the lozi kingdom short essay

An Introduction to Zambia's Lozi People

Members of the Lozi tribe in their Nalikwanda boat, a symbol of kingship

Freelance Writer

The Lozi tribe of Western Zambia are a proud people with a complex history. They are the only tribe in Zambia with a King instead of a chief, and account for approximately 900,000 people. This is an introduction to Zambia’s Lozi people.

According to myth, the Lozi tribe began when the sun god Nyambe descended from heaven onto Barotseland, which is the Lozi homeland. He came with his wife Nasilele (the moon), and together they began the line of Luyi-Luyana kings. Before ascending back to the heavens, they left their daughter Mbuyu to continue the line of leadership through her male offspring.

Another account of the creation of the Lozi tribe is that they came from the Lunda Kingdom in present day Democratic Republic of Congo, and were led into Western Zambia by a Lunda princess called Mbuywamwamba between the 17th and 18th centuries. This was during the Bantu Migration from which other Zambian tribes such as the Bemba also moved into Zambia.

The historical account is that the Lozi were originally called the ‘ Luyi ‘ (meaning ‘Foreigner’) and spoke a language called Siluyana. They lived in Bulozi, a plain in the Upper Zambezi. In 1830, the Luyi people were conquered by the Makololo tribe under a leader called Sebetwane, who was part of many tribes that escaped the Mfecane , a series of wars under the Zulu king Shaka from present day South Africa. The Makololo changed the Luyi’s name to ‘Lozi’, which translates to ‘plain’. Although the Makololo were overthrown in 1864, the Luyi kept their new name.

Political history

It was believed that Barosteland had copper, gold and other minerals, so Cecil Rhodes, a colonialist figure known for his dreams of building a road from Cape Town , South Africa to Cairo, Egypt convinced the Litunga (the King – known by the name Lewanika) to sign over mining rights to Rhodes British South African Company under the Lochner Concession of 1890. Barosteland then became a British protectorate with the Lozis offered protection from neighboring tribes interested in conquering the Lozi. Barotseland became part of Northern Rhodesia (now known as Zambia) in May 1964, five months before Northern Rhodesia became an independent nation.

The Lozis have their own coat of arms from when Barosteland was a protectorate

The Lozi are mostly concentrated in the Western Province of Zambia, although they are also based in smaller numbers in the Caprivi strip of Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe . The Lozi homeland is called Barotseland, and was once considered to be an independent kingdom with its own flag. The administrative capital is called Lealui, and the winter capital is called Limulunga – the towns are separated by a distance of approximately 11 miles (17.7 km). The town of Mongu is the political capital and is approximately 10 miles (16km) west of Lealui.

The Lozis show respect through a practice called likute . According to the essay ‘Moonlight and Clapping Hands: Lozi Cosmic Arts of Barosteland’ by Karen E Milbourne from the book African Cosmos published by Stellar Arts, it is “the performance of politeness, deference and cooperation… Its most visible feature consists of Lozi men and women clapping their hands in respect to one another, their leaders and the divine”. When members of the Lozi tribe meet the Litunga , they put their arms in the air, recite tributes and kneel several times as a form of respect.

Political structure

The Litunga is known as the ‘holder of the earth’ which is a literal translation of his name. This means all land in Barotseland belongs to the King, and his subjects are granted permission to live on the land. The Litunga is ruler of all Lozis. Under him is his prime minister, the Ngambela. The indunas or councilors are under the prime minister.

Litunga Mwanawina III, King of Bartoseland with Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1960

Traditional ceremony

The Lozis celebrate the Kuomboka ceremony annually in March or April at the end of the rainy season. It is one of the most popular traditional ceremonies in Zambia. ‘ Kuomboka ‘ translates to ‘get out of the water’ and involves the Litunga , his Queen and a number of their subjects moving from his residence at Lealui which floods annually, to Limulunga. The journey is a spectacle to watch, with the royal barge called the Nalikwanda (meaning ‘for the people’ which referred to the fact that the boat could be used by anyone, although later it came to be only used for the King) drawing attention with the large model elephant on the top. The Queen travels in a separate barge. The night before Kuomboka, the King beats a royal drum called the maoma which is a call to able-bodied men from the kingdom to prepare to escort their king. “Up to 120 men in leopard skins, red berets and lions manes to lead a flotilla of barges, banana boats and dugout canoes across lilly-studded waters” (Milborune, African Cosmos ).

Other drums that are played during the Kuomboka include the manjabila, lishoma, mwenduko, mutanga. “Manjabila is played in the Nalikwanda to give praises to the former leader of the canoe makers, and it alternates with maoma. Andlishoma is played up to the second landing at the harbour of Limulunga. Mwenduko together with mwatota and ngw’awawa (xylophones) are played while Nalikwanda is leaving. Mutango is played early in the morning to confirm to the people that the Litunga or Litunga la Mboela (The Queen) will not spend the night in Lealui or Nalolo. Firstly it will be played in the courtyard and thereafter at Namoo” (Barotse Royal Establishment, Kuomboka Ceremony, 2008: 14-15).

The Litunga’s traditional attire is called sikutindo, which is worn when boarding the royal barge. He also carries a namaya which is a fly whisk. He then changes into his other royal attire, a black and gold British admiral’s uniform which is said to have been given to the Litunga who was ruling in 1902 by King Edward VIII in recognition of a treaty that had been signed between the Lozis and Queen Victoria.

Male members of Barosteland (the Lozi kingdom) wear a siziba – a skirt which is red, black and white chitenge (a cotton print fabric usually with bold patterns). They wear a matching waistcoat and red beret called a lishushu . The women wear a satin outfit called musinsi which consists of two skirts , a top called a baki and a small wrapper called a chali.

Women and men from the Lozi tribe sometimes wear ivory bangles which are given at different points in life such as birth, puberty etc.

Another way to learn about Lozi culture is to visit the Nayuma Museum which is located opposite the Litunga’s palace in Mongu.

Identity and naming

The Lozi sometimes name their children after former royal leaders. For instance, the name Matauka is usually given to a female child and was the name of the Queen whose brother was the Litunga from 1875 – 1885 and 1886 – 1916. Nasilele is also a common female name and refers to the wife of Nyambe (the sun god) who according to myth founded the Lozi tribe.

Traditionally, the eyes and mouth were kept open at the point of death. Men were buried facing east, while women were buried facing west. The dead were buried with their personal possessions as it was believed that they would be needed in the afterlife. According to the kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane blog , “The grave of a person of status, which is situated to the side of the commoner s cemetery, is surrounded by a circular barrier of grass and branches. As sign of grief, the kin of the deceased wear their skin cloaks inside out. The hut of the deceased is pulled down, the roof being placed near the grave, while the remaining possessions of the dead person are burned so that nothing will attract the ghost back to the village”. The funeral for a deceased King is a more elaborate affair.

The Lozi perform a variety of dances based on occasion. During a girl’s initiation, a dance called siyomboka is performed. It is also the name of the conical drum that is used during the occasion. During royal occasions such as Kuomboka , men and women perform different dances. The ngomalume is a warrior-style dance performed only by men. It “demands skillful co-ordination of steps and the abdominal movements” (Agrippa Njungu, Music of My People (II): Dances in Barotseland ). The liwale is performed by women at royal events. Other dances include the liimba, lishemba and sipelu, which is the most popular.

Like the myth of the creation of the Lozi tribe, there are many others. One of the most fascinating is the myth of the Lengolengole , a creature with the head of a snake and lizard-like feet that lives in the Zambezi river and was said to have been spotted by a Litunga in the early 20th century.

Food and drink

According to a Food and Consumption Report titled ‘ The Common Zambian Foodstuff, Ethnicity, Preparation and Nutrient Composition of selected foods’ by Drinah Banda Nyirenda, Ph.D., Martha Musukwa, MSc. and Raider Habulembe Mugode, BSc, the Lozi ethnic grouping occupy and control access to the floodplain with its potential for cattle production, fishing, wetland/floodplain agriculture (rice and maize), and harvesting of foodstuffs from the natural fauna and flora of the floodplain. The preferred fruits of the Lozi are exotic fruits. Apart from local fruits such as mumbole and namulomo which are preferred for their good taste, the local fruits that are most preferred by the Lozi people are those that have several uses such as mubula, which is used for making porridge, scones called manyende, and a drink known as maheu. Nuts are added as an alternative to groundnuts. Muzauli is added to relishes as an alternative to groundnuts or as a source of cooking oil, and mukuwa may be made into a drink.

