The life of a South African tribe

Front matter

V.I

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

Introduction

His Excellency The Right Honourable James Bryce, O. M. His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador and Plenipotentiary,

Washington.

Dear Sir,

Fifteen years ago I had the great pleasure of receiving your visit in Lourengo Marques where I was staying as the head of the Swiss Romande Mission. You had been travelling all through South Africa and, though momentous political problems were before your mind at that time, bearing on the relations between the white races of that Sub-Continent, you had devoted considerable attention to the nativf tribes all over the land and tried to understand what they were and what their future would be. But you had quickly noticed how scant is our knowledge about them and you were trying to stimulate men on the spot to undertake a scientific study of their primitive life. In the course of our conversation, I was struck by the following remark which you made to me : " How thankful would we be, we, men of the XIX»'' century, if a Roman had taken the trouble to fully investigate the habits of our Celtic forefathers ! This work has not been done and we shall always remain ignorant of things which would h.ive interested us so much ! "

This observation was'quite a revelation to me. It is possible then, that these natives for whom we went to Africa would themselves benefit also by such a study and that, in the course of time, thev would be grateful to know what they were when they were still leading their savage life... This argument added to so many others had never occured to me. Up to that date I had already collected some Ronga tales and studied some curious customs of the tribe. But the science

THONGA TRIIIE — 1 which I was cuhivating as a favourite pastime was Entomology,- Delagoa Bay is a splendid place for beetles and butterflies. I had come across a wonderful forest near Morakwen where I had been fortunate enough to discover a new kind of Papilio ! Since that time Ethnography more or less supplanted Entomology. I started on that systematic and thorough investigation which you commended to me and I very soon found out that, after all, Man is infinitely more interesting than the insect ! The material which I gathered amongst the Ba-Ronga of Delagoa Bay was first published in my French book " Les Ba-Ronga " with the kind' help of the Geographical Society of Neuchatel in 1898. Since then I pursued my study amongst the Northern Clans of the Thonga of the Transvaal and, if I am able to undertake this publication in which I hope to give a more complete description of the life of a South African tribe, I feel that I owe to you the generating idea, the decisive impetus

That is the reason why I am glad to dedicate to you the present work.

This was the proper time to undertake it, as the following recent and sad experience will plainly show. Coming home in 1909, I met, on board the splendid U. C. Steamer on which we were travelling, three well known native gentlemen who were, I think, going to England for political reasons. I had great pleasure in speaking with them. One of them was the editor of a native paper ; another was a Christian chief, the third one was at the head of a Training Institution which he founded himself. One dav I made up my mind to gather some ethnographical facts from them. They were Zulus and I wanted to know for purposes of comparison what were the precise ideas of their tribe about witchcraft. Never in my scientific carreer did I meet with more complete failure ! The editor had been born in a Wesleyari family and never stayed amongst heathen. The chief knew much more on the subject but, for some obscure reason, he was not inclined to dis- , close his knowledge ; the Principal of the Institution was a very clever man ; he first declared that witchcraft was met with amongst white people just the same as amongst South African natives ; that it was only a torm of m^merism and, as he was always anxious to o-et more knowledge himself,^he proceeded to question me about mesmerism ; the whole interview ended therefore in a lesson which I was oblio-ed to give to him on that mysterious subject and I did not learn anything new from my three friends... I left them in quite a melancholy mood, thinking how different it was with mv Thonga informants, Mbo;;a, Tobane and even Elias !

In fact, the circumstances in which I found myself amongst the Thonga, have been as favourable as they can be for such an investigation. The great bulk of the tribe is still absolutely savage. We have mastered its language and can understand all thev tell us. On the other hand we have founded a Church amongst them and have intimate relations with some of them. The adults in our congregations have been heathen themselves and have practised the rites on which I questioned them. They can describe them better than raw heathens as they now stand at a certain distance from their old life and can judge of it more independently. They possess what our French historians call le recul necessaire. Enjoying their full confidence, having learned by long practise how to put questions in order to get impartial answers, I think that their testimony can be considered as scientifically reliable. Of course errors are always possible. But science proceeds by successive approximations. I dare say the present monograph of the Thonga tribe,' compared with my book " Les Ba-Ronga " will be a nearer approach to the truth and it is quite possible that later on a more perfect account will be given by somebody who will have had more time to spare and more insight than myself into this delicate work.

