least four languages, Yeye, Nyengo, Luyi and Sikwangwa. I am also informed that Sikwangwa is not the only existing dialect of Luyi, but that two others exist, and are spoken to the North-West and North-East of Lialui and the Zambezi: Si-koma and Si-kwandi. These have only been recorded in name, and I have seen no specimens of their vocabularies. It would be interesting to ascertain whether, like Luyi, they retain the use of preprefixes; or whether they have dropped them, as have most of the languages in the western half of the Zambezi basin.

There is a tendency in Siluyi for b and p to take the place of v or f as the initial of the root, although in the prefixes b and p are inclined to drop out: so that Aba- becomes Aa-; Ibi-, I; Ubu-, Uu-; and Apa-, Aba-. Thus we have -pumo for “belly,” instead of the familiar -fumo; -bumu for “chief,” in place of -fumu; -pumbu for “ground” (ordinarily -vu) -buu for “hippopotamus” (-vubu), -bula for “rain” (-vula); and -pi for “war” (-vita). The roots for the numerals “six,” “seven,” “eight” and “nine” were in Livingstone’s day, very peculiar and unlike those of any other Bantu tongue; though to-day they are supplemented by paraphrases meaning “five-and-one,” “five-and-two,” etc.

The Rev. Mr. Jacottet has shown how rich Siluyi was in folk-lore and legends. It is a great pity this particularly interesting, expressive Bantu tongue should be allowed to die out through the vogue given to the artificial amalgam of speech known as Sikololo.

Subia, spoken in Southern Barotseland, on and near the Zambezi at its bend eastward, is also a language of great interest, said likewise to be dying out under the rivalry of mongrel Sikololo. It was first noticed by Livingstone about 1851, and a grammatical sketch of it was given by Jacottet in 1896. But in the present century, F. V. Worthington and C. F. Molyneux, officials of the Chartered Company, supplied me with a full vocabulary and grammatical information which has been reproduced in my Comparative Study, Vols. I and II. Subia is spoken to the south of the Zambezi as far eastward as Pandamatenka; but it belongs to the West Central Zambezia Group, mainly in use on the north side of the great river, and including the Tonga, Ila and Lenje tongues and their dialects. This group is related to the Luba languages of Southern Congoland and to the tongues of the Bangweulu basin and of the Luangwa valley. They are all beautiful-sounding and expressive languages, representing Bantu speech in an attractive form.

The Tonga language is spoken in South-East Barotseland in one or more dialects. The Tonga people are a series of vigorous tribes not very likely to give up their expressive language in favour of the bastard Sikololo or the crabbed Sechuana. They attained some degree of civilization two centuries ago under the teaching of Portuguese Jesuit missionaries. Their attitude towards Livingstone and later travellers, down to the incoming of the British South Africa Company, was hostile. James Chapman, the great explorer of Southern Zambezia and even of Barotseland—in some senses the rival of Livingstone—suffered much from attacks at their hands. So did F. C. Selous. They also warred incessantly against the Zulu invasions under Umsilikazi and Lobengula, and checked the Zuluizing of central Northern Zambezia, which, in default of similar vigorous opposition, took place in the regions east of the Luangwa river.

Similarly related to Tonga and Subia are the Ila (Shukulumbwe) and Lenje tongues, though both lie almost or wholly outside the limits of Barotseland, in the central part of Northern Rhodesia. The Ba-ila tribes, two divisions of which are also known as the Ba-lumbu and Ba-shala, are a splendid-looking folk in physical development, who were long recalcitrant to European influence. In fact their healthy plateau country has only been opened up to knowledge during the last twenty years. When they were first seen in the latter part of the nineteenth century they were found to be—the men especially—living in a state of complete nudity, except in the case of the married women. But to make up for the complete neglect of clothing the men devoted particular attention to their head-hair. This was pulled up, greased, lengthened by the insertion of ancestral hair pullings, and fastened to a supple arched, recurved whip, so that it rose a foot to two feet above the occiput. Nowadays I imagine that their complete nudity is modified. The mining surveys, motor roads, and suggestions of railways, together with good and wise government, in and out of the Barotse kingdom, have succeeded in taming the Ba-ila and in drawing them into paid employment; though it is still feared by watchful administrators that they tend to diminish owing to sexual vice which causes the women to become infertile.

Another language of interest and importance is that of the Nkoya and Mbwela tribes living in East Barotseland. It has affinities jointly to the Luyi Group and to that of the North-West Zambezia languages. Preprefixes are not used, but the seventeen prefixes-with-concords seem to be fully represented in primitive forms, except that the seventh prefix (Ki-) is represented by Shi-, which brings it near to the Si- of Luyi. The tenth prefix is lisped as Thi-, Thin-, &c., a feature reappearing in one or two other tongues of the Group. The eighth prefix is Bi- and the locative prefix is Pa-. The root for ‘two,’ in the numerals is the East and South Africa form, -bidi or -biji (for -bili); not the -bali root that obtains in the other members of the North-West Zambezian Group. Another peculiarity that signalizes Nkoya is the root -mwa- for ‘all,’ only to be met with elsewhere in two of the Manyema languages of East Congoland. In Nkoya there is none of that dislike to the consonant p, which recurs over and over again in Bantu Africa. But in the other members of the North-West Zambezia Group this obtains, and in these—Luena, Mbunda, Lujazi and Chokwe—the 16th prefix is given as Ha- or A- instead of Pa-. Otherwise they are fairly orthodox, betraying little more “West African” affinities than the use of the -bali root for ‘two’ (instead of -bili), which is a characteristic of West Central Africa.

The Luena or Lubale language only enters the north-western part of Barotseland; Mbunda is spoken in separate parts on either side of the Upper Zambezi, also in the north of this state; Lujazi extends from South-East Angola to the western limits of Barotse territory; and Chokwe comes in as a trading language in the extreme north. None of these North-West Zambezia languages use preprefixes.

One other great Bantu Group may be met with in the northern part of Barotseland. Here there are outlying dialects of Luba and Lunda which have penetrated into Barotseland comparatively recently. The Luba tongues of South Congoland are represented by Kahonde, a form of South Luba illustrated in my Comparative Study under the designation of 105a. This is spoken on the North-Eastern verge of Barotseland in the basin of the Upper Kabompo river. Southern Lunda, introduced into the northern part of this territory goes under the name of “Ma-bunda,” the root of which—bunda—is the same as that of “Mbunda,” a quite distinct language of the North-West Zambezia Group allied to Luena, Lujazi, Nkoya, and Chokwe. “Bunda” is evidently a language and tribal name which in the shapes of -bundu, -bundo, and -bunda haunts Angola and Western Zambezia without implying close relationship between the different forms of speech thus termed. The “Ma-bunda” dialect of Lunda may represent an older form of the latter name, which seems to be a contraction of Lu-unda for Lu-bunda. The language (No. 111) which I have styled “Western Lunda” in my Comparative Study was originally called by its discoverer, the Revd. S. Koelle, “Ru-unda,” suggesting that Ru- (= Lu-) was the familiar language prefix and -unda or -bunda the root. The loss of an initial b is a frequent occurrence in the Lunda languages.

The distribution of tongues southward from Angola and the Congo Basin over the regions north of the main Zambezi river indicates no causes of hesitancy, no interruptions in the north-to-south progress of the Bantu peoples. But westward of the course of the Luangwa river, as far as the Barotse country extends, or at any rate as far as the main stream of the Zambezi flows, this great river seems to have been a very decided and arresting barrier in the distribution not only of African tribes and languages but of the larger or more remarkable mammals and birds.

With regard to man of course the barrier has not been so effective. Evidently the Aluyi people of long ago crossed the Upper Zambezi and penetrate to the Lower Kwando or Chobe, and across this stream to the vicinity of Lake Ngami, though not much farther west; and in return, immigrants of Bechuana stock entered Barotseland from Lake Ngami in the last century. But there seems to have been a not easily explained halt in human migrations between Western Zambezia and South-West and South Africa. It would be comparatively easy to account for, if one could presume that the present sterile influence of the Kalahari desert prevailed two thousand or even one thousand years ago, and earlier still. But on the contrary from the many indications we can collect and from the legends of the natives in the regions south of the Zambezi, we are inclined to believe that the present arid nature of the lands on the western side of South Africa is quite a modern feature which has gone on rapidly increasing. So rapidly that even I who made a journey in 1882 to the Kunene river from Mossamedes can remember flowing streams (in the dry season) and forests, where the rivers and rivulets are now dry and the woodland is dead.

There seem, in addition, to have taken place in comparatively recent times, changes in the disposition of water supplies, which have diverted much useful moisture from inner South Africa into the Atlantic Ocean. Not such a very long time ago the Kunene river, which brings an abundant supply of fresh water from the great knot of highlands in Southern Angola, bore this water into Lake Etosha in Ovampoland, and beyond that towards the course of the Okavango or the great vanished lake of which Ngami is the surviving vestige: Ngami, which even in Livingstone’s day—the end of the ’forties, some seventy-two years ago—was twice its present size. Into the same basin flowed the mighty Okavango (known much farther north as the Kubango), the Kwando and the upper Zambezi, then the outlet of another vast lake in the Barotse country. Quite possibly these two shallow lakes of huge size sent their overflow of water through the Guay river into the bed of the Zambezi-Kafue, and so out into the Indian Ocean after all; for these waters of Central Africa were completely hemmed in southwards by the plateaux of Damaraland, Bechuanaland and Matebeleland. But in those days the ultimate source of the Zambezi would have lain in the Benguela highlands near the Atlantic Ocean, and not in the Luvale country near to the upper Kasai.

