The Ends of Slavery in Barotseland, Western Zambia (C.1800-1925)
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Kent Academic Repository Full text document (pdf) Citation for published version Hogan, Jack (2014) The ends of slavery in Barotseland, Western Zambia (c.1800-1925). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis, University of Kent,. DOI Link to record in KAR https://kar.kent.ac.uk/48707/ Document Version UNSPECIFIED Copyright & reuse Content in the Kent Academic Repository is made available for research purposes. Unless otherwise stated all content is protected by copyright and in the absence of an open licence (eg Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher, author or other copyright holder. Versions of research The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record. Enquiries For any further enquiries regarding the licence status of this document, please contact: [email protected] If you believe this document infringes copyright then please contact the KAR admin team with the take-down information provided at http://kar.kent.ac.uk/contact.html The ends of slavery in Barotseland, Western Zambia (c.1800-1925) Jack Hogan Thesis submitted to the University of Kent for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2014 Word count: 99,682 words Abstract 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. Slavery is a word that resonates in the minds of many when they think of Africa in the nineteenth century, but for the most part in association with the brutalities of the international slave trades. In the popular imagination and academia, the functions and significance of slavery in Central Africa have received scant attention. Moreover, Central African bondage, in the form of ‘lineage’ or ‘domestic’ slavery, has long been considered more benign than that practised elsewhere on the continent. For too long have these assumptions, rooted in both colonial and functionalist misunderstandings, clouded our understanding of the realities of slavery in pre-colonial Central Africa. One of the central purposes of this thesis therefore is to demonstrate not only the inapplicability of this outmoded paradigm to Barotseland, but of its blanket application to Central Africa as a whole. The thesis is presented in three substantive parts. In the first, following the introduction, a methodological chapter reflects on the challenges involved in researching slavery. That is followed by a historiographical survey, which locates the thesis within a broader intellectual landscape. The second part commences with a study of the ecology of the Upper Zambezi and its floodplain, the heartland of the pre-colonial kingdom, elucidating geology, climate, flora and fauna, before reflecting on the interactions of environment and human agency in the history of the region’s peoples. The chapter following traces the evolution of the Lozi state and the political history of the kingdom up to the 1870s, developing the argument that slavery was central to the turbulent nineteenth-century in the floodplain. The subsequent chapter, on the place of slavery in Lozi society, continues the argument, presenting a new understanding of the meaning of Lozi slavery. The third part of the thesis consists of three consecutive narrative chapters. The first of these opens in 1878. Besides charting a time of intrigue and rebellion and early colonial intrusions, it explores in depth the development of a vast programme of public works with the view to foregrounding both the economic significance of Lozi slavery and its fundamentally exploitative nature. The second narrative chapter begins in 1897, on the eve of the colonial era, and follows the events which led to the formal abolition of slavery in 1906 and the shifting balance of personal, political and economic power which underpinned it. The final chapter charts the slow decline of slavery over the next two decades. The long persistence of Lozi slavery, it is here argued, speaks volumes for its former centrality to both the Lozi economy and to Lozi understandings of their society and themselves. Contents Maps, Figures and Illustrations iv Acknowledgements v Glossary vi Abbreviations viii Part I: Contexts 1 Introduction 1 A beginning and the ‘Ends of Slavery’ 1 The outlines of the thesis 4 The fundamental argument 7 2 Sources and Methodology 10 Archival sources 10 Published sources 14 The field I: the short view from the hill 16 The field II: the long view in the valley 17 3 The Historiographical Landscape 23 The pioneers: Functionalists & Marxists 24 Attempted syntheses: Hopkins, Copper and Lovejoy 29 The end of slavery in Africa 33 Slavery in Barotseland 37 Part II: Ecology, History and Lozi