SOCIAL LIFE AND ORGANIZATION
Salutations—Sneezing—Land is communal—River rights—Slaves and their
position—Laws of inheritance—Sons given as pawns—Masters’
responsibility—Debtor and creditor—Rules for collecting debts—Rules
for fighting—The evening meal—Dividing food—Greediness condemned—The
village dance—The impromptu song—Its effect on various people.
Rudeness, discourtesy, and lack of sociality are greatly condemned by
the Boloki, and will be punished in _longa_, or the nether regions to
which their spirits go after death; hence they are very punctilious
about saluting each other whenever they meet, visit, or pass one
another. The following are their principal salutations.
Morning:
_Olongo O!_ You are awake. Answer: _Nalongoi O!_ I am awake.
_Obimi O!_ You are out. Answer: _Nabimi O!_ I am out.
Later in the day, when a man is passing a neighbour’s house, he will say
to the one sitting inside or outside his house:
_Ojali O!_ or _Ol’ o moi O!_ You are alive (exist or sit), or, You are
there. Answer: _Najali O!_ or _Nal’ oni O!_ I am alive, or I am here.
If the resident sees the visitor first he says:
_Oy’ oni O!_ You have come here. Answer: _Nay’ oni O!_ I have come here.
If the visitor stays chatting for a little time, he says on leaving:
_Nake O!_ I go. And the other responds: _Oke O!_ You go.
If a man is ill he is greeted thus:
_Okeli boti O!_ You are a little better (_bolau_ is understood).
After his illness the greeting is: _Okeli bolau O!_ You are good, i.e.
You are better. And the answer to the first is: _Nakeli boti O!_ I am a
little better; and to the second: _Nakeli bolau O!_ I am well.
To leave out the _O!_ is for the greeting and response to lack
cordiality, and the emphasis on the _O!_ and the tone in which it is
uttered are indicative of the feeling those greeting one another have
for each other. _Bwanda_ is the word used in greeting a superior, and
the answer is _Bika_ (these words have lost their meaning); but a
superior greets an equal with the same salutations as an inferior does
an equal, i.e.: _Ojali O!_ _Obimi O!_ _Oy’ oni O!_ etc.
There is another salutation used by a person to an equal, the answer to
which is very various; and, in fact, every person has his own reply
according to his circumstances and the way in which he thinks his
neighbours regard him at the time. One man greets another by saying,
_Losako_, Blessing on you; and he replies, _Ngai nkumbaku_, I am one who
is cursed, i.e. the people in the town are always cursing him, or he
fancies they are. Or the reply may be, _Bansina_, They hate me, i.e. the
folk in the town do not like him; or _Ngai nsu ya mai_, I am a fish,
i.e. Everybody likes me just as everybody likes fish; or, _Nakalela bana
ba ngai_, I am weeping for my children, said by one mourning over some
great misfortune or bereavement. A vain person arrogates to himself a
phrase indicative of his egotism, while a despondent one uses a sentence
that does not truly reflect the attitude of his neighbours towards him,
although in his humility he may think so.
There is a curious saying after one has sneezed, viz. _Ngai nya, motu
mosusu_, “It is not I, but someone else,” and this is accompanied by a
vigorous clapping of the hands and snapping of the fingers, expressive
of great astonishment. It means: I am surprised that you want to call
away my spirit (the spirit is supposed to escape through the nostrils),
I really am not the person you think I am, but somebody else.
The natives are fond of water, and bath frequently during a hot day; and
children are bathed regularly twice a day. A mother takes her infant to
the river, and, gripping it tightly just under the right armpit, she
dips it beneath the water. And after holding it there many moments, she
will lift it out, and just as it regains its breath to start crying,
down it will go again. This is repeated about a dozen times, and then
rubbing the superfluous water off with the palm of her hand, she holds
it out in the sun for a few moments to dry. Riverine people can remain
under the water for a long time while attending their fish-nets, and
this habit they have gained from those infantile experiences, when it
was either holding the breath, or drinking a quantity of dirty river
water.
