Before quitting the vicinity of the Victoria Falls, I may say a few words about the Manansas, the native tribe that is to be found in various parts of what I call the Albert country, and who formerly possessed a kingdom of their own.
The Manansas occupy the hill-country south of the falls, a district that although it may belong by right to the Bamangwatos is always claimed by the Matabele rulers, the inhabitants themselves being invariably the greatest sufferers by the contention. The Bamangwatos ordinarily call them Masarwas, although the two tribes have really nothing in common. They cultivate sheltered spots in the valleys, or pass their lives in hunting without any settled place of residence. When oppressed by the Bamangwatos they take refuge with the Matabele, and when persecuted by the Matabele, they seek protection under the Bamangwatos; or if, as sometimes happens, there seems no way of escape, they submit themselves in the most abject and servile manner to their conquerors. Thus it comes to pass that the Albert country is a sort of debateable land, and it follows that the Bamangwatos are perpetually claiming the Manansas for their vassals, although the Manansas do not actually render them any vassal-service.
Until the year 1838 they had their own independent kingdom that extended as far south as the western Makalakas, and a long way up the Uguay and Kwebu rivers. The kingdom was governed by “a great chief,” who made every sacrifice he could to come to reasonable terms with the encroaching Matabele. But the time came when the bloodthirsty Moselikatze, a very tiger amongst men, having ruined the Makalaka empire and half devoured the Mashonas, proceeded to annihilate the Manansas also. No credence had he to give to the conciliating proposals of the good honest chief; as a Matabele he was quite incapable of putting faith in any promise, or appreciating any right feeling; he was sure that some ulterior motive lurked behind the proposals that were made, and that the chief was only temporizing while his forces were collecting; and so he overpowered him in his own courtyard, pierced him with assegais, tore out his heart, pressed it to the still quivering lips, and shrieked aloud, “You had two hearts; one was false, and you shall eat it!”
Practically this victory and deed of Moselikatze put an end to the Manansas as a nation. Most of the boys were carried off to be trained as Matabele warriors, while of the men who escaped some took refuge with Sepopo, some with the Batoka chief Mochuri to the north, and others with Wankie, the ruler of the north-eastern Makalakas.
While I was in daily intercourse with them, I made repeated inquiries as to whether they had now any recognized chief, but I had great difficulty in getting a definite reply. They always appeared to suspect me; and any one of whom I asked the question seemed to fear that I wanted to put his name down in my “lungalo” (book) in order to betray him to the Matabele king. At length, however, they acknowledged that they all, wherever they might be, owned allegiance to the son of their basely-murdered chief, who had been permitted with a small number of their tribe to settle on a piece of land in the eastern quarter of Wankie’s territory. On my expressing my wonder that they did not all go and join him instead of staying where they were to be worried like dogs, they replied that this was their own country; and I learnt that like the Bushmen of the south they regarded with affection and reverence the wooded heights and pleasant valleys where they first saw the light of day.
In many of their customs the Manansas differ from other South African tribes. Like the Marutse, they treat their women in a way that offers a very favourable contrast to either the Bechuanas or the Matabele. They have a somewhat peculiar mode of wooing; when a young man has been captivated by a maiden of his tribe and has ascertained that he has secured her affection in return—an assurance for which neither Bechuana nor Zulu thinks it necessary to wait—he sends an aged woman to carry the proposal that she should become his wife; this agent is commissioned to portray the young man in glowing colours, to extol the excellence of his temper, to praise his skill in procuring “nyama” (game), to describe the productiveness of his garden, and to enumerate the skins with which he has made his bed soft and comfortable. Hereupon a family council is held; the father, mother, and daughter all have a voice, and if no objection is alleged, the old woman is sent away with the message that the suitor may be admitted. When he enters the hut he must never fail to bring a present; until quite recently this was nearly always a valuable skin of a rare monkey, but since the introduction of beads into the country they have been used as a substitute, and a handful of small blue beads is now the usual offering; when this has been accepted, the girl is at liberty to speak to the man, and is held to have pledged herself to him as his wife. There is an entire absence of those hideous orgies which characterize both the betrothal and marriage ceremonies among other South African tribes, and nothing transpires beyond this simple form before the marriage is deemed to be settled. The next step is for the parents every night to vacate their own hut and retire to another in the courtyard, leaving their usual abode for a week or two at the service of the newly-wedded pair. Every morning the bridegroom goes out to his work, and the parents reoccupy their proper dwelling for the day. Meanwhile the young man continues to acknowledge every favour by repeated gifts of beads; even the ablutions of the morning are recompensed in this way; but at the end of a fortnight or thereabouts, the son-in-law brings the father-in-law either four couples of goats, or eight rows (about 2 lbs.) of beads, whereupon they set to work to build a hut—or two if there were not one already in the possession of the bridegroom—which henceforward he makes his home.
Any breach of conjugal fidelity was, I understood, extremely rare; on the part of the husband indeed it was quite unheard of; the Manansas in this respect being superior to the more cultivated Marutse, amongst whom the demoralizing system of “mulekow” drives the wives into unfaithfulness even against their will.
When any woman is near her confinement a host of the old women in the neighbourhood come to her house. Their first business is to remove the husband’s gun or assegai into his other hut, or if it should happen, which is rarely the case, that he has not a second, into the hut of one of his neighbours; he is then prohibited from entering the sick chamber for a period of eight days; at the end of that time he is conducted by the bevy of old nurses back to the hut, where he finds his wife and infant, washed in warm water, ready to receive him. The visit, however, which he is thus allowed to make is only temporary; he is not permitted to take up his quarters in his home permanently for another month. Altogether the cleanliness that prevails throughout is a great contrast to the filthiness and impurity of the Hottentots and Makalakas.
When any one dies, his burial takes place in the evening near his own enclosure, the grave, if the soil permits it, being dug to the depth of five feet. An adult is wrapped in his mantle of skins and his assegai is buried with him. The interment is conducted in silence that is broken only by the sobs of the women. Should the deceased be the master of a household all his effects are collected on the day after the funeral, and in the presence of the entire population the eldest son comes forward to take formal possession. If there be a failure of legitimate heirs, some near relative or close friend is appointed, who takes the property and the name of the deceased.
As a general rule it may be said that the Manansas are of middle height and slightly built, but it is somewhat difficult for a traveller to distinguish them, as since the dismemberment of their country they have become very much crossed with the fugitive Matongas and Masupias, and with the tribes north of the Zambesi. Their complexion is dark brown; their heads are small, and they have mild-looking eyes and thick lips.