The staple food of Zambia nshima is eaten by the Lozi as well, although it is called buhobe .

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African History Extra

A history of the Lozi kingdom. ca. 1750-1911.

State and society in south-central africa.

In the first decade of the 20th century, only a few regions on the African continent were still controlled by sovereign kingdoms. One of these was the Lozi kingdom, a vast state in south-central Africa covering nearly 250,000 sqkm that was led by a shrewd king who had until then, managed to retain his autonomy.

The Lozi kingdom was a powerful centralized state whose history traverses many key events in the region, including; the break up of the Lunda empire, the Mfecane migrations, and the colonial scramble. In 1902, the Lozi King Lewanika Lubosi traveled to London to meet the newly-crowned King Edward VII in order to negotiate a favorable protectorate status. He was met by another African delegate from the kingdom of Buganda who described him as "a King, black like we are, he was not Christian and he did what he liked" 1

This article explores the history of the Lozi kingdom from the 18th century to 1916, and the evolution of the Lozi state and society throughout this period.

Map of Africa in 1880 highlighting the location of the Lozi kingdom (Barosteland) 2

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Early history of the Lozi kingdom

The landscape of the Lozi heartland is dominated by the Zambezi River which cuts a bed of the rich alluvial Flood Plain between the Kalahari sands and the miombo woodlands in modern Zambia.

The region is dotted with several ancient Iron Age sites of agro-pastoralist communities dating from the 1st/5th century AD to the 12th/16th century, in which populations were segmented into several settlement sites organized within lineage groups. 3 It was these segmented communities that were joined by other lineage groups arriving in the upper Zambezi valley from the northern regions under the Lunda empire, and gradually initiated the process of state formation which preceded the establishment of the Lozi kingdom. 4

The earliest records and traditions about the kingdom's founding are indirectly associated with the expansion and later break-up of the Lunda empire, in which the first Lozi king named Rilundo married a Lunda woman named Chaboji. Rulindo was succeeded by Sanduro and Hipopo, who in turn were followed by King Cacoma Milonga, with each king having lived long enough for their former capitals to become important religious sites. 5

The above tradition about the earliest kings, which was recorded by a visitor between 1845-1853, refers to a period when the ruling dynasty and its subjects were known as the Aluyana and spoke a language known as siluyana. In the later half of the 19th century, the collective ethnonym for the kingdom's subjects came to be known as the lozi (rotse), an exonym that emerged when the ruling dynasty had been overthrown by the Makololo, a Sotho-speaking group from southern Africa. 6

King Cacoma Milonga also appears in a different account from 1797, which describes him as “a great souva called Cacoma Milonga situated on a great island and the people in another.” He is said to have briefly extended his authority northwards into Lunda’s vassals before he was forced to withdraw. 7 He was later succeeded by King Mulambwa (d. 1830) who consolidated most of his predecessors' territorial gains and reformed the kingdom's institutions inorder to centralize power under the kingship at the expense of the bureaucracy. 8

Mulambwa is considered by Lozi to have been their greatest king, and it was during his very long reign that the kingdom’s political, economic, and judicial systems reached that degree of sophistication noted by later visitors. 9

the core territories of the Lozi kingdom 10

The Government in 19th century buLozi

At the heart of the Lozi State is the institution of kingship, with the Lozi king as the head of the social, economic and administrative structures of the whole State. After the king's death, they're interred in a site of their choosing that is guarded by an official known as Nomboti who serves as an intermediary between the deceased king and his successors and is thus the head of the king's ancestral cult. 11

The Lozi bureaucracy at the capital, which comprised the most senior councilors ( Indunas ) formed the principal consultative, administrative, legislative, and judicial bodies of the nation. A single central body the councilors formed the National Council ( Mulongwanji) which was headed by a senior councilor ( Ngambela) as well as a principal judge ( Natamoyo) . A later visitor in 1875 describes the Lozi administration as a hierarchy of “officers of state” and “a general Council” comprising “state officials, chiefs, and subordinate governors,” whose foundation he attributed to “a constitutional ruler now long deceased”. 12

The councilors were heads of units of kinship known as the Makolo , and headed a provincial council ( kuta ) which had authority over individual groups of village units ( silalo ) that were tied to specific tracts of territories/land. These communities also provided the bulk of the labour and army of the kingdom, and in the later years, the Makolo were gradually centralized under the king who appointed non-hereditary Makolo heads. This system of administration was extended to newly conquered regions, with the southern capital at Nalolo (often occupied by the King’s sister Mulena Mukwai ), while the center of power remained in the north with the roving capital at Lealui. 13

The valley's inhabitants established their settlements on artificially built mounds ( liuba ) tending farms irrigated by canals, activities that required large-scale organized labor. Some of the surplus produced was sent to the capital as tribute, but most of the agro-pastoral and fishing products were exchanged internally and regionally as part of the trade that included craft manufactures and exports like ivory, copper, cloth, and iron. Long-distance traders from the east African coast (Swahili and Arab), as well as the west-central African coast (Africans and Portuguese), regularly converged in Lozi’s towns. 14

Palace of the King (at Lealui) ca. 1916, Zambia. USC Libraries.

Palace of the Mulena Mukwai/Mokwae (at Nalolo), 1914, Zambia. USC Libraries.

The Lozi kingdom under the Kololo dynasty.

After the death of Mulambwa, a succession dispute broke out between his sons; Silumelume in the main capital of Lealui and Mubukwanu at the southern capital of Nalolo, with the latter emerging as the victor. But by 1845, Mubukwanu's forces were defeated in two engagements by a Sotho-speaking force led by Sebetwane whose followers ( baKololo ) had migrated from southern Africa in the 1820s as part of the so-called mfecane . Mubukwanu's allies fled to exile and control of the kingdom would remain in the hands of the baKololo until 1864. 15

Sebetwane (r. 1845-1851) retained most of the pre-existing institutions and complacent royals like Mubukwanu's son Sipopa, but gave the most important offices to his kinsmen. The king resided in the Caprivi Strip (in modern Namibia) while the kingdom was ruled by his brother Mpololo in the north, and daughter Mamochisane at Nololo, along with other kinsmen who became important councilors. The internal agro-pastoral economy continued to flourish and Lozi’s external trade was expanded especially in Ivory around the time the kingdom was visited by David Livingstone in 1851-1855, during the reign of Sebetwane's successor, King Sekeletu (r. 1851-1864). 16

The youthful king Sekeletu was met with strong opposition from all sections of the kingdom, spending the greater part of his reign fighting a rival candidate named Mpembe who controlled most of the Lozi heartland. After Sekeletu's death in 1864, further succession crisis pitted various royals against each other, weakening the control of the throne by the baKololo. The latter were then defeated by their Luyana subjects who (re)installed Sipopa as the Lozi king. While the society was partially altered under baKololo rule, with the Luyana-speaking subjects adopting the Kololo language to create the modern Lozi language, most of the kingdom’s social institutions remained unchanged. 17

The (re) installation of King Sipopa (r. 1864-1876) involved many Lozi factions, the most powerful of which was led by a nobleman named Njekwa who became his senior councilor and was married to Sipopa's daughter and co-ruler Kaiko at Nalolo. But the two allies eventually fell out and shortly after the time of Njekwa's death in 1874, the new senior councilor Mamili led a rebellion against the king in 1876, replacing him with his son Mwanawina. The latter ruled briefly until 1878 when factional struggles with his councilors drove him off the throne and installed another royal named Lubosi Lewanika (r.1878-84, 1885-1916) while his sister and co-ruler Mukwae Matauka was set up at Nalolo. 18

The Royal Barge on the Zambezi river , ca. 1910, USC Library

King Lewanika’s Lozi state

During King Lubosi Lewanika's long reign, the Lozi state underwent significant changes both internally as the King's power became more centralized, and externally, with the appearance of missionaries, and later colonialists.

