SOCIAL LIFE.
61. MAN IN SOCIETY.
Hitherto we have looked at the native as an individual or as a member of
a family and have spoken of his birth, training, marriage, and death. Now
we shall view him as a member of society.
Rarely does a native live a hermit’s life. We did know of men that
forsook their relatives and lived alone, but they were considered
mad. Not unfrequently, however, a man and his family live entirely by
themselves, independent of the rest of the world. Such cases occur where
invading tribes have overrun a country and driven out its people. After
the invaders retire, the old inhabitants are afraid to go back, and an
enormous tract of country is left desolate. Still, in some inaccessible
nook there is often found a solitary family—a remnant either of the
invaders or of the invaded. Usually the natives live in small villages
containing 10 or 12 huts, occasionally in larger villages containing
three times as many. They do not like to pack themselves closely. In
times of peace few villages contain more than 100 people. Owing to the
native method of cultivation (64), the inhabitants of a large village
soon find themselves too distant from their farms. On one small island in
Lake Chirwa, people are massed together to the number of 4000, but they
subsist by fishing, and are obliged to live there for protection from
slavers.
62. FOUNDING A NATIVE VILLAGE.
A man wishing to found a new settlement, first takes steps to get out
of the village he belongs to. He goes to the village chief and says
“I wish to leave you and form a hamlet of my own”. Should the latter
object, he remarks, “Remember, I am not your slave”. In times of peace
it is inconvenient to crowd people together, and the chief’s consent is
readily obtained. In times of war no one cares to form a small settlement
which might become an easy prey to the enemy. In a populous district the
founder of a new village makes arrangements with his neighbours regarding
the fields he is to farm. Then he chooses the ground and betrothes it
(tomela). When ready to remove he takes his axe and his grass-cutter and
marches to the site of his new home, accompanied by his family who are
able to carry all the furniture at one journey. In a single forenoon they
erect temporary dwellings for themselves. They then begin to clear away
the bush, the man cutting the trees, and his wives doing the hoeing while
the children play beside them. The party find themselves in a pleasant
little world of their own where no one interferes. Their method of
manuring the ground by burning the trees on it, makes sad havoc of the
beautiful woods. After the hoeing is well advanced they think of erecting
a house. During his wood-cutting the man sets aside the trees that are
suitable for building. He also lays past some of the grass for thatching.
When the erection is finished it is carefully plastered by the women,
and then we have before us the house or hut which is the chief material
constituent of the native village. Separate houses for fowls and bins for
corn may next be erected (C).
63. INCREASE OF VILLAGE.
The single family may rapidly become a large state. A man with three
daughters, one of nine years, another of five years, and another of
five days will soon have three able-bodied sons-in-law added to his
village. The girl of nine years likely has her husband already, who now
comes and builds a house at her father’s abode, while his young wife
tries to look as important as she can. The girl of five years may also
have crossed the Rubicon, otherwise her husband, if a lad of sixteen
summers, will be counting the weary days of single life, and looking
forward to the time when he may go to dwell with his bride. The girl of
five days, if she have not a presumptive husband already, will be given
to the first applicant, and he will in due time be added to the colony.
Since a husband, instead of taking his wife from her home must leave
his own abode and go to dwell with her (56), daughters are the great
hope of a rising village. Sons do not cheer their father’s heart in the
same way; for their marriage removes them from his settlement and adds
nothing to his splendour as a village chief. The sons-in-law have all
separate dwellings. However large the settlement may become, the man
that is first in the field is the chief or headman. In course of time
he adorns his position by acquiring wealth. He may shoot some buck and
get possession of their skins. With these he goes to the Mangoni country
and buys slaves. An old person he obtains for a single skin, but a young
slave costs two; and women cost much more than men. The female slaves
thus bought are his junior wives, and he keeps them busy in hoeing the
farm, and all such female duties. The male slaves he employs in farming,
building, making baskets, sewing garments, and such masculine pursuits.
He keeps all these persons strictly at their duties, and at the same
time welcomes an opportunity of selling them at a profit. The gain
thus realised he lays out in purchasing more people. If his daughters
were unmarried, he would give them slave-husbands. The natives aim at
“replenishing the earth and subduing it”. As it is no expense for them to
rear families, they are all desirous to have many children.
