Showing posts with label ngoni. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ngoni. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

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Some Ngoni Weapons Obtained in 1900

  • Wednesday, July 13, 2011
  • Samuel Albert
  • A Collection of Objects from the District to the South-West of Lake Nyassa.

    Author: R. W. Felkin
    Source: Man, Vol. 1 (1901), pp. 136-137.
    Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland


    With notes by R. W. Felkin, M.D., and others.

    'The objects represented in the photograph were collected by the Rev. R. Stewart Wright, of the Manse, Haydon Bridge, Northumberland. They are now in the possession of Dr. Felkin, and were exhibited at a meeting of the Anthropological Institute in the latter part of 1900 (Journ. Anthr. Inst., XXX., Miscellanea, No. 120 pp.).

    The information which has been collected about them is very scanty, and they are figured now in the hope that some of the readers of Man may be able to throw some further light upon their peculiarities.

    Of No. 1 Mr. Stewart says :-" The scraper-and-dagger combined is used by the " Shire Highlanders. It is made by the Ngoni, living to the west of Lake Nyasa, who do not think of putting a handkerchief to its legitimate use, when it will answer the purpose of a suit of clothes. The carrier, when toiling along under a heavy burden, with the sweat streaming down his face, scrapes it away with his iron scraper, while the reverse end may be useful as a defence should he be attacked at close quarters."
    [ 136 1901.] MAN. [Nos. 112 -113.
    Ngoni weapons

    Nos. 2 and 3 are a combined dagger and beer ladle; the former lurks in the handle of the latter, which is hollowed to form its sheath. Mr. Stewart Wright says "The combined knife anid beer ladle is unique, as I have never seen a duplicate of it. I should imagine that the maker had the idea that he would have a knife always at hand, in case of a drunken brawl. I got it in the Shire Highlands; it was made by a Manganga."

    No. 4 appears to be a small fighting axe. The blade is of iron, and of a curious recurved form. The mode of hafting is peculiarly simple; the blade being simply thrust through a hole in the haft, and secured by a wrappiug of bark-cloth. The handle is carved into a conventional representation of the head of a gazelle, or other horned animal. There are no details as to the place or mode of manufacture.

    No. 5 is a short iron spear with a flowing tuft of hair at the butt-end. Mr. Stewart Wright says of it:-" The spear is made, fused, by the Ngoni. It is a stabbing spear, "and used in finishing off the wounded after a battle."
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    Tuesday, July 12, 2011

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    Zulu Beads and Some Ngoni Beadwork

  • Tuesday, July 12, 2011
  • Samuel Albert
  • Beads and beadwork have been an important part of the culture of southeast Africa for hundreds of years, perhaps for millennia. They have been used by archaeologists to date the ancient ruins of Mapungubwe and Zimbabwe, by historians to provide evidence of trading activities and contacts with other civilizations and cultures, and by anthropologists who have recognized Zulu beadwork as an important social regulator and index of status within the society. Curiously enough, however, Zulu beadwork, acknowledged to be among the finest in Africa, has received very little attention as an artistic expression.

    The Robert Hull Fleming Museum of the University of Vermont in Burlington has an outstanding collection of this beadwork which was the special province of the Zulu women, consisting of over 150 pieces collected by various donors from 1847 to circa 1910. A number of them can be pin-pointed as to geographic origin. The main sources of the collection are in the Transvaal, Natal and southern Mozambique. This geographic and time span allows for speculation about regional variations and stylistic developments.

    1. Zulu  Necklace Beadwork
    Mozambique  Maseko Ngoni beadwork


    The bulk of the Fleming Museum's collection is composed of pieces made from modern beads of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, although there are nearly two dozen older pieces. These older beads are not only the indigenous stone, ostrich shell, seed and wood beads, but also cowrie shells and glass beads imported by Arab traders from India, Persia, Arabia and the Far East, with most of the trade beads coming from Cambay. The Arabs monopolized the trade routes to East Africa until exploration by the Portuguese in the early sixteenth century opened up the area to European exploitation. The modem beads, brought by the Portuguese and English, were smaller, mass-produced and thus regular in size and shape (an advantage to the beadworker), and generally indistinguishable from one another. While the older beads were used to indicate one's wealth and status, the modem beads were available in plentiful quantities to anyone since they were used as specie by traders, settlers and missionaries.

    The oldest part of the collection was bequeathed to the University of Vermont by the Reverend Lewis Grout, an American Presbyterian missionary in Umsunduzi, Natal from 1847 to 1862. Generally, this section is representative of the ornaments of the Zulu prior to prolonged contact with Europeans; the pieces are probably at least several decades older than the collection dates of 1847-1862 since during this period, the new beads had already flooded Africa. The Grout ornaments are composed of teeth, bones, cowries, pith and brass as well as the large irregular beads which fell into disfavor as the imported ones became available.
    Most are strung on twisted vegetable fiber rather than on the imported cotton cord and linen string found in later pieces.