They wash their mouths both before and after meals, and generally carry
a native tooth-brush (a piece of cane three inches long and frayed at
one end) about with them, and use it frequently during the day. To this
habit they probably owe the beautiful white teeth so usually found among
the natives. Both men and women occasionally pay a hairdresser to comb
out their hair nicely, and plait it into three plaits—two standing out
at right angles to the temples and one standing out above the forehead.
They also frequently rub their bodies with palm-oil and camwood powder,
and will sometimes blacken their eyebrows.
The land surrounding a town belongs to the people who live in the town.
Certain landmarks, as streams, forests, etc., are agreed upon as
boundaries. If there is a town near the boundary the land reaches right
up to the boundary of the next town, but if the town is some distance
from the forest boundary, then the ground between the boundaries is
neutral land in which the folk of both towns can hunt, cut timber, etc.,
as they please. Within the boundary the people of the town are free to
make their farms and build their houses where they like, provided the
land is not already occupied by someone else. Priority of occupation is
the only title recognized. There is no such thing as unclaimed land. It
is either within the boundary and is claimed by the town living on it,
or it is between the boundaries and is for the benefit of the near towns
as neutral hunting, etc., but no one can sell that land without the
consent of those towns that are mutually benefited by it.
If a slave belonging to a man of the town cultivated a piece of land
owned by her master’s town, she had full rights over it, and her master
is careful to see that those rights are not infringed. Of course, she
cannot sell the ground, but she can sell the farm as a farm and the
stuff growing on it, and the person who buys the “stuff” can continue to
cultivate it, if she is an inhabitant of the town owning the land, if
not, she can let the produce mature there, and when she has removed the
said produce the land will revert again to the town.
Men, women, and children can own, for the time being, the land that they
have cleared for farming purposes; and can own slaves whom they have
bought or inherited. I have known a case in which a slave owned a slave,
and that slave—the property of another slave—owned a slave also. When we
bought a piece of land in 1890, the price given was divided among the
head-men in the town according to their importance, and they gave a part
of their shares to their followers—members of their family, but not to
their slaves. The State told us we could take the plot of land we wanted
for nothing; but we recognized the natives’ rights in their land, and
thus paid them compensation for relinquishing those rights to us. If we
had not done so, the natives would have regarded us as interlopers who
had stolen their land, and I think their view would have been the right
one.
The river running by the land belonging to a town is the joint property
of the townsfolk for fishing purposes. People of other towns are not
allowed to fish there. There are, however, large tracts of neutral water
where anyone can fish with trap or net, provided no one else is fishing
in that spot. These fishing rights are so well recognized that men never
think of fishing along our bank without first seeking our permission.
Slaves can be sold by their owner; and they can also be killed by their
master, and no one can prosecute him for murder—he has simply destroyed
his own property, and “surely a man can do what he likes with his own
goods.” Slaves are, as a rule, treated well, for they can easily run
away, and their owner will then lose the money invested in them. It is
to the owner’s interest to look properly after them—to house them, to
provide them with wives or husbands, and maintain their rights as
members of the community. I have known some few slaves run away; but I
have known more than a few to be treated like members of the family. The
better the slaves are treated, the more secure are their masters of
their services and value.
The eldest son takes his father’s title, and also inherits a larger
proportion of the property than his brothers. The amount depends on the
number of sons—if there are three sons, the eldest takes a half, the
second son two-thirds of the remaining half, and the last son the rest.
The property of a woman goes to her husband, and, failing him, to her
own sons, or daughters. The sons of a free woman take priority over
those by a slave wife. On the Upper Congo father-right is the rule,
whereas on the Lower Congo mother-right is the recognized native law.
Sons inherit their father’s widows, and in sharing them out it is
arranged for a man not to have his own mother as a part of his share of
the women. The son, on becoming possessed of his father’s widows, can
either keep them as his wives, or, if they are slave women, he can sell
them; and if they are free women he can arrange for them to marry
someone else, and keep the marriage money paid for them.
Failing direct male heirs, the daughter (or daughters) takes the estate;
but she gives the wives to some of her near of kin, such as male
cousins, etc., but should there be no direct male or female heirs, the
family clan takes possession of the estate and divides it among
themselves.
