The Life of a South African Tribe

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Ubtary GN 657.R4J95 The life of a South African tribe / 3 1924 012 891 135 Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924012891135 THE LIFE OF A SOUTH AFRICAN TRIBE COPYRIGHT The Life of a South African Tribe BY HENRI A. J_UNOD OF THE Swiss Roiiiande Mission II. THE PSYCHIC LIFE NEUCHATEL (Swit/eriaxo) IMPRIMEIUE ATTINGER FRERES I913 f^-n^'i^S FOURTH PART THE AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL LIFE In the first volume of this work, I have tried to give a des- cription of the Social Life of the tribe by depicting its customs in relation with the individual, communal and national life. In the second volume I shall consider its Psychic Life, its Literature and Music, its Religion, Magic and Morality. The Agricultural and Industrial Life will afford a transition from the one to the other of these subjects; this belongs primarily to the social mani- festations of the tribal life, but the imagination displayed by sculptors, weavers, potters (or rather " potteresses ") brings it also into relation with the psychic. I do not however pretend to draw a sharp line of distinction between these two domains, as the psychic life is reflected in the social customs, and the social idea strongly dominates the psychic life of the tribe. CHAPTER I The Agricultural Life A. THE LAND AND THE NATIVE SYSTEM OF LAND TENURE I. The nature of the soil. Considering that the Thonga dwell in the South of Africa, a part of the world which is generally rocky and sterile. Nature THONGA TRIBE 11 — I 2 has favoured them to no inconsiderable extent as regards the soil of their own country. The coast belt is an ancient ocean-bed, and consists of dunes of white and reddish-brown sand, extending from the South- West to the North-East; between these dunes are basin shaped hollows, at the bottom of which are ponds of stagnant water. The pond in the hollow. The hillocks rarely reach a greater elevation than 150 feet above the sea level (120 feet above the level of the lakes). The sand on the dunes is naturally quite unproductive, but the vege- tation, which has managed to develop there during past cen- turies, and the forests, which are fairly dense in certain spots, have gradually deposited a thin layer of soil, which, when mixed with the sand and watered in due season by the rains, is capable of producing abundant crops. The hollows (nhlangwa, mu-mi) (i) are hardly more fertile than the dunes, although (i) For linguists, I indicate the class to which native nouns belong. See the explanation of classes or genders Part \ . Chap. I. Mu-mi are the prefi.\es of their continuous moisture is favouiable to the growth of certain plants. But by the side of the sand (pfiinye) of the hillocks (shilshunga), here and there, is found a sort of black earth, containing a large proportion of vegetable detritus, in which maize, sweet potatoes, sugar cane etc. thrive splendidly. Nyaka is the name given to this black soil : it is found at the foot of the hills which run from Lourenco Marques in the direc- tion of Morakwen, and extends for a distance of some fourteen to eighteen miles. Several small springs rise at the bottom of this gentle slope, and tend to form a curious marsh, covered w'ith beautiful tropical growths, of which gigantic palms (mimale) are the most striking. These are seen in forests covering hun- dreds of acres, with an impenetrable undergrowth of ferns, enor- mous rushes and evergreen shrubs : magnificent palm groves, where apes, wild boar and large storks find a safe retreat. Between this marsh of phenomenal mud and the hills extends the arable tract of nyaka. There the fields are lovely ; maize can be grown all the year round. In other places the nyaka is parch- ed and dry, as in the valley of the Lower Nkomati, from the point where it leaves the Libombo to the elbow of Magule. Here the annual overflow of the river deposits on the low-lying plains a fertilising slime, as is the case in Egypt. It is strange to see, during the winter, tufts of grass which were carried down by the stream, months before, caught in the branches of the trees and suspended some 15 to 20 feet above the ground ! The sand of the coast belt is replaced in the hinterland of Matjolo, in the low level between the Nkomati and the Bila plain, etc. by another kind of soil called hundjusi. It is a reddish earth containing much sand but much finer and more fertile than the sand proper. On leaving the coast belt we reach the Lebombo and Longwe hills, which are composed of a hard reddish porphyraceous stone. Further West, a broad plain extends from the Lebombo to the Drakensberg Mountains, in some places consisting of a greyish sin';ul.ir and plural of CI. II. When .1 noun hcf;ins with >/.'