    Among the beadwork collected by Grout are three large brass balls, indondo, each approximately three centimeters in diameter and of irregular shape, which were traditionally strung around the neck of a married woman as evidence of her marital status. There is also a string of leopard phalanges strung on a fiber cord, probably worn by a man, which had a greater magical than decorative function (Fig. 3). A large gray cocoon on a string fits a description by the Reverend Franz Mayr in a 1907 article, "The Zulu Kafirs of Natal," of
    a caterpillar cocoon which may have been filled with tiny

    BELOW PAGE: 2. IMIBIJO AND IMIGONQOLOZI, FIBER TUBES COVERED WITH COILS
    OF BEADWORK AND WORN ON THE ARMS, NECK, SHOULDERS AND WAIST
    2. Imibijo and Imigonqolozi
    3.Older Zulu Beadwork, amaka strings of leopard phalanges,  Trade Beads from the east , Job's tears and a cacoon
    4.Zulu Child's string of beads, the ingeje, a little girl beaded tab  shown with an adult tab necklace for comparison
    Note From Blogger: compare the above with Ngoni child beads
    Malawian Ngoni child with ingeje and beaded necklace

    7. Probabley Zulu Widows necklace
    8. Two Zulu Handsome shoulder bands and a matching  tab and collar 

    9. Ubala abuyisse or "love letter" necklace

    10.  A magnificent Zulu fringed loin covered with diamond  and chevron designs

    pebbles and worn on the ankle as a noisemaker by young boys at dances (Fig. 3). A vegetable fiber string of little pith beads may be the amaka also described by him, where scented herbs are ground, kneaded and shaped into little balls and pierced with a thorn. The Grout collection also contains an example of the traditional cylindrical reed snuff container, often worn in a pierced ear. This particular container, however, consists of two reeds bound together by black and white bands of the fine modern beadwork.

    A string of the old, tapering, large wound glass cylinders in opaque white, blue and plum color on a white core is an example of still another type of beadwork from this varied collection. These plum colored or red-on-white beads, also called "slave beads," are among the most common older beads in the world, and existed in a variety of sizes in southeast Africa after 1800. In the Fleming Museum, they are most often found as fasteners in conjunction with a thread loop affixed to pieces composed largely of small modern beads-only in two examples are they an integral part of the piece.

    Two of the most dazzling ornaments in the Fleming Museum were acquired by Grout. Two long, beaded shoulder bands, 113 centimeters long, and a matching collar with a large pendant breast tab are worked in alternate red, blue and black triangles against a white beadwork ground while the neckband of the collar is worked in an intricate lace-like stringing technique (Fig. 8). The ensemble would have been an especially handsome dance or courtship attire for a young Zulu man.

    In 1934, Laura Buckham presented the Museum with some Zulu articles of considerable age. Among them were several pieces of beadwork which were recently discovered to have been collected by Miss Buckham's grandfather, Josiah Tyler, a Congregational missionary who was Grout's friend and neighbor in Natal; in fact, Tyler took over Grout's mission from 1862, when the latter returned to Vermont, until 1889. The several pieces of beadwork which Tyler obtained should be regarded as an extension of the Grout collection by virtue of collection date and locality.

    An interesting item in the Buckham/Tyler group is a rectangular bag made of thin pieces of hollow grass or reed tied together and lined with cotton cloth. It is decorated with occasional beadwork on the front, and has two long beaded strings attached, probably used to carry it around the neck. The use of grass contrasts with later examples of entirely beaded bags.

    Tyler also possessed a string of red seed beads alternating with tiny, hexagonal, black iridescent beads which seems to be an example of the traditional single-strand love beads, ucu lokuqoma, strung by a young Zulu girl for her first lover to wear around his neck. She had similar strands for her waist, wrists and ankles. This string marked the first stage of her love life and after this point she was allowed to wear any kind of beaded ornament to beautify herself.

    By far the largest part of the Museum's Zulu beadwork came from Mrs. Robert Catlin, whose husband was the General Manager for Consolidated Gold Mines at Johannesburg in the Transvaal from 1895 to 1906. The Catlins acquirednearly one hundred pieces of excellent beadwork, and their gift contains striking examples in almost every category. In a dazzling array of color and pattern, the superbly crafted pieces summarize the Zulu woman's gift for design and technique.

    A Zulu donned various types of beadwork corresponding to stages of development from childhood to adulthood; it functioned to order the progression of love from courtship to marriage. When a child began to crawl, a medicinal amulet- a special berry acting as a charm for good health-was replaced by a single string of beads, the ingeje (Fig. 4). Sometimes the child's string had tiny beaded tabs, one for little girls and two tabs, front and back, for boys. As the girlchild grew, her loin band became more elaborate with beaded fringes and larger square tabs, the isiheshe. A stunning isiheshe in the Catlin gift (Inside Front Cover) has a black and white striped beaded tab with back fringes in red, white and blue; three long strands of larger beads hang from each side of the tab, ending in a cluster of small brass bells which gave out a musical jingle when the wearer walked. At puberty, the young girl adorned herself with a red or blue cloth extending from waist to mid-thigh and decorated with beads, the utshodo. Young unmarried men often wore the utshodo of their future brides around their heads, according to Mayr.

    The most symbolic of Zulu beadwork communicated both publicly and privately the state of one's love life. In addition to the ucu lokuqoma noted in the Tyler gift were the "love letters," ubala abuyisse or "One writes in order that the other should reply." These were highly prized by the young Zulu men who wore them all over their necks, heads andchests. The greater the number of love letters, the more sweethearts or wives the owner was shown to have, reflecting his wealth and status. The Catlin collection contains numerous ubala abuyisse with tabs varying in size, shape and number, on strings both plain and beaded or occasionally fringed with lace-like beadwork (Fig. 9). Common to all of them are the richness and intricacy of their patterns, produced
    with a limited range of colors which have symbolic meanings. Brilliant visual effects are created in geometric
    designs of diamonds, chevrons and zigzags.
    6. A necklace of two wooded pieces usually worn by married women

    5. Examples of Bags made entirely of beads


    A knowledge of the local color code used in the beadwork is necessary before one can read the message in the tabs and strings. Regina Twala did field work in 1948 on the cipher and colors used in beadwork by the Emangwaneni tribes of the Bergville district of Natal, but her interpretation of the color codes often contradicts that of Rev. Mayr who also wrote from personal observation in 1907. Mayr, however, did not record from which groups of Zulu he drew his information; he seems to have assumed that the color symbolismwas standard throughout the Zulu world and stated that "... the actual pattern does not appear to have any defined significance; it is rather the succession of the color and the relative amounts of the colors, that express the tenor of themessage." I Twala, however, felt that the interpretation of the colors varied with the pattern. Also, according to Mayr the border was merely decorative and the beaded string the most important message bearer, while Twala believed that the main message was in the tab. Regional variations and the difference in the dates of investigation are very likely responsible for these discrepancies.