When there are male heirs, and the estate is divided up, the daughter
(or daughters) takes as her portion the women who were given to her
father as her marriage money by her husband; and these she gives to her
brother by the same mother as herself, so that that brother receives his
share of the estate as a son, and also the women (if still alive) given
as a marriage portion for his sister. In recognition of this gift the
fortunate brother will make frequent presents of sugar-cane wine and
meat to his sister’s husband, as this increment to his wealth has come
indirectly from him.
Slaves number about 25 per cent of the population. Some were born
slaves, others were seized for debt, a few were captured in war, and
some had sold themselves to pay their debts, incurred by adultery, or by
the loss of a lawsuit, the expenses of which they could not meet. Some
were sold to pay the family debts. It is also the custom for a father to
give a son in pawn as security for a loan. The status of a pawn is
somewhat higher than that of a slave, for he may be redeemed at any
moment, and thus again become a free person. The one who holds such a
pawn cannot sell him, nor pass him on to anyone without the consent of
the pawner, for the family may arrive with the redemption money, and if
the pawn cannot be produced the pawnee will have to pay the family three
or four times the value of the pawn.
There are no absolutely independent men and women apart from head-men
and chiefs. All the rest are attached to head-men as relatives, slaves,
pawns, or by a voluntary surrender of themselves to a chief. If the
family of a free man dies off, or becomes very weak—too weak to defend
itself against the aggressiveness of the other families in the town,
such a free man attaches himself (and any relatives dependent on him) to
the head-man of any one of the stronger families he may select. He then
practically becomes a member of that family. Their quarrels are his, and
his quarrels are theirs. His position is that of a free man owning
fealty to the head of his adopted family, and he is never treated as a
slave. If he had tried to stand alone in his weakness some quarrel would
have been picked with him by one of the more powerful families, and
eventually he and his would have become slaves. A slave is called
_mombo_, from _omba_, to buy; a pawn is _ndanga_ = a token; but a free
man who attaches himself to a chief is called _ejalinya_, probably from
_jala_ = to live with.
A slave boy is not permitted to use either camwood powder or oil on his
body; but should he please his master one day by bringing him a present
of a fine fish, or a large piece of meat, or some cloth and brass rods
worthy of his master’s acceptance, his owner on receiving the offering
will rub his hands over his slave’s face, and say, “Your skin is very
bad. Why don’t you rub it with camwood powder and oil?” and from that
time he is allowed to use the cosmetic so prized by all the natives.
As a rule the best dressed men in a town are the slaves, and the worst
dressed men the masters. They are afraid to parade their wealth for fear
of charges of witchcraft on account of deflecting other folk’s goods to
their own store; and also a man can more consistently and more easily
refuse a loan on the plea of poverty, in old clothes, than he can if he
is gorgeously arrayed. Of course, on special occasions, the masters will
wear plenty of good cloth, and decorate their bodies with powdered
camwood and oil. A slave can dress his hair like a free man; but if he
has a beard he must leave it loose, for only free men are permitted to
plait their beards.
The master is responsible for the actions of his slaves. I remember a
case in 1892 when a slave attempted the life of the head-man of his
master’s town. His attempt failed, and he escaped to a distant town; but
the master was tied up, killed, and eaten. It is not at all improbable
that if the master had been a more influential man some other way would
have been found to meet the case—a heavy fine—as the attempt was
unsuccessful. While theoretically a master is liable for his slave’s
debts, yet he will repudiate them on the ground that the lender had no
right to advance goods to a slave without first ascertaining whether the
master will be responsible for the payment for them or not. A slave
badly treated by his master breaks the _eboko_, or fetish saucepan,
belonging to a witch-doctor. Then the witch-doctor demands such a heavy
price from the master, as he is responsible for his slave’s action, that
he prefers to leave the slave as compensation in the witch-doctor’s
hands to paying such heavy redemption money. The sum demanded is usually
more than the price of a slave; but public opinion is very pronounced
against a slave who breaks the _eboko_ for insufficient reasons. The
fear of this has a strong deterrent effect on bad, passionate-tempered
masters in restraining them from ill-treating their slaves.