/, it belongs to CI. -shi-psi, with // to CI. li-tin, with bn to the C "l.i^s bu-ma. -Xs a rule nouns will be given under their singular form. l'l.vt. p. Bcrlhoud. Mimale palmtrees in the marshes near Loureui;o Marques. or brownish clay, in otlier regions very dry and stonv. The foot of the Drakensberg is very fertile, as water flows abundantly from the mountain gorges. Some rivers, however, when reaching the Low Country, dry up entirely, at least during the winter time. The soil of Spelonken is of a similar nature and very well watered. So the Thonga, who settled in Zoutpansberg, found there a soil which was, in certain respects, more favourable to agriculture than their sandy dunes or iheir hundjusi on the Coast. Such is Mother Earth for the Thonga. They call it miiaba, the plural form of nsaba, grains of sand. This word plainly shows that they come from sandy regions. For them the earth is a collection of grains of sand. II. Native System of Land Tenure. The native population, taken as a whole, is a sparse very one ; let us consider the Ronga territory, for instance: lOo ooo souls in a territory which may be estimated at square miles 5000 ; this gives a population of only 20 per square mile. The country is, however, very unequally peopled. Natives will only settle in spots where water is found, and, the sand dunes to which I have previously referred being exceedingly dry, they mainly inhabit the slopes of the hills and the immediate neighbourhood of the marshes already described. To confine myself, amongst the Ronga, to the region in which I have principally itinerated, that is to say the environs of Rikatia, the villages of Nondwanc, which extend along a somewhat narrow strip (800 yards wide by 5 miles in length), stretching from the border of Mabota as far as Morakwcn, con- tained in 1 880 a population which I should estimate at about 1 100 souls (i). This gives over 350 inhabitants to the square mile. Taking everything therefore into consideration, it may be con- fidently asserted that the country can easily support its population ; in fact it could support one three or four times as large. It is important to bear in mind all these circumstances in (I ) This popul.ition li.is vcrv much diminished since the Rong.i Portuguese w.ir in i.Si.)4. — 6 — relat- order to be able properly to appreciate the Ba-Ronga laws ing to landed property. but only that, through CBy law the soil belongs to the Chief, one can buy land. him, it may become general property. No wish to settle in the It is gratuitously assigned to any and all who submission to country. The mere fact of kond:^a, viz., making to as much land as the chief (Vol. I, p. 406), entitles the native may be necessary for his subsistence. It will be easily understood, however, that the supreme Chief, however small his territory may be; can hardly assume the duty of marking out the various small allotments for his subjects. In ordinary practice this is done by the headmen of the villages (numzane), the important men of the country, (I vi^ill call them A), who obtain the grant of considerable tracts of land, which they apportion amongst those under their jurisdiction. They a nd their near relatives cultivate the most fertile parts of these tracts, or districts, and when any one (say B) wishes to settle on their reserve, they "cut the bush" for him, "tshemela ", nhoba to use the technical expression ; they accompany the would-be-settler to an uncultivated piece of land and together they fix the boundaries of a plot of ground which is then assigned to him. A tree, the corner of a lake, a well, or an ant- hill, may be used as landmarks in this primitive surveying operation. The new-comer will clear as much of the land as he can, will till it, and the fields, together with the trees they contain, become thenceforth his property. Should any of his relatives wish to settle near him, he will, in his turn, assign to them a portion of his land, which they may clear and cultivate; and so the distribution continues. Supposing B is not satisfied with his allotment, or is unable to live on neighbourly terms with A, and builds his hut in some other spot, he cannot sell, or otherwise dispose of his land, as it must revert to A, the original owner.

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