2. LOCAL NATIVES (GENERAL)
The Zimbabwe district is very thickly populated by Makalanga. These formerly lived in natural strongholds on the summits of rocky kopjes difficult of approach, but now in almost every instance they have removed their kraals from their almost inaccessible eyries, and have built their villages on open country, without erecting any fences whatsoever for their protection. Thus, locally, Mogabe has left his hill fortress and caves, Baranazimba his strongly defended rocks, Lumbo his rock-pillar, and now these three kraals, as in many scores of other instances, are built in open country in absolutely indefensible positions, with no post, rail, or thornbush to bar approach. At night one can pass through almost any village unchallenged save by a Kafir dog. Large stores of corn are in their granaries. Their belongings are strewn about outside their huts, and everything is open to the spoiler. But the inhabitants sleep soundly, assured and content, because they recognise they are safe under the rule of a civilised Government.
MAKALANGA MOTHER AND CHILD, ZIMBABWE
THE MOGABE, HANDISIBISHE, CHIEF OF THE ZIMBABWE MAKALANGA
Slightly more than a decade since all was most terribly different. Tribe fought with tribe and village with village. Repeated Amaswazi and Matabele raids “wiped out” without warning and without mercy whole populations, capturing slaves, seizing the women, and killing, as was their practice, the old people and children. None dared to stir from his rocky fastness to cultivate his little patch of ground. Little wonder is it that the spirit of these people was broken.
To-day these Makalanga, who are essentially an agricultural race, have covered the erstwhile devastated country with their plantations, and converted these parts into the “Granary of Rhodesia,” and the leading grain-producing district of this part of Mashonaland. Standing on Zimbabwe Hill either at sunrise or sunset, one sees scattered over the open country scores of columns of smoke rising from the villages, each with its large area where the Makalanga work in absolute security, and one is forced to realise that untold benefit has undoubtedly been conferred upon the natives by the British occupation.
The Makalanga of Zimbabwe district are considered to be, in intellectual and physical qualifications, above many of their tribes elsewhere. In some respects they are marvellously intelligent and quick to perceive, shrewd, calculating, and clever, while in others they are astonishingly dull, so that it is almost impossible to get them to understand the simplest matter. They certainly evince far more feeling and sensitiveness, are more amenable to direction, and readier and more anxious to work, and are more honest and reliable than the average Matabele. Physically, they are as a whole somewhat shorter in height, are less robust, and have not the weight and strength of the Matabele, but their vigour and agility give them the greater advantage. Yet there are very many Makalanga in this district equal to any Matabele in height, strength, form, and endurance.
More than the French nation among Europeans, the Makalanga are distinguished for their taste, tact, and courtesy among the Kafir races of South-East Africa, only in their case the graceful movement, kingly walk, politeness, neatness, rhythm of speech, and poetic expression, are not the outcome of study, but are perfectly natural qualities bred in the race.
The contact of these people for many generations with the Portuguese is shown in their speech. This is a feature noticeable in all native tribes in Mashonaland, which were at any time located in or near Portuguese territory. As stated below, Mogabe’s people originally came from the direction of the border. The terminations of some of their words are as distinctly Portuguese as one may hear at Lisbon or Oporto. Their connection with the Portuguese caused them to follow the rule common to that and some other Latin nations, viz. the interchange of R and L. Selukwe thus becomes Serukwe, Belingwe Beringwe, Bulawayo Burawayo, while in almost every word used by their people further west containing L the latter is substituted for R. Locally they call themselves Mokaranga (mo is a Chicaranga plural prefix), “the people of the sun.” The Portuguese writers, De Barros (1552), Dos Santos (1570), and Livio Sanuto (1588), give their name as Mocaranga. Makalaka, the name of derision bestowed upon them by the tribes in Bechuanaland, is known to them, but is never used by them, nor is M’Holi (slaves), a title which some of the more degenerate Makalangas in Matabeleland have adopted as their personal and tribal name.