Labour is not regarded as a degradation, and those who are skilled in
smithing, canoe-making, etc., not only become comparatively wealthy, but
are regarded with great respect on account of their skill. Boys like to
accompany their fathers on fishing and trading expeditions; and girls go
with their mothers to the farms as soon as they can walk, and toy hoes
are given them to play with while on the farm. These journeys to the
farms or to the fishing camps are a change to the young folk, and are
much enjoyed by them.
Among the Boloki there are neither markets nor market-places. If a
person has anything for sale he walks through the town calling out its
name like a London hawker. Sometimes a person catches a fish that is
taboo to him, and he will hawk it through the town to try to exchange it
for another that he can eat.
In their business transactions credit is frequently given, and for such
credit no interest is expected. To recover a debt a creditor first duns
the debtor until he is tired, then he breaks the pots and saucepans, and
anything he finds outside the debtor’s house, and finishes by telling
him that on a certain day he will call again for the money. If the
debtor then fails to pay, the creditor will collect a few of his
friends, and together they will go and lie in ambush near the farms
until a wife of the debtor comes along, when they will pounce upon her
and take her to their town. The woman will kick, struggle, and scream
for the sake of appearances; but she knows that she will be lightly tied
and well treated.
The debtor will hear of the capture of his wife, and, supposing he owes
1000 brass rods, he will collect the money as quickly as possible, and
take it with 500 extra rods, which he will now have to pay to his
creditor to compensate him and his friends for the trouble of tying up
the woman and the cost of feeding her. As a woman is worth nearly 3000
rods, it pays the debtor to redeem his property by paying his debt and
the sum demanded for expenses.
If the debt is for 1000 rods the creditor may tie up one woman, but if
he ties up two women he puts himself in the wrong, for the value of one
woman more than covers the debt and expenses. If the debt is for 3000 or
4000 rods, the creditor may capture two women, and so in proportion to
the debt. It is very seldom that a woman is seized for any sum less than
500 rods. If the debt is not paid within a reasonable time, the creditor
can keep the woman as his wife, or if she happens to be a slave, he can
sell her. If the debtor has no wives, then a member, or members, of his
family can be seized on the same principle as shown above. Sometimes a
creditor will tie up a person belonging to the town of his debtor; but
this is rarely done except in cases of hostility between the towns.
These debts are generally incurred either in buying a large canoe, or a
wife, or in losing a lawsuit.
A village may have from twenty to five hundred huts in it, and even
more. The rows of houses are generally built in parallel lines to the
river; and a head-man possesses one or more lines, according to the size
of his family or clan. He may have many wives, slaves and their wives,
“pawns,” and dependents, and consequently own several rows of houses; or
he may be the eldest of several brothers who with their wives, slaves,
etc., jointly own several rows of dwellings. The former head-man is a
greater man than the latter, he has more prestige in the town, and has
greater influence in its palavers, for such a man is the head of a
powerful family, each unit of which may number more than the brothers,
their wives, and slaves put together.
The _mboka_ = village, town, locality, may consist of from 20 to 150
families, numbering anything up to 2000 or 3000 people, or it may mean
only one or two families not numbering more than 50 or 60 people; but it
does not matter how large or how small the _mboka_ is, it is
independent, self-governing, and recognizes no over-lord. There is the
head of the family, whose word is law to his own relatives and immediate
dependents living in his section of the town. Then there are the heads
of the families who meet together to arrange the affairs of the town,
and to decide on any course of action in relation to the neighbouring
towns. Some are heads of larger and richer families than others; and
such men necessarily have more influence, and their words carry greater
weight than the utterances of poorer and smaller men. The lives of the
people are rendered pleasant, or otherwise, according to the temper and
ambitions of these head-men.
The various families forming a town live, as a rule, at peace with each
other; and if there is a dispute they try to settle it by “holding a
palaver.” But if the quarrel develops into a fight, then sticks are the
weapons used, as guns and spears are rarely, if ever, brought out in
these miniature “civil wars.” They combine as a whole against a common
foe.