    However, certain colors seem to have retained general meanings which were shared by all Zulu. For instance,
    opaque white beads, Ihambo or "bone," stood for purity of love; pink symbolized poverty; vaseline-yellow signified wealth; and blue symbolized the dove. Mayr interpreted a string of beads in the following manner: "My heart is pure and white in the long weary days (white beads); I have become quite lean and sickly (green beads); If I were a dove I would fly to your home and pick up food at your door (blue beads); Darkness prevents my coming to you (black beads).'2 The entire message is repeated a number of times. The following
    is Twala's interpretation of a design according to the physical arrangement of the beads: "(a) WHITE ... I say
    this with an open white heart. (b) BLUE ... I say, Oh for the dove that picks food (c) WHITE ... In the yard at your kraal. (d) RED ... I envy also the one who enjoys your fireplace. (e) WHITE ... Although my heart may be pure. (f) PINK... You are poor."3

    Despite apparent general similarities in meanings of colors, accurate interpretations can be made only by one who knows the exact local origin of the love letter and the color code peculiar to that place. Unfortunately, lacking a more specific provenance than the vast Transvaal, the color code to the pieces in the Fleming Museum must be considered lost.

    In many pieces throughout the collection as a whole, and especially in the love letters, some odd beads appeared to create a certain tension or imbalance in an otherwide regular pattern. Usually these stray beads were red, although occasionally blue or pink, and they occurred either singly or by twos. Since they are found most often in the love letters, it may be possible that they formed part of the message. However, the beads may also have been deliberately placed to break the repetitive rhythm of a design on either aesthetic
    or magical grounds, or both.

    Beads could also represent the rejection of a lover, as in the case of the inkakane, beads whose royal blue color symbolized a wandering, noisy bird. A young man whose lover had offended him would have his sister make the strand which would be given to his erring sweetheart on the eve of a public event. Beads presented at such a time obliged the receiver to wear them at the ceremony and thus display her lover's rebuke to all.

    The greatest attention was paid to beaded body ornamentation by those between the ages of fourteen and forty. Young people bedecked themselves lavishly for courtship and dancing. When a girl accepted a marriage proposal, she gave her sweetheart a string of white beads symbolizing her purity, and before the marriage all the girls in her age group would gather to make quantities of beadwork for her "trousseau." On the day of the wedding dances, the bride dressed in her finest beadwork, including many thick fiber tubes covered with beaded coils called imibijo or imigonqo-lozi, worn over the arms and shoulders and around the neck. She would also wear a bead-fringed headdress. The Catlin collection contains many fine imibijo worked in stripes and patterns (Fig. 2), as well as a headband studded with brass buttons and fringed with two veil-like clusters of white looped beads, very possibly a bridal headdress (Fig. 1).

    Except for special occasions, married men and women wore little beadwork. When men attained warrior rank, their personal adornment changed from beaded to feather ornamentation. A married woman often wore a simple necklet of white beads and little wooden pieces from the fragrant Umtomboti tree (Fig. 6).

    Black beads in quantity were a sign of the wearer's widowhood. Widows also wore necklets to indicate whether or not they were interested in remarrying. An unusual example in the Catlin gift is a predominantly black, tubular neckpiece with some patches of white (Fig. 7). Hanging in the center are four brass rings beaded in black, but with contrasting center sections of red beads in two rings, and blue beads in the other two. This message of the piece may bethat the widow's eyes are red with weeping (red beads) but that she is amenable to a new love (white and blue beads).
    11. An example of a lace like stringing  technique from Kellogg 's collection

    Also found in profusion in the Catlin collection are splendid woven fiber beaded girdles studded with brass buttons, bead and fringed loin coverings on heavy beaded strings (Fig. 10), wide armbands and long strings of beadwork to be wound around the wrist and ankle. The seemingly endless variety of intricate patterns in startling color combinations along with flawless technique indicates the high quality of Zulu beadwork as a creative art form in the late nineteenth century. Perhaps the most elaborate and beautiful piece in the entire collection is a magnificent necklace in a delicate network of shades of blue (Fig. 1). This piece is unique to
    the collection, and may have been worn by a member of the Zulu royal house. The Catlin gift dominates the Fleming Museum's collection of beadwork, not only due to its impressive quality but also to its sheer superiority in number.

    While Director of Agriculture for Mozambique, Portuguese East Africa from 1908 to 1910, Otis Warren Barrett made a 1300 mile trip through Zulu country in southern Mozambique, where he collected the beadwork later donated to the Fleming Museum. There are several very fine pieces: an animal skin headband covered with cowry shells, sewn with sinew thread and with leather strips for a tie closure- an older type of ornamentation; a small bracelet of twisted copper and metal wire with interwoven bands of pink and green beadwork which distinguishes it from theplain twisted-wire bracelets usually worn; and an exquisitely delicate hair ornament made of a thin, curved skewer of bone. This ornament is wrapped for half its length in fine wire; hanging from the wrapped wire are long strands of fine wire strung with tiny red, white and blue beads. When worn, the beaded wires shimmer and tremble in response to the slightest movement of the body or head.