After King Lubosi was briefly deposed by his powerful councilor named Mataa in favor of King Tatila Akufuna (r. 1884-1885), the deposed king returned and defeated Mataa's forces, retook the throne with the name Lewanika, and appointed loyalists. To forestall external rebellions, he established regional alliances with King Khama of Ngwato (in modern Botswana), regularly sending and receiving embassies for a possible alliance against the Ndebele king Lobengula. He instituted several reforms in land tenure, created a police force, revived the ancestral royal religion, and created new offices in the national council and military. 19

King Lewanika expanded the Lozi kingdom to its greatest extent by 1890, exercising varying degrees of authority over a region covering over 250,000 sqkm 20 . This period of Lozi expansion coincided with the advance of the European missionary groups into the region, followed by concessioners (looking for minerals), and the colonialists. Of these groups, Lewanika chose the missionaries for economic and diplomatic benefits, to delay formal colonization of the kingdom, and to counterbalance the concessionaries, the latter of whom he granted limited rights in 1890 to prospect for minerals (mostly gold) in exchange for protection against foreign threats (notably the powerful Ndebele kingdom in the south and the Portuguese of Angola in the west). 21

The Lozi kingdom at its greatest extent in the late 19th century

Lewanika oversaw a gradual and controlled adoption of Christianity (and literacy) confined to loyal councilors and princes, whom he later used to replace rebellious elites. He utilized written correspondence extensively with the various missionary groups and neighboring colonial authorities, and the Queen in London, inorder to curb the power of the concessionaires (led by Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa company which had taken over the 1890 concession but only on paper), and retain control of the kingdom. He also kept updated on concessionary activities in southern Africa through diplomatic correspondence with King Khama. 22

The king’s Christian pretensions were enabled by internal factionalism that provided an opportunity to strengthen his authority. Besides the royal ancestral religion, lozi's political-religious sphere had been dominated by a system of divination brought by the aMbundu (from modern Angola) whose practitioners became important players in state politics in the 19th century, but after reducing the power of Lewanika's loyalists and the king himself, the later purged the diviners and curbed their authority. 23

This purge of the Mbundu diviners was in truth a largely political affair but the missionaries misread it as a sign that the King was becoming Christian and banning “witchcraft”, even though they were admittedly confused as to why the King did not convert to Christianity. Lewanika had other objectives and often chided the missionaries saying; "What are you good for then? What benefits do you bring us? What have I to do with a bible which gives me neither rifles nor powder, sugar, tea nor coffee, nor artisans to work for me." 24

The newly educated Lozi Christian elite was also used to replace the missionaries, and while this was a shrewd policy internally as they built African-run schools and trained Lozi artisans in various skills, it removed the Lozi’s only leverage against the concessionaires-turned-colonists. 25

The Lozi kingdom in the early 20th century: From autonomy to colonialism.

The King tried to maintain a delicate balance between his autonomy and the concessionaries’ interests, the latter of whom had no formal presence in the kingdom until a resident arrived in 1897, ostensibly to prevent the western parts of the kingdom (west of the Zambezi) from falling under Portuguese Angola. While the Kingdom was momentarily at its most powerful and in its most secure position, further revisions to the 1890 concessionary agreement between 1898 and 1911 steadily eroded Lewanika's internal authority. 26

Internal opposition by Lozi elites was quelled by knowledge of both the Anglo-Ndebele war of 1893 and the Anglo-Boer war of 1899-1902. But it was the Anglo-Boer war that influenced the Lozi’s policies of accommodation in relation to the British, with Lozi councilors expressing “shock at the thought of two groups of white Christians slaughtering each other”. 27 The war illustrated that the Colonialists were committed to destroying anyone that stood in their way, whether they were African or European, and a planned expulsion of the few European settlers in Lozi was put on hold.

Always hoping to undermine the local colonial governors by appealing directly to the Queen in London, King Lewanika prepared to travel directly to London at the event of King Edward’s coronation in 1902, hoping to obtain a favorable agreement like his ally, King Khama had obtained on his own London visit in 1895. When asked what he would discuss when he met King Edward in London, the Lozi king replied: “When kings are seated together, there is never a lack of things to discuss.” 28

King Lewanika (front seat on the left) and his entourage visiting Deeside, Wales, ca. 1901 , Aberdeen archives

It is likely that the protection of western Lozi territory from the Portuguese was also on the agenda, but the latter matter was considered so important that it was submitted by the Portuguese and British to the Italian king in 1905, who decided on a compromise of dividing the western region equally between Portuguese-Angola and the Lozi. While Lewanika had made more grandiose claims to territory in the east and north that had been accepted, this one wasn’t, and he protested against it to no avail 29

After growing internal opposition to the colonial hut tax and the King’s ineffectiveness had sparked a rebellion among the councilors in 1905, the colonial governor sent an armed patrol to crush the rebellion, This effectively meant that Lewanika remained the king only nominally, and was forced to surrender the traditional authority of Kingship for the remainder of his reign. By 1911, the kingdom was incorporated into the colony of northern Rhodesia, formally marking the end of the kingdom as a sovereign state. 30

the Lozi king lewanika ca. 1901. Aberdeen archives

A few hundred miles west of the Lozi territory was the old kingdom of Kongo, which created an extensive international network sending its envoys across much of southern Europe and developed a local intellectual tradition that includes some of central Africa’s oldest manuscripts.

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Secessionism in African Politics pp 293–328 Cite as

United in Separation? Lozi Secessionism in Zambia and Namibia

Wolfgang Zeller 7 &
Henning Melber 8 , 9 , 10 , 11
First Online: 21 August 2018

967 Accesses

2 Citations

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies ((PSABS))

This chapter analyzes why secessionist movements on both sides of the Namibia-Zambia border have—despite shared roots—so far never joined forces in a united cause of pan-Lozi nationalism. We outline the historical processes through which the Lozi kingdom was partitioned and gradually transformed into Barotseland and the Caprivi Strip during the colonial period. We then examine how decolonization planted the seeds of Lozi separatism in Western Province and the secessionist movement in Caprivi, and how these evolved separately after Zambia’s and Namibia’s independence. The final section traces the initial thawing and renewed freezing of relations between successive central governments and separatists in the Zambian case, as well as the high treason trial that defined the aftermath of the Caprivi secession in Namibia.

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The terms Lozi and Barotse are synonymous.

In the Lozi administrative hierarchy the Ngambela is the most senior councilor who communicates decisions between the Litunga and the khuta , as well as the public. In obvious relation to the Westminster Model, he is often referred to as “Prime Minister.”

United Democratic Party ( 2005 ).

The exact number is disputed but this is the verifiable minimum number of casualties.

WP: 2010 Zambia national census; Caprivi: 2011 Population and Housing Census.

Cf. Lemarchand ( 1972 ) and Eifert et al. ( 2010 ).

cf. Zeller ( 2007a , b , 2009 , 2010 ) and Melber ( 2009 ).

Hobsbawm and Ranger ( 1983 ), Mamdani ( 1996 ) and Forrest ( 2004 )

Mainga ( 1973 ), Caplan ( 1970 ), Gluckman ( 1959 ), Trollope ( 1937 : 19) and Flint ( 2003 )

Gluckman ( 1955 , 1965 ). See also Sumbwa ( 2000 ).

Caplan ( 1970 ) and Mainga ( 1973 : 139).

Flint ( 2003 : 402–410), Mainga ( 1973 : 132f) and Gluckman ( 1941 : 96).

Caplan ( 1969 )

Mainga Bull ( 1995 : 5).

Flint ( 2004 : 119)

Mainga ( 1973 : 171)

Anglo-German agreement of 1890, Article III. 2.

The English name of the document is “Anglo-German Agreement of 1890.”

The population of the area referred to the place as “Luhonono” and in August 2013, the Namibian government announced that this would replace “Schuckmannsburg” as its official name.

Streitwolf ( 1911 : 229–234).

Mainga Bull ( 1995 : 5), Mainga ( 1973 : 161) and Caplan ( 1970 : 74–118).

Caplan ( 1970 : 86f).

Van Horn ( 1977 : 164) and Gluckman ( 1941 : 164).

Mainga ( 1973 : 206)

Mainga Bull ( 1995 : 6)

Streitwolf ( 1911 : 110).

Two of these groups claimed autonomous chieftaincies in the post-independence period and their official recognition by the South West African People Organisation (SWAPO) government infuriated the core leadership of the Mafwe.

Mainga Bull ( 1995 : 6).

Caplan ( 1970 : 145)

Kangumu ( 2000 , 2011 )

Caplan ( 1970 : 168ff)

Mainga Bull ( 1995 : 9) and Caplan ( 1968 : 346f)

Caplan ( 1968 : 350f) and Mulford ( 1967 : 212ff)

Sumbwa ( 2000 )

Caplan ( 1968 : 355)

Mainga Bull ( 1995 : 12)

Kenneth Kaunda in a speech at Lealui on August 6, 1964, cited in Sumbwa ( 2000 , 114).

