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)