    The most recent acquisition to the Museum's beadwork collection remains mysterious as to provenance. About a dozen pieces similar in color, design and manufacture technique were given by Julia Kellogg of Vermont, who had missionary friends in South Africa. The beadwork was sent to her by one of these friends somewhere in South Africa, probably after 1910.

    The significance of the Kellogg collection lies in the incorporation of European objects into the beadwork. Although an exact provenance is not available for these pieces, all evidence points to a Mission origin. Many of the articles are executed in a fancy and strikingly lace-like pattern, reminiscent of heavily lace-edged Victorian garments at the turn of the century (Fig. 11). A lace-like stringing technique exists as early in the collection as the Grout pieces, but only in the Kellogg group does it seem to openly mimic European lace. There is also a brass safety pin and a stout Victorian hairpin, both with beaded appendages. A small leather purse with a flap is fastened with a European pearl shirt button and buttonhole, and beaded with four neat little
    rosettes, in great contrast to the traditional Zulu beaded bags mentioned earlier. Finally, there is a necklace with a long blue and white lace-like tab from which hangs a tin cap box stamped with the legend "King Edward VII" and his royal profile. This container exemplifies a new development in Zulu beadwork at variance with the traditional container such as the reed snuff container collected by Grout, and a gourd snuff container collected by the Catlins. In these examples from the Kellogg donation, the beadwork has become
    subsidiary to these foreign extraneous objects.

    Although the designs are simple and the colors monotonously limited to blue and white, technically these pieces represent the apogee of Zulu beadwork. The virtuosity in stringing is surpassed only by the superb Catlin necklace. But this technical excellence marks the final stage in the development of Zulu beadwork. Increasing European influences in all aspects of Zulu life, the political and military upheavals of the nineteenth century, the introduction of more standardized beads and ready-made imported necklaces of the twentieth century, irrevocably changed the character of this traditional art. The forces of life that motivated the creation and wearing of beaded ornaments changed direction.

    It is difficult to ascertain whether stylistic and other variations in the Fleming Museum's collection can be construed as representing a period of development and decline in Zulu beadwork throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, or merely a difference in regional styles. Both arguments seem tenable; comparison with other collections could help resolve this problem. However, the significance of the collection as a whole lies in the contrast between the old and new decorative objects-in its progression from the beadwork of the more ancient, contained world of the Zulu where the complex rituals of life bound the people together, to the beadwork of a world increasingly controlled by the white man, and reflecting the increasing acceptance of a white, Western system of values. -]
    Mzimba Ngoni Women in early 1900s

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    Tuesday, June 14, 2011

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    Maseko Ngoni: Cattle As Security For Religious Ritual

  • Tuesday, June 14, 2011
  • Samuel Albert
  • by Margaret Read, 1938.

    In this last respect which is least apparent to the European, as he seldom, if ever, sees ritual performed in times of sickness or of general calamity, such as drought, and the Ngoni are reluctant to tell outsiders about their religious rites. I was fortunate enough to be in a village where an important old lady was taken ill. The diviner was consulted announced that prayer must be made to the spirits of the great chiefs from whom the old lady was descended. In a deathly silence, in the dim light before dawn, a few men and a few cattle were gathered by the kraal. The prayer rang out to the spirits:

    O thou Gumede!
    O thou Mputa!
    O thou great chief!
    Here is your beast.
    That your child may be healed
    Look on what is yours.
    May you remain well1
    And your child recover.
    We do not know,
    We do not know.
    If you say that she will die,
    She is yours, this child of yours.
    It is your affair2
    As for us, we long that your child may recover
    If she dies, this child of yours,
    We can only speak your names
    We cry to you for her.



    Beasts and men faced south-east, in the direction whence the ancestors came. The chosen beast was watched while the prayer proceeded. It pawned the ground with its feet, and finally lay down with its back to the south east. The spirits had 'refused'; they had turned their backs, and would not help because they saw someone with a white face, of the tribe who snatched the ngoni cattle long ago3. But following day (when the white person was securely hidden the same ritual was followed, and during the prayer the beast urinated. That was a sign of the spirits being willing to accept a sacrifice. They  had answered through the cattle. the beast was killed with one thrust of a spear, falling as it dies facing south east. In the house of the sick woman where the ritual vessels to the spirits were kept meat was offered in those vessels to the spirits, and they were praised and asked to accept it.

    The meat and the sick woman were sprinkled with the juice of the gall bladder. That evening , when the spirits had "tasted" the meat, it was cooked and eaten by the invalid and her relatives and other important people.


    This rite which I saw and have described here in outline was closely parallel to other sacrifices in times of sickness and drought. The grouping  of a few great people by the kraal where everyone else stayed  silent in their houses and not even a dog barked nor donkey brayed; the signs of response or refusal by the spirits; the form of prayer; the killing , the offering of meat to the spirits, and the final eating; the use of ritual vessels whose presence in the hut4 signified the guardianship of the spirits-all of these are repeated in every form of supplication to the spirits.


    All the aristocratic Ngoni, are buried in the skin of a beast newly killed on the day of the burial. Thus the dead bodies are finally associated with a dead beast whose flesh is eaten by the mourners, and the spirits of the dead speak to their living descendants through the living cattle. This is the basis of the statement that cattle are and essential link between the dead and the living.