The totem or distinguishing sign of the local tribe of Makalanga is moyo, the heart. Each tribe has its own totem, which may be the leg of a certain buck or some particular bird. Should a bird or an animal be the totem the tribe bearing that sign do not eat of the flesh of such bird or animal, nor will they kill them. A man of one totem must not marry a wife of a tribe bearing the same totem, but must seek one of a tribe of Makalanga having another totem. Thus, as they affirm, “Heart must not marry Heart, nor Lion marry Lion.” This rule enforced through past ages has no doubt tended to maintain and improve their physical condition, and accounts for their fine figures, splendid health and general freedom from illnesses, and the almost utter absence of deformity and lunacy. A tribe of the Baduma people also bears the totem of the heart. The sub-tribal totem of the local Barotse[29] is the lion. The lion, which is also the totem of the local Amangwa, only includes rapacious animals, such as wild cats, wild dogs, etc. Certain families in the same tribe or kraal have distinguishing signs, or what may be termed sub-totems. The totem system also prevailed amongst the early Semitic peoples prior to biblical times, and was later a feature of Hebrew history; for instance, “The Lion of the tribe of Judah.” The totem of the Ephraimites was a bull.
In addition to the animal or bird that may constitute the totem there are other animals and birds which they venerate, and will not kill, eat, or touch. The slaying of such creatures is regarded as a crime against the whole of the tribe. The spirits of dead ancestors, relatives, and chiefs are supposed to reside in such birds and animals. The principal bird of local reverence is the Harahurusei (Bird of God), which is the chapungo, a large and beautiful bird, quite black except its tail, which is red. The peculiarity of this bird is that it soars overhead exactly as does a bird of prey. The natives assert that the nest, eggs, or feathers of this bird have never been found by anyone, nor do they know on what food it lives. A native will not proceed on a journey if the chapungo appears in the air or settles on the ground in front of him, but will at once return home. Natives hail the bird and ask it for favours.
The local natives will not eat the following: Common grey hawk, black crow, owl, wolf, crocodile, snake, or wild dog. Some will not eat hippo or eland flesh. They will not kill the chapungo, owl, wild dog, heron, and certain small birds. But while these are the general practices of local Makalanga tribes, certain families in different tribes frequently have additional and special objects of veneration, and any one native may have some particular object for his own personal veneration. The tribal custom with regard to not partaking of the flesh of certain birds and animals is very strictly adhered to, even though natives starve. To touch such, living or dead, is a defilement, and the remains can only be moved by using sticks.
Of insects, they eat locusts, two kinds of cricket (mashu and zukumge), a caterpillar (masonya), a worm called mambene, and different kinds of ants, including shua and madjuro, but especially flying-ants. All these insects they consider dainties, and cook them in the soup-pot into which they dip each handful of rapoka porridge. The soup is made of fat, ground monkey-nuts, and many other ingredients.
The natives are known to draw certain star-pictures in the sky; for instance, Orion is made out to be “two pigs and a dog.” The three stars in the Belt form one of the principal subjects of children’s songs. They, of course, know the Morning and Evening Star, while the Pleiades in their rising and setting mark the sowing and reaping seasons. They evidently only see six stars in the latter, as they call them Tshimtanatu, which means anything containing six.
They believe the sun returns across the sky at night when everyone is sleeping, and that it travels from west to east ready to start over again at daybreak, but high up in the expanse of the heavens and hidden from sight by unseen clouds. They ridicule the idea of the earth being round.
Eclipses of the sun or moon foretell war or some other great calamity. They most usually say of them that the sun or moon is “rotten,” frequently that they are “sick.”
They generally believe that each moon dies, and that every new moon is new in the strict sense of the word. Some, however, think that it does not die altogether, but leaves a seed or germ, which in turn grows big and then small until only the seed is left. The rising and setting of the Pleiades, the new and full moon, are occasions of great rejoicings, dancing, and beer-drinking.
Sacrifices are still made by local natives. Formerly a large number of black oxen were killed at one sacrifice, but since the scourge of rinderpest visited Rhodesia goats have been substituted. The last sacrifice at Zimbabwe took place in February, 1904. The local natives sacrificed in the Elliptical Temple, but they have no settled point within the temple where they hold these ceremonies. The sacrifice was conducted during the prolonged drought then prevailing. The natives kept the ceremony private until after it was over, and the rain had arrived.
Makalanga of several tribes from near and far used to come to the Elliptical Temple for sacrifices, and these were offered up within the walls, but at different spots inside; while on several occasions the ceremony took place just outside the walls. Once every village had its own ceremony, and these took place in January, black bulls being offered for males and black cows for females.
