Politics and Economics of Barotseland

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE LOZI

 

I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

 

Some twenty-five tribes of diverse origins inhabit Barotseland. The dominant tribe is the Lozi who inhabit the Barotse plain with related tribes about them. They were formely known as Luyi or Luyana until the early part of the 19th century when they were conqured by the Kololo horde, mainly of Basuto origin, from the south, who had been driven from the Kalomo plateu by the Matebele. The Luyi adopted the language of the conquerors, though they incorporated many Luyana words: the Sikololo became the lingua franca of the conqured area which at the time had innumerable dialects. In 1863 the regime of the kololo was upset and nearly all men were exterminated, but many Kololo women remained and through them the Sikololo continued to be spoken.

 

In successive stages the Luyi extended their dominion over the neighbouring tribes, moving some much as the Kwanga to the valleys and pans of the east. Their dominion extended over the Kwandi in the extreme south, and the Mashi in the west. It was not util the nineteenth century that they attempted conquest north to be defeated by the Luona, now the Luvale.

 

It is believed that certain tribes such as the Nkoya and other smaller tribes scattered to the east and north-east are relics of the original tribes who were driven to the east by the Lozi expanding from west: these tribes were then driven by the Kaonde, expanding from the north-east as recently as five generations ago, into small pockets in what are now the Kasempa and the Mumbwa Distrcts.

 

About 1800, groups from two western tribes – the Mbunda and the Mbalangwe – sought refuge in Barotseland, and were settled on the eastern margin of the Plain, while at the same time a group of Nkoya were brought from the east to setle the western edge of the Plain, thereby providing a buffer between each immigrant group and its homeland. Today all these immigrants have been assimilated.

 

In 1839 the Luyi were defeated by the Kololo who established their capital at Linyanti now in Botswana, and ruled Barotseland through a deputy stationed in the plains. Afew Luyi chiefs fled to the west and north and maintained themselves in exile until 1864, when the Kololo were defeated: the Luyi, henceforth the Lozi, were re-established under the Paramount Chief Sipopa. Lewanika, a later chief, defeated the luvale and raided south as far as Wankie and east to the Gwembe valley. Later under threats from Ndebele, he withdrew from the direction of Wankie.

 

Livingstone visisted Barotseland in 1853-4 and again in 1873. In 1883-7 the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society from Basutoland began work in the plains. Trade had already been established through Angola, and Arab traders from Zanzibar and Griquas from the south reached the capitals.

 

Largely upon the advice of the Paris Mission, the Lozi accepted the protection of Great Britain under treaties in 1890 and 1900. Lozi influence had extended in some parts further to the west, but when the western border of Northern Rhodesia was delineated, the more recent extensions of the Lozi were excluded. At the same time, the Lozi also lost the flood plain of the Kwando occupied by the Mashi, and that part of the Caprivi-Strip, which they vacated under the threat of the German advance from the present day Namibia. Within Northen Rhodesia, the boundaries Barotseland were also drawn to include less than the whole area traditionally under the Lozi domination. In more recent times the provincial boundary has been adjusted to exclude firstly a small part of the Simalaha Flats in the Sesheke District which lies east of the Machile river and, in 1940, neary the whole of Balovale District.

 

During this century, there has been a large immigration of Africans from Angola to British rule, and most have settled in Barotseland. These people, whom the Lozi call Wiko, accepted Lozi dominance. Politically the Lozi accepts them as full members of the Barotse nationals many regard themselves as Barotse.

 

II. THE POLITICAL SYSTEM

 

For themselves the Lozi had evolved a relatively closely integrated and complicated system of rule which ramified throughout their own tribe and those tribes who had been assimilated. It extended in skeletal form to the subject tribes. Their administrative units were not territorial divisions though these may have existed amongst the outlying tribes. An elaborate hierarchy of chiefs and chieftainasses (members of the royal family, and indunas, who were mainly commoners appointed by the Paramount Chief with the advice of his Council and having the several functions of officials, councilors and judges) performed the fuctions of Government. The whole organization is focused in the person of the ruler at his capital (at Lealui, this is now the permanent capital: formerly each chief chose his own capital. Here he has his council or kuta divided into sub-councils, which consist of members of the royal family, their stewards and indunas.