    Nearly a hundred years have passed since the Ngoni first came into the area after crossing the Zambezi and losing all their beasts save two in the tsetse fly belt5. But the horror of the time, when it seemed there would be no more cattle to be the ritual link between them and the Spirits, is vivid still, and old men speak of it with bated breath even though it is only tradition to them. Until they followed Sosola's doubtful lead6 and crossed the Lake to Songea they had to use sheep for ritual purposes. Inspite of the fact that sheep than and now play an important part in the Ngoni ritual, they were inferior to cattle. It was only the shadowy hope of renewing their herds if they trekked farther which tore them temporarily from Domwe, the country they had set their hearts on, and impelled them towards still further travels and hardships for another quarter century. For they were uneasy lest the Spirits to whom they they always said, 'Heres is your beast' would ignore  the silly sheep, and failing to see their cattle, might turn their backs on their descendants forever7.


    Herein, I think, lies the determined resistance of most of the Ngoni to take up land and settlements where no cattle can live. Other tribes may be able to invoke their ancestral spirits forund their graves or by some tree or mountain sacred to the Spirits. The Ngoni, perhaps because of their wanderings, have no such links with any particular places in the land and they declare the sites of graves are unimportant because they bear no relation to the habitation of the Spirits and the ritual for making prayers8. It is definitely by means of cattle that the ritual must be performed which can assure the help of the spirits. I have been in areas where the Ngoni have lost all their cattle through tsetsefly. There they show uneasiness and suscipicion, which can be partly accounted for by the loss of this security in religious ritual. Forced to use the despised goat, they descend to the level of the conquered tribes. Morever, the loss of security and consequent fear of witchcraft can be seen in their turning desperately to all kinds of magical resources scorned by the real Ngoni9.




    Footnotes


    1. Muhlale kahle, the usual greeting.
    2. Indaba yakho
    3. Reference to the removal by the British troops of about half the herds after the Ngoni war of 1896.
    4. It was the privilege of the 'big woman' to 'guard the spirits' by keeping in their huts the ritual vessels for sacrifing. Thus these 'big houses' which were the huts for economic organisation were also the focus points for religious ritual
    5. This is the accepted tradition.
    6. Sosola , a Chewa chief, was anxious to move the Ngoni out of his area, so he sent them a parcel of dung, saying 'there is more where this came from.' Actually it was buffalo dung, but the Ngoni took the bait and crossed southern end of Lake Nyasa not finding any cattle, however, until they reached Songea.
    7. This is the substance of my conversation on this subject with accredited informants.
    8. These Ngoni cremate their paramount Chief and other notables, men and women, are buried on the edge of the cattle kraal.
    9. "For we know that these things [i.e. witchcraft and magic] cannot cause the life of man to fail nor can they preserve it but they are all worthless and therefore to be despised (From a Ngoni text on magic used by the conquered tribes)


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    Saturday, May 14, 2011

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    Ngoni Rebellion 1898 -1899

  • Saturday, May 14, 2011
  • Samuel Albert
  •  In the late 19th Century Britain began to probe into Central Africa, both from the Indian Ocean through Portuguese East Africa and northwards from Southern Rhodesia. The motives for entering the region around Lake Nyasa, (declared the British Central African Protectorate in 1891 but later called Nyasaland and now named Malawi), were a mixture of public concern about the ruthless practices of Arab slavers as exposed by Doctor David Livingstone and other Scots Missionaries, and more pragmatic reasons of trade and commerce. In those days the British government frequently saved overseas costs by licensing trading companies to explore and develop new territories. These trading companies often possessed rather different principles and priorities than those of Doctor Livingstone, and very often local Chiefs and their tribes were taken advantage of by unscrupulous traders. In British Central Africa the African Lakes Corporation, an organization headquartered in Glasgow, was the dominant trading concern from 1884 until the Protectorate was declared in 1891.



    Living in an area of Northern Rhodesian land lying just west from the border and approximately level with the southern end of Lake Malawi was a tribe of Zulu descent that had migrated northwards from southern Africa. This tribe, the Angoni, had established and maintained itself here by conquest as its military skills and organization were superior to those possessed by its neighbours. Angoni warriors were organized into regiments and they carried a heavy stabbing spear, smaller throwing spears, a club or axe and an oval hide shield for protection. Angoni villages were not fortified but were located in hilly sites that were difficult to
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    Thursday, April 7, 2011

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    Marriage and Family in the Dedza District of Nyasaland

  • Thursday, April 7, 2011
  • Samuel Albert
  • Author: Lucy P. Mair
    Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.81, No. 1/2 (1951), pp. 103-119
    Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and

    INTRODUCTION

    The Dedza District of Nyasaland has a population of 140,000. Within it seven Native Authorities are recognised, two Ngoni, three Cewa and two Yao. As will readily be imagined, members of the three tribes are not neatly sorted out into the appropriate Native Authority areas. The Ngoni are inextricably intermingled with the Cewa, with whom they intermarried from the time of their arrival as conquering invaders in the latter's territory; for practical purposes they are distinguishable from them today only by the fact that they follow the rule of patrilineal succession. In Dedza District a Ngoni village is one in which a considerable proportion of the men claim to be Ngoni; some can still make good the claim on the ground that they were born before the Ngoni left Domwe, in Portuguese East Africa, at the turn of the century. The Cewa were invaded also by the Yao, and the present boundaries of Yao and Cewa are those laid down when the territories of " Principal Headmen" were defined in 1924. There are groups of Yao villages unider Cewa chiefs and vice versa. Within a mile or two of the court-house of the Cewa N. A. Kaphuka there are a group of Yao and a group of Bisa villages, both established before the days of effective British occupation. Today there is some immigration into Dedza of Ngoni from the densely populated neighbouring District of Ncheu; some of these obtain land from Cewa chiefs. One might expect the result to be a bewildering variety of family structures and marriage laws. In fact, however, in this district of mixed population a more or less homogeneous custom appears to have evolved.

