Barotseland: Eight Years Among the Barotse

Barotseland at the present day is mainly defined as the kingdom of the recently dead Lewanika which lies both to the east and west of the Upper Zambezi, north of Sesheke, the Katima Rapids, the "Caprivi" boundary line of former German South West Africa. The western boundary line of Barotseland is the east bank of the Kwando river up stream to its intersection with the 22nd degree of E. longitude; the northern boundary is the 13th degree of S. latitude; and the eastern limit is a line drawn from the 13th degree of S. latitude to the upper waters of the Kabompo-Lulafuta, and then southward to the Majili river and along the Majili down to its union with the Upper Zambezi near Sesheke. The master people, still, in this Upper Zambezi state are the A-luyi, who seem to have entered the lands of the Upper Zambezi from the direction of Eastern Angola, if vague tradition be anything to rely on. At any rate the A-luyi became the dominant tribe in this region some three hundred years ago, if not much earlier. Prior to their dominancy the Upper Zambezi regions had been invaded by terrible armies of cannibals, the "Bazimba" of Portuguese East African records and the "Giagas," "Jaggas" of Portuguese Congo and Angola history. The term "Jagga" seems to have been derived from the title Jaga, which they gave to their chiefs; amongst themselves this tribe or congeries of tribes which played such an amazing part in the history of Central Africa in the latter half of the 16th century was known either as the "Imbángala" of the middle course of the Kwango river or the Va-chibokwe, Va-kioko, Va-chokwe, Bajoko (according to Livingstone), or Ba-jok of South-west Congoland and the Kasai sources. This boiling over of the Va-chokweas they are nowadays termed in their original homecaused terrific, population-destroying raids to be made across Northern Angola into Luango and the Congo coast region, and southwards over Barotseland, Central Zambezia, Southern Nyasaland and Moçambique, and northwards up the East Coast to the surroundings of Mombasa. The Va-chokwe were known by several names in the Portuguese records, the Jagga, Ba-zimba, and Bambo (sing. "Mumbo.") "Ba-zimba" seems to have died out as a tribal name, but the Bambo still inhabit the region through which the Lower Shire flows, and the original Va-chokwe, Va-kioko, Va-chibokwe, or Ba-jok are prominent inhabitants in the basin of the extreme upper Kasai, and come into Barotseland or Angola on trading expeditions. They are a singularly independent, quarrelsome, warlike people, not unlikely to give trouble yet to the Belgian controllers of Congoland, to the British peace-keepers in North-West Zambezia, or to the Portuguese in Eastern Angola.

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