When a historian publishes a monograph, he first gives the list of his sources of information. He vindicates the truth of his results by showing that they are based on trustworth\ documents. Mv documents are not books. They are livinj^ witnesses and I beg to introduce some of them to mv readers as the\ have been my faithful collaborators and 1 owe to them most of my knowledge.

The first man whom I questioned systematically was a Ronga of Nondwane (North of Lourengo Marques) named Spoon. He had been my butterfly catcher and I had often admired his skill and his powers of observation. He became my instructor in the art of bone throwing. He had been more or less a diviner, using his dice when going to hunt ; but after the war of the natives against the Portuguese (1894- 1 89 5) he lost confidence in his divinatory bones as well as in

.IS bone-thrower in 1S94.

Ilis gods and becnme a Christian. He al\va3's had and still possesses a great deal of imagination. I was often ohlioed to control his explanations. Spoon certainly has the Riythological sense more developed than an\- of m^' other informants ; however he is through and tlirough a Bantu and whatever he sa)'s is alwa^•s picturesque and striking. After him, I undertook to gather all the knowledge possessed by Tohanc.

Tobane was a splendid man when I knew Itini in Lou-

renco Marques, in the vears 1895 and 1896.

Tall, of a remarkable light complexion, his eves very clear and bright, he was a man of mark in the Mpfumo clan. From his vouth he had been in relation with the leading families of the tribe, being himself the son of Magugu, the native general who brought to an end the long war of succession of the Shangann in 1856-1862. fie had been mixed up in all the political affairs of the countrx' for a long time and had a profound knowledge of the customs of the court and ot the tribunal amongst his people. He was a patriot and when he became a Christian he did his best to bring his brethren to his new faith. When he understood what 1 wanted, heat once did his best to satist\' me and sometimes he even anticipated m\' questions : '■ Tjika, ndi kii hvflii... Keep quiet, I am going to tell vou '", said he eai^erlv ! 1 owe to him most of what 1 Isuow about the tribal sx'stem of the l-(oni;a. (See l.es Ba-Ronga, page 11).

Ha\ing then been c.dled b\" the de\elopnient ol the .Mission to leave Loiu'enco .Marques to btart a training school amongst the 'J'honga of the Transvaal, I HKt in Shiluvanc near l,L\dsdorp with a man who was for the Niirtliern clans ol the trihe an authorit)' as excellent as Tobane lor the Southern Konga clans. His name was Maiikhehr He was an elder son ol Shilu\ane, the late chief of the Xkuna clan

MA\Knr;i i' >.tjiidint; in Ids \dlaL;e In the ni,i^;ic lorLed pole.

and had heen lor man\ \'ears the prince-rCLjent o\ the Ba-Nkuna, idl the actual duel Mi.ihl.il\i came ol age. ^lald^hehl was the < icner.d ol tlie aiiiiw the gn.al doctor ol the ro\al kraal, one ol the ni.iin councillors, an entu'cly conxuiced bone-thrower, a priest for Ills l.nniK-, ,1 Bantu so dcepK steeped in the obscure conceptions of a li.iiiui niinil th.it be never coidd Ljet lit! ol them and remained a Ileathen till his death in 1908. Very kind hearted, very devoted to the missionaries, he was a true friend for me and willingly disclosed tome the secrets of his medical and divinatory science. I owe to him an account of his bone-throwing system which was much more elaborate than the one Spoon had given me in Rikatla though the twoagree on the main points. Mankhelu had many dealings with the Suto or Pedi clans of the N, E. Transvaal. He was a celebrated rainmaker and had the more credit amongst them as he was a foreigner. I have been on my guard carefully to differentiate what is of a Suto origin and what is purely Thonga in the information he gave me.