 

Early in Luyi history, a second capital Lwambi was established in the south of the plain. Thereafter administration has been organized on a north-south axis. This capital, said to have been founded by a woman, used to be established wherever the appointed ruler chose, but is now fixed at Nalolo. Prior to the Kololo interregnum, all rulers in the south were men, but since then these rulers have been women. The chieftainess at Lwambi has all the symbols of the paramount chieftaincy and her kuta duplicates the king’s; the Lozi accord her a respect second only to that which they accord the paramount chief. Until reforms introduced in 1947 the combination of the two councils under the paramount Chief was the formal ruling body of Barotseland.

 

In the administrative organization of the state the next in secular power to the Paramount Chief is the Ngambela, the Prime Minister or Chief Councilor. He has the position of great power and authority. The title of Ngambela is closely bound up with the conception of kinship though in some respects it is regarded as representing the rights of the commoners as against those of the Paramount Chief and royal family. Though in the local courts were assembled whenever necessary and convenient, nevertheless many local affairs were settled at the capital.

 

The establishment of the British rule led to changes in the Barotse system of government. The completely political system was re-organized in the theory on a territorial basis. For each district, one council was developed as a Native Authority. The administration of the province consisted of provincial council and subordinate district councils. A National Council consists of the Provincial Council and representatives from District Councils and met once or twice a year constituting a “Lower House”.

 

In Barotseland the British found a highly centralized system of administration, more developed and more powerful than others in Central Africa, and this system had proved remarkably adaptable to modern needs. The main British reform aimed at separating the king’s purse and the emoluments of his councilors from government finances, and at improving the administration of justice while reducing its costs, as well as creating clerical and technical bureaucracy. However, the effectiveness still depended on the individual’s recognition of his/her obligations to and rights over, others in the traditional organization of the state, on loyalty to the king and royal family, and on respect for his council.     

 

PHYSICAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND

 

I. PHYSICAL BACKGROUND AND CLIMATE

 

Most of Western Province consists of vast sandy plains that slop smoothly from an altitude of about 1, 200 meters in the northwest to about 900 meters in the southeast. This aspect makes the province a moderately low-lying area in comparison with most of Zambia. The province is intersected by the floodplains of the Zambezi River and its tributaries. These floodplains cover up about 13, 000 square kilometers of which the central and major Zambezi floodplain is commonly inundated from about January to about May.

 

The rains usually begin in late October in the north of the province and reach the south of the province in November. The rains usually end in March.

The average annual rainfall varies from about 700 millimeters in the south of the province to about 1,100 in the north.

 

The annual temperature range and its year-to-year variability are both small: the daily temperature range tends to be larger than the annual. There is, however, some seasonal disparities, with temperatures rising from winter lows in June and July to pre-rain peaks in October, then dropping again through the rain season and in winter. The area around Sesheke, along the Zambezi, experiences the coldest winters and hottest pre-rain periods in Zambia.

 

Relative humidity is significant as a gauge of the rate of evaporation and of temperature loss experienced by plants and animals. The relative humidity is directly related to other climatic factors: Western Province is inclined to be more humid in the north than in the south : during the rainiest season months (December and January) the relative humidity ranges from about 80% in the north to about 70% in the south. Sunshine is plentiful throughout the province, with extensive sunshine to be expected even during the rainy season: about 3, 000 hours of sunshine per year can expected in the south, this figure declining to about 2, 800 in the north.

