Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T20:13:27.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chronology of the Bemba (N.E. Zambia)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Andrew Roberts
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The main reference point for the chronology of the Bemba is their paramount chieftainship, Chitimukulu. A comparison of written records of traditions with the results of fieldwork in 1964–5 shows that it is impossible to determine the antiquity of this title with any precision, or to demonstrate any very clear connection with Luba or western Lunda history. There is however a strong probability that the Chitimukuluship was created some time in the seventeenth century, and it is certainly older than the eastern Lunda kingdom of Kazembe. There is no continuous genealogy of Chitimukulus before the end of the eighteenth century, but from this period it is possible to construct an approximate chronology of their reigns on the basis both of genealogy and of comparison between Bemba, Lunda and Portuguese sources. The first firm dates are supplied by Livingstone, in 1867 and 1872, and Giraud, in 1883. The chronology of Chitimukulu is compared, in two tables, with the chronology of other Bemba chieftainships and certain other chiefly dynasties in north-eastern Zambia and south-western Tanzania.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , April 1970 , pp. 221 - 240
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 Richards, A. I., ‘Social mechanisms for the transfer of political rights in some African tribes’, J. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. XC, ii (1960), 175–90.Google Scholar

3 Brelsford, W. V., The Succession of Beinba Chiefs (Lusaka, 1944: references here to the second edition of 1948).Google Scholar

4 Ann, Tweedie, ‘Towards a history of the Bemba’, in Stokes, E. T. and Brown, R. (eds.), The Zambesian Past (Manchester, 1966), 197–220.Google Scholar

5 Tanguy, F., Imilandu ya Babemba (London, 1948: references here to the second edition of 1963).Google Scholar

6 Young, R. A., ‘Awemba history as I have heard it’, Chinsali District Notebook, 1, 232–9 (National Archives of Zambia (NAZ)).Google Scholar

7 Robertson, W. G., An Introductory Handbook to the Language of the Bemba People (London, 1904).Google Scholar The historical section of this was reprinted in Robertson, W. G., ‘Kasembe and the Bemba nation’, J. Afr. Soc., III (1903–1904), 183–93.Google Scholar

8 Pine, G., ‘North-Eastern Rhodesia: its peoples and products: part I’, J. Afr. Soc. v (1905–1906), 130–47.Google Scholar

9 Gouldsbury, C. and Sheane, H., The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia (London, 1911), 31.Google Scholar

10 Verhulpen, E., Baluba et Baluba¯sés (Antwerp, 1936).Google Scholar

11 Guillemé, Fr., ‘List of Bemba kings’ (trans Cookson, P.), Kasama District Notebook, (NAZ).Google Scholar

12 E. B. H. Goodall, ‘Genealogy of Bemba chiefs’ (NAZ/KSZ 4/I).

13 Coxhead, J. C. C., The Native Tribes of North-Eastern Rhodesia. Occasional paper of the Royal Anthropological Institute (London, 1914).Google Scholar

14 Lloyd, , ‘List of the Chitimukulus. …’ Kasama District Notebook, (NAZ), I, 413–4.Google Scholar

15 Labrecque, E., ‘La tribu des Babemba: I: Les origines des Babemba’, Anthropos, XXVIII (1933), 633–48.Google Scholar

16 Labrecque, E., ‘Les origines des Babemba de la Rhodésie due Nord (Zambia)’, Annali del Pontifico Museo Missionario Etnologico XXXII (1968), 249–329. This omits a few names given in the earlier article.Google Scholar

17 White, Fathers, Ifyabukaya: Fourth Bemba Reader (Chilubula, n.d. [1932]). There is a Xerox copy of this rare work in the Department of Africa at the S.O.A.S.Google Scholar

18 Tanguy, , Imilandu, 20–21, 4.Google Scholar

19 Mushindo, P. B., A Short History of the Bemba (Lusaka: in press). I am most grateful to Mr Mushindo for enabling me to consult his history in typescript.Google Scholar

