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The purpose of this site is to try and get the world to start dealing with the interaction between culture and success in a mature and intelligent manner. Poll: Do you believe culture influences success? Yes 67.5% No 17.3% Uncertain 15.1% - Newest Articles - Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. - Categories - - All Articles - Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. This 1920 work by Roger Babson is a classic with in its genre. It promotes the traditional, pre-1960s explanation for the connection between success and culture. Current events in Zimbabwe are giving us an unprecedented opportunity to measure and judge the effect of white settlement and colonization in Africa. Average US Incomes by Race, Ethnicity and Religion. Max Weber's claim that Protestantism is more conducive to success than Catholicism and that Calvinism is in particular more successful is widely repeated and rarely examined. We need to recognize that culture is the personality of a group or race and we must see culture and having seen it, make it a work of art. The moral justification for welfare is supposed to be that we are temporarily helping out our fellow man through a rough stretch of road or helping the disabled permanently. If it is to become a system for continually transferring wealth from one group to another the people behind this change owe us an explanation. The great taboo of our age is not speaking about race, but speaking about culture. Bourgeoisie is more than just a term of abuse used by the Left, it refers to a real people who led real lives. Selections from the Federal Outlook Selections from a 1960's Rhodesian newspaper. How Africa Underdeveloped Africa Africa is the poorest place in the world. Why? Will Famine Come to Zimbabwe? The end of commercial farming in Zimbabwe could plunge the country into famine. The Tragedy of the Zimbabwe Commons Communally owned property always has and always will suffer from the 'tragedy of the commons' problem. Band Aid Africa recieves $15 billion a year in aid. Is it helping? |
(By Louis C. THOMPSON)
The BaLemba is a native tribe, the members of which are scattered throughout Southern Rhodesia and the Northern Transvaal, living in small villages amongst various Bantu tribes, The tribe is divided into clans, bearing Arabic names, as Hasani, Hamisi, Sayyidi, and Sherifi. The headquarters of the tribe is in the Belingwe district of Southern Rhodesia, west of Zimbabwe, where their chief, M'Posi (a dynastic title), lives. They speak the Chicaranga language. The members of the tribe have Semitic features, and practise Semitic rite and observances.
In the olden days, the men were miners, metalworkers, weavers, and traders; the women were potters. Although the headquarters of the tribe has been in the Belingwe district for a very long time, they have always been a roving people, and formerly were to be found where their old mineworkings are still to be seen, living under the protection of chiefs of other tribes, to whom they pay tribute.
In 1837 the Zulu M'Zilikazi, founder of the Amandebeli nation, having wiped out all the Sesutospeaking tribes of the present Western Transvaal, and of the adjoining country of Bechuanaland, moved North to settle in the country of the Makalaka, now known as Matabeleland. His impis then proceeded to slaughter all the tribes living in what is today Southern Rhodesia, the BaLemba sharing the fateof the other tribes. Many of the survivors crossed the Limpopo River, to take refuge amongst their coppermining brethern, who were living under the protection of the Bavenda chief.
PostZimbabwe type of wall decorated with herringbone pattern. Belingwe, Southern Rhodesia
In 1898, when General Joubert drove the Bavenda chief Mpefu across the Limpopo River, the majority of the BaLemba went with Mpefu, and settled in their former territory in the Belingwe district. Their present chief, M'Posi, was born in the Northern Transvaal.
BALEMBA NEW YEAR
The New Year begins when the new moon is first seen at the end of the month of November. Only the old men in the kraal are allowed to look at the new moon of their New Year; the other members of the kraal must first see the reflection of the new moon in bowls of water which are placed on the ground by the old men.
HIGH PRIESTS
Amongst the BaLemba is a class of hereditary high priests. Owing to the superior intelligence of the BaLemba, some of the chiefs of other tribes had a MuLemba priest attached to them, and today this practice is still continued. He is a very important person, whose kraal is next to that of the chief, to whom he is adviser, doctor, priest, rainmaker and diviner; he is also president of the circumcision lodge of the tribe. The BaLemba priests were responsible for the introduction of the rite of circumcision and other Semitic rites into the ritual of the tribe with whom they dwelt.
SACRED GROVES
Certain groves in which the priests make offerings to the Supreme Being are looked upon by the tribe as being sacred. The tribe has no totem.