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    Saturday, March 12, 2011

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    A TRIP TO NGONILAND.

  • Saturday, March 12, 2011
  • Samuel Albert
  • Below is an account of the experiences of one of the early Livingstonia Missionaries which helps to shed light on some few aspects of life in Ngoniland  after they accepted christianity.

    FROM : STREAMS IN THE DESERT  A PICTURE OF LIFE IN LIVINGSTONIA BY  J. H. MORRISON, M.A.
    PUBLISHED IN 1919.

    No man is entitled to be called an experienced traveller who has not had experience of travelling by machila. The recipe for a machila is as follows : a stout bamboo pole, with a hammock slung below it, and a team of a dozen high-stepping, quick-trotting natives to shoulder the pole, two at a time. It is true that the Portuguese down on the coast use four carriers at a time, who jiggle along with short, mincing, irregular steps, in the most ridiculous and effeminate way. But this is a refinement of luxury not to be looked for in the interior, any more than the quiet amble of a lady's pony is to be expected of a broncho. The raw native, who sees the Portuguese jelly-fish trot for the first time, is convulsed with inextinguishable laughter, and, on his return home,will entertain his village to a daily pantomime.

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    Sunday, November 7, 2010

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    PAINTING OF A FINE LOOKING DEAD MASEKO NGONI WARRIOR

  • Sunday, November 7, 2010
  • Samuel Albert
  • Below is a painting of a dead Maseko Ngoni warrior as drawn by Sir Harry Johnston during the war against Yao slavers around  1890s. Below is a vivid description of the realities of war and the circumstances that led to the discovery of the body of this brave warrior.

    In a secluded part of the precincts amid the scattered vegetation of the village outskirts I suddenly came across the body of a fine-looking Angoni, not many minutes dead. He might have been fighting on our side; he might haven been hired by the Arabs as one of their raiders, but someone had killed him with a bullet  through the head and he had fallen in his tracks, in all his panoply of war, scarcely conscious of the object for which he fought. His right hand still grasped the stabbing spear, his left still held the ox-hide shield. His throwing spears had flown from his hand and were scattered on the ground. Grimmest sight of all — four vultures had already arrived on the' scene to examine him. Two birds promenaded up and down with a watchful eye, ready on noting any sign of returning consciousness to take their departure; another bird, somewhat bolder, stood on one leg and inspected him as might a thoughtful surgeon; and the fourth whirled in circles on out-spread pinions round the body, wishing to settle but frightened, in case after all it was a swoon and not a death.
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    NOTE ON CLICKS IN THE BANTU LANGUAGES

  • Samuel Albert
  • Author(s): A. Werner
    Source: Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 2, No. 8 (Jul., 1903), pp. 416-421

    Note from moderator: Alice Werner worked as a Blantyre Mission missionary in Nyasaland in 1890s and was more acquainted with the Maseko Ngoni having worked among some Maseko Ngoni as a teacher

    IT is generally conceded that the clicks which occur in Xosa, in Zulu, and, to a limited extent in Sesuto, have been borrowed from the Hottentots. Accordingly we find a greater number of click-words, though not a greater variety of clicks, used by the Xosas than by the Zulus, the former having been more in contact with the previous occupants of the country than the latter. Dr. McCall Theal (History of South Africa, II., 196) says that the clicks "were introduced by females spared when the hordes to which they belonged were conquered, as is evident, not only from tradition, but from the words in which they occur being chiefly those pertaining to the occupations of women." This, however, scarcely holds good, at least as far as Zulu is concerned, as the following list of words (which might easily be made longer) will show. (It is scarcely necessary to point out that c stands for the dental click, q for the palatal, and x for the lateral).

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    Some Notes on Angoni by Alice Werner

  • Samuel Albert
  • From 'The Natives of British Central Africa', 1906.

    The Angoni were originally a Zulu clan who came from the south, under Zwangendaba, about 1825, and incorporated with themselves large numbers of the tribes whom they conquered by the way, so that there are now few, if any, of unmixed descent remaining. The 'southern Angoni '—formerly known as 'Chekusi's people'—are mostly Anyanja ; but there were, in 1894, a few head-men and others, besides Chekusi's own family, who spoke Zulu, and some of the elders wore the headring, but of a different pattern from the Zulu isigcoco (which is a smooth, round ring), being more like a crown done in basket-work. The northern Angoni (Mombera's people) all speak Zulu, with considerable dialectic modifications, such as the gradual elimination of the clicks, and the substitution of r for l. But their speech is quite intelligible to Zulus from the south. As already stated, there is a great variety of types. The young warriors introduced to me under the name of 'Mandala's boys ' (Mandala was the brother of Chekusi or Chatantumba, at that time chief of the southern Angoni) were big, swaggering, long-limbed fellows, somewhat vacant of face, and, I think, somewhat lighter in colour than the sturdy little men who went to work on the Blantyre plantations. But whether the difference
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    Saturday, November 6, 2010

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    The History of The Angoni According to Alice Werner

  • Saturday, November 6, 2010
  • Samuel Albert
  • Note: Alice Werner worked as a Blantyre Mission missionary in Nyasaland in 1890s and was more acquainted with the Maseko Ngoni having worked among some Maseko Ngoni as a teacher.