The sacrifices now made are to the spirits of departed chiefs, and are offered on the suggestion of witch-doctors, who receive fees for their advice, and who, to make money, declare that the spirit of some dead chief or relative is angry and must be appeased. Some portion of the meat was taken to the spot supposed to be haunted by the spirit, and the rest is eaten by those present, the bones being sometimes burnt or thrown into a river; but recently they have been left about the spot. Sacrifices were usually offered to secure success in any venture to be undertaken, or to obtain good harvests. Till recently they practised a similar rite to that known in Mosaic times, and in this instance also the animal was not killed, but was led out on to the veld and purposely lost. If found it was not killed. The natives are aware that this rite was once observed by their people, but state it is not practised now.
The Makalanga undoubtedly believe in the immortality of the soul, but they have very vague ideas as to a future life beyond a thorough faith in the transmigration of souls. They do not conceive the existence of a Creator or Supreme Being, their highest conception being M’uali, a spirit, who can make their crops a failure and their herds sick, and to this spirit they offer sacrifices. The M’uali, judging by native account, is not in any way an ennobling spirit, and they are constantly in dread of him. The witch-doctors in order to acquire wealth for themselves interpret the wishes of the M’uali in the light of their own purposes and interests.
With regard to burials the customs, even among the Makalanga, vary considerably. In some instances the bodies are laid lengthwise and on the left side facing the north. This seems to have been the original custom of these people, but it is not now a general one. Burial in a sitting position is very commonly met with. On the Acropolis, during the preservation work (1902–3), about fifty Makalanga graves were found, and the remains in a score of instances were removed. Practically all were in a sitting position, only three having been buried lengthways. These were discovered in entrances and passages, the bodies having been laid on the surface, soil and stones, taken from the nearest wall, placed round and over them. None of these were very old, and most were Mogabe’s people. Their bark hunting-nets, assegais, pots, and other personal belongings, were placed on the top of the grave, and not inside with the corpse.
The Baduma, who live in Gutu’s country, and also the Barotse, still embalm or, rather, dry the bodies of their chiefs, and also the dead of certain families, though generally the bodies are buried lengthways on their right side, facing the sun. The body is placed in the hut on a bier made of poles near a large fire, and continually turned, any blisters which may appear being carefully broken, until the body is dry. Then it is wrapped up in a blanket and hung from the roof. Annual sacrifices are made to the spirits, and the bodies are regularly visited and kept in order by a person appointed for that work. The rain-makers, who live on the Sabi, also dry their dead.
The manufactures of the Makalanga are fast declining. In very rare instances may be found villages where bark and cotton are still woven. Limbo from the stores is so cheap and attractive looking that it has practically driven out the local article, and the clay whorls used in spinning cotton are now discarded. Their once famous iron and copper smelting industries almost disappeared on the advent of cheap and substantial tools. At one time every village had its blacksmith and its furnaces and forges, but during the last few years iron-working has become far less general. Derembghe, near Mr. Nolan’s farm, in the Victoria district, is the only representative of the old industry. Pottery is still made, but at Chikwanda, near Arowi and east of Zimbabwe, the people make pottery of a superior quality. This is also the case at Mazuwa’s, in Nini district.
The people are essentially a race of agriculturists and cattle breeders, and dislike working in mines. Though they are most industrious in their own plantations, yet they will not work for a white man for more than a month or two in a year, preferring to spend the rest of the year in absolute idleness. Many are adepts in brass or copper wire-work, with which they adorn their sticks and weapons. They are also very skilful in wood-carving, basket-making, and in tanning and preparing skins.
The Makalanga of this district are certainly above the average type of natives in the possession of both intellectual and physical qualifications. Light skins, Semitic noses, fine features, with an absence of high cheek-bones, small, well-shaped hands—are frequent features met with among them. The men, who wear but insignificant aprons, are well proportioned, are as straight as an arrow, and have athletic figures. Large turquoise-blue beads of glass form the neck ornament of men, women, and children in this district, and these contrast effectively with the colour and polish of their skins. Both men and women frequently wear a narrow band of pink and white beads round their heads. Brass bangles are worn on wrists, arms, legs, and ankles, the women and girls wearing these in great profusion.