As regards the mammalian fauna and some of the more striking or peculiar of African birds, Barotseland, east of the Upper Zambezi, appears, in common with all the rest of South Central Africa up to the east coast of Lake Nyasa and down to the main course of the Zambezi, to be deficient as compared with Portuguese West Africa, South Africa, and (in a lesser degree) Moçambique. It probably has more in common as a distributional area with the southern part of the Congo basin outside the forest area, and west of the Luapula-Lualaba streams. Down to recent times Barotseland possessed great herds, enormous numbers of a few species of game animals, but not such a great variety of species. Like South Congoland outside the forest zone, it seems never to have had any example of the rhinoceros: indeed, I have no confirmatory evidence of the existence of a rhinoceros or a giraffe, west of the eastern rise of the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau, or of the waters of Lake Nyasa. The rhinoceros begins to show itself south of Lake Nyasa and east of the Shire river. It recurs in Southern Angola and Damaraland, up to the vicinity of the Western Zambezi, and as far north as the beginning of the lofty plateaux where the Kwanza river rises.

The Kwanza, which divides Angola into two unequal portions, is very noteworthy as a boundary. Its ultimate sources are in the Ngangela, Bihé and Lujazi highlands (plateaus and mountains) which connect the mountain ranges of Benguela on the west with the 5,000-feet-high plateau dividing the Southern Congo basin from that of the Zambezi. This undulating line of heights (rising on several peaks to nearly 8,000 feet) really marks off Southern from Northern Angola; and zoologically Southern Angola extends eastwards almost to the banks of the Upper Zambezi and covers the western limits of Barotseland.

Here you have a remarkable extension of the South African area of zoological distribution. East of this, from the Upper Zambezi to the Shire river and the east coast of Lake Nyasa (with the Zambezi as a southern boundary) there is an interruption in distributional area which affects certain mammals and birds very curiously. For some the interruption is complete. The Ostrich, the true Gazelles, the Oryxes, the Secretary bird, certain types of Vulture, the Striped Hyena, the Chita or Hunting Leopard, the Caracal Lynx, the Aard Wolf (Proteles), the Big-eared Fox (Otocyon), the small Desert Foxes, the Black-backed Jackal, the Pedetes or Cape Jumping Hare, the Elephant-shrews, the Mountain Zebras, the White Rhinoceros and, in a lesser degree, the Black, are in a measure confined to north-east and eastern Equatorial Africa on the one hand, and to Africa south of the Zambezi and to Southern Angola on the other. Some of the examples cited stretch across to the Bahr-al-ghazal and even Northern Nigeria from Abyssinia and the Eastern Sudan; others reach Senegal and Western Nigeria beyond the forest zone. But all of the examples cited (besides many more less well-known birds and mammals) seem to be absent from North Angola, Northern Zambezia and Nyasaland, and apparently also from Moçambique. In Moçambique, numerous forms may have been exterminated by the white man and the black hunters, who began shooting here in the 17th century. Yet it is difficult to understand that they could thus have eliminated the Ostrich, Springbok, Striped Hyena (represented in South Africa and Angola by the Brown Hyena), Chita, Caracal, Aard Wolf, and Pedetes rodent, or even the Giraffe.

The Giraffe’s distribution conforms somewhat, but not so closely, to similar restrictions. Its least specialized form, perhaps, is the Reticulated Giraffe of Somaliland, whereon the original markings are seen to be white stripes, horizontal and perpendicular, on a red ground. From Somaliland the Giraffe radiates over the eastern Sudan to Northern Nigeria and thence (with gaps) to Senegal. It entirely avoids forested Central and West Africa, though it has a near relation, the Okapi, in the forests of Equatorial Africa east and north of the main Congo river. The distribution of the Giraffe continues south from Uganda and Somaliland to the east of Tanganyika and Nyasa down to the neighbourhood of the Ruvuma river. It has never been reported south of that stream, or until the Lower Zambezi has been crossed. A hundred years ago and down to about 1900 it was found in various sub-species and varieties south and west of the Zambezi to Cape Colony and into Southern Angola. But it has never been shown to exist between the Upper Zambezi and the Moçambique coast, north of that river system.

On the other hand the range of the Sable Antelope does not leave out Northern Zambezia and Barotseland. It begins in Eastern Africa, in the latitude and neighbourhood of Mombasa (a fact first suggested in my book on Kilimanjaro, published in 1885), broadens over what was formerly “German East Africa,” passes round the south end of Tanganyika into Southern Congoland and crosses Barotseland into Eastern Angola. Here, in the south-eastern basin of the Kwanza, and possibly in north-western Barotseland as well, it develops its most superb form—Hippotragus variani, generally called the Giant Sable—with magnificently developed horns, longer than those of any other type found elsewhere, and a longer, narrower skull. It is possible (from heads I once saw, shot to the west of the main Upper Zambezi and specimens of horns) that the Giant Sable may be found just within the limits of Barotseland.[3]

North of the belt of dense forest between the Liba and Kabompo, on the spongy plains near to the river, Livingstone noticed in the rainy season large numbers of Buffaloes, Elands, Kudus, Roan Antelopes, Gnus, and other game. He even avers that farther north he saw a White Rhinoceros. It was on a Sunday and his encampment was almost surrounded by herds of astonished Mpala antelopes, tsesebes (“bastard hartebeests”), zebras and buffaloes. But although the Black Rhinoceros is undoubtedly found in Southern Angola close up to the Barotse frontier, and the White has been shot immediately south of the Upper Zambezi, no word has come from any other quarter as to the existence of the monstrous White square-lipped species in the direction of the Upper Zambezi and the Congo watershed; so it is possible his eye-sight was deceived.

Giant Sable Antelope, from Angola

(From a specimen in the Museum of the New York Zoological Society presented by John Jay Paul.)

In general, Barotseland, east of the main Zambezi and of its great north-western affluent the Lungo-e-bungo, seems to possess the mammal and bird fauna of Northern Angola, Southern Congoland, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Moçambique is richer—up to the Shire river—in possessing the Black (I used to think also the White, and perhaps was not wrong) Rhinoceros, and a few other creatures found also in Eastern Equatorial and in Trans-zambezian Africa. Otherwise Moçambique remains rather an unsolved problem, as to why and how it served as an interruption in the spread of the vertebrate fauna of Pliocene and Pleistocene North Africa down to South Africa, an extension which as regards West-Central and Western Africa may have been barred by the former enormous area of dense forest growth.

In botany, as in vertebrate zoology, Barotseland is part of the region which lies between the Kwanza and Zambezi rivers on the south, and the main-stream of the Congo on the north, from Lake Mweru to the Atlantic Ocean. It has a sufficient rainfall, from 22 inches in the south-west to 42 inches in the north-east, to maintain a fairly luxuriant flora as well as powerful rivers. North of the confluence of the Kabompo and the Liambai or Liba (the Upper Zambezi), there seems to have been seventy years ago a luxuriant belt of forest stretching northwards and occupying the mountainous region between the Liba-Zambezi and the Kabompo or Lulafuta.

The average elevation of the Barotse Valley, south of this confluence, ranges from a little under 3,000 feet at Sesheke to about 3,600 feet at the juncture of the Zambezi and the Kabompo; but the forested country between these rivers must rise in part to at least 4,500 feet. The richness of this forest seems to have made an immense impression on Livingstone in the middle of the ’fifties. Up till then, coming from South Africa through Bechuanaland, he had at most seen scattered trees with occasionally a fine solitary umbrageous specimen, or a palm thicket. But above the confluence of these two rivers he evidently plunged (when he had to land) into a woodland comparable with the splendid forests of the Congo or the Cameroons. His Missionary Travels contains some very good word-painting of the grand growth of the trees, the deep gloom of the forest depths as contrasted with the shadeless glare of Bechuanaland. In spite of the incessantly rainy weather—and in this little-explored region the yearly rainfall must be far in excess of the modest estimate quoted by travellers in the Barotse park-land and plateaux—Livingstone found considerable pleasure in here seeing—for the first time—the real forest display of Central Africa.

North of the Zambezi-Kabompo junction Livingstone noticed the increasing growth of the bamboo on the uplands, as a skirting of the great display of tropical forest which so deeply impressed him as he followed the northward course of the main Zambezi. This—or these—bamboos recur on the elevated plateaux of Eastern Barotseland, and extend over a good deal of the upland on either side of the Upper Kafue, as well as over the five thousand feet crest of the Congo boundary. No doubt they may also be observed within the north-western limits of Barotseland. They are seemingly of the same types as the bamboos of Nyasaland and the elevated portions of Northern Rhodesia south of Tanganyika, and in such case belong to the Oxytenanthera and Arundinaria genera. The only other genus of arboreal bamboo in Africa is Oreobambos; but that, I think, is confined in its range to Abyssinia and the Snow mountains of East Equatorial Africa.

The forests of Northern Barotseland have one or more species of wild plantain (Musa) and either wild or introduced examples of the oil palm, where the rainfall is over fifty inches per annum. This may have been introduced from Congoland or Northern Angola by the natives, who in the north of the Barotse country are so closely connected with the peoples of the Congo basin; or as in the case of North Nyasaland and Zanzibar Id., it may be a separate species or sub-species of the Elaïs genus.

