Missionary Travels and Researches in South AfricaLivingstone, David
Religion
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
Livingstone, David
Missions -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
The Makololo cultivate a large extent of land around their villages.
Those of them who are real Basutos still retain the habits of that
tribe, and may be seen going out with their wives with their hoes in
hand--a state of things never witnessed at Kolobeng, or among any other
Bechuana or Caffre tribe. The great chief Moshesh affords an example to
his people annually by not only taking the hoe in hand, but working hard
with it on certain public occasions. His Basutos are of the same family
with the Makololo to whom I refer. The younger Makololo, who have been
accustomed from their infancy to lord it over the conquered Makalaka,
have unfortunately no desire to imitate the agricultural tastes of their
fathers, and expect their subjects to perform all the manual labor. They
are the aristocracy of the country, and once possessed almost unlimited
power over their vassals. Their privileges were, however, much abridged
by Sebituane himself.
I have already mentioned that the tribes which Sebituane subjected in
this great country pass by the general name of Makalaka. The Makololo
were composed of a great number of other tribes, as well as of these
central negroes. The nucleus of the whole were Basuto, who came with
Sebituane from a comparatively cold and hilly region in the south. When
he conquered various tribes of the Bechuanas, as Bakwains, Bangwaketze,
Bamangwato, Batauana, etc., he incorporated the young of these tribes
into his own. Great mortality by fever having taken place in the
original stock, he wisely adopted the same plan of absorption on a
large scale with the Makalaka. So we found him with even the sons of the
chiefs of the Barotse closely attached to his person; and they say to
this day, if any thing else but natural death had assailed their father,
every one of them would have laid down his life in his defense. One
reason for their strong affection was their emancipation by the decree
of Sebituane, "all are children of the chief."
The Makalaka cultivate the 'Holcus sorghum', or dura, as the principal
grain, with maize, two kinds of beans, ground-nuts ('Arachis hypogoea'),
pumpkins, watermelons, and cucumbers. They depend for success entirely
upon rain. Those who live in the Barotse valley cultivate in addition
the sugar-cane, sweet potato, and manioc ('Jatropha manihot'). The
climate there, however, is warmer than at Linyanti, and the Makalaka
increase the fertility of their gardens by rude attempts at artificial
irrigation.
The instrument of culture over all this region is a hoe, the iron of
which the Batoka and Banyeti obtain from the ore by smelting. The amount
of iron which they produce annually may be understood when it is known
that most of the hoes in use at Linyanti are the tribute imposed on the
smiths of those subject tribes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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