Women are bare to the low hips, and wear a short skin skirt reaching almost to the knees. This is most generally adorned with chevron pattern of pink and white beads. Their stomachs are covered with two sets of lines worked into the flesh, one set under each breast. This pattern is very general here, and is identical with the “breast and furrow” pattern found not only on the fronts of the clay furnaces, pillows, drums, and granaries, but on the ancient relics and sacred emblems (phalli) discovered in the ruins. Bent and other writers believe that these flesh-markings are a survival of the occult idea of Fertility. There are generally about thirty rows of these lines or cicatrices, and their regularity is most surprising.
The men are practically bare-skinned, and have their waists, shoulders, and sometimes each side of their foreheads, marked with a row of bars in threes, thus: /|\ /|\, and these closely resemble the sign of Light as seen in the Welsh bardic symbol. These, many natives state, are luck signs, and they would not be without them, for with them on their skin they believe they shall always be healthy and strong and have many wives and children. Other natives state that the flesh-markings on the men’s bodies are but ornaments to attract the attentions of women, while others assert they only bear the marks because it is a custom. Each male has a forelock, some of these being erect and others pendent, the latter being usually threaded with pink and white beads. These often reach below the eyes. They are very proud of their forelocks, and will spend most of their spare time in trying to pull them out longer.
MAKALANGA WOMEN AND GIRLS AT THE MOGABE’S KRAAL, ZIMBABWE
Witchcraft still possesses a tremendous influence over the native mind, although the practice of it is punished by imprisonment, but it is most difficult to obtain evidences in most cases of offence. Before the country was occupied by the British the witch-doctors practically ruled the people, and their influence in many known instances was greater than that of dynastic chiefs. The inclination of the people is to revert to the old practices, and fear of punishment alone prevents them doing so. There is no doubt that some of the infanticides and murders happening to-day are the results of witch-doctors’ machinations.
Though every native appears to have a good idea of medicine and of the uses of certain herbs and roots, and to be able to cure simple complaints, yet the remedies for more serious matters are in the hands of the medicine-men, who keep all such knowledge to their own profession.
A rain-maker for a large present would, until recently, kill a child of one of his many wives, and as long as the mother mourned for her child the rain was supposed to continue.
The Makalanga undoubtedly possess a keener appreciation of music and singing than many of the other native races in this part of the continent. When at work, digging, hoeing, or threshing, they sing continually, and in one morning they will spontaneously render fully a dozen different songs and a large number of extempore recitatives and choruses interspersed, also a few part-songs and catches. They sing going to and returning from labour, and always sing at their work, and when they cease singing one may be certain they are idling. There is far greater harmony and variety of music produced from their pianos, and their songs are brighter and more spirited, than any music or song a Matabele can evolve, and the dreary monotonous chant of the latter is almost entirely absent. The subjects of their songs are numerous, and comprise many items which only a people who live face to face with Nature could sing without offending the decencies as regarded by civilised people, and in these songs the smallest child most lustily joins. They will sing impromptu songs having reference to the tools they happen to be using, or to anything they may chance to see. The Native Commissioner is a great subject of their songs. They have war-songs, lullabies, songs to the bride, to the child just able to walk, to the new moon, to the butter they are making, besides a number of children’s songs.
They also have a large number of proverbs which somewhat resemble those employed at Home, thus:—
| Translation. | English Equivalent. |
|---|---|
| “The grass which is in the belly of the wild ox is his own; that which is in his mouth he might die with.” | “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” |
| “Difficulty makes a plan.” | “Necessity is the mother of invention.” |
| “Water spilt cannot be gathered again.” | “No use crying over spilt milk.” |
| “He is strong at the dish”; said of one who does not work, but knows well how to eat. | “He is a good trencherman.” |
| “Comes out with holes in his skins (garments).” | “Escaped by the skin of his teeth.” |
| “A tame dog is the one that eats at the skins.” | “Do not trust one who looks very innocent.” |
| “Who has thrown out my basket of seed?” | “Who has meddled with my affairs?” |
| “The short hare cannot eat the tall grass.” | “Don’t attempt things too high for you.” |
The natives can make fire (sika) very easily. The woods usually selected for this purpose are Zumbani and Bg̊ebg̊a. One piece is rounded, and the lower point is inserted in a small hole in the other wood, and then twirled with the palms of the hands round rapidly till sparks are emitted, and then very dry grass is placed at the bottom of the rounded stick, when it will light. Should the wood be slightly damp, a very small pinch of sand is placed in the hole to increase the friction. The sika sticks can obtain fire almost as quickly as can a magnifying glass.