According to the reports of later travellers, there is much woodland and scrub on the higher land—4,000 to 4,500 feet—on the west side of the Zambezi, south of the Kabompo-Zambezi junction. This woodland is also repeated, less markedly, to the east of the great river where the land likewise rises. The Mankoya country (Eastern Barotseland) has a larger, steadier rainfall than Sesheke and the southern regions; and the Mashukulumbwe table-land, and the valley of the upper Kafue are said to be well and regularly watered countries. The more scattered growth of trees (occasional fine and large trees are common) seems due to human intervention. The natives of the Lukona province, towards Angola, are a wilder, less intelligent race than folk of Tonga kinship on the east, and not so eager to promote tree planting. Bulovale (the region between the Luena and Kabompo rivers) and north of the Kabompo up to the boundary of the Zambezi watershed are well forested regions.

The central valley of the Zambezi—“Borotse proper,”[4] as it might be called, the region which the Barotse (really the Aluyi) have so long dominated—ranges from below the Zambezi-Kabompo confluence on the north to the Gonye Falls on the south, and is about 150 miles long and 60 miles broad. It is the bed—most observers think—of the old lake of the Upper Zambezi, and presents to-day an utterly flat and treeless aspect. Then ensue from Gonye to Katima, some eighty miles of rapids or falls. From Katongo to Mambova, past the now world-famed Sesheke, where Livingstone and Oswell first “discovered” the Zambezi, there are fifty miles of navigable river; then two more rapids at Mambova and Nkalata, and then another navigable stretch of some sixty miles to the vicinity of the Victoria Falls. (These lie well outside the political limits of Barotseland, the boundary striking north along the Majili river, ten miles east of Sesheke.) The plain of the extinct lake is much flooded during the winter rains, when a good deal of central Barotseland is under water. The rainy season seems, however, to be tending more and more towards the spring months (the autumn of South Central Africa).

The geology of Barotseland may be summarized thus: In the north-west, north, east and south-east the surface is a red laterite clay, superimposed on granite which in the higher portions obtrudes itself in mountains and hills. The central valley and most of the south-west has a heavy, white, sandy soil, but with a good deal of alluvium laid down on the sand by river courses or in the bed of the ancient lake. There is a basaltic outbreak in the neighbourhood of the Victoria Falls, but this lies outside Barotseland limits. In the eastern half of the country gold, copper—connected with the copper deposits of Katanga—tin, lead, zinc and iron have been discovered, chiefly in regions between four and five thousand feet in altitude.

In this little book and in the first and second volumes of my Comparative Studies of the Bantu Languages (fed from much the same source) our information concerning Barotseland and its peoples has been greatly implemented. But that fact does not conceal from us that the country, its zoology, botany, peoples, and even its geography (to say nothing of geology) are still far too little known. The portions that lie to the west and south-west of the main Zambezi remain almost unknown and undescribed, or are only made known to us in works of travel fifty, sixty, seventy years old, which even if accurate in what particulars they give were written at a much lower level of knowledge than exists concerning Africa in general to-day. We know more about Eastern Angola than we do of Western Barotseland. Recent discoveries concerning Angolan Antelopes, Zebras, Rhinoceroses, and other mammalian types make us eager to ascertain how these discoveries affect Barotseland west of the Zambezi. How far do the Bushman tribes extend into Western Barotseland? Are they of normal human stature, like those of South-East Angola? Do they speak languages akin to the Bushman tongues and use clicks? Have they greatly projecting brows like certain Bushmen of the Northern Kalahari, or are they without brow projections at all but very prognathous in the lower part of the face? What is the full tale of the Bantu tribes of Western Barotseland? Are there still unrecorded Bantu languages on the Kwando river? Do the tongues recorded south-west of the Upper Zambezi by Livingstone, seventy-two years ago, still exist?

Does Livingstone’s great forest between the course of the Upper Zambezi and that of the Kabompo still maintain itself, in spite of the reckless spirit of destruction inherent in all uneducated Negro tribes, who since the imposition of peace by the white man have been largely increasing the area of their settlement in Northern Barotseland? If the forest is still there, in whole or in part, why are no botanical reports and collections available? The botany of Barotseland, in common with its zoology, has never been efficiently explored and reported on since the land was first entered. Cattle apparently prosper in the whole country; yet the tsetse fly exists seemingly everywhere. Does it, north of the Zambezi and west of the Luañgwa, convey no germs? The time—it seems to me—has come when the British Empire, from London or from Cape Town, should have this country examined scientifically from west to east and north to south; not with anything but benevolent intentions towards its natives—Aluyi and Batonga, Basubia and Mabunda, Batonga and Baila, Bankoya and Kahonde, Valujazi and Valubale—but with the earnest endeavour to make fully known its resources and defects, its wonders and survivals, and the relation that Western Barotseland bears to the growing menace of South Africa: the spread of the Kalahari Desert, the drying up of once fully habitable land, the cause of ruin in South Angola, in Eastern Damaraland, and the vast, dead region north, east, south, and west of Lake Ngami.

H. H. Johnston.

The Mokwai Mataŭka of Nalolo with her husband (standing) and interpreter (sitting)

Photo by Mrs. Marshall

BAROTSELAND:
EIGHT YEARS AMONG THE BAROTSE.

CHAPTER I.
The Barotse and their Origin.

The origin of the Barotse is a matter of conflicting conjecture. It has been suggested by the Abarozwi of Southern Rhodesia that the Barotse are descendants of theirs and that Lewanika is a direct descendant from their royal house. The Barotse of Barotseland deny this in toto. They aver that they came south from the Congo Basin and found the Alunda and Balubale living in their country (vide [map]). The Alunda and Balubale confirm the statement of the Barotse, and it is known that the Barotse lived for some years among the Lunda, gradually working south till they left the forest country on the Zambezi and came out on to the flat swampy country known to-day as the Barotse Valley.

They were then sometimes called by foreigners the Barozi or Barotse, but were better styled the A-luyi and spoke Siluyi and in our days Sirozi or Sikololo.

During the chieftainship of Mbukwano, the A-luyi were conquered by Sebituane, a roving Mosutu with a band of warriors. Sebituane not only re-christened the A-luyi as “Makololo,” but forced Sesuto as a language on them. Sebituane and his followers were not called Basuto by the A-luyi but Makololo, which name, according to the Rev. E. Smith, once of the Batonga-Baila mission, was derived from the fact that Sebituane’s favourite wife was a Makololo woman.

Sikololo (a mongrel form of Sesuto) is the lingua franca of the Barozi to-day. The greatest difficulty is found in getting any well-authenticated information from the Barozi as to their past history.

The origin of the name “Murozi” (a native of the Barozi country) is peculiar. The true name of the people is the A-luyi; the prefix A or Ba being the plural of Mu and applied to mean “people.” When the Makololo under Sebituane first invaded the southern portions of the country, they found a subordinate tribe called the Masubia living near Sesheke. These people told the Makololo that their overlords living to the north were the “A-luyi.” The Makololo converted this into “Ba-luizi,” “Ba-ruizi” (L and R being interchangeable) and finally “Ba-rozi.” Why the foreign missionaries decided to call it “Barotse” is best known to themselves; certainly no one else can imagine or find any reason for it at all. There is no possible reason for mistaking the “z” in Barozi for “ts”.[5]

Whether from the vicissitudes of their southern trek or from natural laziness is unknown, but they have no system of record, nor, as is the case in many native tribes, have the village elders ever acted as historians and handed their knowledge on from father to son. The Barozi themselves say that owing to their numerous raids and their intermarriage with the aboriginal tribes and with women raided from other tribes, they have lost all purity of race and incidentally all remembrance of their former history. They certainly are to-day a very mixed race, and nearly all their songs, dances, customs and legends are either borrowed wholly or in part from other tribes. They are quite positive that the Abarozwi of Southern Rhodesia are related to them, but they state that these people are a branch that left them and trekked south into Matebeleland where they settled. If this is correct it must have been previous to the Matebele settling in Southern Rhodesia under Mosilikatse, as the Barozi, though fond of raiding weaker or more divided people, were too canny to try conclusions with a powerful and warlike people like the Matebele. Besides the raid of Sebituane and his Makololo, several raids by the Matebele are known of, and although the Barozi certainly suffered at the raiders’ hands, they generally got rid of them by strategy and cunning. Their own successes over people like the Bashukulumbwe and Batonga were nearly always gained by treachery, superior numbers, superior weapons, or else by internal dissensions amongst the people they raided.

The Barozi were very fortunate in the class of people they found occupying the country they settled in; the more timid tribes were at once enslaved, while more powerful people were propitiated and gradually absorbed. Unfortunately, the conquerors readily acquired all the vicious and degraded habits of the conquered, and are to-day, both physically and morally, a far poorer type of native than they were on entering the country, always providing their statements are true. Natural laziness and the rapidity with which they acquired the demoralizing customs of their subject people have practically eliminated the true Muluyi nature in so much that the real Sirozi or Siluyi language is gradually dying out and to-day is known to but a few of the blood royal, sons of Indunas and the like. Sikololo, which is a mongrel Sesuto, is the commonest language in use in the country and even amongst the outlying tribes such as the Alunda, Balubale, Bankoya, Batotela, Bandundulu and others, it is always possible to find one or more persons in every village with a slight knowledge of Sikololo. The missionaries possibly made a mistake in not working up Sikololo on their arrival in the country, but having Sesuto text-books and grammars to hand they commenced to teach Sesuto. Sikololo is now being reverted to and this should simplify matters to a great extent. Many pure Siluyi words are in use in Sikololo, for which there are no equivalents in Sesuto. For example, river work such as paddling and other matters connected with boats are unrepresented in Sesuto, as there is no river work in Basutoland, and the words in use in Sikololo are practically all Siluyi.

One of Lewanika’s Aunts with Attendant

Photo by J. C. Coxhead, Esq.

Lewanika’s Band (Mirupa and Silimba)

Photo by J. C. Coxhead, Esq.