Caplan ( 1968 : 356)

Silozi is used for regular administrative proceedings, Siluyana for royal and ceremonial affairs.

MP Mrs. Judith Hart http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=1966-12-13a.227.9&s=barotse#g229.4 .

Flint ( 2004 : 167f).

Cf. Hobsbawm and Ranger ( 1983 ).

In 1963 the South African government published the Report of the Commission of Enquiry into South West African Affairs, commonly known as the Odendaal Report after its chairman, Fox Odendaal. Its official purpose was to make recommendations on the best ways to promote the socioeconomic development of Namibia’s black majority population, but it is widely regarded as an attempt to fend off anti-Apartheid critics.

Flint ( 2004 : 174) and Kangumu ( 2011 : 214 ff)

Fisch ( 1999 : 42)

Muyongo served as SWAPO Representative in Zambia (1964–1965), Educational Secretary (1966–1970), and Vice President (1970–80)

United Democratic Party ( 2005 ) and Flint ( 2004 : 188).

http://www.caprivivision.com/who-has-the-power-to-revive-canu/ .

Caprivi Freedom ( 2013 )

South Africa ( 1964 ).

Fosse ( 1996 ) and Kangumu ( 2011 )

Cf. Melber and Saunders ( 2007 )

Virtual Zambia ( 2008 )

MMD ( 1991 )

Times of Zambia (January 31, 2009).

Englebert ( 2005 : 29–59) and Sumbwa ( 2000 : 115f)

Mainga Bull ( 1995 : 8) and Sumbwa ( 2000 : 116)

Sumbwa ( 2000 : 117)

Sumbwa ( 2000 : 119f)

Minorities at Risk ( 2009 ).

Barotse National Conference ( 1995 ).

The Post (1994) and Englebert ( 2005 )

Englebert ( 2005 ). Compare with Mbikusita-Lewanika ( 2001 ) and Barotse Patriotic Front ( 2004 )

Muyongo was the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) Vice President from 1987 until 1992 and DTA President from 1992 to 1999. http://www.klausdierks.com/Biographies/Biographies_M.htm l. Accessed June 30, 2008

As Soiri (2001: 200) notes, it is difficult to establish whether politics entered into ethnicity or vice versa.

Fosse ( 1996 : 165–168) and Flint ( 2004 : 244–266)

Fosse ( 1996 : 165)

Fisch ( 1999 : 20)

Compare with Streitwolf ( 1911 : 126)

Soiri ( 2001 : 201).

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Wolfgang Zeller

Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden

Henning Melber

Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Centre for Africa Studies, University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Centre for Commonwealth Studies/School for Advanced Study, University of London, London, UK

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Correspondence to Wolfgang Zeller .

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Lotje de Vries

Pomona College, Claremont, CA, USA

Pierre Englebert

Overseas Development Institute, London, UK

Mareike Schomerus

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Zeller, W., Melber, H. (2019). United in Separation? Lozi Secessionism in Zambia and Namibia. In: de Vries, L., Englebert, P., Schomerus, M. (eds) Secessionism in African Politics. Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90206-7_11

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Lozi Kingdom and the Kololo

The origins of the Luyi or Aluyana, as the Lozi people were originally called, are carefully concealed in myths designed to maintain the prestige and selectiveness of the ruling dynasty. “Luyi” or “Aluyana” means “people of the river.” According to myth, the Lozi came from Nyambe (the Lozi name for God). This myth of origin implies that they were indigenous, not immigrants, to the western province of Zambia. The Lozi myth is believed to have expressed an important truth because in the Lozi society, where the dynasty originated from mattered less than the nature of the land they colonized. However, historical evidence suggests that the Lozi came from the Lunda Empire. Consequently, the Lozi kingdom developed an imperial structure similar to other kingdoms that had a similar background. The kingdom was favored by a relatively prosperous valley environment that facilitated dense settlement of the people.

Once the kingdom had been founded, it had a special economic base that consisted of fertile plains of about hundred miles long which were flooded by the

Zambezi River every year. The kingdom, also generally known as Barotseland, accommodated peoples of clear distinct origin and history as opposed to the true Lozi who occupied the flood plain. These peoples lived in the surrounding woodland.

The Lozi kingdom was founded in seventh century by people believed to have come from the Lunda Empire to the north. It is also believed that the newcomers introduced intensive cultivation of the flood plain. By 1800 various peoples to the west were brought under Lozi rule while to those to the east and west paid tribute in form of labor. The flood plain was mainly administered by relatives of the king in the early days of the dynasty. Later some kind of royal bureaucracy— an unusual development anywhere in Africa— replaced the earlier system. This was possible because of the plain, which made demand for control a matter of political control as well. As guardian of the land, the king built up a following of loyal officials who he allocated states on the plain. The system enabled Lozi kings to make political appointments on the basis of personal merit instead of birth. As such any such appointees could lose both office and land allotted to them if they fell out of favor. Trade also developed between the various peoples in the region.

Trade in fish, grain, and basket work for the iron work, woodwork, and barkcloth made Barotseland fairly self-sufficient. The Lozi also raided the Tonga and the Ila for cattle and slaves. However, the Lozi did not participate in the slave trade because they needed to retain slaves themselves to perform manual labor in the kingdom. The control of trade made the Litunga more powerful in his kingdom. Through his Tndunas, the Litunga was able to have almost total control of the economy of the Lozi kingdom.

Following the Mfecane (a series of migrants set in motion by Shaka Zulu’s empire in South Africa), the Kololo were forced to move north to the Zambezi River. In 1845 the Kololo leader Sebitwane found the Lozi kingdom split by succession dispute following the death of the tenth Litunga Mulambwa in 1830. The succession dispute resulted into a civil that split the Lozi kingdom into three groups. Sebitwanes warriors quickly overrun the Lozi kingdom. The Kololo imposed their language on the Lozi, although their conquest was hardly disruptive. As a small group of nomad warriors who had turned into herders and not cultivators, they found the Lozi to have been well established. Their language became a unifying influence in the kingdom. Soon Kololo kingship became far more popular in style than that offered by the Lozi. Unlike his predecessor, the Kololo king was more of a war-captain and was freely accessible to his fellow warriors. This was unlike the Lozi Litunga who was surrounded by rituals and taboos, and hence kept secluded. Because of this, Kololo kings were liked and easily accepted by most Lozi subjects. Sebitwane won the loyalty of his subject people by giving them cattle, taking wives from various groups and even giving leaders conquered people important positions of responsibility. He treated both the Kololo and Lozi generously.

However, despite this apparent popularity, the Kololo kings failed to come to terms with the special circumstances of Barotseland. They therefore made their capitals to the south of the central plain, among marshes that they considered secure from their traditional adversaries, the Ndebele, to their south.

The kololo did not disrupt the economic system of the Lozi, which was based on mounds and canals of the flood plain. However, the political system of the Kololo was very different from that of the Lozi. In the Kololo political system, men who were of the same age as the king were made territorial governors. Initially, this ensured that the flow of tribute to the king’s court. The system did not, however, guarantee the continued operating system of the flood plain.

The Lozi kingdom was prone to malaria and had eventually developed an immunity to the disease. The Kololo, however, were not immune, and were often afflicted with the disease. This greatly undermined the Kololo ability to resist the Lozi when the latter rose against their conquerors. The various Lozi princes who had escaped and fled from Kololo invasion had taken refuge to the north. Among them was Sepopa.

Following the death of Sebitwane in 1851, he was succeeded by weak rulers. His son Sekeletu was not as able a ruler as his father. He died in 1863 after which Kololo rule declined completely. The Lozi and the Toka-Leya, who had also been under Kololo rule, rose against the Kololo and declared themselves independent. The Kololo did not put up any serious resistance because they were terribly divided.

In 1864 Sepopa raised a Lozi army that took advantage of malaria-afflicted Kololo and successfully defeated it. Sepopa revived the Lozi institutions, but the problem of royal succession resurfaced, and it remained a source of weakness for the revived Lozi kingdom. Consequently, Sepopa was overthrown in 1878. For two years instability reigned until 1878 when Lewanika became king of the Lozi as Litunga. He too continued to have difficulties retaining his position as king. He was constantly under threat of attack from the Ndebele in the south. This relationship with the Ndebele forced Lewanika to take a friendly attitude toward European visitors to his kingdom.