In my congregation at the station of Shiluvane was an old convert baptised, odd to relate, by the name of a professor of divinity of Lausanne, Viguet. He was a clever man but not always a very good Christian, I must confess. He possessed a splendid memory. Having been headman in a village of Thonga refugees in the Spelonken, he gave me valuable information regarding the mvsteries of family life as well as about the initiation ceremonies. His home wasTsungu on the Limpopo but he had moved to the Transvaal during the succession war of 1862. He was certainly a first rate informant, possessing a clear head, always using the technical expressions and illustrating his points with great skill. He and Mankhelu have taught me most of what I know about the Northern clans. I learned however many other facts also from Maiuewe, the poet-laureate of the Nkuna court and from Simeon Gana, one of my pupils who belonged to an old and important family, and also from others.

In 1907 I came back to the coast to start in Rikatla (18 miles North of Lourenco Marques) a Training Institution for our work in Portuguese Territory. There I again found my old friend Spoon whohad been baptised Elias and was one of the elders of the little Church ; he had grown old but was always of the same merry character and disposed to communicate anything he knew. Another man was his co-elder there, a Ronga of the Mazwaya family called MboTfi. I found him to be a very intelligent man, quite an authority on the rites of the clan. He had been "possessed" and had gone through all the initiation ceremonies of the Ngoni possession, having become an exorciser himself. So he w.is able to give me new information on j this mysterious subject. I undertook a systematic investigation with)/ these two men in 1909 taking as a guide the set of questions prepared// by Prof. J. Frazer for people collecting ethnographical material and' giving special attention to the question of the taboo. Durino- thi<i suuK' whicli to(jk nic nian\' montlis I was more than ever impressed with the inense complexity of the Life of a So Alricaii tribe ! Quoting my sources C)f lormation 1 must also mention the pu i'\ mv school. Every TuesdaN' nif^ht had a meeting in wjiicli one of them III relate a story, tii describe a custom, to tell a native tale... His companions then added what the\' knew and, as some of them were L;rown up men, these debates were iillen verN' instructive.

1 w.is able tn collect in all more than line hundred tales ; most ol I hem lia\'e [leen published in m\' Chiiiih el Conies ilcs lid-Roiiod .md m the liook on Lc.s lici-Roiigii. I ha\e still a good man\' in manuscript, some of which 1 intend publishing in the secontl \'olnme ol the present work.

.-/, Borel

,\l\' aim, in collecting all this material has been twofold, scienlilic and practical.

first ol all scientific. 'I'he Lite ot a South .\h'ican tribe is a colleclion ol biological phenomeii.i which must be described objecti\el\ .md which ,ire ol great interest, representing, as the\ do, a certain stage ol human de\elopment. These biological phennmen.i .ire somelimes at lirsl ol .1 repulsi\e character. The sexual lile of the Bantu ! especialK' shocks our moral leelmgs. I did not think howe\erlliat I couki entirelx' lea\e out this subject in a scientific book ,md the more I studied it, the more I saw th.it these strange rites ha\'e a much deeper meaning than at first appears and that we could not pretend to know natives il we remain ignorant ot these t.icts. lint while Irving to gi\e a lull account, 1 am convinced, on the otlier hand, that. In be lrul\ sciriuific, such a description must be limited to one well delined tribe. I ijo e\en further all the data must be localised; in the tribe itself there are different clans; customs vary from one to another. It is of the greatest importance that all the facts be classed geographically. A similar work can be done later for other tribes and it is only when a sufficient number of trustworthy monographs have been written that a comparative study on Bantu ethnography can be undertaken. The " Essential Kafir" of Dudley Kidd is very interesting and full of useful remarks, but the Essential Kafir will not be known till a scientific and thorough study of all the tribes has been completed. My aim has been to submit the Thonga tribe to such a study and I shall be most gratified if it leads other observers to undertake the same investigation with regard to other African tribes.

