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OF ALIEN KINGS AND ANCESTRAL CHIEFS ProQuest Number: 10731250 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731250 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 OF ALIEN KINGS AND ANCESTRAL CHIEFS An Essay on the Ideology of Kingship Among the Aruwund Manuela Palmeirim Dissertation submitted for the Ph. D. in Social Anthropology at The School of Oriental and African Studies University of London February 1994 To my parents, in memory of their first two years in Africa when I was not yet born... To my brothers and sister. ABSTRACT OF ALIEN KINGS AND ANCESTRAL CHIEFS This thesis is organized as a set of essays which tackle various theoretical issues pertaining to an understanding of the ideology of kingship among the Aruwund (Lunda of the Mwant Yaav) of southern Zaire. Following an introductory text which supplies the historical background, the thesis begins with the description and analysis of the Ruwund myth of foundation of the state. The myth is here seen as a "constellation of myths", a set of minor narratives relating to high office which constitute, define and permanently re-create the "main myth". It is this fluidity of oral tradition that is examined by demonstrating how episodes and minor title histories are evoked or omitted by narrators who display different emphases of the myth and attempt to manipulate a repertoire to their better advantage (ch. I). Through reconstructing this process, and the "contradictory versions" which it originates, we are drawn into the academic debate that has long opposed structuralists to ethnohistorians in the analysis of oral traditions (ch. I/H). Chapter n reviews the concept of the "culture hero" as used in the literature on the recurrent central African image of the alien hunter, founder of a new civilization. It suggests that the Ruwund myth of the origin of kingship should be understood as a tale i of social renewal rather than that of the introduction of a foreign civilization in the midst of a more rudimentary order. This being so, the foundation of the state is a process 5 generating from within in which the role of the autochthonous order as bearer of "culture" should be considered attentively. In the three chapters that follow I discuss the system of "perpetual kinship" (as defined by I. Cunnison in 1956), issues on hierarchy, and the symbolic use of space. All three chapters can be seen to reveal mechanisms of establishing, creating and encoding symbolic relationships relating to the Ruwund ideology of kingship. In the first of these chapters (ch. HI) it is argued that perpetual kinship ties among Ruwund dignitaries, notwithstanding the use of a kinship idiom, are above all metaphors for symbolic relationships. The following chapter analyses the salutation system and the use of insignia of power among court officials and questions L. Dumont’s assertion that hierarchy constitutes the "ideology" in traditional societies. Finally, chapter V looks at royal and minor courts as "constructed spaces" within which relations between dignitaries are both shaped and acted out through relative positionings. The last two chapters are concerned with royal ritual. It is intended to contribute to Africanist literature a detailed ethnographic account of the Ruwund royal installation ritual (ch. VI). The following chapter claims that its understanding can only be attained by examining a wider structure of rituals and with reference, in particular, to non-royal symbolism and ceremonies. CONTENTS List of Illustrations 7 Acknowledgements 9 Note on the orthography of Ruwund words 12 Introduction 15 Chapter I In Praise of the Myth: The Origin of Kingship I 34 Chapter II On the Threshold of Culture: Culture Heroes or the Origin of Kingship II 58 Chapter m The King is "One of Us": Claiming Perpetual Ties Among Ruwund Aristocracy 83 Chapter IV Where Distinctions Remain Unspoken: An Essay on Hierarchy 102 Chapter V On Courts, Space and Metaphors: The Political as a Symbolic Structure 133 Chapter VI The Making of a King I: A Description of the Royal Installation Ritual 174 Chapter VH The Making of a King II: The Ritual as a Structure of Rituals 225 Epilogue Of Alien Kings and Angry Chiefs 255 References Cited 264 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Maps 1: Journeys across Central Africa to the kingdoms of the Mwant Yaav and Kazembe. 17 2: Approximate extension of the Lunda kingdom at the turn-mid 19th century and current boundaries of the Aruwund. 