Barotseland

by D. E. C. Stirke

Arrival at the Age of Puberty.—Boys have no initiation ceremony, and circumcision, though practised among one or two of the tribes absorbed by the Barozi, such as the Balunda and Bankoya, is not practised by the Barozi. Girls have a ceremony known as the “Mwalianjo.” Directly a girl has her first periods of menstruation, she immediately goes and hides, if living out on the plains, in an adjacent clump of reeds or, if living near the forest, in the bush near the village. While thus hiding she is not supposed to see or speak to a man or boy, and if one actually approaches through inadvertence, she covers her head with a cloth or skin until he has passed by. Directly her absence from the village is noticed by her contemporaries, the married women go and look for her and stop with her in the bush, singing and dancing. At night after dark, she is brought back to her father’s yard to sleep, but at daybreak she is always hidden again in the bush. This goes on for a month. The women while dancing and singing round the girl beat her with sticks, not severely enough to do damage but hard enough to arouse the tears and lamentations of the novitiate. The married women also show the girl how to receive and how to comport herself during the conjugal embraces of her husband, one woman taking the man’s part for the performance. Much advice is given her how to preserve her husband’s affections. At the end of the month the women take the girl to the nearest water and wash her. One of the elder women then goes and turns the bridegroom out of his house and the girl is then brought and placed in the hut in the blankets, the husband recalled and the newly married pair left. The company then dance and sing all night, drinking and eating largely the while. In the early morning the women take the bride and cut all her hair off, and she is in all senses of the word, a married woman. This “mwalianjo” ceremony was in itself fairly harmless, although possibly a trifle coarse and vulgar from a European point of view, but of later years single girls who had not even arrived at the age of puberty used to attend these ceremonies and join in the obscene jesting that went on, and the married women besides giving good advice, also counsel the bride-to-be never to refuse the overtures of one or more paramours, as well as giving her hints of how best to hide these intrigues from her husband. Very few girls reach the age of puberty without being already bespoken in marriage. Should the bridegroom elect have died just previously or at the time of his wife’s “mwalianjo” ceremony, the girl remains with her father and indulges in fairly promiscuous intercourse with the men and youths of the village, until a suitor turns up and marries her. Virginity is unknown and certainly not demanded.

Marriage.—As has been shown in the previous paragraph, girls are all bespoken in marriage many years before arriving at a marriageable age, and have, theoretically, very little say in the matter at all; the arrangements being made between suitor and father or mother. The mother’s rights over her daughter are not so powerful as the father’s. A young man arriving at an age when he considers it good to get married, goes to the parents of the girl of his choice (generally before she has arrived at the age of puberty), and asks their consent to his marriage with their daughter. If the parents agree, the suitor gives the girl a necklace of white beads and a blanket. The matter is then left until the girl goes into hiding for her “mwalianjo.” No permission or approval is required from the suitor’s parents, but sometimes a father while his son is still fairly young, will arrange a marriage for him. After the “mwalianjo” is finished, the bridegroom will give presents to his father-in-law and mother-in-law. The presents are generally an ox, a hoe and a wooden dish. The father-in-law on his side gives a shirt and a loin cloth to his son-in-law. The mother-in-law then cooks beer in large quantities and the bridegroom, his friends and relatives, the bride and hers, all drink the beer. The bridegroom also has certain obligations, such as cutting a garden for his wife’s parents and building or helping to build a new house for them. During the performance of these duties the newly married couple live in the wife’s village, eating the food of the wife’s parents, but after performing these duties, the couple return to the husband’s village, returning to visit the wife’s parents occasionally but having their permanent residence at the husband’s village. In case of divorce, the wife returns to her father’s village. No compensation is due from the girl’s parents if she is divorced.

Tax-payers

Photo by J. Walton, Esq.

Royalty travelling by Boat

Photo by Mrs. Cambell

Death.—The Barozi bury all their dead with the exception of lepers. Their reason for not burying lepers is the idea that if a leper is buried in the earth the ground will become impregnated with leprosy and everyone will die of that disease. Men and women are buried alike. The eyes of the corpse are closed and the knees bent right up to the chest. The arms are bent at the elbow and the hands placed palm to palm level with the mouth. A blanket is then folded round the body. A rough stretcher is made of poles and the corpse carried on it to the grave. Each district or collection of villages has a common burial place. If possible a corpse is brought to its own burial ground. But this is only done when the person dies within a short distance of his or her home. Corpses are buried the same day as death takes place. Men always act as carriers, irrespective of the sex of the corpse. The corpse is lifted off the bier at the graveside and placed in the grave, on its side, head to the west. The Barozi dig a straight square hole and a mat is placed tent-wise over the corpse. The clothes of the deceased are put in the grave under the mat, as well as a few wooden dishes and pots, the latter being first broken. The mat over the corpse is put there with the idea that no earth shall actually be thrown on the body, although as the sides get filled up, the mat eventually gives way under the weight and the grave thus gets filled up. Some of the burial party stand in the grave at the side, the rest push the earth to the edge of the grave. Those standing in the grave take the loose earth and place it gently all round the edge of the mat covering the corpse, raising themselves on the earth thus placed as the grave gets filled up. After the mat has given way beneath the weight of the earth, the grave is filled up. A mound of earth is placed over the grave and a few more pots and wooden dishes are broken and placed on top. The burial party and mourners then return to the village. On the path outside the village a small fire is made and the whole party, men and women have to leap over the fire as a form of purification. They then assemble at the deceased person’s house and mourn. The mourning lasts for three or four days, and consists of sitting round the deceased’s house and wailing. Cattle are killed, the number being in proportion to the wealth of the deceased, and the meat is eaten during the mourning. After the mourning is finished the whole party wash in special medicines. If the deceased is a man his house is broken down, but if a woman her husband still lives in the house, but the house is plastered afresh before he re-occupies it. No difference is made in the burial of a pregnant woman. The Barozi themselves make no distinction in burying hunters, though the Alunda and Bankoya do. The only people who have separate and special burial grounds amongst the Barozi are those of the blood royal. The less important members have a common burial place, but the paramount Chief and sub-chiefs at Nalolo, Libonda and Sesheke have each a village already built and selected, in the middle of which they will eventually be buried. In former times, many of the reigning chiefs favourite indunas would voluntarily submit to having their arms tied behind their backs and being placed thus bound into a boat which had previously been bored through in several places. The boat was then towed into midstream and sunk. It is also probable that in former days a number of slaves were killed with the deceased chief, but a natural shyness of admitting these things makes them very difficult to prove, while the sanctity as well as fear of approaching burial places of any kind, prevent any sort of exhumation as proof.

Certain of the tribes included in the Barozi, have different customs as regards death and burial, but they are very slightly different and the difference is hardly worthy of comment. The Alunda used to bury on platforms erected in the bush, but now nearly all burials are conducted similarly to those of the Barozi.