Siluyi itself is doubtless a corruption of an older Siluyi language, but this is hard to prove owing to the lapse of time and lack of authentic records.

The Bambowe, an aboriginal tribe on the Zambezi, living south of the Balunda, corroborate the statement made by Alunda and Balubale, that the Barozi or Aluyi lived amongst them while coming from the Congo Basin. The Bakwangwa, another aboriginal tribe living east of the Zambezi, say the Barozi found them there and absorbed them, and yet Sirozi (Siluyi) is clearly the language of which Simbowe and Sikwangwa are dialects. Any one conversant with one of these languages, understands and is understood by speakers of the others. Some idea of the composition of the Barozi people of to-day can be gained when one realizes that they are composed of Bambowe, Bakwangwa, Bahoombi, Bakoma, Makololo, Bandundulu, Bambunda, Bankoya, Bashasha, Alunda, Balubale, Bambalangwe, Batonga, Basubia, Mashukulumbwe, Bakwande, Batotela, Bakwangali, Bakwengo, Balojazi, Vachibokwe, Basanjo and other tribes. Many of the above tribes were, so far as can be gathered, aboriginal owners of the Barozi country, others were raided from time to time and slaves (chiefly women) taken back to the homes of the raiders, where they in time intermarried and became Barozi.

CHAPTER II.
The Administration of Barotseland.

The Barotse Reserve is administered by the British South Africa Company in agreement with the Paramount Chief Lewanika. By this agreement the Chief Lewanika has handed over certain powers and privileges to the B.S.A. Co. The company is empowered to collect a poll-tax, of which a percentage is set aside for the Barotse nation. Out of this percentage the Barotse National School and its industrial branch is maintained. The school is controlled by a European principal and vice-principal, as well as a European instructor, at the head of the industrial side, supported by an effective staff of native teachers. The B.S.A. Co. further have a resident magistrate near Lewanika’s capital at Lialui, who is supported by two Northern Rhodesia police officers and a company of native police (recruited in Angoni and Awembaland). Native commissioners are maintained at Lialui, Nalolo, Balovale, Mankoya, and Lukona, with an assistant magistrate and a native commissioner at Sesheke.

Lewanika has ceded all judicial rights to the B.S.A. Co. with the exception of very minor items and of civil cases between natives. At the same time the B.S.A. Co. recognizes native laws where such native laws are not repugnant to British ideas of justice.

At present Lewanika has his capital at Lialui, where his Kotla (Parliament)[6] sits daily. His sister Mataŭka is Mokwai of Nalolo (Mokwai being a title designating a woman of royal blood on the father’s side).

A younger sister, Mbwanjikana, is Mokwai of Libonda, and Lewanika’s eldest son Litia (or Yeta, as he is now called by all Barozi since his youth) is stationed at Sesheke. (Yeta, styled Yeta II, has since succeeded his father as Paramount Chief.) The two sisters and Yeta are subordinate to Lewanika, but all three have their Kotlas (Parliaments) and Prime Ministers. There is a right of appeal from any of these subordinate Kotlas to the Lialui Kotla.

The Barozi Reserve is closed against farming or mining, and is reserved for the Barozi only. Trading is allowed, but any applicant for a licence has to be proved by the Administrator, Resident Magistrate, and the Chief Lewanika—Lewanika getting a half share of all gun and store licences issued throughout Barotseland.

Liquor is naturally not allowed to be sold in the Reserve, nor are powder, caps, nor guns. The Administrator will grant permission to the Chief, at his request, for any of the more important Indunas to buy sporting guns and a limited amount of ammunition.

Slavery has been suppressed, although, in due justice to the Barozi, it does not appear to have existed in its more brutal form in this country. The B.S.A. Co. has given every encouragement to the Paris Huguenot Mission in the Reserve, and the Mission have several privileges to assist them, such as free inspection of their schools by the Principal of the Barozi National School, the reservation of vacancies in the Barozi National School for members of the Mission Schools and other items. The Chief Lewanika has always lent the mission the support of his approval, although he himself has not become converted.

The B.S.A. Co. has endeavoured in every possible way to protect the interests of the Barozi people and their Chief Lewanika. The Resident Magistrate at Mongu, besides his magisterial duties, acts as adviser to the Chief and the Kotlas (or Parliament) as well. The native is safeguarded against himself as regards his cattle by restrictions placed on the local traders as to numbers purchased annually—restrictions on breeding stock being much more stringent than on bulls and bullocks. The Rhodesian Native Labour Bureau is given free access to the country to recruit labour, but is under close Government supervision.

A Lujazi Village

Photo by J. C. Coxhead, Esq.

Lewanika’s Head Paddlers

Photo by J. C. Coxhead, Esq.

Besides all these safeguards, there is a Resident Commissioner stationed at Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia, a large part of whose duties is the protection of natives’ rights. Beyond him again is the High Commissioner for all native protectorates, who directly represents His Majesty King George V, and is also Governor-General for the Union of South Africa.

A poll tax of 10s. is collected, which is very much lighter than the tax collected from any native race south of the Zambezi. This tax is collected from adult males only, boys, old men and women not being taxed, with the exception of second and other wives of polygamous marriages. A man’s first wife does not have to be paid for, but, as a man who marries more than one wife is nearly always a man of means, he is responsible for the tax of his second and other wives. Exemptions are granted from payment of tax, either for a number of years or for life, for sickness, disease or old age.

The Administrator of Northern Rhodesia pays a visit to the Barozi Reserve in person or by proxy every year, and during his visit the Chief and the people are at liberty to bring any complaints and grievances before him. No matter is too trifling or insignificant to receive the fullest and most careful attention and it is doubtless the care taken over these minor points that has solidified the excellent relations at present existing between the Chief Lewanika and the officials of the B.S.A. Company.

CHAPTER III.
Native Administration.

The Paramount Chief of the Barozi is the head of the nation and, in the eyes of his subjects, can do no wrong. His actions are nevertheless curtailed by the national assembly, which was called in the early days of the Aluyi, the “Namōō,” but after the Makololo invasion, the “Kotla.”

On state occasions the Chief sits in the middle of the Kotla which holds its daily meetings in a long rectangular building open on three sides. Half-way along the fourth side, which is walled, sits the Paramount Chief on a raised daïs. On his immediate right sits the “Ngambela” or Prime Minister and the various Indunas in order of the responsibility of their positions. On the immediate left of the Chief sits Ingangwana the Induna at the head of the “Likombwa,” a division of the people who supervise the Chief’s food and all his personal property (as different from his property as Chief). On the left of the Likombwa sit all sons-in-law of the Chief, with the exception of those who hold positions as Indunas of the people, in which case they sit to the right in order of seniority of position.

In any discussion the “Left” supports the Chief while the Ngambela and the “Right” oppose the Chief, should his wishes clash with the national welfare. There are two rules for the conduct of business in the Kotla which will be dealt with separately. No state affairs are discussed in the presence of the Chief by the assembled Kotla. The reason for this is that out of respect for the Chief’s person, it is argued that discussion would be cramped and restrained and that the best and wisest solution of the question would not be arrived at. So the arrangement of the Kotla may be placed under the following two headings: (1) with the Chief present; (2) in the absence of the Chief. (1) The Chief comes practically daily and sits in the Kotla to show himself to his loyal subjects, and to let them see that he is well. Trivial matters only are discussed, the Chief asking any questions he wishes of the Ngambela or any of the indunas.

Should there be embassies from other people, they are received while the Chief is present and the Chief may, at will, call up the head of the embassy and inquire of him as to the health of the Chief who sends the embassy, the state of crops and general welfare of the nation represented, or as to how the embassy like the Barotse country; but all these questions are polite nothings.

While the Chief is present, the Left sits as previously stated but the Right is slightly different. First comes the Prime Minister (or Ngambela), after him comes Solami. Solami is the man who represents the father of the Chief. As is easily understood no Chief, whose father held the chieftainship, ever held sway during his father’s lifetime. This is not stipulated by law but has always been the case—the death of a Chief’s father often having been arranged by his son to secure succession. So we find Solami is the man who has married the Chief’s mother. Here again it might be suggested that a Chief’s mother might also be dead by design or by course of nature. This is guarded against by the Barotse custom “ku yola” (to appoint), which appoints a successor to take the name and position of any male or female person of importance. Makoshi, the mother of the present Chief, Lewanika, died about ten years ago and a daughter of Lewanika’s (Ngula by name) was at once appointed Makoshi. Her husband is Solami and, though a son-in-law, yet represents the father of the Chief.

On Solami’s right sits Natamoyo. “Natamoyo” means the “father of life” according to the Siluyi meaning of the word “moyo,” and he has or rather had, a position of great value and power. Should any man—Chief, induna, or private person—be pursuing anyone with the desire or intention of killing him, the hunted person was safe directly he could reach the Natamoyo or his palisade. Natamoyo was in fact very similar to the “city of refuge” of the Old Testament. Natamoyo also had the power to veto an execution when discussed in the Kotla, but his chief value lay in his being a haven of refuge. He had as well the following privilege. If the Chief committed any act of injustice to any of his people, the injured party could complain to the Natamoyo, who then went to the Chief’s palisade and abused him roundly. The Chief would then desist from the course of action which was objected to. Needless to say this privilege was very great and valuable amongst a people over whom order was only maintained by the exercise of great brutality, persecution and very often injustice. It is hardly needful to point out that anyone else having the temerity to resent any action of the Chiefs would have paid for it with his life, in all probability being assisted out of the world, with torture and various most revolting cruelties.

After Solami comes Mukulwakashiku, an Induna who acts as Prime Minister during the absence of the Ngambela. On Mukulwakashiku’s right sit the various indunas who take precedence by the relative value of their positions.

