Annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of Northern Rhodesia.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1936]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the social and economic progress of the people of Northern Rhodesia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    oblivion, their traces remain in the extraordinary number and diversity of races and of languages in the country. At the present time the population of the territory has been classified into seventy-three different tribes, the most important of which are the Wemba, Ngoni, Chewa, and Wisa in the north- eastern districts, the Rozi, Tonga, Luvale, Lenje, and Ila in the north-western districts, and the Senga, Lala, and Lunda, mem¬ bers of which are resident in both the eastern and western areas. There are some thirty different dialects in use, but many of them vary so slightly that a knowledge of six of the principal languages will enable a person to converse with every native in the coun¬ try. Chinyanja is in use as the official language of the police and is probably the language most generally spoken by Euro¬ peans; it is in reality a Nyasaland language—the word means ‘ ‘ Language of the Lake ''—but it is also spoken to some extent round Fort Jameson. In many instances the tribes overlap and encroach upon each other, and it is not uncommon to find a group of villages of one tribe entirely surrounded by villages of another tribe. Many of the tribes on the borders extend into neighbouring territories; in some instances the paramount chief resides in a foreign country and only a small proportion of the tribe lives in Northern Rhodesia. The chief invaders of the early part of the 19th century were the Arabs from the north, the Angoni, a branch of the early Zulus who fled from the oppressive tyranny of Tchaka and who settled in the north-east of the territory, and the Makololo, an offshoot of the Basuto family, who in the beginning of the 19th century fought their way from the south through Bechuanaland and across the Zambesi under the noted Chief Sebitoani; they con¬ quered the Batoka, the Masubia, and the Marozi and founded a kingdom which was distinguished by a comparatively high degree of social organization. The duration of the Makololo kingdom was short, lasting between twenty and thirty years. Soon after the death of Sebi¬ toani, the Marozi rebelled and massacred fhe Makololo to a man, keeping their women. As a result of this the influence of their occupation is still to be seen in the Sikololo language, which is largely spoken amongst the tribes near the Zambesi. The Marozi under Lewanika enlarged their kingdom by conquering several surrounding tribes, such as the Mankoya, the Malovale, and the Batoka. Beyond these limits their authority was both nebulous and ephemeral. In the year 1891 Lewanika was informed that the protection of Her Majesty's Government had been extended to his country as he had requested that it should be, and on 17th October, 1900, the Barotse Concession was signed by him and his chiefs and representatives of the Chartered Company. The concession was confirmed in due course by the Secretary of State for the
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