Though I do not pretend to prejudge anything about any other South African tribe, it will soon be seen that many of the customs here described are spread more or less over the whole of the Sub-continent and that what I write about the Thonga applies more or less to the Suto, the Zulu, even to the Nyandja of Lake Nyassa and to tribes in Central Africa. I think therefore that the conclusions reached by this study may be of use not only to those interested in the Thonffa tribe itself but to all Africanists or Bantuists.

There are two classes of men to whom I should like to bring some practical help in their work : the Native Commissioners and the Mlssterrrarries.

It is absolutely necessary' that Native Commissioners should have a better knowledge of the tribe to which they administer in the name of civilised Governments. They are apt to make the most dangerous mistakes from mere ignorance of the true nature of rites or superstitions which they do not understand. I have heard of colonial authorities receiving witchraft accusations, believing that the pretended wizards were real murderers and anthropophagists and condemning them as such ! To govern savages, you must study them thoroughlv in order both to recognise the wrong conceptions against which you have to contend and to avoid hurting their feelings unnecessarily. This is imperative if you wish to win their confidence and maintain a friendly understanding between them and and the alien European Government. How many native wars might have been avoided if the Native Commissioner had had a better knowledge of Bantu Ethnography, and, on the other hand, how much good has been done b)- those who have taken the trouble to study the Natives with sympathy in order to be just to them !

And this is equally true of Missionnaries.

Missionary work is much better understood now than is was formerly. The recent Edinburgh Conference has proclaimed the necessity for Missionaries of the sympathetic study of native beliefs and social customs. One of the eight Commissions which prepared that wonderful Congress devoted considerable time to this subject and issued .X remarkable report whose conclusions are worth reading. It urges that on each field a thorough investigation be undertaken in order that the message of the Gospel may be presented in such a way as will appeal to those aspirations after the truth which reveal themselves in the religion and social rites of the Natives. How superior is this conception to that of former times when heathenism was considered a creation of the devil through and through. We see better now that, amidst darkness and sin, the heathen mind is often seeking light and righteousness and that these rays of truth, these presentiments of a higher life must be infinitely respected and utilised in the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For instance look how seriously the savage keep their taboo!.. This__taboo — as we will see — is inspired by strange, unscientific physiological ideas regarding defilement and contagion which will disappear when scientific knowledge has spread amongst them. But let these ideas be somewhat amended, let the natives understand that what is taboo is not physical uncleanness but moral evil and their strong aversion to the act taboed may become a powerful moral impulse for good.

Here is the plan which 1 mean to adopt. After having briefly explained in a preliminary chapter what is the Thonga tribe, I will consider an individual and follow him in his career from birth to death; the story of the evolution of a man and of a woman will constitute the first part of the book.

Then 1 shall pass on to the first social organism formed by these individuals and study the life of the family and of the village, which is but an enlarged family.

The villages make up the clan and the tribe. The national life will form my third part, where I will deal especially with the Chief, the Court, the Army.

The agricultural and industrial life and the literary and artistic life will then be studied (as collective manifestations of the life of the tribe) and last but not least. I will devote a considerable time to the religious life and superstitions, trying to know the soul of the tribe, to understand the manifold manifestations of its psychic life which have always had a special interest for me.

It would have been safer for me to write this new and enlarged edition of Les Ba-Ronga in French, my native tongue. I decided to attempt it in English, as the public interested in South African affairs is essentially an English speaking public and as a great portion of the Thonga tribe is settled in British Territory. I know that I can rely on the indulgence of the English public... When my readers notice that the book has been written by a foreigner — I am afraid they will often make that remark — I beg them kindly to remember that, for me, it would have been much more agreeable to write it in French...

Sir,

To know ! To observe new facts and to discover new laws, to impart knowledge to the world, to gather solid material for the wonderful palace which Science is building is a splendid aim for a man's life. You know yourself by experience that it is a great, a noble task to work for Science. You have written books which have become classical and have provided a most valuable contribution to Political Science. But afterwards you have consented to fill one of the most important and most difficult posts which your country could offer you and you have devoted j'our time and your scientific experience to maintaining a friendly and fruitful contact between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon family. In doing so you have taught us a lesson : To work for Science is noble ; but to help our fellow men is nobler still.