(2) When the Chief leaves the Kotla, the business of the people is discussed; cases are tried and new laws talked over, or old laws amended. The “Right” sits in the same order, but the positions of Solami and Natamoyo are now of little value and the two leading men are the Ngambela and Mukulwakashiku. Other divisions of the people for legislative purposes will be described later, but the method of the procedure of the Kotla will now be given. The Ngambela calls Mukulwakashiku and instructs him to inform the assembled Kotla of the matter under discussion. This is done and the assembled Barozi are called on to express their opinions. The smallest man (in position) on the “Right” starts the ball rolling, and utters his views on the matter. He must be a free-born Murozi, but not of necessity even the headman of a village. All the divisions have different values for each member and the junior member of each division speaks first. In a large assembly the first speakers are always members of the “Ikatengo,” a division which comprises the people, petty headmen and very minor indunas. Headmen of more important villages and sub-Indunas of the “Lukaya” division speak after the Ikatengo have finished. When the “Lukaya” have finished, the indunas of importance who comprise the Saa division speak next. Following them, the Sikalu expresses its opinion; this division is composed of the higher indunas. Members of the three division, Lukaya, Saa and Sikalu of the “Right” alternate with members of the “Left,” and when the head “Sikombwa” of the “Left” has finished, Mukulwakashiku gives his personal opinion. He is the last speaker before the Ngambela. The Ngambela then gives a brief résumé of the various pros and cons and shows the weak points in the different arguments.

Should he disagree with the majority, a lively discussion takes place, and should the majority still disagree, the matter is laid before the Chief by one of the “Sikombwa” (Left) and his decision is final. This is seldom if ever the case—especially nowadays—as the present Ngambela is a man of great cleverness, tact and diplomacy, and can always command a great following. When the matter is settled in the Kotla, one of the “Sikombwa” is sent with word to the Chief who sends word back by the same man as to his approval or otherwise. In the event of his disapproval he gives his reasons by the same channel, and these reasons are announced to the Kotla by Mukulwakashiku at the Ngambela’s orders. When the Kotla hear the Chief’s reasons, they signify their agreement thereto by clapping their hands (kandelela), and their resolutions are rescinded or else they refuse to be guided by the Chief. The Ngambela then goes to the Chief and explains the matter and urges his acceptance of the ruling of the Kotla. This he generally gets.

This is a brief description of the working of the chief legislative organ as regards the making of laws, settling of cases, &c. Their methods of administering the law are as follows: Any private person, free or serf, brings his case to the headman of his village, the headman takes it to the resident induna of the native district in which the village may lie, the country being divided off into a large number of districts, like parishes in England, though much bigger in area; the resident induna carries the case to the Kotla induna who represents that native district in the Kotla and the representative induna takes the case to the Ngambela who hears the case at his own residence. Should the parties agree to the Ngambela’s finding the case is settled, but should there be any dissatisfaction the matter is discussed before the assembled Kotla, each party speaking in turn with their respective witnesses.

The divisions enumerated earlier in this chapter have each and all of them certain duties and privileges. The “Sikalu” is a Privy Council and consists of a score or so of the highest indunas. They are divided again into two divisions which have their respective duties. The “Sikalu” of the night sits together with the Chief in a very humble sort of hut, a good distance from any chance of eavesdropping, and these indunas when so employed do not “kandelela” when speaking to the Chief. The Ngambela is one of the night Sikalu. The Sikalu discusses any new law to be made or any important matter which it is necessary to keep very secret, and these discussions are always held in whispers and at a good distance from any likely shelter for eavesdroppers.

Arrival of the Nalikwanda

Photo by J. C. Coxhead, Esq.

The Secretary for Native Affairs and the late Paramount Chief

Photo by J. C. Coxhead, Esq.

The Sikalu of the day is sometimes taken on one side in the Kotla by the Ngambela if any little unforeseen piece of news or information crops up in any discussion. Their conversation is also strictly private and is held entirely in whispers.

The “Saa” is a much larger division of the people, and has the privilege of going to the Chief after dusk and discussing current topics with him, the Sikalu members being also members of the Saa. Any member of the Saa can talk when he chooses and about what he chooses. Should two start simultaneously the holder of the most important position speaks first. The Lukaya and Ikatengo are not allowed free access to the Chief but are only called into the presence of the Chief when required by him.

There are, beside these legislative divisions, several other divisions of the people headed by various indunas. On the death of an important person another person, generally younger, is elected to the place of the deceased; thus indunas of the same name have been at the head of divisions since time immemorial. These divisions are enumerated in order of seniority. It was the duty of the induna in charge of each division to provided a certain number from the division under him for tribute work for the Chief, or for raiding parties or anything else that might necessitate a large number of people being assembled together.

The first division is the Kabeti under the Ngambela who deputes his authority to the induna Imandi. The second division is the Mutakela under the induna Mukulwakashiku, third the Ngundwe under Noyo, fourth the Ngulubela under Katema, fifth the Kawayo under Namunda, sixth the Mbanda under Muyumbana, seventh Njeminwa under Kalonga. The first six divisions are Barozi only, but the seventh division comprises all alien people subject to the Barozi as well as the Likombwa or Chief’s body servants and the less important of his relatives by blood or marriage. All these divisions and arrangements of the people are of long standing before the Makololo invasion, and were necessitated by the fact that as there was no known method of writing amongst the Barozi, every induna of the respective divisions had to act as index of the people under his supervision.

CHAPTER IV.
Barozi Industries.

The Barozi industries are neither numerous nor complicated. A simple people living in a state of savagery would not have any very great or serious wants. Living on the Zambezi, and in a low flat swampy country which becomes inundated yearly, boats were a necessity of life. The trunk of a large tree cut down and then carefully hollowed out and pointed at bow and stern, such were their first boats and so they are to-day.

In the course of time they found that a long paddle worked by men standing up was more effective than a short paddle worked by anyone sitting down, as well as being much more useful for work in shallow water where the paddles being cut long are available as poles for pushing the boat along. Of all the various trees used for boat making “mukwa” (a tree resembling an ash) is alone unsinkable, all other kinds sink on being submerged. Paddles are made of young “mukwa” as it has more play and give in it than other woods. Paddling itself is quite a fine art, and to be a paddler in the Barozi sense of the word is to have a more than useful knowledge of the science. Steering is done by the stern paddler assisted by the bow paddler, but by no means all of those who are good paddlers are capable of paddling in the bow or stern.

The Barozi say that they learnt boat building from the Batotela, but this is possibly automatically suggested by the fact that suitable trees for boat building are found a long distance from Barozi itself, either amongst Batotela on the Lumbi, Bankoya on the Dongwe, and Alunda and Balubale on the upper Zambezi.

Pottery.—This industry, since the introduction of iron pots and metal dishes, is fast dying out. At an earlier date large numbers of clay pots of all sizes were made. Considering that no wheel nor any instrument beyond the bare hands were used, the pottery work is wonderfully good. The favourite forms of work were big circular pots with wide orifices which were universally used for cooking porridge and other foods, and large pots with thin necks and narrow mouths which were used for keeping water in. These pots are very porous and are most excellent for keeping water cold during the heat of the day. The more ambitious workers (the industry is incidentally worked by women) used to cut patterns and daub red ochre streaks on their pots, this is usually done after the first baking. Children universally model animals, though very crudely, in clay, but few of these models are burnt.

The Nalikwanda

Photo by J. C. Coxhead, Esq.

Government Messengers and a Post-runner at Nalolo

Ironwork.—It is not quite certain whence the Barozi acquired this industry. They must have had some knowledge of it during their migration from the Congo to their present habitat, though when they first left the Congo it is probable that their implements were made of copper. The blacksmith work of to-day is mainly in the hands of the Batotela, Bakwangwa, Bankoya and Bambunda, although traces of it are found in all tribes, aboriginal and otherwise, who are included in the Barozi people. In a few places iron is dug for and short shafts sunk, but the main supply of iron is gained from swamps and the beds of small streams. The ore, as recovered from these sources, goes through a rough smelting process, being placed under a large fire of wood in a circular fire-place from which small channels are made in which the molten iron is run off. These channels end in small circular depressions which collect the iron and it is then left to cool off. The iron is naturally very impure and is always very soft, but on the other hand it is very easily rubbed up to a good degree of sharpness and is really much more useful and adaptable to rough work than well-tempered European steel. The iron when cool is then taken in hand by the blacksmith, whose knowledge is generally passed on from father to son. He uses rough pincers, heavy and light hammers and an anvil all made from native iron. Bellows are constructed by taking a large piece of wood which is trimmed down into two large circular basins parallel to each other with a long pipe running down from between them, a small hole from each basin leading into the pipe. A closed pair of scissors gives, on a very small scale, a good idea of the woodwork of the bellows, the two finger holes being the circular depressions and the closed blades the pipe. Over each depression is tied a well dressed piece of hide which is tightly tied round the rim of the depression or cup. In the centre of each piece of hide a light stick, about twelve inches long is attached, and by jerking these sticks up and down quickly, quite a useful draught is made. At the mouth of the pipe a nozzle of clay is made to prevent the fire getting to the wood. Only charcoal is used by the blacksmiths and this is made, by preference, from any of the harder red woods with which the country abounds. Spear heads, axe and hoe heads, snuff spoons and nails are the chief articles made, and a good blacksmith will embellish his work with all kinds of punched ornamentation.

