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.