Besides this increase of the village from the chief’s own resources,
there may be an accession of freemen. After the settlement is begun,
a man may come to its founder and say, “I wish to live with you”. The
village chief gives him permission and calls him “younger brother”. The
new comer brings his family, builds a house, and cultivates a farm in the
same way as his chief.
A freeman may leave his present chief and take up his abode with another,
whose subject he becomes. His former chief has no longer any authority
over him whatsoever. But a man often decamps by night taking with him
many slaves belonging to his fellow-citizens; he then goes to some
influential chief who may be only too glad to give the fugitive ground,
and to establish him as a sub-chief. Freemen who thus leave are detested
by their former chief, who welcomes every opportunity of shooting or
capturing them.
To retain a runaway slave is to proclaim war with his owner. A chief
though not bound to catch a runaway and hand him back, may do so in
order to show friendship to the slave’s master. A fugitive slave when
recaptured is treated unmercifully, hence he almost chooses to die rather
than to be sent back.
64. VILLAGE LIFE AND WORK.
As we take a journey into the country we come on a path quite new.
Curiosity prompts us to follow it. Our natives exclaim, “Oh, when did
this new settlement begin? How quickly it has sprung up.” We quench our
thirst at the beautiful stream, and then advance towards the village
green. The hamlet is already large, but we find only two male slaves
sitting manufacturing a bed. “Where is the chief?” “He has gone to drink
beer at Masangano’s.” “Why did you leave your old home?” “Chikumbu is
killing people, and we wanted to live nearer the Mission.” “And where is
little Mpakata that used to come to school?” “His father sent him to
watch the monkeys, but he takes his book with him and reads.” “Where are
all the rest of the people?” “They have gone to carry food from our old
fields.” When villages are small we find them in the forenoon entirely
deserted, and all the doors barred on the outside. In the first year of a
settlement the farm is just at the door. Each year it moves farther off,
for instead of hoeing the old fields, the natives go beyond them, and
without remorse cut down more of the beautiful trees. Thus they advance
year by year till they reach the boundary of another farmer. From him
they get permission to go right beyond his farm and hoe on the other
side. The new fields they plant with their corn and principal crops; the
old fields they think fit only for beans and crops of small importance.
When they have in this way exhausted the soil in their neighbourhood,
they remove altogether, and build a new village in some uncultivated spot.
65. THE WORKERS.
The wives and slaves of a village chief do the greater part of his
hoeing (62). His sons-in-law are also required to assist. Should a slave
son-in-law refuse to comply with this custom he is liable to be driven
from his wife: a free son-in-law would get off more easily. It is not
common for the man’s own sons to contribute their aid, but they may do
so out of kindness. The freemen that settle with a man, and own him as
their chief, are under no obligation to do his farming; they have fields
of their own: but it is common for a farmer to be assisted by all in
his neighbourhood through what is called a _chijawo_, which resembles a
hoeing match, only there is no competition. The farmer brews an enormous
quantity of beer. All his friends turn out with hoes, and work hard till
midday; after that they drink the beer.
66. A DAY’S WORK AND A DAY’S FARE.
The natives rise at daybreak (6 A.M.) and go off to their fields without
any food. They work till noon, and then come back to breakfast. Their
day’s work in the field is now over, and in the afternoon the village
so recently empty is full of inhabitants. The women are occupied in
preparing the second meal, while the men may do some of their more
artistic work (H), though among tribes that have been hitherto hunted
from their homes every twenty or thirty years no high art is to be
expected. As the shades of evening gather round the hamlet (6 P.M.) the
villagers partake of their second meal, and soon after retire to rest.
67. COOKING AND MEALS IN COMMON.
Though each family has a farm of its own, no family eats its food apart
from the others. All the inhabitants of a small village take their meals
in common. They manage in the following way:—One night Mrs. Kumlomba
supplies all the flour, and takes her share of pounding and cooking.
Next night Mrs. Chipaliko does the same, and next night Mrs. Chendombo.
As soon as the food is cooked, it is taken to their husbands and all
the other males of the village, who wait for it in the forum. Part is
reserved for the women themselves, who along with the female children
must eat in a different place. A large village is divided into several
messes, one part of each mess consisting of the males and the other part
of the females.