Basics about the Lozi kingdom Topics today: • Established after migration of several groups into fertile upper floodplains, probably during early 17th • How European colonial rule in Africa operated century through the establishment of “decentralized despotism” • Competing ruling clans form shifting alliances and the manipulation of “traditional” authority? • Neighbouring groups are incorporated & subjugated through intermarriage, trade of agricultural surplus & fish, military • What implications has this legacy for the African defeat, slave-raids postcolony? • The growing empire develops a royal class which rules through an elaborate hierarchy of regional & local administrators • We examine these topics through the case of the Lozi • A common royal code, language, court system & tribute kingdom. collection emerge • The subject groups are obliged to supply the ruling class with tribute & (slave) labour, e.g. domestic servants, military service, agricultural labour, large infrastructural projects (building of dams, canals, roads, houses)

Zambia

Namibia Caprivi

The Kololo Invasion 1820s Kololo rules OK

• Kololo subjugate Barotse • Zulu expansion of the early 1800s has domino-effect throughout but integrate much of their southern Africa (called “difaqane”) , one tribe displacing the next economic & administrative system with their own one • Kololo establish their • Meanwhile in Bulozi, rivalism between clans, 2 parallel kings & stronghold among former David Livingstone various ‘Statthalter’ on the periphery weaken the empire internally fringe groups of southern Bulozi’s frontier

• In the 1820s the Kololo invade Bulozi from the south, kill, displace • Here David Livingstone or subjugate their leadership & take over the Lozi center of power meets Kololo chief Sibitwane in 1851, on his way to discovering the Victoria Falls (1855)

1 From Lubosi to The Kololo Downfall • Lubosi assumes the Litungaship, but is soon challenged by old and new rivals • In the swampy floodplains, the Kololo are slowly weakened • In 1884, Tatila Akufuna succeeds to by disease oust Lubosi

• In 1864 they are ultimately defeated by warriors under the leadership of a Lozi prince: Lubosi “The Escaped One”

Litunga Lubosi ca. 1880

• But after one year, Lubosi is back • He ruthlessly kills all his major opponents, and firmly establishes himself at Lealui/ • He is now called Lewanika, ”the conqueror” Tatila Akufuna 1884

Lewanika consolidates his power

• Lewanika is a strong leader

• places his family kin in all strategic positions,

• crafts a Barotse nationalism with himself at the center

• Restores a centralized army under his command Adolf Lüderitz early 1880s • Searches for powerful external allies

Members of the Paris Evangelical Mission Society and Barotse converts in Bulozi 1881

carpentry and "bush school" in Bulozi 1880s

White traders and the Paris Mission Society establish themselves in Bulozi

Lewanika wants guns and practical skills from them Lewanika with Barotse warriors on the last slave raid 1888 The traders want profit, the missionaries want to end slavery, civilize natives & save souls Lewanika late 1880s

2 The Scramble for Africa reaches Bulozi The 1890 Lochner Concession and subsequent treaties • ’ British South Africa Company, (founded 1889) establishes British control over Lewanika loses: vast territories in Southern - His sovereignty to the Queen of England Africa - The western & southern fringe territories of Bulozi to Portugal & Germany - The right to make slave-raids, extract certain forms of tribute & slave • Portuguese Angola & German labour Southwest Africa slowly expand their control towards Bulozi Lewanika gains: • French Missionary François - A strengthened & protected center of power Coillard advises Lewanika to - Access to tax revenue enter into a formal agreement with the BSAC - A western lifestyle & material wealth for the Barotse elites

• In 1890 Lewanika signs ‘Lochner Concession’ with BSAC

Mahmood Mamdani: Citizen and Subject

• Examines how Europeans ruled Africa & projected power over colonial territories trying to extract maximum profits at minimum cost

• The British & others built on their experiences from India / Asia

• Their methods developed & adapted

• British indirect rule, French association, South African apartheid: Mamdani calls it all: “Decentralized Despotism”, Lewanika, his Ngambela, the “hall mark of the colonial state in Africa” (p.8 ) son-in-law & translator with missionaries Litunga Lewanika 1901 King Edward VII 1901 in Edinburgh 1901 after attending coronation of King Edward VII in London

• Dame Margery Perham, a quasi-official British historian wrote in the 1930s: The Invention of Tradition Rule through customary law is a “stage by which Africans may become civilized, not as individuals, but as communities” • By Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, 1992 • Mamdani regards this policy as the containerization of subject people to create a dependent but autonomous system of rule, • Key argument: many practices which combined accountability to (white) superiors with a flexible response which are considered to the (black) subject population (pp. 51 & 60) ‘traditional’ are in fact quite recent inventions, often deliberately constructed • Communal land ownership through customary law was one key element to serve particular ideological ends. • The other was a “native authority” hierarchy of hereditary chiefs equipped with a halo of custom & a whip of authority, backed by the colonial state & its • Creation of the Scottish (police) force "Highland" tradition: kilt was invented by an Englishman in 1730; so-called "clan tartans“ (kilt colour codes) are a 19th century invention

3 • Terence Ranger examines the • and the later re-use of these since ’s transplantation of Western traditions by ethnic and traditions and the creation of nationalist African movements independence 1964 entirely new "native" ones by • 1964 Barotseland agreement colonial authorities in Africa • lukewarm inclusion in Zambia

• President Kenneth Kaunda in 1966 tried to remove Barotse privileges and regional autonomy Litunga Mwanawina III with President Kaunda • Changes in taxation and administration and First Lady, Kuomboka 1965

• Change of official name from “Barotseland” to “Western Province”

• Threat of armed secession in 1993 when President Frederick Chiluba’s administration tried to implement a new Lands Act in WP

• But also inclusion of BRE in top government and parastatal posts Litunga Yeta III ca. 1930 Litunga Ilute ca. 1980 Litunga Mwanawina III with his ‘cabinet’, 1965

Pierre Englebert’s argument

• Since independence, the Lozi elites have benefited more from staying within Zambia (and keeping the 1964 argument open) than from seceding

• The Litunga (and other top chiefs) receive salaries from Zambian government

• As long as the national government does not threaten the local hegemony, BRE are very unlikely to demand secession

• BRE is still hierarchical, tolerating little dissent

• International organizations & investors depend on BRE as intermediaries in delivering goods, services & development projects

• Current resurgence of ‘traditional’ authority in many parts of Africa

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