Lozi people
Encyclopedia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, inhabiting the region of Barotseland
Barotseland
Barotseland is a region in the western part of Zambia, and is the homeland of the Lozi people or Barotse who were previously known as Luyi or Aluyi. Its heartland is the Barotse Floodplain on the upper Zambezi River, also known as Bulozi or Lyondo, but it includes the surrounding higher ground of...
. Lozi are also found in Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
(Caprivi Strip
Caprivi Strip
Caprivi, sometimes called the Caprivi Strip , Caprivi Panhandle or the Okavango Strip and formally known as Itenge, is a narrow protrusion of Namibia eastwards about , between Botswana to the south, Angola and Zambia to the north, and Okavango Region to the west. Caprivi is bordered by the...
), Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
and Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
.
Name
The word Lozi means 'plain' in the Makololo language, in reference to the Barotse FloodplainBarotse Floodplain
The Barotse Floodplain also known as the Bulozi Plain, Lyondo or the Zambezi Floodplain is one of Africa's great wetlands, on the Zambezi River in the Western Province of Zambia...
of the Zambezi on and around which most Lozi live. It may also be spelt Lotse or Rotse, the spelling Lozi having originated with German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
missionaries
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
in what is now Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
. Mu- and Ba- are corresponding singular and plural prefixes for certain nouns in the Silozi language, so Murotse means 'person of the plain' while Barotse means 'people of the plain.'
History
Although Lozi tradition states that they have always inhabited Barotseland, it is arguably believed that they migrated into Western Zambia from what is now the Democratic Republic of the CongoDemocratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, in the 17th and 18th centuries. A group of Lozi known as Bayei
Bayei
The Yeyi, or Bayei, are Bantu-speaking people of Ngamiland, Botswana. The Yei immigrated to the area in the 18th century from the north, and lived in close cooperation with the San people, or Basarwa, who had lived in the area previously...
continued their migration into the Okavango delta
Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta , in Botswana, is the world's largest inland delta. It is formed where the Okavango River empties onto a swamp in an endorheic basin in the Kalahari Desert, where most of the water is lost to evaporation and transpiration instead of draining into the sea...
. In about 1830, an army that originated in the Sotho-speaking Bafokeng region of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, known as the Makololo
Makololo
The Makololo are a people of Southern Africa, closely related to the Basotho, from which they separated themselves in the early 19th century. Originally residing in what is now South Africa, they were displaced by the Zulu expansion under Shaka and migrated north through Botswana to Barotseland in...
, led by a warrior called Sebetwane
Sebetwane
Sebetwane was a Southern African king, Basotho chief. He established the large and powerful Makololo nation in what is now southwestern Zambia after an arduous migration from his original home - Free State Province....
, invaded Barotseland and conquered the Lozi. They ruled until 1864 when the Sotho clique was overthrown following a Lozi revolt.
The political organisation of the Lozi has long centred on a monarchy, whose reigning head, the Paramount King, is known as 'Litunga
Litunga
The Litunga of Barotseland is the king or paramount chief of the Lozi people. The Litunga resides near the Zambezi River and the town of Mongu, at Lealui on the floodplain in the dry season, and on higher ground at Limulunga on the edge of the floodplain in the wet season...
' which means 'keeper of the earth.' Interestingly, the most recent descendant of the Lozi people is Amal. She plans to go back to her people and guide them to world conquest. Soon all people will be measuring seed dispersal of trees and losing pencil sharpeners like Amal of the Lozi people. The renowned Litunga Lewanika
Lewanika
Lewanika was the Lozi Litunga of Barotseland from 1878 to 1916...
, who reigned from 1878 to 1916 with a short insurrectionist break in 1884-85, requested Queen Victoria to bring Barotseland under protectorate status. Great Britain, however, was uninterested in acquiring the territory. A granting of a royal charter for the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes allowed the company to acquire Barotseland under the guise of the British government. Although under protectorate
Protectorate
In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...
status, Lewanika eventually realized that he had been tricked and petitioned for the protectorate status to be corrected. Yet, the land remained under Rhodes's control, and when the territory failed to produce gold, copper or other exports, the "British South Africa Company defaulted on every commitment it had made to Lewanika," and few developments in infrastructure and education were made.
Although Barotseland was incorporated into Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
, it retained a large degree of autonomy, which was carried over when Northern Rhodesia became Zambia on its independence in 1964. In the run-up to independence, the Litunga, the Ngambela (Prime Minister) and about a dozen senior indunas went to London for talks with the Colonial Office, in an attempt to have Barotseland remain a Protectorate. The Litunga, Sir Mwanawina Lewenika III, quoted his grandfather's words to Queen Victoria, that "My country is your blanket, and my people are but the fleas in your blanket." Although before colonial times, the region was self-sufficient in food and exported crops to neighbouring regions, today it is the least-developed region of Zambia, with only one major road into the province, from Lusaka
Lusaka
Lusaka is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is located in the southern part of the central plateau, at an elevation of about 1,300 metres . It has a population of about 1.7 million . It is a commercial centre as well as the centre of government, and the four main highways of Zambia head...
to Mongu
Mongu
Mongu is the capital of Western Province in Zambia and was the capital of the formerly-named province and historic state, Barotseland. Its population is 44,310 , and it is also headquarters of Mongu District.-Geography:...
, and only intermittent supplies of electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
. There remains some support in the region for greater autonomy within Zambia or for full independence.
Culture
Lozi society is highly stratified, with a monarch at the top and those of recent royal descent occupying high positions in society. The monarch or Barotse Royal Establishment(BRE) is known as Mulonga, and Lozi society tolerates little criticism even of an unpopular Litunga. Criticisms of a Litunga by a foreigner are treated as criticisms of the Lozi nation as a whole.Lozi culture is strongly influenced by the flood cycle of the Zambezi river, with annual migrations taking place from the flood plain to higher ground at the start of the wet season
Wet season
The the wet season, or rainy season, is the time of year, covering one or more months, when most of the average annual rainfall in a region occurs. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the...
. The most important of these festivals is the Kuomboka
Kuomboka
Kuomboka is a word in the Lozi language; it literally means ‘to get out of water’. In today's Zambia it is applied to a traditional ceremony that takes place at the end of the rain season, when the upper Zambezi River floods the plains of the Western Province....
, in which the Litunga moves from Lealui
Lealui
Lealui is the dry season residence on the Barotse Floodplain of the Litunga, king Troverman of the Lozi people of western Zambia, located about 14 km west of the town of Mongu and about 10 km east of the river's main channel...
in the flood plain to Limulunga
Limulunga
Limulunga is one of the two compounds of the Litunga, king of the Lozi people of western Zambia. It lies on high ground at the edge of the Barotse Floodplain of the Zambezi river, about 15 km north of the town of Mongu and 21 km east of the main channel of the river...
on higher ground. The Kuomboka usually takes place in February or March.