It remains to speak of slavery, which has always been, in varying proportions, a feature of Bantu society. The outside slave trade does not so much concern us here, as (in this part of Africa, at any rate) it is entirely an exotic thing, introduced and fostered by the Portuguese on one side and the Arabs on the other. And though this has been largely, if not wholly, done away with (it is certain that there was some smuggling going on, twelve years ago), yet domestic slavery, which is very difficult for governments to interfere with, still continues in fact, if not in name, and will only die out gradually. The proportion of slaves to free people is probably not large—unless all the Anyanja subject to the Angoni are counted as slaves—which is not, strictly speaking, correct; they are rather in the position of serfs or villeins.
Slavery may be a matter of birth; the children of slaves, or of a slave mother and free father, are slaves also. Some slaves are persons taken prisoners in war, or sold (probably to pay a debt) by father, grandfather, or elder brother. Others may have been condemned to slavery as criminals, or bewitchers, or possessed of ‘the evil eye,’ and these are sold to some one at a distance—to get rid of them. Or they may be seized on account of a debt they cannot pay; or, lastly, they may voluntarily become slaves, in time of famine, in order to get food.
The owner has the power of life and death over his slaves, but subject to the moral restraint already mentioned. Slaves may be beaten—sometimes cruelly—or confined in gori-sticks, at the will of their masters, but as a rule they are kindly treated, and, in fact, to an outsider, are often indistinguishable from the family. In speaking of or to them, the master says mwana (‘child’), or mnyamata (‘boy’), rather than kapolo (‘slave’). Some of the families at Nziza and Ntumbi had Yao slaves who must have been captured in the raids across the Shiré a few years before, and who seemed quite contented with their lot.
Slaves are employed about the usual work of a house and garden: the women are generally the master’s junior wives, and share the household labours among them; the men sometimes relieve them of part of the heavy work, such as pounding corn, or fetching wood and water, but are also engaged in more strictly masculine pursuits. They are supplied with guns and go out hunting; they spin, weave, sew, make baskets, etc.; and sometimes they are sent to carry loads for a trading party, or accompany their master to war. A man may even send a confidential slave to the coast to trade on his account. A chief often gives considerable authority to his principal slave, who may attain a position of great importance, and cases are not unknown where such a slave has become a chief.
People kidnapped from another tribe may be, and sometimes are, ransomed by their friends. After a fight it is common to send word that such and such prisoners have been taken, so that a ransom may be sent. It does not seem to be possible, in practice, for a slave to redeem himself; but once free, there are no special disabilities attaching to his position. A slave who runs away places himself under the protection of another master, if he can find one to shelter him; but if he can escape being caught, he may achieve freedom for himself, as, apparently, Chibisa did. But in general a masterless slave does not find the highroad a safe place, and hastens to put himself under some one’s protection.
Slaves are not distinguished by any special mark, badge, or dress. They may possess property (such as cloth, guns, and ivory), as their owner frequently allows them to keep part of what they earn. They may even, in some cases, own other slaves. The master gives the slave a wife—usually a slave woman, but occasionally he may let him marry his daughter. The case of a free woman marrying a slave husband is, however, rare; and he is likely to be superseded at any time.
On the death of a slave-owner, such of his slaves as are not chosen to accompany him (and this, as we have seen, is by no means universal) pass into the possession of his heir. If a slave dies possessed of property, it all goes to his master.
The Machinga, at Mponda’s on the Upper Shiré, made a raid on Ntumbi and Nziza, in May 1894, for the purpose of capturing women and children, but the men of the place frustrated this attempt, and took two prisoners, who were sent up to Chekusi’s, but released (I believe) after their guns had been taken from them. There is reason to believe that they had been more successful on previous occasions, not so very long before, and that the women in question had been smuggled across the Shiré, and, as there was no safe opportunity of sending them down to the coast, bought by various Yaos in the Shiré Highlands, who set them to work in their gardens, and, if inquiry was made, passed them off as their wives. In Livingstone’s time even the Anyanja, who have themselves suffered so much from the slave-trade, at times kidnapped people and sold them to the Portuguese. There is a special word for this (fwamba), and though practised it seems to have been always more or less reprobated—or at any rate felt to be wrong.