THE NEW KRAAL
Before a new kraal is occupied, the MuLemba priest sacrifices a sheep, the blood of which he sprinkles on one of the upright posts and one of the rafters of each hut; the remaining blood he sprinkles on the ground of the kraal, after which a feast Is made when the carcase of the animal Is consumed by the members of the kraal.
The members of the tribe are not allowed to eat liii' flesh or the pig, nor of the hippopotamus, nor that of any animal found dead. All animals to be eaten must, have their throats cut In Semitic fashion. If a priest lives In the kraal, he does the slaughtering, otherwise a man is appointed for this duty. They will not eat with members of another tribe, nor will they use a pot belonging to a member of another tribe for cooking purposes. Alcohol is consumed in the form of kaflirbeer.
THE NEW GRANARY
A new granary, before use, must be consecrated by a priest, who sacrifices a white fowl, the blood of which he sprinkles on the floor and inside walls.
BIRTH
When a child is born, the father is not permitted to see it until the umbilical cord is separated. Three days after the separation of the cord, the head of the baby is shaved, and small incisions made on the scalp and face, into which medicine is rubbed. The mother undergoes a course of purification by the priest. The boys attend the circumcision lodge, which is held every few years, at the ages of fourteen to sixteen.
When a girl reaches maturity, a conical object made of wood, covered with red clay, bearing at the apex a tassel of wild cotton dyed red, is borrowed from the chief. For three days she has to sit in a river with this object attached to her girdle at the base of the spine.
MARRIAGE
The BaLemba are very particular with regard to their women. No woman is allowed to marry a man of another tribe. Should a MuLemba woman elope with a man from another tribe (a very rare occurrence), she is brought back to her home and purified. Should childbirth result from the elopement, the baby is killed. Men are allowed to take wives from other tribes, in which case the brideelect has to undergo a course of purification by the priest. The process of purification is as follows: The hairs of the head, pubis and axillae, having been shaved, the girl lies on the bank of the river and is covered by the priest with dry sticksit is the duty of the girl to collect the wood for the firewhich he sets alight. When she feels the heat of the fire, she jumps into the river. After purification she is admitted to membership of the tribe. She is not allowed to take any of her belongings to her new home. A man may take as many wives as he can afford to pay for.
DEATH
When a MuLemba man dies, shortly after death an incision is made in the jugular vein. The body is wrapped in an oxskin, with the lower limbs and the left arm extended, the right forearm flexed, the face resting on the palm of the right hand. The body is laid in the grave* on its right side, facing North. Only the hoes of the deceased are placed in the grave. His assegais and his axe are left in the hut for the eldest son of the principal wife, who is sole heir to all his late father's belongings. The hut is not deserted; after being purified by the priest it is reoccupied. When a woman dies, the corpse is wrapped in a blanket. Half her beads are distributed among her relations; the other half are put in a small bowl which is placed in the grave above the head. All the pots of the deceased are placed on the grave. The relatives of the deceased shave their heads and mourn for seven days, during which period they are not allowed to perform work of any description. In the case of the death of a man, a feast is held on the seventh day, when it is believed that the spirit departed at death returns to the body. Prior to the introduction of Christianity the BaLemba alone in Southern Africa buried their dead in an extended position. All the remaining tribes buried their dead in a sitting position.
* The grave must not be deeper than the armpits of the gravediggers. They seem to attach great importance to this. When the grave is dug, a recess is excavated in the side of the grave. In this recess the body Is placed, doubtless to prevent pressure on the body.L.C.T.
INDUSTRIES
Potters-Formerly the BaLemba women made all the pots for the tribes with whom they dwelt.
Weavers-The men, up to forty years ago, wove a fine cloth from a species of wild cotton (Gossypium transvaalens), also a coarse cloth from the bark of the Baobab tree (Adansonia digitata).
Traders-Formerly all the trade in the portion of the country where they lived was in the hands of the BaLemba. It was to them that the agents of the East Coast merchants came, with brass, cloth goods and glass beads, to trade for ivory, gold, copper, tin, skins and ostrich feathers.
Mining-The socalled ancient mine workings of the ancestors of the present BaLemba can be seen scattered over a large area of Southern Africa. Their method of mining was to sink a vertical or inclined shaft. In the evening a wood fire was made against the face of the metalbearing rock; in the morning water was poured on the heated rock, which cracked it. With a dolerite stone hammer and an iron gad, the ore was extracted. When they struck water the shaftsinking stopped, as they had no means of dealing with the water. They mined to a maximum depth of 120 feet. The Bavenda and Basuto quarried copper and iron ore in open workings.