    It is not known when the Zulus moved southward into the territory they now occupy, and where they must have been settled for some generations before thebeginning of the nineteenth century, as the graves of at least four kings (some say eight), of earlier date than that epoch, are still to be seen at Mahlabatini, in the valley of the White Umfolozi. In 1687 they, and tribes allied to them, seem to have been in peaceful occupation of Natal and Zululand, living so close together that migration on a large scale was impossible. Yet, about the same time, the Amaxosa, or 'Cape Kafirs,' who are very closely related to them, seem to have been pressing on to the south ; and they reached the Great Fish River soon after the beginning of the eighteenth century. However this may be, the Zulu king Senzagakona had, about 1800, risen to a position of some importance, though still subject to Dingiswayo, chief of the Umtetwas in Natal. His son, Tshaka, succeeded in 1810, and,
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    Eye witness Account of the Funeral of Chief Mmbelwa I in 1891.

  • Samuel Albert
  • The following is an account, by an eye-witness, of the funeral of the Angoni chief, Mombera, who died in 1891:—

    ' Men were there from all parts of the tribe, sitting in the cattle-kraal—an immense enclosure open to the sky. Before the grave was dug, one of his brothers jumped up, and placing his hands behind his head, advanced towards the place of burial, mourning all the time and performing a sort of waltzing movement. All the men at the same moment jumped to their feet and stood mourning. After this subsided, the digging of the grave was proceeded with. It was not finished till next day. Meanwhile, companies of people were coming and going, and on entering the village, stood mourning and crying at the top of their voice, "Baba be! Baba be!"1 Before the body was brought out, there was a curious procession of his wives on their hands and knees to the grave, decorated with great bunches of feathers that only the chief is allowed to wear. Soon after, the body was brought in, rolled in cloth, and deposited in the grave in a sitting posture with his face to the east. This was the signal for all jumping up, and closing round the grave in a big circle, and there mourning and rending the air withcries. Only men were allowed in the kraal at this time. (The Zulus never allow women in the cattle kraal at any time.) They stood with their shields over their heads, crying out. Afterwards the young men came marching in in companies and stood mourning for a little, then retired. Meanwhile they were depositing in the grave along with him an immense amount of calico, dresses, etc. — I dare say the accumulation of years; cooking-pots, drinking-vessels, mats, and pipes also went in. During this time, the women were mourning in their own style and causing a fearful din. They appeared as if bereft of their senses, catching one another, and going through some queer movements.'

    Note
    1. Baba ='father'
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    TOTEMISM IN CENTRAL ANGONILAND

  • Samuel Albert
  • From the book 'Totenism and Exogamy,' 1910.

    The population of the Nyasaland Protectorate includes many tribes belonging to different stocks and speaking different languages, but they are all members of the great Bantu family. Of the various stocks the Nyanja-speaking the Bantu peoples are the most numerous and important. They include many tribes, amongst whom are the Amananja, the Ambo, the Anyanja, and the Achewa. The Angoni, who give their name to Central Angoniland, a district of the Protectorate lying at the south-west end of Lake Nyasa, are a Zulu people, who having rebelled against the despot Chaka were defeated by him and fled northward, crossing the Zambesi in 1825 and settling in the country to the west of Lake Nyasa. They have intermarried with other tribes, particularly with the Achewa, so that they are now a mixed race; but the northern Angoni still speak the Zulu language, though with some dialectical modifications. At present the Angoni are not so much a separate people as a ruling caste dwelling in the midst of British Central African tribes whom their ancestors conquered.1 The natives of British Central Africa live chiefly by agriculture. The chase is a subsidiary pursuit, and except among the Wankonde, at the north end of Lake Nyasa, the keeping of cattle is an accident or an appanage of chieftainship. Among the principal crops raised by the natives are maize, millet, rice, beans, sweet potatoes, yams, pumpkins, and tobacco. The arts of weaving, pottery, and basketry are practised by the people, and they are acquainted with the working of iron and copper. Their houses are for the most part circular in shape with walls of wattle and daub and thatched roofs.2

    The Nyanja-speaking natives of Central Angoniland are divided into exogamous and totemic clans, some with descent in the male and others in the female line.Generally children take their clan from their father, but in some cases from their mother. The name of the clan is nearly always that of an animal, but sometimes it is that of a plant or other thing.3 The following are some of the animal names of clans :—4

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    Saturday, October 30, 2010

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    Notes on the Angoni and Achewa of Dowa District of the Nyasaland Protectorate

  • Saturday, October 30, 2010
  • Samuel Albert
  • Extract from 'Notes on the Achewa and Angoni of the Dowa District of the Nyasaland Protectorate. by A. G. O Hodgson, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 63 (Jan. - Jun., 1933) pp. 123-164.

    I. ENVIRONMENT.


    1. Geographical Introduction.

    THE Nyasaland Protectorate consists of a strip of land some five hundred miles in length and approximately seventy miles in width, lying around the southern and western shores of Lake Nyasa, which is the most southerly and the third in size of the great East African lakes. The hot, low-lying plain which forms part of the Rift valley rises gradually from an altitude of 130 feet on the Lower Shire River to 1,600 feet at the level of the lake. To the west of this

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    Thursday, October 28, 2010

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    THE CLANS OF THE NGONI ACCORDING TO GT NURSE

  • Thursday, October 28, 2010
  • Samuel Albert
  • By G. T Nurse , Clanship in Central Malawi pp 50-62 (1978)


    As might be expected, the clan structure of the central Ngoni of Malawi is one which has developed from the system current in the Nguni lands of Natal and Swaziland towards the end of Mfecane, the period of disturbances surrounding the rise of the Zulu power. It was as a consequence of the Mfecane that the two Ngoni migration which terminated in central and east Africa set out from their original homeland. Some of the modifications which have taken place in the clan structure of the Maseko Ngoni have been due to the exigencies of the migration, while others are recognizably the consequences of contact with the Maravi.