Bizeck J. Phiri

See also: Difaqane on the Highveld; Lewanika I, the Lozi and the BSA Company; Tonga, Ila, and Cattle.

An Introduction to Zambia's Lozi People

This tribe believe they are descended from the sun - here's everything you need to know about zambia's lozi people..

The Lozi tribe of Western Zambia are a proud people with a complex history. They are the only tribe in Zambia with a King instead of a chief, and account for approximately 900,000 people. This is an introduction to Zambia’s Lozi people.

Political structure

Traditional ceremony

Women and men from the Lozi tribe sometimes wear ivory bangles which are given at different points in life such as birth, puberty etc.

Another way to learn about Lozi culture is to visit the Nayuma Museum which is located opposite the Litunga’s palace in Mongu.

Identity and naming

Food and drink

The staple food of Zambia nshima is eaten by the Lozi as well, although it is called buhobe .

Information about COVID-19

Tracing the origins, development and status of lozi language: a socio- linguistics and african oral literature perspective.

By kibabii / November 6, 2016

Muyendekwa Limbali

The University of Zambia

5.1 Abstract

The study traces the origin of Lozi language of the Western Province and other areas where the language is and was spoken since its origin is oblique or obscure. This study reviews a number of studies by different scholars who have different interpretations about the origin of Lozi language. Some allude to the fact that the Lozi language is a dialect of Southern Sotho, the language of the conquerors under Sebitwane. The Lozi people themselves claim that they were the first inhabitants of the plains and that they have always been there. They also point their ancestry to the union between Nyambe and the female ancestress Mbuyu. Others trace the Lozi origin to the Mwata Yamvo dynasty of the old Lunda Kingdom in the Katanga area of the Congo. Today, the Lozi themselves say that there is practically no Lozi who is pure Luyi and so they point their ancestry to Nkoya, Kwangwa, Subiya, Totela, Mbunda, Kololo among other languages. This can be attributed to intermarriages and dominance over small languages which they later assimilate hence failing to trace their own source. Many have come with their assertions on the origin and development of the Lozi originally called the A-Luyi or Luyana people. Lozi is spoken in many parts of Zambia and even beyond borders and it enjoys its status as the economic language of Western Province and one of the seven official languages on radio and medium of instruction in schools. It has also developed orthographically. These are some of the developments shown in the origin of Lozi language. The origin of the language is traced even in Angola, Zimbabwe as observed by Jacottet and Coillard that there is link between Shona and Siluyana but disputed by Fortune who says that there is no link between Siluyana and Shona. Jacottet points to Angola and not Congo but also disputed by Lozi people who deny any ethnological connections and say they understand Mbunda and various Angolan languages because of geographical proximity only.

5.2 Introduction

This article is drawn from the study conducted about the origins, development and status of the Lozi Language following contentious claims among some tribal groups occupying the Western Province of Zambia .

5.3 The Origin and Development of the Lozi language

Lozi language is one of the languages widely spoken throughout Western Province of Zambia and is one of the seven national languages of the country. The population of its native is estimated at more than one million people but many speak and understand it as their second or third language. It is also spoken in the Portuguese territory of Angola, Namibia mainly Caprivi strip, Botswana, and parts of South Africa. The Western Province is divided into six administrative districts namely: Mongu, Senanga, Kaoma, Sesheke, Kalabo and Lukulu. As noted earlier, this language has an extra ordinary history and different scholars have advanced varying explanations on the origin of Lozi language. For instance, Mutumba (1973) claims thus:

The name Lozi (usually spelt Rotse by the missionaries, travellers and early administration and hence Barotse Province instead of Bulozi Province) is a collective name for several small tribes of similar cultural and linguistic character who comprised the Lozi Kingdom. The exact origin of this collective name is unknown although there are a number of traditions surrounding it. It is invariably said that the Ma-Lozi were the founders of the present ruling dynasty in Bulozi, and their name was passed on to cover the whole group of tribes which they absorbed into their state (Mutumba 1973:5).

There is the tendency among the people of Western Province to call the royal family and the aristocracy as ‘Ma Lozi’ as opposed to the common people. To better understand the origin of Lozi language, we look at the origin of the term Bantu. According to Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek (1827-1875), the term Bantu is traced to South African languages other than the languages of the Bushmen and Hottentots, which means people. It is rendered ‘abantu’ in the Nguni dialects and bato in Tswana. Nowadays, Bantu refers to languages which have a common ancestry. This is due to the fact that language is dynamic and hence changes in time and space. It is worth noting that, although the term was coined to refer to a family of languages, it also applies to peoples speaking Bantu languages as ‘mother tongues’ and to anything thought to be characteristic of such peoples; hence such phrases as Bantu culture. According to Greenberg, the Bantu people and languages originated in and spread from the Cameroon-Nigeria border area. According to Guthrie, the Bantu people and languages originated in and spread from the Congo basin. Most scholars favour Greenberg’s Theory (Bryant, 1965). What Guthrie says in essence is that Proto-Bantu was spoken somewhere in the Congo Basin. Fage and Oliver (1962), in their short History of Africa, expressed a view similar to Guthrie’s Theory. They suggested that the earliest Bantu speaking people may have been hunters and fishermen and moved along the Congo and encountered and adopted the cultivated plants of their earliest traders and migrants from the South East Asia.

The assertion by Greenberg and Guthrie could be true to some extent because of proximity between the Cameroon-Nigeria borders and Congo Basin where Bantu are believed to have originated from. It could be concluded that Lozi could have come from one of these areas. Another variant of tradition; however, says that the people known as ‘Ma-Lozi today were originally known as ‘A-Luyi’ or ‘Aluyana’ until the 19th Century. In the middle of the 19th Century, the ‘A-Luyi’ or ‘Aluyana’ were conquered by the Makololo, a people of Sotho stock from the South, and it is alleged that the A-luyi were given the name of ‘Ma-Lozi’ by the Makololo. Both traditions seem feasible but the latter emerges more strongly when it is realised that the core of the Lozi Kingship which struggled to remain unchanged despite the Makololo influence and other external forces, uses as an official language at court a language known as ‘Siluyana’. Moreover, there are numerous tribal groups in Bulozi who were there long before the Makololo invasion and whose dialects are very closely related to Siluyana. In this study both names, A-luyi (or Luyana) and Ma-Lozi, are used (Mutumba 1973).

The name Lozi is of comparatively recent origin. Formerly the people were known as Aluyi or Aluyana. The Lozi people, who are the dominant tribe in the region of North-Western Rhodesia usually called Barotseland live in a great flood plain since the Luyi liberated their country from the Kololo, but retained the Kololo language. Rotse has become Lozi, in accordance with regular phonetic changes of r to l and s to z . The surface similarity of Rotse with Hurutshe, the parent stock of the Tswana, and with Rozwi, the dominant ‘shona’ group has led some anthropologists to relate the Luyi to these peoples in the South. But the Lozi’s own legends and the ethnological linguistic and ethnological evidence undoubtedly give them a northern origin, probably in a region of great watershed plains cut by rivers, somewhere about Lake Dilolo (Colson and Gluckman 1968:1)

The Lozi themselves say they are kin to the Lunda. They do not claim decent from the great Lunda King Mwatayamvo, but they say they and the Lunda descended from Mbuyawamwambwa, the daughter and wife of god Nyambe. According to Yukawa (1987), one main reason why Siluyana lost its vocabulary can be observed as follows;

The Luyana language of and some other languages were spoken around there, but there was no one which could be the common language of the area partly because of large linguistic or dialectal difference. The language of the conquerors’ (Sikololo) came to be spoken not only between the conquerors and the conquered but also for the mutual communication among the latter… Although the period of Makololo government was less than forty years, Sikololo survived even after the upset was complete. One of the reasons for its survival must be that many Kololo women remained alive and became wives of chiefs or headmen who had led the struggle to expel the invaders. As is well known, linguistic influence upon infants is stronger from females than from males, and this tendency is much stronger in societies which practice polygamy. The central part of Luyana people took Sikololo, now known as Silozi, as their mother tongue, and a tribe called Lozi was formed (p.78).