Gold-Goldmining was formerly a BaLemba monopoly. The goldbearing quartz was crushed to a fine powder by means of a dolerite pestle in holes in the granite. The goldbearing sand was washed in a wooden dish, by which method the gold was separated. The gold was made into ornaments. Gold beads were made by two methods: (1) by casting in a mould; (2) by bending a piece of wire.
Gold wire, having been drawn, was wound round a core of fibre or the hairs from the tail of an animal, to form bracelets, anklets, etc.
Gold was beaten into thin plates, which were tacked to wooden objects with minute gold tacks.
CopperBy the numbers of old workings and smelting sites near the Limpopo River, this must have been a flourishing industry. According to Bavenda tradition, when this tribe crossed the Limpopo River (about two hundred years ago), the BaLemba were then mining the copperlodes.
The Bavenda say that the BaLemba taught them how to mine and smelt copper, that they were very secretive people, and it was a long time before the BaLemba would part with their knowledge of smelting.
The BaLemba say that their ancestors were the first people to mine copper near the Limpopo River, and that they taught the other tribes how to mine and smelt copper.
Smelting.The copper ore was placed with charcoal in a clay furnace. Three bellows made of goat skins were used to produce the blast. Towards the end of the smelting process green blocks of a certain species of tree were placed in the furnace, according to an old native miner, for the purpose or bringing the Copper together. (Today in the Messina Mine Smelter, en ecealyptus poles are placed in the furnace to reduce the copper oxide to copper.) After the copper had been removed from the furnace it was melted in a thick clay pot. The copper was then cast into ingots in moulds of damp sand. There were two types of ingots: (1) commercial; (2) ceremonial.
The commercial ingot was made in three castings; they vary in shape: the smaller ones are cylindrical, and the larger ones rectangular. On top of the ingot are rows of studs, which indicated the amount of copper in the ingot. Each stud represents approximately a quarter of a pound of copper. One stud represented the value of an iron hoe. Two hoes equalled one goat, and ten goats equalled one cow. A small ingot, without the base, which is missing, with thirteen studs, weighs 3 its. 1 oz. The largest ingot was so heavy that it required the strength of two men to carry it.
The ceremonial ingot was made in two castings. The head was cast first; a piece of damp clay was then placed in the mould, leaving sufficient space for the thin body to be cast. The base was formed by the overflow. The purpose for which these ingots were made has not been divulged. Two graves have been found near the South bank of the Limpopo River decorated with this type of ingot.
WiredrawingThe BaLemba drew gold and copper wire. The implements used for the latter were: (1) An iron plate pierced with holes of different sizes; (2) a pair of pincers nine inches long, composed of two pieces of iron, with an iron ring as a clamp.
A reed four feet long was placed in wet sand to form the mould into which the molten copper was poured. The resultant rod, having been tapered at one end, was heated and then passed through the largest hole in the plate and through a hole bored in a tree. The pincers were then attached. Two men did the drawing. When the
Zimbabwe type of wall decorated with Chevron pattern. Belingwe, Southern Rhodesia.
wire had been drawn through the largest hole, it was then drawn through the hole of the next size, and so on until the desired gauge was attained. This method was taught to the Bavenda.
STONEMASONRY
For hundreds of years the style of architecture of the ancestors of the BaLemba never changed.
The work of the stonemasons shows three distinct periods:
(1) Zimbabwe periodStone forts built on hilltops, consisting of massive walls built entirely of stone; faces of walls built with trimmed stones. These wails were built during the Monomotapa regime. (2) Post Zimbabwe period.Walls forming small enclosures, used as smelting sites, built on hillocks; faces of walls built with trimmed stone; interior of the walls packed with rubble. These walls were built in the 17th and 18th centuries. (3) M'Zilikazi periodStone forts built on hilltops, also walls forming enclosures, used as smelting sites; faces of walls built with untrimmed stones; interiors of walls packed with rubble. These walls were built in the second quarter of the 19th century.
The evidence of the dating of these ruins is obtained from glass beads found in the ruins.
In no period was mortar used.
THE END OF THE MONOMOTAPA
In the year 1589 a tribe of Gallas called Muzimbas, from Southern Abyssinia, raided South as far as the country of the Monomotapa, where some of them settled, forming the BaRoswi tribe.