21 3: The Aruwund and neighbouring peoples, 25 4: Musumb and the interriverine area of the atubung of the Mwant Yaav, 164 Figures 1: The heroes of the Ruwund foundation myth. 37 2: Ruwund kinship and alliance terminology system. 90 3: The atubung : ankwed of the Mwant Yaav. 94 4: The atubung', amantu of the Mwant Yaav, 96 5: Centre of Musumb in the 1980’s. 136 6: Positioning of the court dignitaries in the royal citentam. 149 7: Plan of Ciland (July 1988). 165 8: Drawing of the mas as of the Mwant Yaav. 216 Photographs 1: The royal mbemb (sing.: rubemb). 36 2: The Mutiy wearing the insignia of a cilol. 114 3: The Mukarusong wearing the insignia of a kabung. 118 4: A kabung (entitled Mwant Kayombu ) wearing the rukan. 119 5: The Sakawaat Nkwaany’s mpak ya mukwaal with the yilongal. 146 8 6: The Nswaan Mulapu’s crown (yiibangul ya yaapu ya makond) with the kabond ka ngal. 159 7: The Mutiy wearing the yiibangul ya yaapu ya makond with the common kabond . 160 8: Building the masas for a ciloVs investiture. 201 9: Inside the masas of a cilol. 202 10: Healing ritual for the spirits atnalemb I: washing the patient with a whisk of leaves (v.:kukupul). 233 11: Healing ritual for the spirits amalemb II: patient in trance. 233 12: Healing ritual for the spirits atnalemb HI: speaking with the voice of the spirits. 234 13: The maseku for a pregnant woman. 236 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank Dr. Johan Pottier, Professor Gomes da Silva and John Anthony in particular for, in very different ways, they made this work possible. Dr. J, Pottier was my supervisor at the School of Oriental and African Studies. I thank him for his guidance and for discussing the difficulties of my work but also for becoming a friend, which gave me all the strength to carry on. Prof. Gomes da Silva was my teacher when I first started in Anthropology and his admirable lectures have influenced my thought ever since. He also commented on parts of the present text. John Anthony was my companion during the twenty months of fieldwork among the Aruwund and shared all my joys and frustrations as if they were his own. He is responsible for all photographs included. Professor Luc de Heusch, Dr. Dunja Hersak, Professor Allen Roberts and Dr. David Parkin debated various issues related to this thesis with me and I benefited from their comments on various parts of the text. They meant great encouragement to me. I am additionally grateful to Dunja, for (against all odds!) she read the dissertation in almost its entirety to check the English. This task was shared for part of the text with Dr. Stanley Yoder. I thank them both and apologize for having burdened them with such tedious work. Dr. Jay Nash was responsible for the tuition of the Ruwund language in the field and his grammar, then in the making, was crucial for the successful undertaking of my work. To have shared the same fieldwork site with him left all kinds of good memories. I am also grateful to him for having checked some of the passages in the native language ; and the respective translations. Again, to my colleagues of the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Minho (Portugal), who saw me through endless days of thesis writing and 10 were present in seminars where parts of it were discussed, I owe many thanks. They listened to my enthusiasm and/or anxieties, and their friendship largely contributed to make this task an easier one. Finally, a very special thank goes to Ant6nio Ldzaro for having shared the final moments of the writing of the thesis with me. He is also responsible for drawing all the maps and figures throughout the text. From the times of fieldwork in south Zaire I am most grateful to the Mwant Yaav Kabwiit Yisoj Kawel II and, above all, to the people of Ciland, the village where I resided, and their chief Mukaciland Diiwur, as well as to the atubung of the Mwant Yaav and the people of all villages in the Nkalaany area. However, I am particularly indebted to Muteb Mbumb who, at the age of 15, voluntarily took over all activities related to our "domestic life" in the village and on whom we heavily relied for friendship and advice. And, of course, I am also indebted to Muzang Yaav, my research assistant and friend. No matter how important the contributions of all others, it was thanks to his help and warmth of character that fieldwork turned out to be such a rewarding experience. Matepu Mwaan- a-Mweny (Jojo), Robert Muke-Sainpas, Mukand Mushid and Diiwur Mbumb also assisted me while interviewing dignitaries and gave me support on many occasions.

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