Basketwork.—This is a form of work which is very nearly universal throughout the Barozi country, although certain branches of it are confined to certain localities. Plain mats made of rows of reed-like grass kept very close to each other by several parallel lines of bark, knotted to each individual piece of grass, are made all over the country. The best makers are, however, the Banyengo and Bambunda. These mats are about five feet broad and eight to ten feet long. A smaller mat, possibly introduced by the Makololo, is made of flat reeds which are kept together by strings of bark. The bark in these mats does not show as the reeds are strung on the various lines of bark. These mats are about two feet six inches broad by five to seven feet long. Another mat is made like the large mat mentioned previously, but worked throughout with a chequer pattern of dark bark so as to form squares, diamonds, triangles and, in the more daring efforts, to form crocodiles, men, horses, cattle and elephant. The best workers of this last form of mat are the Bambunda. Another form of mat is made out of undressed papyrus strung on bark, so closely that they are, when placed at a fair angle, practically waterproof, and the Bakoma who are the chief makers of this form of mat, frequently build their houses of several mats slung over a horizontal pole.

Crossing Cattle over the Zambezi

The Mokwai’s House and Fence at Nalolo

Circular and oval baskets of white stiff grass with patterns of black grass woven into the white are made by the Bambunda. These baskets have circular covers and are really very well and artistically made. The black grass used for patterns is of two varieties, one kind being the pith of a very slender root belonging to a small bush, while the other kind is simply the white grass as used in the main construction of the basket, soaked and partially decomposed in water before weaving. The Bankoya and the Alunda make a very closely woven grass basket which is waterproof and which is much used in districts where clay is scarce, to carry and even to cook water. Grass baskets are almost universally made throughout the Barozi to carry grain, meal, sweet potatoes and other foodstuffs.

Woodwork.—The Barozi are not very proficient at woodwork, the neatest and best workers being again the Bambunda, Bakwangwa and Bandundulu who make stools and wooden dishes in large quantities. These are generally made out of a soft wood and are then hardened on the surface by being scorched all over with a red-hot axe blade, a certain quantity of fat being rubbed in after the scorching. The Bambunda are very clever at carving little figures of wood representing men, women, animals and boats, the Bambalangwi, Balubale and Alunda carve long hair combs and sticks in a variety of interesting patterns. The average Murozi can carve himself a knobkerry, axe and hoe handle, or the shaft of a spear, but their work is very plain though very neat and wonderfully regular.

The Bandundulu are the chief makers of boat paddles, though the Bambunda and Bakwangwa cut them as well.

CHAPTER V.
Barozi Customs (Mikwa).

The customs from infancy to old age and death, of the nation will be given first, and a few peculiar customs of certain tribes will be described afterwards.

Birth.—A pregnant woman on feeling her confinement near, has a small grass hut built for her at the side of her husband’s house. There she is confined, no male being present, though other married women come to assist. Young women are not allowed to be present. The umbilical cord (kakombo) is cut close to the child’s navel (mukubu) and a piece of string is knotted tightly round the navel to prevent further bleeding. The child is washed with cold water. The mother’s thighs are washed with hot water, grass having been boiled in it previously. The afterbirth is buried by women near by. Certain roots are procured from the forest and soaked in water, the child being washed with this mixture every day for two or three months. The mother remains in the temporary hut for two months, women going every day to help her wash herself and child. After two days the husband may go to see his child but may not sleep there. Certain of the tribes absorbed by the Barozi have a custom that compels a woman, after delivery of a child, to sleep with two other men before returning to her husband. The Barozi themselves do not have this custom. About four months after the birth, if the child lives, conjugal relations are resumed, but if the child dies shortly after birth the mother mourns for a day or so, and directly she has recovered from the effects of giving the child birth, returns to her husband. Twins are not killed, nor are they considered unlucky. A child born deformed is killed, generally by the mother choking it by forcing the breast well into its mouth.

Triplets are very rare and are considered bad. One is killed and two left alive, the reason being that the mother has only two breasts. Children are suckled for nearly eighteen months. If it becomes known that a woman, married or single, has procured abortion, she is taken by the other women of the village and the hair of her head is pulled out by the roots. Nothing is said however, if a woman takes medicine to prevent pregnancy. If a woman gives birth to a still-born child a grass hut is built outside the village and the woman has to live there, day and night, for a month, only women attend her and bring her food, no man will go near the place. When the month is finished, the women bring medicine to wash her with and she is then at liberty to return to the village, but must sleep once with some man other than her husband, before returning to her husband.

Capture of a young Crocodile

Photo by Mrs. Cambell

Arrival of Lewanika’s Subsidy at Lialui:
Carried by British South Africa Company’s Messengers

Photo by J. Walton, Esq.

It is considered most unlucky for a woman to become pregnant while still suckling a child, and native tradition holds that the first child will always die, as after the mother becomes pregnant the milk then belongs to the unborn child and the bigger child will not thrive on it. Children are always carried on their mothers’ backs, supported by a skin, until about two years old, after which age, if the journey is any distance, the child is placed astride one shoulder of the father and so carried. A child is never beaten till about two years old and after that chastisement is very mild. At six or seven boys are chastised by father or mother, but girls of the same age are only chastised by their mothers.

Arrival at the Age of Puberty.—Boys have no initiation ceremony, and circumcision, though practised among one or two of the tribes absorbed by the Barozi, such as the Balunda and Bankoya, is not practised by the Barozi. Girls have a ceremony known as the “Mwalianjo.” Directly a girl has her first periods of menstruation, she immediately goes and hides, if living out on the plains, in an adjacent clump of reeds or, if living near the forest, in the bush near the village. While thus hiding she is not supposed to see or speak to a man or boy, and if one actually approaches through inadvertence, she covers her head with a cloth or skin until he has passed by. Directly her absence from the village is noticed by her contemporaries, the married women go and look for her and stop with her in the bush, singing and dancing. At night after dark, she is brought back to her father’s yard to sleep, but at daybreak she is always hidden again in the bush. This goes on for a month. The women while dancing and singing round the girl beat her with sticks, not severely enough to do damage but hard enough to arouse the tears and lamentations of the novitiate. The married women also show the girl how to receive and how to comport herself during the conjugal embraces of her husband, one woman taking the man’s part for the performance. Much advice is given her how to preserve her husband’s affections. At the end of the month the women take the girl to the nearest water and wash her. One of the elder women then goes and turns the bridegroom out of his house and the girl is then brought and placed in the hut in the blankets, the husband recalled and the newly married pair left. The company then dance and sing all night, drinking and eating largely the while. In the early morning the women take the bride and cut all her hair off, and she is in all senses of the word, a married woman. This “mwalianjo” ceremony was in itself fairly harmless, although possibly a trifle coarse and vulgar from a European point of view, but of later years single girls who had not even arrived at the age of puberty used to attend these ceremonies and join in the obscene jesting that went on, and the married women besides giving good advice, also counsel the bride-to-be never to refuse the overtures of one or more paramours, as well as giving her hints of how best to hide these intrigues from her husband. Very few girls reach the age of puberty without being already bespoken in marriage. Should the bridegroom elect have died just previously or at the time of his wife’s “mwalianjo” ceremony, the girl remains with her father and indulges in fairly promiscuous intercourse with the men and youths of the village, until a suitor turns up and marries her. Virginity is unknown and certainly not demanded.

Marriage.—As has been shown in the previous paragraph, girls are all bespoken in marriage many years before arriving at a marriageable age, and have, theoretically, very little say in the matter at all; the arrangements being made between suitor and father or mother. The mother’s rights over her daughter are not so powerful as the father’s. A young man arriving at an age when he considers it good to get married, goes to the parents of the girl of his choice (generally before she has arrived at the age of puberty), and asks their consent to his marriage with their daughter. If the parents agree, the suitor gives the girl a necklace of white beads and a blanket. The matter is then left until the girl goes into hiding for her “mwalianjo.” No permission or approval is required from the suitor’s parents, but sometimes a father while his son is still fairly young, will arrange a marriage for him. After the “mwalianjo” is finished, the bridegroom will give presents to his father-in-law and mother-in-law. The presents are generally an ox, a hoe and a wooden dish. The father-in-law on his side gives a shirt and a loin cloth to his son-in-law. The mother-in-law then cooks beer in large quantities and the bridegroom, his friends and relatives, the bride and hers, all drink the beer. The bridegroom also has certain obligations, such as cutting a garden for his wife’s parents and building or helping to build a new house for them. During the performance of these duties the newly married couple live in the wife’s village, eating the food of the wife’s parents, but after performing these duties, the couple return to the husband’s village, returning to visit the wife’s parents occasionally but having their permanent residence at the husband’s village. In case of divorce, the wife returns to her father’s village. No compensation is due from the girl’s parents if she is divorced.

Tax-payers

Photo by J. Walton, Esq.