 

II. SOILS

 

Most of province is covered with sandy soils of little fertility, with most of the nutrients, which come about at all being found in the top soil horizon, the zone of maximum grass-root development; the lower levels of the soils profiles in the province typically consist of structureless sand of moderately low fertility. On the other hand, some areas of the province are of exploitable agricultural potential. These areas are along the river Luena in Kaoma district, along the edges of the Zambezi floodplain in Kalabo, Lukulu, Mongu, Senanga and Shangombo districts.

 

Explanation of these areas is as follows:

  1. Along the river Luena in Kaoma district. Main recommended crops are maize, groundnuts, and soybeans. The major block is good-potential red soils is around Mangango as well as westwards from Mangango along the Luena river.
  2. The edges of the Zambezi floodplain in Kalabo, Lukulu, Mongu, Senanga and Shangombo districts. Main recommended crops are tree fruits, vegetables. The areas of good agricultural potential consist of the long, but narrow, strips of land along the slopes of the plain-edge escarpments.
  3. The west bank of Zambezi in Senanga and Sesheke districts. The red and brown upland sands, which occur in a narrow strip of the river between Senanga and Sesheke, have a higher potential. The reason probably is, owing to the low rainfall, fertilizers do not leach as quickly in these sandy soils as they do in similar soils in areas of greater rainfall.

 

III. TRADITIONAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC BACKGROUND

 

The region, which today is Western Province, corresponds with what before independence was the Barotseland Protectorate; and Baroteland, in turn was based on the older Barotse or Lozi kingdom. While the people and economy are becoming less dependent on traditional ways of life as the province develops and becomes increasingly integrated into the larger context of Zambia, most of the population of the province still retain some traditional ways of organizing their social and economic lives. Therefore, it is relevant to bear in mind at least those aspects of the traditional socio-economic background that can openly affect the economic and social development of the province within Zambia.

 

Nearly, about one-third of the population is of the province is concentrated in the areas around the Zambezi floodplain. This plain is more than 150 kilometers long (north-south) and 50 kilometers (east-west) at its widest (between Mongu and Kalabo).

 

The plain, with the escarpments which delineate its east and west limits, has constituted the heartland of the region for centuries. The annual inundation of the plain dominates the traditional economic and social activities of the inhabitants of the plain and the escarpments. This exclusive traditional economic pattern (caused in its turn, by the unique natural environmental conditions of the flood plain) led to the development of social pattern quite different from those prevailing in other parts of south-central Africa.

 

The development of the Lozi kingdom (including the Kololo period) dominated the region for more than a century before the British occupation, can be attributed to the special economic circumstances the floodplain environment provided and the socio-political patterns that these envirolmental circumstanstances gave rise to.

 

Traditionally, the inhabitants of the floodplain spent nine months of each year on the plain itself and three months, during the period of greatest flooding, on the edges of the plain along the escarpments. Few people spend much more than half of the year on the plain now, and an increasing number of people are settling permanently along the escarpments. The annual movements on and off the plain are, on the other hand, still of major importance to the inhabitants of the area. Although much of this transhumance now takes the form of short-term commuting, the economy of the area still depends on obtaining different foodstuffs and other products from different places (mid-plain, plain-edge escarpment) at different times of the year. This is recognized by the movement of certain infrastructural facilities (schools, local courts) on and off the plain, following the flood and the people.

 

When the floodwaters rise, usually around March, the grazing lands and mound and flat-gardens on the plain become flooded, and the people and their cattle in the non-flooded bush and tributary plains. Fish are difficult to catch during flood period. Around may the flood recedes, fish are easy to catch in traps as they follow the receding waters, and the people and their cattle move back to the plain, either installing themselves semi-permanently on arable mounds in the plain or, nowadays using the plain for grazing and mound-agriculture while living continuously along the escarpments. During this non-flood period, fish are caught in perennial streams and rivers. With the beginning of the rains, around October or November, gardens along the escarpment can be planted. When the floodwaters rise around March, the annual cycle begins again.              

