Fetish worship among the Ngoni of Ntcheu and other Tribes

A letter from ALEXANDER HETHERWICK. The Blantyre Mission, British Central Africa. March 4th, 1903.

I have to hand the Editor's letter, per Mr. Lovett, with inquiries regarding my note on Fetish-Worship in Central Africa, which he read before the Folk-Lore Society [10th December, 1902]. I reply to these queries in their order.

 1. [Are remote ancestors worshipped, or only the recently dead ?] 

Worship is confined to recent ancestors almost entirely- generally to those of the generation immediately preceding. Among the Yaos and the Angoni, the chief or headman who has recently died, steps into the place occupied by his predecessor, and is worshipped in turn. The chief whose spirit hitherto was the object of worship is now for the most part neglected, and all homage is paid to the spirit of the man recently dead.

For example : there is on the top of Mount Soche, three miles from Blantyre, the grave of an old Mang'anja chief called Kankomba. He was the chief of the country when the Yaos came into it in Livingstone's time and drove out the original Mang'anja owners. He died in his old village and was buried on the top of the hill where he lived. The incoming Yaos worshipped his spirit as the previous chief of the district. This they did till their own chief Kapeni died, when his successor left off making offerings to the old Kankomba and paid his worship to the recently dead Kapeni. This he will continue to do till he himself dies and becomes to his successor the next object of worship.

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TRADITION AND PRESTIGE AMONG THE NGONI

Author(s): Margaret Read

Source: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Oct., 1936), pp.453-484 Published by: Edinburgh University Press

1.THE NGONI PEOPLE.

Before I made my first camp in an Ngoni village, many Europeans had said to me, 'There are practically no Ngoni left today. They are all hopelessly mixed with other tribes. None of them keep to the Ngoni customs any longer. Their chiefs are no good.' From the doorway of my hut I saw people coming all day long to the Paramount Chief, behaving towards him with profound respect, bringing him presents, working for him. His children formed a special group in the village, easily recognizable by their bearing and their manners. Old indunas came to instruct me, as they had instructed chiefs in their day, on the duties of a ruler, and the code of Ngoni laws. Old warriors in war dress came and danced by the cattle kraal and sang praise songs. Courts were held with scrupulous regard for order and justice. Other chiefs came visiting from distant parts with their retinues, and were received ceremonially. It soon became apparent that here was the centre of a political state, whose head was invested with prestige and authority over a wide area, and where behaviour to the Paramount and to every one else was strictly regulated by custom, and as strictly observed. These were Ngoni, and they and their fellow Ngoni in other areas¹ for the next ten months introduced me to the Ngoni people. The European assertion, that they no longer existed as a people, they laughed at, and proceeded to demonstrate that the contrary was true.

The Ngoni are found to-day scattered over four East African territories. The largest groups are in Nyasaland in the districts of Mzimba, Dowa, Fort Manning, Dedza, and Ncheu. In Northern Rhodesia they are in the Fort Jameson and Lundazi districts bordering on Nyasaland. Another section is in Portuguese East Africa on the South-West border of Nyasaland. Under other names there are Ngoni settlements in Tanganyika Territory. The present divisions of the Ngoni are due partly to European frontiers, partly to the fact that more than one party of them came up from the south, and partly to divisions among the Ngoni during the period of settlement.

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A JOURNEY FROM BLANTYRE TO ANGONI-LAND AND BACK IN MAY 1886

A Journey from Blantyre to Angoni-Land and Back

Author(s): J. T. Last, Commander of the Society's Expedition to the Namuli Hills, East Central Africa

Source: Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, New Monthly Series, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Mar., 1887), pp. 177-187 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)

Note: Except for the map all images and photos are from the moderator of the blog.