Royalty travelling by Boat

Photo by Mrs. Cambell

Death.—The Barozi bury all their dead with the exception of lepers. Their reason for not burying lepers is the idea that if a leper is buried in the earth the ground will become impregnated with leprosy and everyone will die of that disease. Men and women are buried alike. The eyes of the corpse are closed and the knees bent right up to the chest. The arms are bent at the elbow and the hands placed palm to palm level with the mouth. A blanket is then folded round the body. A rough stretcher is made of poles and the corpse carried on it to the grave. Each district or collection of villages has a common burial place. If possible a corpse is brought to its own burial ground. But this is only done when the person dies within a short distance of his or her home. Corpses are buried the same day as death takes place. Men always act as carriers, irrespective of the sex of the corpse. The corpse is lifted off the bier at the graveside and placed in the grave, on its side, head to the west. The Barozi dig a straight square hole and a mat is placed tent-wise over the corpse. The clothes of the deceased are put in the grave under the mat, as well as a few wooden dishes and pots, the latter being first broken. The mat over the corpse is put there with the idea that no earth shall actually be thrown on the body, although as the sides get filled up, the mat eventually gives way under the weight and the grave thus gets filled up. Some of the burial party stand in the grave at the side, the rest push the earth to the edge of the grave. Those standing in the grave take the loose earth and place it gently all round the edge of the mat covering the corpse, raising themselves on the earth thus placed as the grave gets filled up. After the mat has given way beneath the weight of the earth, the grave is filled up. A mound of earth is placed over the grave and a few more pots and wooden dishes are broken and placed on top. The burial party and mourners then return to the village. On the path outside the village a small fire is made and the whole party, men and women have to leap over the fire as a form of purification. They then assemble at the deceased person’s house and mourn. The mourning lasts for three or four days, and consists of sitting round the deceased’s house and wailing. Cattle are killed, the number being in proportion to the wealth of the deceased, and the meat is eaten during the mourning. After the mourning is finished the whole party wash in special medicines. If the deceased is a man his house is broken down, but if a woman her husband still lives in the house, but the house is plastered afresh before he re-occupies it. No difference is made in the burial of a pregnant woman. The Barozi themselves make no distinction in burying hunters, though the Alunda and Bankoya do. The only people who have separate and special burial grounds amongst the Barozi are those of the blood royal. The less important members have a common burial place, but the paramount Chief and sub-chiefs at Nalolo, Libonda and Sesheke have each a village already built and selected, in the middle of which they will eventually be buried. In former times, many of the reigning chiefs favourite indunas would voluntarily submit to having their arms tied behind their backs and being placed thus bound into a boat which had previously been bored through in several places. The boat was then towed into midstream and sunk. It is also probable that in former days a number of slaves were killed with the deceased chief, but a natural shyness of admitting these things makes them very difficult to prove, while the sanctity as well as fear of approaching burial places of any kind, prevent any sort of exhumation as proof.

Certain of the tribes included in the Barozi, have different customs as regards death and burial, but they are very slightly different and the difference is hardly worthy of comment. The Alunda used to bury on platforms erected in the bush, but now nearly all burials are conducted similarly to those of the Barozi.

The Bankoya, Alunda, Bambalangwe and Balubale bury chiefs and indunas in their huts and, after so doing, generally move their villages a little distance from the old site. Hunters are usually buried outside the village, a short path being cut from the main path to the grave. Poles are stuck round the grave with the skulls of various wild animals on them. These tribes tie a long string to the corpse and keep the end of the string above the top of the grave. The Bambunda place a reed in or close to the ear of the corpse when in the grave, the end protruding above the top of the grave. Witch doctors and others are supposed to learn important secrets from the spirit of the deceased by means of a reed or string communication. Another custom among the Bandundulu is that of “bringing back” those men who stand in the grave placing the earth in it. After the grave has been nearly filled, the oldest woman in the village takes her hoe and places it on the shoulder of one of the men and pulls him out of the grave. Each of the men so employed is treated similarly. The grave is then raised to the necessary height. As far as can be gathered, though it is admitted that there is very little native confirmation, the idea is this: The oldest woman being very old and near to death can therefore get no harm from the dead. So she is chosen to affront the dead by bringing back from the grave, those people who were employed in filling up the grave, and who having entered the grave were as dead or as the property of the dead. The use of the hoe is symbolical of the digging out. The Alunda after a burial do not leap a fire as the Barozi do, but stand at the nearest bifurcation of the path leading to the village, and the oldest woman of the village brings burning sticks and passes them round the burial party. Here again, the employment of an elderly woman near to death and thus immune to the danger of the dead, is noticeable.

Having thus roughly depicted the four chief divisions of the life of the average male or female Murozi, a few points of their daily life as governed by custom will be now described.

Mankoya women dancing

Photo by J. Walton, Esq.

“Well in swing”

Work.—A very hard and fast rule is maintained in the division of the day’s work although, as is usual with many native races, the greater portion falls on the female. The axe and the hoe are very emblematic of the different kinds of work for each sex. The man does all wood cutting in preparing a new garden or in building a house, while the woman tills the garden with her hoe, cuts grass for thatching with her hoe and mixes mud for plastering the house with her hoe. So emblematic are these two implements that very light and ornate axes and hoes are made solely for carrying when visiting. The woman does all garnering of grain, though the man builds the frame of the grain bin. Brewing of beer and cooking of food is woman’s work, though young and single men cook their own porridge or employ little boys to do it for them. All mud plastering is done by women though the framework of the house, the building of the reed fence, and the thatching of the house is the man’s portion. Grass cutting is chiefly women’s work, but men often assist at it, reed cutting for fence and hut building is done by both sexes. A woman will fetch loose fire-wood from the bush but will not cut fire-wood down with an axe. All carrying is done by women on their heads but men always carry their loads divided into half, half fastened to each end of a pole which is carried on the shoulder. Women do all the carrying of water required by a household. All cattle herding and milking of cattle is done by men only, but the Barozi cannot give any reason for the custom except that it has always been men’s work. There is a belief that if women enter a cattle kraal, it will bring on an immediate and untimely menstrual discharge, the only women who go near a kraal are therefore very old women or very young children. The most notorious exceptions to the above customs are the Alunda. These people will often admit they are the slaves to their women folk. The average Lunda woman’s daily work is fishing, which they do by wading along the sides of streams, pushing a large wicker basket in front of them. The Alunda men use the hoe as well as the axe, and tend their gardens, grind meal for porridge, plaster their huts and do all the work that is generally supposed by other tribes to be women’s work only. In speaking of the Alunda, it must be remembered that the Alunda living in the Barozi country are only a small portion of the main tribe, the larger portion living in Southern and South-western Congoland. All other tribes under the sway of the Barozi follow the customs depicted above, in the division of labour between the sexes. It will be seen by reference to [Chapter IV] that women do not share in many of the industries of the country; with the exception of the mat and pot making all other industries are worked by men. This, however, is only fair and just, as it will be seen from the preceding paragraphs that the larger portion of the day’s work certainly falls on the women.

Salutations.—A great deal of the ceremony of salutations is being killed by civilization. The ordinary forms of greeting differ according to the status of the parties meeting each other. In a country where time was and is very little object, two people of equal status on meeting put down their spears and anything they may be carrying and squat on their heels. Right hands are clasped but not shaken, and a second grip is given after the first one, by closing the hand on the thumb of the proffered hand. This grip is done by both parties simultaneously, and is by no means peculiar to the Barozi, as the Matebele, Basuto, Bechuana and Xosa people all do the same. The Barozi, after completing the grip, clap their hands (kandelela) three times and then converse on various topics. If the parties are related or well-known to one another the two grips are given and then both parties join hands, the right hand of one holding the left hand of the other, and vice versa, a kiss is given by each to the palm of his friend’s left hand. If very close relatives meet, besides this they spray each other with spittle. When a person of humble status meets an induna or person of importance, he or she steps off the path and claps (kandelela) until the big person has gone by. The Chief has a special salute for himself, which is also given to any envoy coming direct from him. It consists of every man greeting him by standing up and shouting “Yo sho” at the same time throwing both arms to full extent above the head, this is done three times, then all kneel, clapping their hands three times and shouting “Shangwe” (my father), “Mangwe” (my master), “Mawe” (my mother), this performance is repeated a second time exactly similarly and a third time, when the only difference is that the third time “Yo sho” is said on their knees. When women greet the Chief, they remain seated on the ground and shout “Ya shé” clapping their hands at the same time. These are the actual greetings although when the Chief moves about from one locality to another, large ceremonial dances for men and women take place. The clapping of hands (ku kandelela) is differently performed by the two sexes. Men bring both palms smartly together, the right hand uppermost and at right angles to the other hand. The women close the fingers and arch each hand, making a cup formation of both hands which makes a hollow sound as they clap the concavities together.

Mambalangwe “Nuts”

Photo by Mrs. Cambell

A great deal of respect is still shown to elders of both sexes. For instance, several women may be hoeing a garden and during the heat of the day one of the younger ones will go and fetch water in a calabash, or dish, for drinking purposes. On her return should there be other women waiting to drink, the eldest has the first drink, and this is not affected by the ownership of the dish or any other reason, except in the case of an old slave woman and a younger free woman when the free woman drinks first unless the free woman is a girl who has not been through her initiation ceremony when the old slave woman drinks first. Age has seniority, then married before single, maturity before immaturity. On the other hand, at a meeting or assembly, the younger men speak first on the supposition that their council is rashest and of least value, the old grey heads and deep thinkers having the last say. A father commands more respect in many ways than a mother, but there are other reasons for that more than the imagined superiority of sex. Chief amongst them is, that in a country of easy and frequent divorce, the children when able to walk and look after themselves, immediately belong to the father and gradually forget their mothers. But the principle of “respect for age” still has a great effect on the young of either sex, throughout the country. A youthful induna of much importance will still be exceedingly polite to older indunas of much smaller position.

A gift is always received by both hands, and the modern European method of holding out one hand to receive anything whatsoever, is unknown. This custom certainly arises from the idea that as both hands are held up to receive a gift, there can be no possibility of a stab or blow being delivered, as would be quite possible if one hand only was used to receive whatever was passing between two parties.

Feeding.—No unmarried women will eat eggs, as the belief is that if they eat them they will be barren. Nor will unmarried women eat the flesh of the pelican, because, according to native tradition, the pelican cannot, owing to strength and size of wings and extreme buoyancy, be pulled under and eaten by crocodiles, and if they were to eat its flesh they would not be caught as wives by men. No women may eat the monitor lizard (hopani) though men eat it and it is considered a great delicacy. The reason for this is that monitors look very like snakes, of which women are more frightened than men.