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    Friday, October 22, 2010

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    CLANS OF THE NGONI

  • Friday, October 22, 2010
  • Samuel Albert
  • By Margaret Read, Ngoni of Nyasaland (1956)

    Ngoni clans had a particular role in their political and social organization. These clans had certain characteristics which distinguished them from the clans of the local peoples, and which they had in common with the Nguni group of the South-eastern Bantu. The use of the clan name in address and in thanking for gifts, the strict exogamy in the clans, and the hierarchy of rank among the clans—these were all of southern origin. Mrs. Hoernle,1 writing of the social organization among the northern Nguni, said that the clan was called isibongo, 'a word referring more particularly to the name of the group'. The Ngoni spoke of their clan name as their cibongo, and they generally added 'that is my thanking name'. Dr. Kuper2  used the term clan for 'the furthest extension of kinsmen traced through the father or the mother'. She referred also to the sub-division of clans among the Swazi—a process of fission by which a
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    Monday, October 18, 2010

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    Some Ngoni words And Their Meaning Taken Down by A Werner in 1894 Among The Maseko Ngoni

  • Monday, October 18, 2010
  • Samuel Albert
  • In a list of Zulu words as used by Chekusi's Angoni, which I took down at Ntumbi (West Shire District) in 1894, I find the words amaqanda (eggs), isixwembe (a wooden ladle), and licansi (a mat), all written with a k, subsequently corrected to c. This is more probably because my ear failed to discriminate between the clicks, than because my informant (a very intelligent old woman, who had lived for a long time at Chekusi's kraal, but, I think, was not a Zulu by birth) pronounced them alike; but it is possible that, in the course of their northern wanderings, the Angoni have reduced the three sounds to one. M. Edouard Foa (Du Zambeze au Congo Francais, p. 74) says that Mpezeni's people called the head-ring (isigcogco) chijojo, which looks as though they had substituted/(probably the French sound as in jeune is intended) for the soft dental click gc; but it is also possible that M. Foa (or his Mang'anja boys, if he did not get the information direct,) failed, like myself, to catch the click.

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    Sunday, October 17, 2010

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    A White Missionary's Take On The British War on Maseko Ngoni and Killing of Gomani I

  • Sunday, October 17, 2010
  • Samuel Albert
  • By Miss A Werner, British Central Africa.

    The Angoni, also called Mazitu, or Mavitu, are an offshoot of the great Zulu nation. It appears that their ancestors revolted from Tshaka at the turn of this century, and gradually fought their way northward, probably incorporating with themselves a great part of the conquered tribes. The name Angoni is applied to a great number of people who are pure Mang’anja, as being vassals of the red Angoni. They have adopted a few Zulu words into their language, and learnt to use the shield and assagai, which, in the wars of the quite superseded the Mang’anja bow, and almost equally so the rubbishy firearms imported by traders I do not propose to trace thewanderings of the Angoni,or the history of their raids. Constant references to them, under the name Mazitu (or Mavitu),1 may be found in Livingstone’s “Last Journals ” and in Youngs “ Search for Livingstone,” and "Mission to Nyasa.”

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    Some Interesting Observation By a Sympathetic Missionary Observer on the Language and Manners of the Maseko Ngoni in 1894

  • Samuel Albert
  • By Miss A Werner, British Central Africa.

    The Angoni Zulu are like their congeners in the south, a fine, manly, warlike race. Dr. Elmslie says of Chekusi’s people, “There are now no Ngoni among them, and their language is Nyanja” (ie Mang'anja), but I think this is too sweeping. Certainly, in 1894, I saw and talked with an old woman from Chekusi’s kraal,who knew Zulu; and I was given to understand that the language was still spoken by some of the older headmen.

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    The Stabbing of Shaka and Ndwandwe War that Led to the Movement of The Ngoni and Others From Zululand

  • Samuel Albert
  • by A.T Bryant, a Missionary in Zululand and Natal 

    The evening was come, and brought an agreeable transformation of the scene. The bright variegated gaiety of the day had now become set in a background of jetty darkness, and, lit up by the lurid glow of bonfires of dried reeds, presented a weird and fascinating study in light and shade. It was a serenade in which the great chief was himself taking a part. Suddenly a terrifying shriek rent the air; and the fires went mysteriously out! The multitude was plunged in darkness, and confusion reigned supreme. Shaka the Terrible, Shaka the Divine, had himself been stabbed! Verily now hath come the end for many there present. What shall be done? The gathering wrath must be appeased somehow, else unhappy are they whose misfortune it must be to have to come near the wounded despot; for, says the adage, the wild-beast bites those who approach it. Now, the enemy whom Shaka just at that moment had uppermost in his mind was the Ndwandwe king, Zwide, whose power had not yet been broken and whose adherents, under Sikunyana, were even then threatening the
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    Saturday, October 9, 2010

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    SONGS OF IZANUSI (DIVINERS)

  • Saturday, October 9, 2010
  • Samuel Albert
  • From: Songs of the Ngoni People by Margaret Read 1937


    When trouble or sickness attacked the Ngoni their first act was go to the isanusi and ask him to divine for them the cause of the trouble. There were several grades of izanusi, from those in " private practice " to those consulted by the chiefs in big state affairs and in time of war.

    The first of these songs is an initiation song of an isanusi. The second refers to a very old prophecy among the Ngoni that their final downfall would " by way of the sea," and which they interpreted as the coming of the Europeans. The next two songs (3 and 4) are those of a famous isanusi called Manyonkolo Camango, and the second one reflects the general despair at his death. The last two (5 and 6) I took from an old isanusi who still practises his art.

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