In May last (1886), being retained at Blantyre, waiting for the favourable season to start for the Namuli Hills, I made a journey, in company with Consul Hawes, to the Angoni country, on the highlands to the south-west of Lake Nyassa. I now submit to the Society the following account of this expedition :-

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Ngoni Wars and Regiments

Organization and  Tactics

The Ngoni inherited a very strong military tradition from their origins as a migrating army. In the words of their historian YM.Cibambo, ‘To the Ngoni war was like work and his heart rejoiced to think of it.' At least some groups seem to have retained the Zulu system of organizing their warriors into regiments based on age, although most units were based on territorial divisions, and warriors tended to live in their villages  rather than in separate kraals as they did in the Zulu army. In Nyasaland, young men were often formed en masse into a new regiment known as a libandla, of which each large village or prominent chief might have several. Each libandla was divided into companies called libuto, which varied in strength up to 100 men or more, and would be allocated to one of the two maior divisions of the army - the younger men, or amajaha and the veteran amadoda. Each regiment and company was led by an officer known as an induna, who was responsible to the overall leader or 'war induna', appointed by the nkosi or chief.

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A Journey from Cape Town overland to Lake Nyassa.

By W. Montagu Kerr, c.e.

Read at the Evening Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in the United Kingdom, November 30th, 1885.

In the autumn of the year 1883 I sailed from England for South Africa with a view to satisfy a long cherished wish, namely, the exploration of African lands as yet little known, and more particularly to study the character, habits, and customs of the negro races.

Arriving at the Cape, I made all inquiries from the most reliable sources as to the probabilities of my success in accomplishing a journey alone overland to Central Africa. I did not get much encouragement, but, nevertheless, finally determined to make the attempt (whatever might be the results) to reach the Lake regions of Central Africa, and from thence to proceed towards the sea.

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Ngoni Politics and Diplomacy 1848 - 1904 (part 2)

B. Pachai, Professor of History, University of Malawi, 1970

Continuation of part one. Double click to go to part 1

In the period covered in this article there were six different rulers and regents functioning at different times with varying degrees of success in the political life of the main Ngoni hosts in the north and south.²⁸ After 1875 those in office had to contend in their external relations with three important influences, viz., indigenous and neighbouring peoples, missionaries, and the advent of British administration. Of these the first powerful impact came from the Scottish missionary factor represented in the work of the Livingstonia and Blantyre missionaries. In 1878 Dr Laws and Mr James Stewart visited Chikusi where they were kept waiting for four days before Chikusi would see them, an experience which Dr Stewart was to live through when he visited Mbelwa the following year. The British Consul, Hawes, on the other hand,lead a pleasant experience at Kujipore when he called on Chikusi in 1886. The Ngoni chiefs kept strict protocol in their dealing with Europeans. Where this was not respected by the visitors, as it happened in the case of the Chiwere Ndlovu Ngoni of Dowa district, the consequences were very serious. Dr Laws, who was kept waiting for days by Chikusi, was surprised when Jumbe came out of his village to meet him half-way at Nkhota Kota in 1879;²⁹ but this is understandable when we consider that Jumbe was saddled with internal disaffection led by his headman, Chiwaura, and external threats from the Yao. The Ngoni were in no hurry to seek political alliances with Europeans.

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Ngoni Politics and Diplomacy 1848 - 19041 (Part 1)

B. Pachai, Professor of History, University of Malawi, 1970

I

By 1904 the Ngoni of Malawi were widely distributed through a large part of the country with main and subsidiary settlements of both the Jere and Maseko communities or tribal clusters. These settlements had a number of common characteristics. The chiefs (with few exceptions) could all claim linear political descent from those who had led them through most of the way to the chosen land; they were now under British protectorate rule ; each main settlement had an administrative system with central authority, executive authority, military and judicial authority, all of which were subsequently modified to suit the protectorate government from time to time; each had started off with little more than a simple kinship organization with leadership provided by a determined individual of a well-known clan fleeing for safety and security with a hard core of kinsmen; each tribal cluster had to work out its own immediate political salvation during the period of dispersion or at the point of permanent settlement. The difference between these Ngoni and those of the Northern and Southern Nguni was that political evolution in the case of the former was based on trial and error tempered by a transference of 'home' patterns of government far removed in both space and time. Things not only happened quickly; they happened very far from `home'; they happened, too, without precedents at first. Before political patterns and social adjustments could evolve, external intrusions brought about compelling side-effects. In the end a political system emerged. Hammond—Tooke has defined a political system broadly 'as the system of power-distribution in a society'.² In looking at this power-distribution in the Ngoni society of Malawi a number of propositions constitute a good starting point.