 

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE WESTERN PROVINCE OF THE

 

I.                   TOURISM

 

Tourist attracton in the province include the Kuomboka Ceremony Zambezi River, the game parks, the floodplain, the Nayuma Museum.

 

  1. Kuomboka

This is quite colorful and popular as a ceremony for both the Zambians and those from abroad. There are also other smaller migratory ceremonies including the Kufuluela, the Litunga’s return to Lealui in July or August, the annual Kuomboka of the chieftainesses of Nalolo and Libonda.

 

  1. The Zambezi

This great river offers the potential for fishing, boating and sightseeing. The elongated part of the river in the Western Province includes glory of the annually inundating floodplain in the centre of the province. It also includes the minor waterfalls at Sioma and Ng’ambwe. All the town centers in the district headquarters of the province are situated at attractive sites, on or near the Zambezi. Boating is viable and sport fishing mostly for tiger fish.

 

  1. Game Reserves

The province has two national game parks.

 

Liuwa National Game Park (No. 15) is 3, 660 square kilometers in area. It is located 96 kilometers from Mongu and 16 kilometers from Kalabo town centers. This is the park where the tree-climbing lions are found (probably the only park in the world). Sioma –Nangweshi National Park (No. 16) covers 5, 276 square kilometers in the southwest of the province along the Angolan boarder. There potential of game viewing tourism is promising. There are accommodation facilities within the parks, and access is quite good.

 

  1. Nayuma Museum

 

 I.            AGRICULTURE

 

Most part of the province consists largely of sandy and wooden areas. The province can be divided into six general land-use areas.

 

  1. Cattle-Fishing-Maize-Cassava Area

This agricultural practice is the most feature of the province. It is practicable in almost 50% of the area of the province including Mongu, Kalabo, Senanga, and Lukulu districts. It is also practiced in the main Zambezi floodplain.

 

  1. Cattle-Fishing-Maize Area

This includes Sesheke district and other areas located east of the Zambezi River. The cultivated land is mainly along the river.

 

  1. Fishing-Maize-Cassava Area

This is practiced in the northern parts of the Kalabo and Lukulu districts.

  1. Cattle-Maize-Cassava Area

This is mainly practiced in the eastern district of Kaoma.

 

  1. Sorghum Area

The little cultivation of the area in the northern Kaoma district is characterized by the shifting cultivation-system of sorghum.

 

  1. Mainly uncultivated Area

This includes the parts of Senanga and Sesheke districts that lie west of the Zambezi. There are smaller agricultural activities of the Cattle-Fishing-Maize-Cassava type.

 

Crops

  1. Rice

Rice is extensively grown in Mongu, Kalabo, Senanga and Shangombo districts. High yielding varieties are performing better than any other province in the country. The recent years have witnessed yields per hectare of more than 1 to 1.5 metric tons especially in Mongu area. About 50% of the rice produce is exported out of the province to other parts of the country and the southern neighboring countries.

 

  1. Maize

It is the most important crop in the province as the mainsubsistence food. Mostly, maize is grown on commercial farming basis in Kaoma.

 

  1. Cassava

Several varieties of cassava are grown in the province.

 

  1. Other food grains and pulses

Sorghum, millet, sunflower and various types of beans are grown in the province. They also form an important part of the local diet.

 

  1. Tobacco

The tobacco farming schemes in Kaoma are generally regarded as successful. Average yields are about 1.7 tons per hectare in Kaoma.

 

Livestock

Cattle-raising is one of the important economic activities of the province. About one-half of the cattle population of the province is concentrated around the Zambezi floodplain and in the southern-eastern part of Sesheke district.

 

II.            FISHING

A good population of families that live approximately in the main Zambezi floodplain practice fishing for subsistence. Large scales of fishing take place in the dry season between June and November. Fish is plentiful during the dry season. It is important to the province for the supply of food and for the employment activities, it provides.

