Major Decentralized Society in Zambia: main features

This post explore the main features of the Major decentralized society in Zambia and what has made their establishment possible

• Many Bantu-speaking groups had royal families who led and ruled them.
• However, some societies, such as the Tonga, ila, lenje and soli, did not have chiefs or kings, we call them decentralised societies.
• The main typical example of decentralised societies in Zambia is that of the Tonga, Ila and the Lenje also known as the Bantu Botatwe.

Origins of the Tonga

• Most Bantu-speaking people in Zambia trace their origins from the central African Luba- Lunda kingdoms.
• The Tonga where the first iron age people to reach present-day southern Zambia.
• The Tonga where iron age farmers, iron-workers and pastoralists. At first, they settled around the isamu pati and kalundu areas in the present -day kalomo district.
• This is supported by archaeological evidence of remains of human bones, sheep, cattle and goats, seeds of millet and sorghum, hand axes, knives and copperwares found in this area.

They belonged to the Iron Age Culture and are believed to have migrated from the Cameroon Highlands.

• They moved southwards and settled at two important sites such as Kalundu and Isamu Pati. They lived in the area between Barotseland in the western side, Gwembe Valley in the eastern side and Choma in the northern side.
• They either assimilated the Bushmen they found there or drove them away to the Kalahari Desert.
• The reasons for their migration and settlement into this area could have been due to the drying up of the Sahara which displaced people.
• The introduction of new crops, and population increase in the Cameroon Highlands also could have led to their migration.

Social Organisation of Decentralized Society in Zambia

• They lived in small villages.
• The huts usually were conical in nature and were usually built in a central place.
• The family was the main social unit.
• They were a matrilineal society and emphasised rights of parents over their children and supported them in paying lobola (bride price).
• They were a polygamous society.
• The clan and lineage were important aspects of their life.
• Each clan was named after an animal.
• Marriage within one’s clan was strictly prohibited. Succession and inheritance was matrilineal based.
• They were very religious and practised rituals, e.g. Malende when there was no rain or during droughts.
• They also believed in witchcraft.

Economic Organisation

• They practiced mixed farming.
• They grew crops such as sorghum, millet, maize and kept animals such as goats, cattle and sheep.
• They hunted wild animals and gathered wild fruits.
• They traded locally and not externally.
• They practiced pottery in which they made pots of channel decorated and globular type vessels which they used for cooking and storing food.
• They were also wood and metal workers. Their wealth was measured by the size of their herd.
• From cattle they got milk, meat and hides. They also used cattle for bride price (lobola), ritual sacrifices, paying fines, during death and initiation ceremonies.

Political Organisation

• Politically, they were a decentralised society.
• They had no central chief.
• The largest political unit was the neighbourhood made up of the neighbouring villages.
• The headman who commanded more political influence was called Ulamyika.
• The Sikatongo exercised religious leadership and acted as a custodian of the community’s shrine, the Malende.
• Chiefdoms were created by the colonial government in order to maintain law and order and collect tax on behalf of the colonial government.

The Ila and the Lenje

• The Ila people are the traditional inhabitants of Namwala district in Southern Province of Zambia and engage mostly in cattle keeping, fishing and subsistence farming.
• The Ila are emphatic that there ancestral home was beside Lake Tanganyika. In terms of existence of chieftainships, there were a few exceptions.
• The Lenje who live east of the Lukanga Swamp, have a chief Mukuni, who claims Luba origin.
• It is also said that the first Mukuni went south-west to found a chieftainship among the Leya near Victoria Falls.
• Existence of centralised chieftainships of any kind seems to have been uncommon among the Ila and the Lenje until well into the nineteenth century.
• This is one reason why little is known of their pre-colonial history.
• Lacking dynasties or other deep lineages, their perspectives of the past have probably always been extremely foreshortened