And now — si parva licet componere magnis — allow me this confession. In the difficult undertaking wich lies before me, I shall feel immensely gratified if scientists find useful material amongst my observations for their studies. Anthropologists try to throw some light on the dark problem of the origin of the psychic life in mankind. May the picture of a South African primitive tribe bring them some

II valuable information. But I should feel even deeper satisfaction if my work could help my South African brethren and contribute to the peaceful solution of our great practical problem there, the native problem. White men soon tire of the native when they only see the badly educated youths who go about the streets of our colonial towns. They despise them, find them « cheeky » and very soon come to the conclusion : a Natives are no good !» Who can deny that this position taken up by so many South Africans is as dangerous for the peace of the country as are the very defects with which they reproach the natives and which often come from contact with a depraved and unscupulous civilisation ? Let those who are prejudiced against the black race study more carefully its customs, its mind, such as it reveals itself in the old rites of the Bantu tribes. Thev will see that these natives are much more earnest than they thought and that in them beats a true human heart. If, in their ignorance of true morality and of true religion, they have submitted themselves willingly to the sufferings of initiation, to the painful rites of purification in order to reach what they thought to be a higher level of human righteousness, are we not entitled to hope that we shall be able to build in them a character, when we place them under the moralising influence of Christianity and teach them to understand the religion which has saved the world ?

Should I succeed in eliciting new and more enlightened sympathy amongst the Whites for our native brethren, should this book prevent the gulf which separates the races from becoming wider, I think it will have been worth while writing it.

May I be allowed one final comment ? Colossal changes are now taking place amongst the South .\frican tribes. Civilisation has taken fast hold not only of the coast but of the interior. It has exercised a marvellous influence on the High Velt of Johannesburg and is spreading to the borders of the desert, .\mongst those races so long stagnant, an evolution has started which is proceeding with great rapiditv and a kind of fatality. What will be its ultimate result? The Ethnographer does not generally trouble himself with such questions. It is j enough for him to note the facts carefully and to describe them accurately. I aim at being a faithful and impartial Ethnographer in the study of customs which still e.Kist but will soon have passed away, but I cannot fbrg^t that I am also a Missionary. L belong to that body of men who, with Native Commissionners and liberal minded Colonists, feel they have a sacred duty to perform towards the weaker race. In this most tempting basket of varied fruits which civilisation offers to the Native, we feel we must guide his inexperienced hand, pointing out to him those which conduce to his happiness and progress and those which are poisonous and might be fatal to him. This book is addressed to those who can influence this evolution, be they the Authorities puzzled by the native problem, or be they educated natives who are perplexed regarding the future of their race. I will, endeavour to indicate the line along which it appears to me \ve ought to direct the tribe in "order to escape shame and distraction. But these suggestions wiTTbe'given in special paragraphs, carefully separated form the scientific treatise. I have enough respect for science to avoid mixing the two subjects. On the other hand, I trust those of my readers who do not share my religious faith or my philanthropic hope will not blame me for here touching upon the important problems of native policy : Science has never opposed the betterment and ennoblement of humanity ! If this book can in the slightest degree help towards this end, such help will be its best and most precious justification.

Henri A. Junod.

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER

THE THONGA TRIBE

1. Geographical delimitation of the tribe.

The Thonga tribe is composed of a group of Bantu poj)ulations settled on the Eastern coast of South Africa, extending from the neighbourhood of St Lucia Bay (28° Lat. S.) on the Natal Coast up to the Sabie River to the Xorth (i). Thonga are to be found therefore in four of the present South African states : In Natal (Amatongaland), the Transvaal (Leydenbourg, Zoutpansberg and Waterberg districts), in Rhodesia and mostly in Portuguese East Africa (Lourenco Marques, Inhambane and Mozambique Company districts). The Thonga border on the Zulus and the Swazis southwards; westwards on the Ba-Mbayi, Ba-Lauti and other Suto-Pedi clans in the Transvaal ; northwards on the Venda and Ba-Nyai in the Zoutpansberg and Rhodesia, and on the Ndjao near the Sabie ; and eastwards on the Tonga near Inhambane and on the Ba-Chopi, North of the mouth of the Limpopo.