20 Brelsford, , Succession, 5.Google Scholar

21 Ibid. 5–6; White, Fathers, Ifyabukaya, 39–40, The date of 1887 for the death of Chitapankwa has been widely repeated since; it is thus perhaps worth noting that the correct date, 1883 (cf. section 4(a) below) was given in another White Fathers compilation:Google ScholarPineau, H., Evêque-Roi des Brigands (Montreal, 2nd ed. 1944), 125.Google Scholar

22 The date 1856 for the first conflict between Bemba and Ngoni, which is cited in such recent works as Gann, L. H., A History of Northern Rhodesia (London, 1964), 20,Google Scholar may be traced back to Robertson, , Introductory Handbook, xx,Google Scholar by way of Poole, E. H. Lane, Native Tribes of the Eastern Province of Northern Rhodesia (Lusaka; 3rd ed., 1949),Google Scholar 9, and Gouldsbury, and Sheane, , Great Plateau, 29. There is no good authority for it: ‘about 1850’Google Scholar is as precise as the evidence permits (cf. Roberts, , ‘Political history of the Bemba’, 209).Google Scholar

23 E.g., J. Vansina, Kingdoms of the Savanna, 88;Google Scholar also Tweedie, , ‘Towards a history’, 203.Google Scholar

24 See Birmingham, D. B., ‘The date and significance of the Mbangala invasion of Angola’, J. Afr. Hist. VI, no.2 (1965), 543–52;Google Scholar and the reply by J. Vansina, ‘More on the invasions of Kongo and Angola by the Jaga and the Lunda’ (ibid. vii, no 3 (1966), 421–9).

25 Verhulpen, , Baluba 152–3.Google Scholar

26 Pogge, P., Im Reiche des Mwata Jamvo (Berlin, 1880), 225–6;Google ScholarDias de Carvalho, H., Ethnographia a historia tradicional dos Povos da Lunda (Lisbon, 1890), 95, 527, 541.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27 Duysters, L., ‘Histoire des Aluunda’, Probléines de l'Afrique Centrale, XX (1958), 86. The manuscript version of this paper was used by Verhulpen.Google Scholar

28 Cunnison, I. G. (ed. and trans.), Historical Traditions of the Eastern Lunda, Central Bantu Historical Texts, II (Lusaka, 1962), 29.Google Scholar This may well be the ‘Mushili’ mentioned in Lozi traditions as the name of a chief somewhere around the Zambezi–Congo watershed (cf., Vansina, Kingdoms, 177 and 288, n. 11).Google Scholar

29 I should perhaps add that Verhulpen uses ‘Bemba’ very freely to refer, not only to the people now known by that name, but also to the Lunda of Kazembe (Baluba, 149, 378, 392),Google Scholar and to the Kasanga, Tumbwe and Tabwa west of Lake Tanganyika (ibid. 47, 66, 69, 108, 126). He considers that these people represent northward migrations by the Bemba of Chitimukulu, though again he cites no evidence for this view (ibid. 84, 118, 375).

30 Richards, , ‘Social mechanisms’, 182.Google Scholar

31 Thomas, F. M., Historical Notes on the Bisa Tribe of Northern Rhodesia (Lusaka, 1958), 4.Google Scholar

32 Livingstone, D. (ed. Waller, H.), The Last Journals of David Livingstone, 1 (London, 1874), 184–95.Google Scholar

33 Giraud, V., Les Lacs de l'Afrique Equatoriale (Paris, 1858), 271, 377.Google Scholar

34 White Fathers' Kayambi journal, 20 May 1896, White Fathers' archives, Rome, 184 (p. 299); cf, . British Central Africa Gazette, 15 08 1896.Google Scholar

35 Brelsford, , Succession, 9;Google ScholarTanguy, , Imilandu, 77.Google Scholar

36 de Lacerda Almeida, F. J. M., Travessia da Africa (Lisbon, 1936), 326.Google Scholar

