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.