The family that causes the quarrel leads the van in a war, and if only
the offended family attacks the offending family, the other families of
the offender’s town stand armed ready to defend their dependents and
property, should the offenders prove unable to repulse the attack. But
if the offended family brings the several families of its town to attack
the offenders, then the other head-men and their followers will join to
repel the attack, for it is no longer a quarrel between two families of
different towns, but a fight between town and town. Thus a family
combines to fight a family, and a town to fight a town, and I have known
one case in which a district joined its forces to fight a district.
[Illustration:
_Photo by_: _Rev. C. J.Dodds_
BOLOKI WOMEN PREPARING AN EVENING MEAL
The woman on the right has a mortar and pestle for pounding boiled
plantain. She has a broad band of hair shaved off in the style of
the day. The walls show the split bamboos used at the outer lining
of the hut, then there are an inch or two of grass and another
lining of bamboos inside, and the whole is tightly laced to the
uprights of the wall.
]
The evening meal is practically the only meal of the day, and every
effort is made to render it as tasty as possible with the limited
ingredients at the disposal of the woman cook. Cassava figures as the
principal article in every _menu_; and for this meal it is commonly
prepared by soaking it for three days, and then after peeling, coring,
and dividing it into quarters, it is steamed, and comes out looking
white and appetizing. Either fish, or meat when procurable, is stewed in
a small saucepan or roasted over the fire, or wrapped in leaves and
covered with red-hot embers; but if there is neither fish nor meat, then
a sauce of pounded leaves, red peppers, and palm-oil is concocted, and
the whole is washed down with gulps of water. They prefer to keep
sugar-cane wine for their drinking-bouts and for their cannibal feasts,
the latter, in their view, demanding something better than water.
The food is served first to the elders (male), and if visitors are
present they take precedence according to their age. As a rule the
members of a family are polite to one another, and any departure from
the usual forms of courtesy is regarded with disapprobation by the other
members of the family. Guests are treated with hospitality, and are
protected by the family they are visiting; and I never knew a guest come
to harm during a visit. Men and women do not eat together, as it is
accounted immodest and indecent for a woman to eat with a man; and it is
_infra dig._ for a man to partake of his food with a woman. They eat by
themselves at some little distance, and usually out of sight and hearing
of the men.
In dividing food, such as meat or fish, the one who divides it takes the
portion left after all the others have selected their shares, and in
this way they have a guarantee that all the portions are equal in size
and quality. If a saucepan of fish and another of cassava are put before
five or six persons for them to eat, no division is made, but all help
themselves from the same saucepans, yet each will be very careful not to
eat more than his fair share. But when a fish, or a lump of meat, is
given to half a dozen men, or women, they appoint one to divide it into
six lots, and the one to whom this very doubtful honour is given is
careful to make all the lots equal—in bone, flesh, and fat—for he knows
that the others will choose their portions before himself. Any
greediness is condemned, and if persisted in others will refuse to eat
with the offender, and he becomes an object of ridicule to the rest of
the family and in the village.
The following story, which I often heard related around their evening
fires, will well illustrate how the natives regarded any greediness
about food:
“Mokwete possessed a large number of wives; and one day he made a trap
and eventually snared an animal which he carried to his town and told
his wives to cook. When they had cooked the meat they took him his
share, and reserved a portion for themselves. Mokwete ate his meat
alone, but it did not satisfy him, for having so many wives the portion
of meat that fell to him was rather small.
“By and by he killed another animal, and he said to himself: ‘I kill
plenty of animals, but get very little meat for myself, because my wives
are so numerous.’ When he reached the forest near his town he disguised
his voice and shouted: ‘Wives of Mokwete, wives of Mokwete.’
“They answered, ‘E!’ thinking it was a spirit calling them from the
bush.
“Then he said: ‘When your husband comes with meat, you must not eat any
of it; if you do, you will die.’
“In a little time he picked up the animal and went on to the town. The
women cooked the meat and brought it all to him. He asked them why they
had not taken any of it, and they told him what they had heard from one
of the bush spirits. Mokwete ate all the meat, was well filled, and
congratulated himself on the success of the ruse. He repeated this trick
again and again.