Men, women and children always rinse their hands before eating. This is the more necessary since most foodstuffs are carried from the pot to their mouths by hand. It makes no difference if a man is eating by himself or with company. After the meal the hands are rinsed again and the mouth as well. Men seldom eat with their wives, as a man who does so is jeered at and considered greedy, on the principle that being stronger than his wife he will grab the largest and best portions. Women and children, male or female, eat together, and little boys will eat with little girls, but grown up men practically always eat either by themselves or with men friends. Meals are eaten twice a day regularly, but sometimes more often when food is plentiful. The staple diet is a stiff porridge made of ground flour of manioc (a species of cassava), mealies (maize), red and yellow millet or Kafir corn. A sauce is made of fish, meat, wild spinach or monkey nuts, and the lumps of porridge are dipped in this as detached from the dish. Maize porridge is eaten generally with milk, sweet or sour. Meat and fish are preferred high, but fresh meat and fish are eaten when plentiful. Milk is a very popular form of food, especially in the thick sour form. Many kinds of wild fruit are eaten, as is game when procurable. The Nambove and certain lower classes of the Barozi will eat crocodile, but the better class Barozi turn up their noses at it, as they do at the wild cats which, however, are gladly eaten by the Mambunda. Food is eaten in early morning and towards sundown.

The appearance of the new moon means a general holiday. The day after its appearance no one goes to work at the gardens. In former times the “Ngomalume” and “Liwale” dances were danced in the villages of Nalolo and Lialui (the residences of the two biggest Barozi Chiefs) only, by men and women respectively, but this custom is dying out.

The ploughing and hoeing of a new ant heap is also the occasion (on the day after the ant heap is ploughed) for a holiday. The belief being that if a holiday is not taken the seeds planted in the new garden will die. This custom does not apply to ant heaps that have ever been ploughed before.

Certain tribes under Barozi rule have a custom which refers to the fidelity of their wives, but the Barozi do not make use of this custom. Should a man suspect his wife of infidelity he takes a little ash from the fire and when his wife brings the newly cooked morning food he throws the ash over it and goes out to eat with one of his friends. If the woman happens to be virtuous or, whether virtuous or not, wishes to give the lie to her husband’s suspicions, she shuts herself up in her hut and bewails her lot or sulks, whichever her temperament may lead her to do. If on the other hand, she is unrepentant and reckless, she throws the spoiled food away and goes off and eats with her women friends.

The Barozi themselves have no form of blood brotherhood. They have a custom called “making a friendship” (ku ikeza bulikani). One man calls another to his house and tells him he wishes to be friends with him. If the other party agrees, the first man gives the other a small present. On the return of the second man to his house a return present is sent. This makes the friendship binding. After that if the first man is in trouble or need, he runs to his friend and the friend supplies him if possible, with what he needs or assists him to the best of his ability. Anything a man lets his friend have is a gift, and there is no obligation of returning it or its value, the only obligation that remains is that of help in the event of his friend wanting it. The subordinate tribes have a proper form of blood brotherhood. It is practised amongst men only. The two who wish to make the brotherhood get two cups of beer. Small incisions are made on the chest and a drop or two of blood is squeezed from the incisions into the beer. Each man takes the other’s cup and drinks it, they then swear never to hate each other, never to kill one another should they meet in battle, and never to be angry with one another. It is believed that a man who kills his blood brother will die of leprosy.

Mat-makers, with Mats for Sale

Photo by J. Walton, Esq.

A Mambalangwe Family

Photo by Mrs. Cambell

There is a marriage custom that exists among certain of the subordinate tribes in Baroziland. When a woman is pregnant a man, generally an acquaintance of hers or of her husband, will go up to her and place his hand on her stomach, at the same time addressing his remarks to the unborn child: “You within, if you are a woman, shall be my wife, but if you are a man, you shall be my friend.” When the woman is delivered this prophecy is carried out. There is, however, no record of what would happen if there were twins. This custom is probably learnt from the Batoka, but the Barozi do not practise it.

Another custom, also existing among certain of the subordinate tribes, is the obligation of a man to give a younger sister or cousin to his son-in-law, should the son-in-law’s wife die or be childless. But if it is only a case of sterility the elder woman returns home to her father, as the marriage of two sisters to one man at the same time is not tolerated.

CHAPTER VI.
Barozi Riddles and Conundrums.

Conundrums are universal throughout the Barozi, and a few are given as examples. Most of them are lacking in humour from an European point of view, but the ability to guess them is looked on as quite an asset, especially among women and children. Each riddle is prefixed by the words “A-ko,” “Here it is,” used by the person asking the riddle. The person taking up the challenge replies “Keyi,” which means “Bring it.” These words are pure Silui (Serozi) and are used for all riddles, although the riddles themselves may be in Sikololo, Mbunda or any other tongue or dialect in use in any part of Barozi. There are not any permanent riddles, as they are generally made up by the person asking them, but there are a few certainly which, from the length of time they have been known and their popularity, may be considered as permanent jokes.

(1) Question. “Ku tanta mbilingwa ku uka ni mbilingwa.”

“It climbs up and falls back.”

Answer. “Ki kokwani ha ipahama kwa kota.”

“An insect climbing a tree (still slips).”

(2) Q. “Kateli ka shangwe no malimba.”

“My father’s calabash has spots.”

A. “Ki ngwesi.”

“A tiger-fish.”

(3) Q. “Ka ka bonwe fo ka felela.”

“Something one cannot see the end of.”

A. “Ki ndila.”

“It is a road.”

(4) Q. “Mbumu na mbumu ka kuwana.”

“Chief and chief do not visit each other.”

A. “Ki musitu.”

“It is the forest.”

(5) Q. “Tutanela twili ba mundi.”

“Two huts in a village.”

A. “Mele no akatana.”

“The breasts of a young girl.”

(6) Q. “Ka nwela ka tumuka.”

“Something that dives in and leaps out.”

A. “Ki silabo.”

“A paddle.”

(7) Q. “A lila ba likamba la walanda.”

“Something that crys on the river bank.”

A. “Ki maoma.”

“It is the war drum.”

(8) Q. “Ha ka siwi.”

“Something that cannot be left behind.”

A. “”

“A shadow.”

(9) Q. “Ka be ka luma, ka be lu felile.”

“If this thing bit, we should die.”

A. “Ki munyako.”

“The doorway.”

(10) Q. “Kato ka shangwi ku longa.”

“My father’s boat is full.”

A. “Likundi.”

“A pod of peas.”

(11) Q. “Ka kasa fezwi bu meti.”

“Something of which the blood is never finished.”

A. “Ki pula.”

“The rain.”

(12) Q. “I samba ka shemwa ak’a endi ni balelo.”

“Born a long time, and yet cannot walk.”

A. “Sitondo.”

“A tree.”

(13) Q. “Anuke a ku fukile utu kobela no ku kena.”

“Boys dressed in white clothes.”

A. “Ki mundali.”

“Mealies.”

(14) Q. “Lila la tau ha li iniwi ki nzi.”

“A fly cannot sit on the stomach of this lion.”

A. “Ki mulilo.”

“It is fire.”

(15) Q. “Ka bata mazwalelo.”

“It looks for a place to be born in.”

A. “Ki tozi.”

“Pumpkin stalks (before they bear fruit.)”

(16) Q. “Mutala no ku sumenena.”

“A well fixed fence.”

A. “Ki mayo.”

“The teeth.”

(17) Q. “Ndundu no makumba.”

“A bundle of bark.”

A. “Ki lezazi.”

“The sun.”

(18) Q. “Namani ya zwalwa ka nako ye, kwamoraho a mazazi e na le manaka amateleli.”

“A calf born now, in a few days has long horns.”

A. “Ki mbututu.”

“A baby.”

(19) Q. “Lutondo lwa ka yengwa Nyambi.”

“Tree made by the god Nyambi.”

A. “Ki kuma.”

“The papyrus reed (with tuft on top.”)

(20) Q. “Mulamu wa Nyambi na mbulwa makolwa.”

“The stick of the god Nyambi has no branch.”

A. “Ki noha.”

“A snake.”

(21) Q. “Mulume a lebe a mane kapata matunga a bile.”

“A long man cannot reach this country.”

A. “Ki lihulimu.”

“The sky.”

(22) Q. “Komo i potoloha silezi.”

“A cow that walks round in the mud.”

A. “Mukwenyani.”

“A mother-in-law.”

(23) Q. “A mutulo u ku nengela a mbowela u ku nengela.”

“The people of the north dance and those of the south dance.”

A. “Matali a kota.”

“The leaves of trees.”

(24) Q. “Ku tina ku mukelekete, mukelekete ku choka.”

“You climb this tree, it breaks.”

A. “Ki mutwa.”

“The little thorn-bush.”

(25) Q. “Ka ka muenwa mwanda.”

“You cannot see any trace of it.”

A. “Ki mundu.”

“It is the watersnail.”

(26) Q. “Ndo nambulwa mwelo.”

“The house that has no door.”

A. “Liki.”

“An egg.”

(27) Q. “Ka lubilo ku siya sitimela.”

“What runs quicker than a train?”

A. “Ki pilu.”

“The heart.”

(28) Q. “Mwandu ya ngulubati ha ku keni lishingwa zepeli.”

“No two logs can enter this old man’s house.”

A. “Lisuba la ndonga.”

“The eye of a needle.”

Gang of Natives proceeding to the Mines in Southern Rhodesia

Photo by Mrs. Cambell

CHAPTER VII.
Barozi Songs and Dances.