The Lozi are located around the Zambezi River plain. Other groups have become subject to and incorporated into the Lozi proper. The groups that are included in this category are the Kwanda, Makoma, Mbowe, Mishulundu, Muenyi, Mwanga, Ndundulu, Nygengo, Shanjo, and the Simaa. The Lozi dominate the area that is referred to as the Barotse Kingdom. These people share the same language, which is Kololo, they share the same culture, and they marry within the same group. These tribes do speak other languages that are related to the Bantu language.
The Lozi live in small and condensed villages that are enclosed with a barrier like a fence. If the Zambezi river floods, they have to abandon the village. They will then move to higher locations. The most common type of housing unit is a round hut with a low cyndrical wall of rush mats and other earth elements and is topped off with a thatched roof that is cylindrical in shape.
The habitat of the Lozi has great seasonal and ecological variation so their subsistence system is mixed and complex. The agriculture that is produced is bulrush, millet, cassava, sorghum, and maize. Other crops include, groundnuts, sweet potatoes, beans, and melons. The Lozi keep domesticated animals such as cattle, poultry, goats, and sheep. Their subsistence economy relies on hunting, collecting, and fishing. Fallowing, manuring, crop rotation, and construction of drainage ditches are the agricultural techniques used by the Lozi. The Lozi are also skilled at iron working. Today the Lozi are part of a full-fledged cash economy with market mechanisms.
Kinship is recognized bilaterally, with a slight patrilineal disposition. They have eight noncorporate name groups called mishiku. Any man can claim membership in any or all of the groups as long as he is a direct descendent of someone that is already a member.
Marriages are made legitimate by the payment of a small bride-price. Men can have more than one wife and this is common, but having multiple husbands is not practiced. If a man does have multiple wives, each wife has her own responsibilities, her own separate dwelling, and her own gardens and animals to look after. The divorce rates of the Lozi are very high and many marry multiple times.
The men are responsible for the livestock, hunting, most of the fishing, and the more hard farm work. The women do most of the work in agriculture and collecting, a little fishing, and most of the chores at home. A major means of support for the Lozi has been the migration for wage labor opportunities.
The Lozi’s religion is mostly monotheistic, but they do have some beliefs in the spirits and other super natural beings. Former kings and chief princesses have rituals and offerings at their grave sites. Elements in the Lozi religion consist of sorcery, divination, exorcism, and the use of amulets.
The Lozi follow certain ceremonies. The two greatest national events of the year are when the king moves between his home on the plain at the time of the rising flood and the return after the flood waters fall. This is done at the time of a new moon and after sacrifices are completed at the royal graves. When the king returns to his capital, there is a lot of dancing, especially the ngomalume, which is called the royal dance.
Ironic folktales, maxims, and songs about people, objects, and places are expressed in the Lozi art. There is also usually a band of musicians that play and sing in the king’s court. They perform at state occasions or when the king tells them to. Instruments used are the drums such as: kettle, friction, small tube-shaped, and war drums, marimbas, the kangomhbro or zanza, various stringed instruments made of iron bells, rattles, and pipes of ivory, wood, or reeds.
Lozi people that are considered doctors are called diviners. They usually dance themselves into a frenzy and into a state of spirit possession to cure their patients. According to them, almost all diseases are caused by sorcery. To contest these diseases, a witch doctor, naka, performs an exorcism. The method of curing such diseases called maimbwe, liyala, macoba, and kayongo, is to inhale vapor from boiling combinations of bark, roots, and leaves and to dance the exorcistic dance. There are also other less common curing ceremonies and techniques such as the one performed on a child when it becomes possessed by a hunter ancestor.
When a Lozi dies, his or hers eyes and mouth are kept open. The knees are put up under the chin and the body is moved from the hut through a special opening just for this purpose. As they go to bury the body, spells and chants are performed on the road as a way to render the possibility of the ghost coming to village and haunting them. Men are buried facing the east and women are buried facing the west. Personal possessions are placed around the corpse. After the burial, people mourn for several days. The kin are supposed to wear their cloaks inside out. The hut of the deceased is pulled down and the roof is placed near the grave, and the possessions are burned so nothing will bring the ghost back. For the burial of a king, the king picks his own site and is buried in a large grave. The grave is then encircled by a fence of pointed stakes that marks the spot saying a person of royalty lies there. Trees and bushes are planted, so from a distance it is also demonstrated that royalty lies there.
At death the spirit of the dead goes to a “halfway house” on the way to the spirit world. A man is received by Nyambe and a women is received by Nasilele, Nyambe’s wife, and then placed on the road to the spirit world. They are only taken to the spirit world if the man has the correct tribal marks on his arms and holes in his ears. If they are lacking in one or both of these areas, they are given flies for food and are not welcomed. They are then sent on a road that mazes and gets narrower until the road ends in a desert where the man dies of hunger and thirst.
Written by Erin Maday
Works Cited:
Johnson, Ronald. Encyclopedia of World Cultures Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1995.
Goody, Jack. Worldmark Encyclopedias of the Cultures Detroit: Thomson Publishing Company, 1995.
Hewlett, B.S. Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life Cleveland: Eastwood Publications Development, Inc., 1998.