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Songs Of The Ngoni People (Lullabies, Umsindo and Mthimba songs)

Margaret Read, 1937

INTRODUCTION

Nearly 120 years ago the Ngoni left their homeland in the South during the upheavals of Chaka's wars. In Nyasaland where the majority of them settled, they began to mix with the local tribes, preserving certain Ngoni institutions which they had brought from the south, to which they clung tenaciously as proof of their political and social superiority over their neighbours.¹ Predominant among these exclusive Ngoni institutions were their songs and dances. The musician listening to the phrasing, rhythm and harmonies of Ngoni music knows that here is something of rare and distinctive beauty. The linguist studying the words of songs recognises the old Ngoni language, closely akin to old Zulu and Swazi. The social anthropologist watching the dancing and singing can see an expression of the " national" spirit of the Ngoni, and watch how social distinctions mark off the true aristocrats from the former slaves, the latter being excluded from taking part in the dance.

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NGUNI MIGRATIONS BETWEEN DELAGOA BAY AND THE ZAMBEZI, 1821-1839

Author: Gerhard Liesegang

Source: African Historical Studies, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1970), pp. 317-337

Published by: Boston University African Studies Center

The area adjacent to the Portuguese possessions of Lourenco Marques, Inhambane, Sofala, and Rios de Sena was affected after July 1821 by the wars and migrations which had started in South Africa a few years before.¹ At least four groups moved into the area under consideration; one of them, the Gaza Nguni under Sotshangane, continued to remain in possession of a part of it after 1839, when the other three had left, dominating an area where, before 1820, more than fifty independent political units had existed.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the written evidence on these migrations as contained in Portuguese sources, most of which are administrative records,² though these are not as rich as might be supposed. They hardly ever contain the names of the leaders of the migrating groups, and none of the terms applied to their followers (Mazitis, Landins, Massitis, Mabzites, Vatuas, etc.) is applied exclusively to any one group of invaders. It is therefore impossible to reconstruct migration routes on the basis of the administrative records alone. Only if we take the scraps of recorded oral tradition and personal memories,³ is

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NOTES ON NGONI AND OTHER NATIVES OF NYASALAND, N.E. RHODESIA, AND PORTUGUESE ZAMBEZIA, THEIR ARTS, CUSTOMS, AND MODES OF SUBSISTENCE.

BY CAPTAIN C. H. STIGAND, "THE QUEEN'S OWN" ROYAL WEST KENT REGIMENT.

The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.37 (Jan - June., 1907 pp 119-132

CONTENTS.

1. Arts. 2. Burial Customs. 3. Customs and Dances. 4. History. 5. Language. 6. Mode of Subsistence. 7. Musical Instruments. 8. Ornaments and Disfigurations. 9. Religion and Superstitions. 10. Various and Miscellaneous.

1.ARTS.

Brass Anklets and Bracelets.-These are made from empty cartridge-cases, brass wire, etc. The crucibles, made of clay, are filled with cartridge-cases, which are heated in a charcoal fire, blown by means of bellows made of goat skin flayed in the form of a bag and attached to a wooden mouthpiece at one end, and to a stick at the other, to pull it open and shut. The crucible is held by a pair of long iron pincers. A mould is made by holding a stick upright and piling white powdery sand round it next to the stick, and supporting this outside with wet sand. The stick is then withdrawn, and the metal, when molten, poured into its place. This makes a stick of mnetal when cool, which is then hammered round to form the anklet or bracelet.

Anklets.-Made of the seed of wild banana (sarakoto). Holes are bored in the black seeds with a red-hot nail, and strung on string. Used to make a rattling sound in dancing.

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