37 Cunnison, (ed.), Historical Traditions, 49, 53.Google Scholar

38 Gamitto, A. C. P. (trans. Cunnison, I. G.), King Kazembe (Lisbon, 1960), I, 168–9; II, 148.Google Scholar

39 Mushindo, , Short History, section 48;Google ScholarLabrecque, , ‘Origines’, 296;Google ScholarThomas, , Historical Notes, 40.Google Scholar

40 Gamitto, , King Kazembe, II, 161; 1, 175.Google Scholar

41 Chinsali District Notebook (NAZ), 1, 253;Google ScholarLabrecque, , ‘Origines’, 274.Google Scholar

42 Mushindo, , Short History, section 6;Google ScholarWhite, Fathers, Ifyabukaya, 39.Google Scholar

43 Cf., Roberts, ‘Political History of the Bemba’, chap. 4.Google Scholar

44 Gray, R., ‘Eclipse maps’, J. Afr. Hist. VI (1965), 258, 260; R. Gray, ‘Annular Eclipse Maps’,Google Scholaribid., ix (1968), 757. Annular eclipses also traversed the area here defined on 4 12 1611 and 2 12 1850.

45 Thomas, , Historical Notes.Google Scholar

46 Fieldnote, 1964−5.

47 My informant substantially corroborated the list given in the Lumigu District Notebook (NAZ), II, 161.

48 Lane-Poole, , Native Tribes, 28.Google Scholar

49 Labrecque, , ‘La tribu des Babemba’, 644, n. 4;Google ScholarWatson, W., Tribal Cohesion in a Money Economy (Manchester, 1958), 13.Google Scholar

50 Cf.Vansina, , Kingdoms of the Savanna, 89.Google Scholar

51 Labreque, , ‘La tribu des Babemba’, 645.Google Scholar

52 Willis, R. G., ‘The Fipa’, in Roberts, Andrew (ed.), Tanzania before 1900 (Nairobi, 1968), 90–2.Google Scholar

53 Mushindo, , ‘Short history’, 68.Google Scholar

54 Willis, , ‘The Fipa’, 84–5;Google ScholarVansina, , Kingdoms, 89.Google Scholar

55 Cunnison, I. G., The Luapula Peoples of Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, 1959), 37.Google ScholarCf.Crawford, D., Back to the Long Grass (London, n.d. [?1924]), 128–9, 254.Google Scholar

56 Lacerda, , Travessia, 290–1.Google Scholar

57 Cunnison, I. G., ‘The Reigns of the Kazembes’, N. Rhod.J. III, no.3 (1956), 131–8;Google ScholarCunnison, , Historical Traditions, 56;Google ScholarCunnison, , Luapula Peoples, 40.Google Scholar

58 Avermaet, E., Dictionnaire Kiluba–Français (Tervuren, 1954), 304–5.Google Scholar

59 Struyf, Y., ‘Kahemba…’, Zaire, II, no. 4(1948), 360.Google Scholar

60 Vansina, , Kingdoms, 276, n. 29;Google ScholarStruyf, , 359.Google Scholar

61 Roland, H., ‘Résumé de l'histoire ancienne de Katanga’, Problémes sociaux congolais, no. 61 (1963), 17Google Scholar for further details see Roberts, , ‘Political history’, chap. 2.Google Scholar

61 Brelsford, , Succession, 18, 20.Google Scholar

62 Richards, A. I., ‘Mother Right among the Central Bantu’, in Evans-Pritchard, E. E. et al. (eds.), Essays presented to C. C. Seligman (London, 269;)Google ScholarRichards, A. I., ‘The Bemba…’, in Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (eds.), African Political Systems (London, 1940), 100.Google Scholar

63 Ibid.; Richards, , ‘Social mechanisms’, 182.Google Scholar

64 Richards, , ‘The Bemba…’ 102;Google ScholarBrelsford, , Succession, 49; and cf. note 12 above.Google Scholar

65 Richards, , ‘Social mechanisms’, 182.Google Scholar

66 Cf, Cunnison, Luapula Peoples, 230–41.Google Scholar

67 Tanguy, , Imilandu, 44.Google Scholar