On felling a tree in clearing a plantation it is a general custom in this district for the native to make a small ring of grass and lay it on the tree stump, and then to spit on the ring and to cover it with a large stone. Natives state, in explanation of this practice, that their people have always done it, but they cannot say for what purpose.
The pottery whorls found in very old native huts are known to many natives, but not to all, for the author has heard natives explaining their purpose to other natives. These whorls had sticks inserted top-fashion through the centre hole, and were spun rapidly between the hands. These were used for drawing the threads from the mass of cotton, also, some say, in producing fire. The children find them and use them for tops. The whorls which are found in ruins, and which are doubtless antique, are made of soapstone and are excellently finished.
The natives decorate the wooden doors of their huts, also the interior walls—check pattern being general for this purpose. The best decoration of doors is to be found in Gutu’s and Chibi’s districts.
The native name for Victoria is Duruben, or Durubeni, sometimes Vitori. Duruben is derived from the Dutch word dorp, and Vitori is an attempt to pronounce Victoria. Campeni is the name of the old township of Victoria, which used to be known as The Camp. Several isolated settlements of white people towards the south are called by the natives of those districts Durubeni, the termination being that of the locative case. The hillock in Victoria, near the gaol, used to be called “Gòna Zhon” (“They failed to capture the elephant”). The open veld about Victoria was called “Bani ro moteio” (“The plain without trees”).
The salutation Moro! or Morra! employed by the natives is simply a corruption of the Dutch word Morgen! i.e. Good Morning! In Cape Dutch Morrè! is used, and from this the word Morro! was evidently derived. The natives agree in stating that it is a Dutch word brought into the country by Dutch hunters and Cape Boys long before the British arrived. They ridicule all idea of its being of native origin, and state that in some districts it is not used. The practice of handshaking on meeting is one which the natives state has been copied from the white men.
The salute on meeting is by clapping hands. On greeting a man they will clap the palms with the hands slightly crossed, the forefinger of the right hand crossing the base of the forefinger of the other; but on saluting a woman the forefinger is placed to forefinger with wrists together. The length of time of clapping depends on the position of the person saluted. On joining a group to talk, eat, or drink the new-comer claps hands before sitting down and again when the food or drink is offered him.
Among the Jewish customs of the Makalanga the following may be noticed. (1) Monotheism and no worship of idols; (2) worship of, and sacrifices to, ancestors—a practice condemned by the Prophets; (3) rite of circumcision; (4) despising the uncircumcised: the taunt of non-circumcision is commonly employed between disputants; (5) purification and shaving of the head; (6) transferring impurity or infection from individuals to some animal, which in some instances is slain and in others purposely lost on the veld; (7) reception by women of parties returning from hunting or war, as in the case of Jephthah; (8) feasts of new moons and invocations to new moons; (9) feasts of full moons; (10) offerings of first fruits; (11) defilement by touching the dead; (12) defilement of eating flesh containing blood; (13) abhorrence of swine as unclean; (14) sprinkling the worshippers with blood; (15) places of refuge for criminals or people believed but not found guilty of offending tribal custom;[30] (16) observance of Sabbath, either every five or seven days; (17) marriage only among themselves, but cannot marry into the same tribe; (18) casting of lots; (19) sacrifices of oxen in times of trouble, such as drought; (20) practice of espousal before marriage; (21) brother succeeds to brother in office and property; (22) brother takes to wife the wives of his deceased elder brother, and raising offspring, they rank in office as if they were the children of the deceased; (23) a daughter does not inherit property or position except on the death of all her brothers; (24) rigid morality with regard to all fleshly sins, adultery and fornication being punished with death and outlawry.
Additional parallelisms with Jewish customs could be stated, and all these peculiar practices, together with the lighter skin and the Jewish appearance of the Makalanga, distinctly point to the ancient impress of the Idumean Jews, which can also be traced on the present peoples of Madagascar and of the coasts of Mozambique and Sofala.[31]
Many of these customs are now falling into desuetude on the advance of white civilisation. The Molembo tribe of Makalanga is noted for the preservation and observance of the majority of these Jewish practices, which are in character distinctly pre-Koranic in origin.