 

The main fishing areas in the Western Province are:

 

  1. Main Zanbezi floodplain

This area extends 180 kilometers from Libonda to Senanga. The area produces more than 60% of the dry-season catch. The commercial anglers on this plain mainly use gill nets. The prevalence of cattle and other animal droppings on the plain (during dry seasons) makes the production of primary fish food and foliage relatively good.

 

  1. Southern floodplain

The area spans about 100 kilometers from Sesheke to Mambova.

 

  1. Zambezi River north of Libonda

The fish population of fish in this are is relatively small due to lack floodplain. Vegetation is not good and the high banks of the river make accessibility difficult.

 

  1. Tributaries of the Zambezi

The main tributary rivers are the Luanginga, Lungwebungu and the south Lueti. Very large amounts of small species are caught in the wet season as fish trek upstream for breading. This catch is mainly subsistence and quite important because it happens when fish is scarce.

 

  1. Senanga to Sioma

The main floodplain ends south of Senanga. Rocks and steep riverbanks limiting access and fishing feature the area.

 

  1. Sioma to Sesheke

There is virtually limited fishing potential here due to rocks and rapids that prevent vegetation.

 

  1. Forest Lakes

More than 70 lake found east of Zambezi contain mainly species of bream that support subsistence fishing.

 

III.            FORESTRY

Forestry activities of the province can be divided into two categories. The northern section covers nearly Mongu, Kalabo, Kaoma, and Lukulu districts. The southern covers Senanga , Sesheke, and Shangombo districts. The southern section holds forests of greatest commercial value. Their commercial significance lies mainly on their stocks of baikiaea plurijuga (mukusi) and Pterocorpus angolensis (mukwa). The forests also contain other less abundant species that have some commercial value. The mixed woodlands in the northern section serve the local demand in construction furniture.

The primary uses and markets for timber from the Western Province are:

 

  1. Mukusi

It is the most important wood of commercial value for the province. This hardwood is suitably used for sleepers and as mining timber due to the modest resistance of sapwood and strong resistance of the hardwood to termites and the weather. It is also used in parquet flooring and pieces of furniture.

 

  1. Mukwa

This wood is durable and resistant. It is easily workable by hand and quite decorative as compared to mukusi. It has the high value as a wood for joinery. The versatility of mukwa as timber makes its competition with other imported hardwoods in terms of furniture and construction more feasible.

 

  1. Other species

Other scattered types like muangula (pterocorpus antunesii) and mungongo (rici nodendron rantanenii) offer limited possibilities for commercial use. Furniture makers, small-scale sawyers, and handicraft-makers use these mixed woodlands.

 

IV.            MINING

The resources of the major minerals in the province include:

 

  1. Copper, tin, and sulphur

There are significant traces of these minerals near Kasimba along Lalafuta river on the border with Northern province.

 

  1. Semi-precious stones

Beryl is found on the border with the Northwest province and further to the south. Agate is found north of Sesheke along the Zambezi.

 

  1. Boron

Large layers of tourmaline are associated with granite in the province. This equally indicates the existence of bauxite.

 

  1. Gypsum and Salt

There is high alkalinity around Mulelekuta some 50 kilometers west of Sioma.

 

  1. Quartz and sandstone

The deposits of Quartz and sandstone of 10-15 meters thick have formed a 40-kilometer long belt south of Nangweshi and Sioma along both sides of the Zambezi.

 

  1. Sand and Clay

Sands occur in consolidated and unconsolidated quantities. Borehole readings indicate GS 116 to about 8 meters at boreholes GS 112 and GS 114. The is white and requires little washing, and some is 99% pure. Clay is abundant in the floodplains and dambos.

  1. Coal

Layers of coal have been found south of Kahare.

 

  1. Iron ore

Large iron ore deposits are found southeast of Kaoma at Kahare. Geological surveys indicate that this may be the largest deposit in Zambia.

 

  1. Other mineral Resources

Recent geological surveys found occurrences of oil and diamond in the province.

 

                                                                              

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