The tribe comprises a certain number of clans. Those clans form six groups which speak the various dialects of the Thonga language.

(i) There are two rivers called Sabie in the Thonga Territorv ; one is the Sabie of the South which runs in the LexJenburg district and joins the Xkoniati not far from Kii. 53 of the Lourenco Marques-Transvaal line and the other, the one here refercd to, conies from Rhodesia and flows into the Indi.m Ocean not far from the 21° lat. South.

— 14 — II. Tribe, Groups and Clans.

It is necessary first of all to define clearly the precise meaning of these three terms.

We reserve the term /rz^g fprthe totality, of the JThonga niation. This word is frequently used to designate the smaller national units which are called after some old chief whose descendants are still reigning, like Tembe, Khosa, Nkuna, etc. We prefer for the sake of clearness to call those small units dans as there is certainly a great ressemblance between them and the Scottish clans. As a rule all men belonging to a clan bear the name of the old chief who is more or less considered as being the ancestor of them all. In the Tembe country most of the people will salute each other with these words : " Shawan Tembe, good morning, Tembe " ! But Tembe, the name of the clan means not only a group of people but a certain part of the country South of Delagoa Bay. In that countrj', men of other clans have settled. There are also sub-clans ot the Tembe clan which have already adopted special salutations because they have formed collateral branches of the big Tembe family. However the term clan is the best, I think, to designate that kind of national unit as its origin is essentially familial. Now some of those clans, those which occupy the same tract of countrj', form groups because they speak the same dialect of the Thonga language.

III. The generic Name of the Tribe.

As we shall see, there is no true national unity amongst the Thonga. They are hardly conscious that they form a definite nation and therefore they possess no common name for it. The name T^on^a (pronounce t -|- aspirated h, not the English th) was applied to them by the Zulu or Ngoni invaders who enslaved most of their clans between 1815 and 1830. The origin of this Zulu name is probably the term Ronga which means Orient (buronga = dawn) and by which the clans round Louren^o Marques used to call themselves. According to the phonetic laws of the two languages R in Ronga becomes Th when pronounced by the Zulu. (Ex. Randja, to love, in Ronga is thanda in Zulu ; raru, three, thatiiu.) This word Thonga became a nickname which, in the mouth of the Zulu, was almost the equivalent of slave and they applied it to the whole Thonga stock ; the appellation is not liked by the Thonga, but I know of no other which would be preferable to it.

Strange to say, the Thonga of the Northern Clans, especially those of the Bilen and Djonga groups, like to call themselves Tjonga, the Hlengwe Tsonga. This word is perhaps originalh' the same as Ronga and may have meant also people of the East, although the R of the Ronga dialect does not permute regularly in Tj and Ts in the Northern clans ; but this meaning is doubtful and has at any rate been forgotten. Another name which is much used amongst white people to designate the Thonga is the word Shangaan. Shangaan or Tshangaan was one of the surnames of Manukosi, the Zulu chief who settled on the East Coast and subjugated most of the Thonga at the time of Chaka. It is possible that this name was even older and that it belonged to a chief who lived in the valley of the Lower Limpopo before Manukosi. At any rate, this valley was called Ka Tshangaan and its inhabitants Matshangaan. But this term was never accepted by the Ba-Ronga who consider it as an insult. It is applied in Johannesburg roughly to all the East Coast " boys, " even to the Ba-Chopi who are considered by the Ba-Ronga of Delagoa-Bay as much inferior to them. Its adoption would be objectionable on that account. I recognise that the word Ba-Thonga does not enjoy much mort favour and is not quite satisfactory ; however considering that it means originally " people of the East '" and that the tribe is indeed living on the Eastern part of South Africa, it ought to be accepted in the course of time without much difficulty.