The central dialect of Siluyana (Luyi), Sikwangwa and many more are still spoken by a considerable number of people as their mother tongue. According to the Silozi people, it is a dialect of Southern Sotho by nature but it suffered a great change with regard to its pronunciation and vocabulary, and the reason why is because those who received the foreign language were more numerous than those who brought it. The origin and development of Lozi seem to be oblique as stated earlier. They claim that they were the first in the plains and have always been there and that they were the result of a union between Nyambe and the female ancestress Mbuyu. According to Mutumba (1973) observes as follows:

White points out that the legend of divine and autonomous origin contrasts with long-established histories of the foundation of the Lozi state given by other chiefly dynasties such as the Kazembe Lunda of Luapula, and the Ndembu Lunda of the North-Western Province. According to those; the Lozi rulers belong to one of many Zambian dynasties whose origins are traced back to the Mwatayamvo dynasty of the old Lunda Kingdom in the Katanga area of the Congo. Similar contradictons of Lozi claim for an autonomous origin.

Indeed there are lots of speculations on the origin of Lozi language and the Kaonde people. According to Colson and Gluckman (1968:4), one of the sections of the Kaonde claims to have been driven from the Barotse plain by the Luyi, but the Lozi do not have this story. They tell of related people who were ‘produced’ about the same time as themselves in the plain, where God made time as themselves in the plain, were God-made wives and begot the tribes. Some of them like the Lozi, were born to him by Mbuyawamwambwa, daughter of one of the wives by Him. These were the Kwangwa, Kwangwa, Kwandi, and Mbowe. Other people such as the Imilangu and Ndundulu were living in the West. These people peacefully accepted Lozi domination. Indeed, the tale is that it was they who showed the Lozi what a good thing chieftainship was by presenting part of the catch at a fishing battue to the sons of Mbuyawamwambwa. This is one of the claims the Lozi people have even today and from the reason why they subdued the Kwangwa, Kwandi and many other dialects and their origin is backed by one section of Kaonde.

The founders of the present Lozi dynasty seem to have incorporated at least two distinct groups, one in the north and another in the South. Apparently, neither group posed a centralised hierarchical political structure before the rise or arrival of the present Lozi dynasty. All seem to have lived in groups under small autonomous chieftaincies which had to be conquered and incorporated individually into the Lozi state. In both the north and the south a number of these earlier tribes are still remembered and their descendants are still identifiable, and by the same names in most cases. In the north they include the Muenyi, Imilangu, Ndundulu, Mbowe, Liuwa, Simaa, Makoma and Nyengo. In the south were the Subiya, the Mbukushu, Toka, Totela, Shanjo and five among groups are still existing today. The two groups, northern and southern, appear to have been quite distinct from each other not only in geographical terms but also ethnically if the present division is anything to go by. The southerners, judging their language today were closely related to the Tonga groups in the present Southern Province (Mutumba, 1973).

Thus what I call the Barotse nation, as against the ruling Lozi tribe, has always consisted of many different tribes. These tribes have intermarried considerably and nowhere has this been more marked than among the Lozi themselves. Though the Lozi look down on ‘Mang’ ete’ the foreigners, despite their chiefs’ disapproval, the Wiko are the only people whom they were reluctant to marry. Members of all other tribes but chiefly children were in the old days brought to Loziland by the chiefs. They were called maketo (honoured by choice of the Mahapiwa (the seized). They were placed in various villages in the plain, where they grew up as Lozi and are today indistinguishable from them. Another category was people captured in war, Batanga (serfs) with whom also the Lozi intermarried. Today the Lozi themselves say that there is practically no Lozi who is pure Luyi. Almost all of them point without shame to Nkoya, Kwangwa, Subiya, Totela, Mbunda, Kololo and other blood in their ancestrey (Colson and Gluckman, 1968). This is an indication that the Lozi people fail to trace their origin and development but their origin and development as seen above is as a result of intermarriages, dominance over small languages which they later on assimilated hence failing to trace their own source. Many people have come up with their assertions on the origin and development of the Lozi people originally called the A-Luyi or Luyana people.

In view of the lack of a full survey of the languages of the Bulozi and the neighbouring areas in South –West Zambia and Eastern Angola, one can only pick up pointers here and there. At various times and by various people, a number of connections between Luyana and other languages have been suggested. The earliest suggestion was by the missionary Coillard who linked the Siluyana to the Shona languages. He claimed that the Lozi perfectly understand my little vocabulary of Sinyai (Shona), in fact, it is the same language as the Serotsi. It is difficult to see how Coillard arrived at this conclusion. The Lozi do not understand Shona, even at the court where Siluyana is spoken. This fact is corroborated further by the fact that Professor Fortune, a fluent Shona speaker, carried out a preliminary study of Siluyana in Bulozi in 1963 and he did not make any comment about similarities between Shona and Siluyana. It appears therefore that speculation of a linguistic link between the Lozi and the Shona, descendants of the Rozwi is as weak as the speculation of a physical link between the two groups. Much more suggestive is belief by E. Jacottet, who, after studying texts of Siluyana in 1896-1901 contradicted Coillard and pointed out that the Aluyi could not have come from Mashonaland because the language which they speak allows one to set them in same group as the tribes of the West. Jacottet, however, does not trace Siluyana to the Congo, but points to the South-west of Angola. He claims that Siluyana is closest of Gerero, Ndonga and Kimbundu and in most common with them possesses assimilation of vowels. If Jacottet is right, this suggests an Angolan link for the early Luyana groups (Mutumba, 1973). But Lozi people deny any ethnological connections and say they understand Mbunda and various Angolan languages because of geographical proximity only. Interestingly a similar conclusion was reached through a comparative study of Siluyana and the Mbunda language. Stirke and Thomas (1916) observes: “A casual glance through the Silui and Simbunda vocabularies will reveal many similarities which go to prove that the two tribes have been in conjunction both closely and for a long period while the even more numerous dissimilarities equally prove the two tribes to be of quite separate and distinct origin” p. 6.

5.4. The Status of Lozi language

The status of Lozi language has steadily improved in many areas such as the areas of written dictionaries, prose, poetry, drama, newspapers books for pupils. After English, the government selected seven local languages (Bemba, Kaonde, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, Nyanja and Tonga) as regional official languages. These languages are officially in education, broadcasting, health communication, Literacy campaigns, government newspapers and films. They are taught in schools alongside other content subjects (Ohannesan and Kashoki, 1978; and Nkolola, 1997). This indicates how Lozi language has improved in its status alongside other languages. Lozi is not only spoken and taught in Western Province but also in Southern Province where it was once taught in Livingstone and Mambova Districts and spoken in Mazabuka.

Today, Lozi language represents Western Province as a language of broadcaster. Mostly, it comes twice nearly each and every day and takes a maximum of four hours on daily basis and on Monday it has six hours of broadcasting period. Again Lozi language enjoys its status as the language of the province spoken and even understood by all dialects in the province of Western. Transactions are easily done in Silozi hence the economic language of the Province. The language also enjoys the status in form of songs (poems) such as ballads of chiefs, panegyrics, language of social expression and political expression. Today, Lozi language enjoys its status in form of orthography after heated controversies about the right way to spell. In fact there are no right ways of spelling, there are merely different ways as observed even in other languages but there are accepted or conventional ways of spelling set up by committees under Ministry of Education. Although as already stated above, the committees set up to device standardized orthography officially approved for education, did not set out originally to reach agreement across all the languages involved. The achievements of these committees are remarkable in the broad range on which common ground was struck. Becuase of their significance and salience these are briefly discussed in this section by (Kashoki 1990:71).

5.5 Short and Long Vowel

In the past, of the 7 languages, only Tonga seemed to have observed in writing the distinction between short and long vowels with any consistency. As a result of these measures ten vowels (except Luvale) were vowel length does not apply will not be reflected in the orthography.

Vowel length in the stem of a word

short long

Lozi: mata ‘run’ maata ‘strength’

Vowel length as a result of fusion

Lozi: saanda from sa + anda’

These are some of the few examples on how Lozi has improved its status. Although the orthography does not use any tone mark when writing Lozi words which neglects tonal figures, they can be underlined. Some writers have tried to improve in this area of tonal as example given such as: a consonant a vowel and a homorganic nasal are shown by C,V and N respectively. X stands for a string of phonemes of any length; V or X means that the vowel or all the vowels contained in X are high toned. V or X on the contrary, means that the vowel or high only immediately after a high toned vowel, we shall not put on it even if it is pronounced high (Yukawa, 1987).

