The Lozi Peoples of North-Western Rhodesia by V. W. Turner

The Lozi Peoples of North-Western Rhodesia by V. W. Turner

Author:V. W. Turner [Turner, V. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, African Studies, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781315304816
Google: ysoNDgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-02-03T03:25:02+00:00


THE KUTA AND ITS SUB-COUNCILS

In front of the king’s palace is a large open space, termed Namoo, beyond which lies the Kuta or council house. The council itself is called kuta. It is divided into “mats” (miseme), named after the mats on which the councillors sit. In the middle of the rear of the courthouse at the capital is a dais on which only the king, or princess chief, or honoured White visitors, may sit. On the king’s right hand are mats where sit the councillors-of-the-right (manduna), whose senior members are generically makwambuyu and whose junior members are malume. Gluckman describes these as indunas and regularly employs the term “councillors” to refer to all members of the council. On the king’s left is the mat of the likombwa, “stewards,” whose junior members are also called malume. On their left is the mat for princes and husbands of princesses (boishee, prince consorts) who represent their wives. At the front, facing the dais, sit the council’s police and attendants and the king’s bandsmen and attendants. Every title of each councillor, steward, prince or prince consort carries a fixed position on his mat. Successors to all titles are appointed by the king in council, though a few titles pass in kin-groups. At Namuso, next to the king, on his right hand sits the NGAMBELA. Beyond him is the NATAMOYO, the giver-of-life, a title held by a prince. NATAMOYO is a sanctuary. Each king has the power to appoint a new senior induna-of-the-right with a new title, described as “his own NGAMBELA” whose seat is below that of the NATAMOYO. When a king does so, all other titles move one seat farther away from the king. The history of the kingship is deposited in the indunas’ titles which may be likened to a series of geological strata.2 The personal NGAMBELAS of kings sit in order, that of the latest king nearest to him, that of the first king farthest away. When a king created the title of his own “NGAMBELA” he attached to it a large number of people scattered over Barotseland, to form a new political sector.

The three mats represent three important components of the state. The most powerful is the mat-of-the-right, the mat of the nation, the commoners. The royal mat represents the royal family and its rights over and obligations to the nation, as well as its rights to the kingship. The third mat of the stewards stands for the ruling king against the mat of the nation and the mat of the royal family. Though the king is especially represented in the council by the stewards, he stands above this particular representation. The whole council is the king’s: he is its owner, and the owner of the NGAMBELA, who is more specifically its owner. The INGANGWANA sits on the king’s immediate left and is the leader of the stewards. 3

The council is1 divided also into three sub-councils on each of which sit members of each mat. These sub-councils are: the Sikalo, the Saa and the Katengo.



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