Slavery 4 Valley of Milk, Lands of Honey: ecology and the evolution of the Lozi kingdom 45 ‘No poet ever sung the praises’: setting the scene 46 Foundations: rocks, sand, wind and rain 48 ‘The True Barotse valley’: the origins of settlement 50 ‘Villages in the mounds like islands’: patterns of settlement and transhumance 53 ‘Here hunger is not known’: production 55 Higher ground: the bush and plain margins 61 The trees and mounds of ‘Santuru’: political possibilities 61 i 5 The children of Mbuywamwambwa: Lozi political history to the 65 late nineteenth century Mubingu, Makolo and Mulongwanji: the evolution of structures of power and control 65 in the early history of the kingdom ‘He loved his people too much’: politics, trade and consolidation under Mulambwa 71 Makololo ki ba!: the Kololo interregnum 76 ‘The price of a boy was one old Portuguese musket’: trading and raiding 78 under the Kololo ‘This terrible catastrophe for the Macarrollo tribe’: the Lozi reconquista 84 ‘The soba came this morning to the establicimento’: trade, politics and conflict 86 under Sipopa 6 ‘When you are a slave you cannot refuse’: the place and meaning of slavery 95 in the Lozi kingdom ‘Laying in a stock of “black ivory”’: the Lozi trade in slaves 95 Singing the Liwale: slavery and raiding 99 ‘Those are not people...they are our dogs’: the place of slaves in Lozi society 101 Makalaka and mutanga wa sichaba: the meaning of Lozi slavery 104 Part III: The Ends of Slavery in Barotseland 7 The building of a kingdom: politics, diplomacy and slavery 1878-1897 116 ‘The king greets you much’: Lubosi on the throne 1878-1884 116 L'esprit missionnaire: the coming of the Paris Evangelical Mission 126 ‘I am the moshimane of the Baruti’: the PEMS mission and slavery 131 ‘Mwayowamo, thou has been dug by many’: slavery and public works in the 1890s 133 Following ‘le fameux canal’: the diggings at Ngonye Falls 142 8 Outriders of a new era: relations of power 1897-1906 156 ‘My Lord, Is anything wrong with me that you see?’: Barotseland and the 156 broader picture ‘One hears a great deal of bosh about the poor down trodden native’: the 160 Company’s men ‘Rien n’est changé à nos mœurs ni à nos lois’ : the early colonial dispensation 165 ‘His behaviour throughout has been most ungentlemanly’: the Company 172 and the mission ‘Several minor matters that required readjustment’: the coming of abolition 176 ‘The old rules of the nation have still to be kept’: the proclaiming of abolition 182 ii 9 ‘I don’t know why this state of affairs has been allowed to continue’: 190 the ends of slavery 1906-1925 A ‘growing disregard for any law or order’: the aftermath of abolition 190 ‘Hardships...more sentimental than real’: the benign projection of Lozi slavery 198 ‘In my country they are always selling people’: the 1913 Mongu slave trials 201 A ‘truly “Mwaka Mui”’: the passing of an era 209 ‘Lewanika’s slavery Proclamation I found to be unknown’: the coming change 213 Epilogue and conclusion 228 Conclusion 230 Appendix I: The 1906 proclamation 232 Appendix II: The 1925 proclamation 234 Appendix III: Oral tradition and Lozi history 235 Sources and Bibliography 248 iii Maps, Figures and Illustrations Maps 1. The Peoples of the Upper Zambezi, c.1900 9 Figures 1. Satellite Image of the Upper Zambezi floodplain 63 2. Cross-sectional study of the floodplain 64 3. Public works in the 1890s overlaid on satellite image 148 4. Satellite image of Zambezi at Ngonye falls and lower course 153 5. Composite map of evidence for diggings at Ngonye canal 155 showing distances and route 6. ‘Distribution of single and double bells’ 244 Illustrations 1. The short view from the hill (Mongu boma) 22 2. The long view in the valley (Lealui seen from casa ka mambali.) 22 3. Serpa Pinto’s ‘Gonha Cataract’ 150 4. Serpa Pinto’s ‘Conveyance of the boats at Gonha’ 150 5. Ngonye falls, Western Province, Zambia 151 6. Course of Zambezi below Ngonye falls, Western Province, Zambia 151 7. Possible start point for Ngonye canal (photograph I) 152 8. Possible start point for Ngonye canal (photograph II) 152 9. Possible end point for Ngonye canal 152 10. Lienard’s sketch of Ngonye canal 154 11. Lienard’s sketch map of Ngonye ‘siding’ 154 12. Litunga Lubosi Lewanika 164 13. Rogues’ Gallery 164 14. Frank Vigers Worthington 185 15. Robert Thorne Coryndon 185 16. Lealui, 16 July 1906 186 17. Proclaiming abolition I 187 18. Proclaiming abolition II 188 19. Proclaiming abolition III 189 20. Litia in 1916 208 Tables 1. Zambezi navigations 1881-1886 correlated to lunar cycle 149 2. 1913 slavery cases – evidence 203 iv Acknowledgements I have, over the course of writing this thesis, received support from a number of institutions and a great many people.