From these few examples, Lozi use official orthography or conventional orthography accepted by all. This is how it has developed its status, among the dialects. It is almost impossible to achieve all the aims set out above with one kind of orthography having studied the structure of Zambian languages, we can see which kinds of orthography suits languages best hence Lozi enjoy the status of orthography based on Lozi words alone. The area where it has developed is through loan words from other tribes and English. The other status that Lozi language enjoys most is that it is not only a language of medium of instruction but it is also taught as a subject from Primary School to Secondary and High Schools. By doing so, the danger of clipping and destroying the pupils productive powers by forcing him/her to express him/herself in language foreign to himself and to the genius of his/her own race will be reduced hence Lozi enjoy status in this area.

But it is difficult to achieve this status of Lozi language as medium of instruction and a subject in class. In carrying out this task, language is seen as an important factor alone makes internal communication difficult and even only a number out of several languages is selected for limited communication and education purposes. The problem is not minimized; indeed in some respects it is made more complicated as when it introduces conflicts as to which should be included and which ones should be left out. Language in other words, is seen as one of the more important ties which bind people to their pre nation social cultural units. It is also seen as a factor for which, if left unmodified, can perpetuate and intensify sectional cleavages (Mwanakatwe, 1973).

5.6 Statement of the problem

Even if lozi has been one of the languages widely spoken amongst major tribal groups such as the Kwandi, Nkoya, Kwangwa, Totela, Shanjo, luyana, subiya, Nyengo, Mbunda, and Kaonde found in Western Provinces of Zambia, it has been unclear to who are the true owners of the language. Hence this has been a contentious issue among various tribal groups in Western Province of Zambia. It is the above scenario that prompted the conducting of the study to trace the origins and development of Lozi language.

5.7 The purpose of the study

The study was aimed at tracing the origins and development of lozi language among various tribal groups of Western Province of Zambia.

5.8 Methodology

This was a qualitative research utilising a descriptive survey design as the purpose was to get information in its natural setting. According to Kombo and Tromp (2009) the purpose of a descriptive survey is to give a detailed description of the state of affairs as it exists. A descriptive survey is a method of collecting information by either interviewing or administering a questionnaire to a sample of individuals Orodho, 2003 as cited in Kombo et al (2009). Therefore, going by the above justification, employing the above design in tracing the origins and development of the Lozi was appropriate.

5.8.1 Sampling design / Sample

The sample design for the study was non-random purposeful sampling. Under non- random purposeful sampling the study utilized the purposive and snowball sampling. The sixteen elders drawn from eleven tribal groups took part in the study was identified using both purposive and snowball sampling. Purposive sampling is used by qualitative researchers to select individuals, groups and settings that maximize understanding of the phenomenon (Leech and Onwuegbuzie, 2007; Hancock et al, 2009). In this study’s context purposive sampling was best suited due to its advantages with the use of people knowledgeable and in a position to identify the required participants for the study. These included Kings’ representatives drawn from four big districts namely Mongu, Senanga, Kalabo and Kaoma in Western Province of Zambia.

Snowball sampling was also suited for this study because it is appropriate in identifying population that are not easily identifiable or accessible to participate in an interview (Kombo Tromp, 2009; Onwuegbuzie and Leech, 2007). In this study snowball helped me to identify a hidden population of elders drawn from eleven tribal groups of Western Province.

5.9 Methods of Data Collection

This study only utilised qualitative methods. However it is worth mentioning that the study’s utilization of qualitative methods was not an attempt to dismiss the relevance of quantitative methods of data collection. This is because the questions to be addressed in the study must guide the selection of the methods (Dawyer, 2001; Silverman, 2001; Kitchin and Tate, 2000). “Qualitative methodologies explore feelings, understandings and knowledge of others through various means. They also explore some of the complexities of everyday life in order to gain a deeper insight into the processes shaping our social worlds. It is also a means of understanding people, enabling us to engage in depth with the lives and experiences of other” (Limb and Dwyer 2001; Hancock et al , 2009). It is the above justifications that prompted the study to utilize the qualitative methods as appropriate to the study. The study utilized the following qualitative methods of research: in-depth interviews and personal narratives. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews, unstructured interviews and analysed thematically.

5.10 The findings of the Study

This study set out to trace the origins and development of the Lozi language. The study sought to address two pertinent questions. These were: Who were the true Lozis? In this study which was carried out, the primary data was collected through in-depth interviews and a personal narrative from 16 elders drawn from eleven tribal groups from four big districts of Western Province. Of the sixteen interviewed participants in the study that was carried out thirteen (13) said that lozi has been created from the Sikololo a Southern Sotho Language which occupied for a period of more than 25 years during the first half of the 19th Century. They further said that was Lozi developed after the overthrow of the Kololo reign under Sekeletu. Yet three participants said that there is no tribe called Lozi but it is just a lingua franca that borrowed heavily from Kololo and Luyana. Amongst the sixteen people interviewed eight said that no one can claim to be a true Lozi as the lozi language was more influenced by Kololo Vocabulary. Hence the person who can claim to be a typical Lozi speaker is one who speaks Siluyana as it was the only language of Western province before the invasion of the Kololo people from South Africa.

5.11 Discussion of the findings

The study found that lozi has been created from the Sikololo a Southern Sotho Language which occupied for a period of more than 25 years during the first half of the 19th Century. The findings of the study that was carried out also established that there is no tribe called Lozi but it is just a lingua franca that borrowed heavily from Kololo and Luyana. The study further revealed that no one can claim to be a true Lozi as the lozi language was more influenced by Kololo Vocabulary. The findings in the study also indicates that the only people who can claim to be true Lozis are those who speak Kwangwa, Nyengo, Makoma, Imilangu, Mambowe, Kwandi and Masima. Lastly but not the least the study also established that the person who can claim to be a typical Lozi speaker is one who speaks Siluyana as it was the only language of Western province before the invasion of the Kololo people from South Africa.

5.12 Conclusion

This article based on the study that was carried out concludes that concerns the problem of the origins of the Luyana language. While it is possible to suppose that Siluyana was introduced by the new dynasty; the extent to which this language is spoken among the early groups, who seem to have had no other languages, makes such a positive less likely. It can be concluded that Lozi’s origin remains oblique or in oblivion as researchers contradict each other. Lozi language is believed to have been distorted by their Makololo conquerors whose language Sikololo came to be spoken and it is alleged that the A-Luyi were given the name of Ma-Lozi by the Makololo. Therefore, the origins and development of lozi language can be traced from both the Luyana or Luyi and Sikololo as it borrowed from both languages.

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Stirke, D.E.C. and Thomas, A.W. (1916). A Comperative Vocabulary of Sikololo- Silui-Simbunda , London: John Bale, and Sons and Danielsson Ltd.

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LOZI PEOPLE: UNIQUE ZAMBIAN TRIBE OF THE KINGDOM OF BAROTSELAND AND THEIR FAMOUS KUOMBOKA CEREMONY

This is the Kuomboka festival, the word itself in the Lozi language is said to mean "to get out o... [Photo of the day - June 2012]

This is great! Well documented history of my people! We indeed have a golden culture!

I'll just have to visit our motherland soon...well documented information for our rich culture.

Very Interesting. My father's folks are Lozi (In Botswana) and no one has ever given me information as comprehensive as this. They are the Mbangas. I have to extract them from this history and locate them specifically in this arresting history.

Dear Sir, Could it be possible to contact you for some help about those tribes? I will really apreciate your help. My contact is [email protected] Thanks in advance.

Good day my name is Sibeti Numwa from Kaoma living in south Africa. I been to kaoma once as a kid and have never been since. I would like to locate my late fathers relatives His name was George Muyangwa Numwa and was a pilot for Zambia airways. He died in 1987 in Swaziland. Kindly assist. my email is [email protected]

I lived in Barotseland from 1958 to 1960. Absolutely golden years in my memory. Thank you for this excellent article.

Thanks for collectiong information. But you should mention your sources. You didn't write a single word by your own. All is STOLEN from others on the internet.

I'm not sure if you are still maintaining this blog. I am a teacher and would love to have my students view your images and read the info, but I have not shared this link with them because of the links to pornography in the comments. Are you able to delete those so that this site is "safe" for students? Thanks!