[Illustration:
_Photo by_: _a Dutch Trader_
GROUP OF BOLOKI WOMEN AT MOBEKA
The women are wearing skirts of palm-frond fibre. When “dressed” a
young woman has fifteen of these skirts on, and then they stand out
like a ballet-girl’s dress. Some of the older ones have the
cock’s-comb tribal mark. Those without the tribal marking are
slaves. The collar on the older woman is of solid brass and weighs
about 15 lbs.
]
“One day Mokwete’s son went into the bush, and while there he heard the
sound of someone coming, so he hid himself. In a little time a man
arrived and threw something with a thud to the ground, and then he heard
a voice say: ‘Wives of Mokwete, wives of Mokwete, when your husband
comes with meat you must not eat it; if you do, you will die.’
“The lad, on looking out, saw that it was his father who was deceiving
his mothers, and keeping him and the other children from having their
proper share of the meat. He hurried home and told his mothers all that
he had seen and heard, but they disputed his word. However, one of them
went to look, and saw that it was really the husband who had been
telling them not to eat the meat. She went and told the others, and they
decided to run away.
“While Mokwete was out hunting one day, his wives broke their saucepans,
put out their fires and fled; and upon reaching their various towns they
told their families why they had left their husband—on account of his
greediness—and everybody justified them.”
Now Mokwete would return to a fireless hearth, an empty village, and no
one to cook for him and wait on him. And I have heard the folk snap
their fingers, and say: “Mokwete was well punished,” and there was no
one to pity him. “When a man buys a fish or a piece of meat he should
share it with the wife who cooks it for him; and when he kills an animal
he should share it with all his wives.” The children received their
share of meat or fish through their mothers.
While the hearth is the centre of a woman’s family life, for her
children (if she is fortunate enough to have any) will gather around it
at sundown to watch the bubbling saucepans on the fire, and her husband
may occasionally be found there playing with his youngsters, or chatting
to his wife, yet the dance is the real centre and expression of the
social life of the village. Is there a death? Then relatives and friends
will show their sympathy, not by sitting around talking over the good
qualities of the departed, but by dancing their best and chanting the
praises of him who has so lately gone to that mysterious _longa_, or
nether regions, where all spirits find their home for a time. And
standing round the funeral dances will be the whole village, applauding
the agile or chaffing the awkward. Is there a marriage? Then relatives
and boon companions of the old bachelor days are invited, and after the
feast a dance is arranged, and although some of the legs will be
unsteady, through too much sugar-cane wine, yet all present, both
dancers and spectators, will be in a jovial mood.
On moonlight nights the drums will be brought out, reed rattles, ferret
bells, and anything else that will tinkle, will be tied around the
ankles, the men and women will form lines opposite each other, and for
hours the dancers will jump, twist, and wriggle to and fro in the most
approved fashion to the tap, tap, or boom, boom of the rhythmic drum.
All distinctions are forgotten for the time being. The skilled and the
unskilled, the poor and the rich, the slave and the free, are all mixed
in indistinguishable confusion. It is the best dancer, be he poor and a
slave, who is the cynosure of all eyes and the object of all their
praises. And as the dance proceeds the dancers sing in unison some
recitative song, while the onlookers keep time to song and dance by
clapping their hands and swaying their bodies to and fro.
The greedy man, the coward, the thief, the scamp who disregards the
feelings of others and rides rough-shod over the social and communal
customs, the man who is accused of witchcraft and refuses to take the
ordeal, and the incestuous, are all put into the songs which are sung at
these village dances; and there is no more powerful factor in
influencing the native to good and evil, inciting him to reckless
bravery, or deterring him from committing some foolish deed, than to put
his name into an impromptu song at a village dance. The paragraph in our
newspaper is read by comparatively few people, and only a small
percentage of those who read it know the person mentioned; but the song
is sung, night after night, by all the village—the very neighbours of
the one thus held up to ridicule or honour. The village song inspires
the daring deeds in time of war, it brands and shames the cowards, it
considerably restrains the rascals, and maddens to the verge of suicide
the fool who so badly treats his wives that they run away and leave him
a cold hearth by which to sit.
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