In 1693 the BaRoswi chief Chengamira rebelled against his overlord, the Monomotapa, whom he drove out of Zimbabwe; at the same time he drove the Portuguese out of Sena and Tote. The BaRoswi chief took the title of Mambo, and the members of the tribe occupied all the big forts of the Monomotapa until the year 1836, when they were driven out by a combined ZuluSwazi force. The signs of the BaRoswi occupation can be seen in all the big ruins of Southern Rhodesia. It was the custom, when a hut became too dilapidated, to knock it down and burn it; then it was covered with earth, on top of which another hut was built. This method can be seen in the Western enclosure of the Zimbabwe acropolis, where eight hut floors are superimposed one above the other. The Bavenda of Southern Rhodesia and of the Northern Transvaal are the descendants of these people.
END OF THE MINING INDUSTRY
Gold (Ndarama).When M'Zilikazi invaded the country known today as Southern Rhodesia, he put an end to the goldmining industry. It was carried on in Manicaland until a later datethe early sixties of the last centurywhen M'Zila, the Amatshangana chief, put an end to it by wiping out all the gold miners, their wives and families. It was carried on by the BaLemba in the Northern Transvaal up to the middle of the last century.
Copper (Mesina in Sivenda; Mutsuku in Chicaranga).Copper was mined at Messina until the early sixties of the last century, when Ramabulana, the Bavenda chief, instructed his headman, Mesina BaLeya, who was in charge of the copper mines, to close down. At the same time he ordered the BaLemba gold miners of the Northern Transvaal to cease mining. In 1869, Edward Button and Sutherland found the BaPedi working copper amongst the Mashishamali hills (near Plalaworoa, Eastern Transvaal), but were not allowed to see the mines.
Iron (Mzimbi).When Button passed through the Sibasa area in 1869, he found the iron industry at Sebulane in full swing. The iron hoe industry lasted until fortyfive years ago, when the imported article from Birmingham put an end to it.
THE ORIGIN OF THE BALEMBA
According to their tradition, their ancestors came from Sena on the Zambesi River, and Sofala on the East Coast. Although there is an admixture of Arab blood, it is unlikely that they were originally Arabs, as their style of architecture is not Arabic. In their former industries, and in some of their rites and observances, they are akin to the Falashas (black Jews) of Abyssinia. The Arab historian, Masudi, who sailed down the East Coast on three occasions between the years 900920 A.D., stated that Sofala, from which much gold was brought, was inhabited by a tribe of Abyssinians who had emigrated there recently, and whose king, the Waklimi, had his capital near there.
Dos Santos, the Dominican friar, who spent four years at Sofala, 16011605, in writing of the Monomotapa and him people, stated that in many respects they resembled the Abyssinians. The inhabitants celebrate after the death of their monarch a festival called "Pemberar," very much resembling the "Toscar" of the Abyssinians (the Tascar of the Falashas).
Only two writers mention the BaLemba.
Thomas Baines.In "The Gold Regions of South Africa" one reads the following, which is very Interesting, as it shows that the Voortrekkers knew of the BaLemba gold mining activities:
"I have already stated that the existence of gold in considerable quantities in SouthEast Africa has been known from the earliest period of history. The early Dutch pioneers in times more recent brought back vague statements of its mineral wealth. In 1850 I myself visited the then little village of Potchefstroom, and heard of gold among the Slaamzyn (Islam or Mohammedan) Kaffirs achter (beyond) the Zoutpansberg."
In 1869 T. Baines interviewed some old gold miners in Matabeleland. Unfortunately he did not mention the tribe, calling them Mashonas (Mashuna was a word of contempt used by the Matabeli in speaking of the members of tribes who did not possess Zulu blood). Andrew Anderson, in his work "Twentyfive Years in a Wagon in the Gold Regions of Africa," mentions them twice. One passage reads: 'The natives state that gold was worked, and the forts built by men who once occupied the country, whom they called Abbelamba, and there is every appearance that it is so, for I am quite of opinion that no African race of these parts ever built these strongholds or took the trouble to make such extensive excavations in the earth as we find all over the country."
The BaLemba have been degenerating over a long period of time. As the blood of the Semite became more diluted with that of the Bantu, so did their arts deteriorate. Deprived of all the industries, the descendants of the old miners are now rapidly degenerating. Some of the old men are today competent metalsmiths. The next generation will know nothing of the industries of their forefathers.