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An Introduction To Zambia's Lozi Tribe
According to myth, the Lozi tribe began when the sun god Nyambe descended from heaven onto Barotseland, which is the Lozi homeland. He came with his wife Nasilele (the moon), and together they began the line of Luyi-Luyana kings. Before ascending back to the heavens, they left their daughter Mbuyu to continue the line of leadership through her ...
A history of the Lozi kingdom. ca. 1750-1911
Early history of the Lozi kingdom. The landscape of the Lozi heartland is dominated by the Zambezi River which cuts a bed of the rich alluvial Flood Plain between the Kalahari sands and the miombo woodlands in modern Zambia.. The region is dotted with several ancient Iron Age sites of agro-pastoralist communities dating from the 1st/5th century AD to the 12th/16th century, in which populations ...
Lozi
Also called: Malozi, or Barotse. Formerly: Aluyi. Lozi, a complex of about 25 peoples of about 6 cultural groups inhabiting western Zambia, the area formerly known as Barotseland in Zambia and speaking Benue-Congo languages of the Niger-Congo family. Formerly, the groups were all called Barotse as subjects of the paramount chief of the dominant ...
Lozi
Lozi (Kololo) is the common language of Barotse Province, although many inhabitants speak other Bantu languages as well. Lozi has been classified by the Voegelins with Bantu languages of the Benue-Congo family of the Niger-Congo macrophylum (Voegelin and Voegelin 1964: 85, 131). This is generally confirmed in Grimes (Grimes 1988: 354, 357).
Lozi
Population data for the Lozi are poor, based mainly on estimates, and do not lend themselves to an assessment of demographic trends. Figures for the whole of Barotse Province (including non-Lozi) place the population at 295,741 in 1938 and 361,905 in 1963. The 1938 estimates suggest figures of about 67,000 for the Lozi ethnic group itself and ...
Lozi people
Lozi people, or Barotse, are a southern African ethnic group who speak Lozi and Silozi, a Sotho-Tswana language| Khelobedu . The Lozi people consist of more than 46 different ethnic groups and are primarily situated between Namibia, Angola. Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa including half of the north-Western and western provinces of Zambia inhabiting the region of Barotseland.
Corporate Kingship: The Lozi of Zambiaand the Ultimately Meaningful and
I was conducting research for this essay, a Lozi was Vice-Chancellor of the Universi ty of Zambia, Lusaka. 4, THE HISTORY OF LOZI KINGDOM Historians are not at all agreed as to the origins of the Lozi. One tradition connects the Lozi with the Roswi/Karanga empire that flourished in the present Zimbabwe about the sixteenth century.
(PDF) ORGANISATION OF LOZI KINGDOM
The Lozi Kingdom was a centralized state found in the flood plains of River Zambezi. They. were politically organized with the King on the top who had a title of Litunga. They believed in. a ...
The Origins and Development of The Lozi Kingdom
THE ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOZI KINGDOM - Free download as PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free.
United in Separation? Lozi Secessionism in Zambia and Namibia
The Lozi-Barotse Footnote 1 kingdom was colonized and partitioned by Britain, Germany, and Portugal from the late nineteenth century onwards. Its political and economic heartland along the floodplains of the upper Zambezi fell under British rule in 1890. Until Zambian independence in 1964, the territory was administered under the name Barotseland as a more or less integral part of the colony ...
'What Then Happened To Our Eden?': The Long History of Lozi
Concessions, Collaborations and Compromises, 1890-1945. The Lozi kingdom was once a great force in the land. Footnote 11 Centred on the Upper Zambezi floodplain, its heartland consisted of a unique environment that supported a complex and varied agricultural system and rich pasturage. To harness this landscape the Lozi raided surrounding peoples, seizing cattle and slaves.
Lozi Kingdom and the Kololo
The Lozi kingdom was prone to malaria and had eventually developed an immunity to the disease. The Kololo, however, were not immune, and were often afflicted with the disease. ... "The Lozi Kingdom." In A Short History of Zambia, edited by B. M. Fagan. 2nd ed. Nairobi: Longman, 1968. Muuka, L. S. "The colonisation of Barotseland in the ...
Bulozi under the Luyana Kings: Political Evolution and State ...
The founding of the Lozi State and the emergence of a Luyana central kingship Download; XML; Colonisation of the Flood Plain and beyond Download; XML; The Makololo and the fall of the Lozi kingdom in the mid-nineteenth century Download; XML; The decline of the Makololo and the Lozi restoration Download; XML; The restored Lozi kingdom 1864-85 ...
PDF Bulozi Under the Luyana Kings: Political Evolution and State
missing the well-known Lozi tradition of totally independent develop-ment the author elaborates the most reasonable hypothesis. The state's founders were Lunda of the preimperial era who settled in the north-ern part of the flood plain and united in a single kingdom two distinct populations: one in the plain, descendants of Later Iron Age migrants
An Introduction to Zambia's Lozi People
In 1830, the Luyi people were conquered by the Makololo tribe under a leader called Sebetwane, who was part of many tribes that escaped the Mfecane, a series of wars under the Zulu king Shaka from present day South Africa. The Makololo changed the Luyi's name to 'Lozi', which translates to 'plain'. Although the Makololo were ...
The Lozi Kingdom
The Lozi Kingdom - Bulozi under the Luyana Kings: Political Evolution and State Formation in Precolonial Zambia. By Mainga Mutumba. London: Longman, 1973. Pp. xvii + 278; 5 maps; 12 plates. £3.50 (£1.75 soft covers). - Volume 15 Issue 3
Tracing the Origins, Development and Status of Lozi Language: A Socio
5.4. The Status of Lozi language. The status of Lozi language has steadily improved in many areas such as the areas of written dictionaries, prose, poetry, drama, newspapers books for pupils. After English, the government selected seven local languages (Bemba, Kaonde, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, Nyanja and Tonga) as regional official languages.
PDF 2 In the beginning: the early Luyis
The plain was known in the time before the invasion of the Makololo in the 1830s as 'Ngulu' and 'Lyondo', which also mean 'sweet potato' and 'weapons' respectively in Siluyana, the language spoken by the Luyi, now found only in court circles.1 For ease of reading, in this chapter, the early Lozi will be referred to as Luyi and ...
LOZI PEOPLE: UNIQUE ZAMBIAN TRIBE OF THE KINGDOM OF ...
These groups include the Kwanda, Makoma (Bamakoma), Mbowe (Mamboe), Mishulundu, Muenyi (Mwenyi), Mwanga, Ndundulu, Nygengo, Shanjo, and Simaa. Lozi Litunga (in black) and his people of Barotseland. In addition to being members of the Lozi-dominated Barotse kingdom, these peoples share much the same culture, speak the Lozi language (Kololo), and ...
Lozi mythology
Through this myth, the Lozi royalty was said to originate from Mwambwa. She was, therefore, given the title Njemakati (which means "a woman from whom the kingdom originates"). She is also said to have given birth to nine other children, including a daughter named Mbuyu, who took over the sovereignty from her mother.
LOZI PEOPLE: UNIQUE ZAMBIAN...
The Lozi tribe of Western Zambia are a proud people with a complex history. They are the only tribe in Zambia with a King instead of a chief, and account for approximately 900,000 people. This is an introduction to Zambia's Lozi people. History. According to myth, the Lozi tribe began when the sun god Nyambe descended from heaven onto ...
Essays on Lozi land and royal property
The ends of slavery in Barotseland, Western Zambia (c.1800-1925) Jackie Hogan. History. 2014. This thesis is primarily an attempt at an economic history of slavery in Barotseland, the Lozi kingdom that once dominated the Upper Zambezi floodplain, in what is now Zambia's Western Province.….

An Introduction to Zambia's Lozi People

The Lozi tribe of Western Zambia are a proud people with a complex history. They are the only tribe in Zambia with a King instead of a chief, and account for approximately 900,000 people. This is an introduction to Zambia’s Lozi people.

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A history of the Lozi kingdom. ca. 1750-1911.

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Lozi Kingdom and the Kololo

An Introduction to Zambia's Lozi People

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5.1 Abstract

5.2 Introduction

5.3 The Origin and Development of the Lozi language

5.4. The Status of Lozi language

5.5 Short and Long Vowel

5.6 Statement of the problem

5.7 The purpose of the study

5.8 Methodology

5.8.1 Sampling design / Sample

5.9 Methods of Data Collection

5.10 The findings of the Study

5.11 Discussion of the findings

5.12 Conclusion

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LOZI PEOPLE: UNIQUE ZAMBIAN TRIBE OF THE KINGDOM OF BAROTSELAND AND THEIR FAMOUS KUOMBOKA CEREMONY

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BATAMMARIBA (TAMBERMA) PEOPLE: AFRICA`S INDIGENOUS ARCHITECTURALLY ADVANCED PEOPLE AND PENIS ELONGATION AND ENLARGEMENT SPECIALISTS

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