A SLAVE GOVERNMENT.
102. THE MAGOLOLO.
As an illustration of a Slave Government, we shall here insert a few
remarks on the Magololo, who are half-a-dozen men that came with Dr.
Livingstone a journey of “many moons” from the south of the Zambeze—from
the land, which on maps of Africa is marked Makololo. Hitherto we have
spoken of chiefs and headmen ruling among free people. The native word
for “free” means “belonging to the tribe,” and implies that persons
falling into the power of another tribe lose their rights. The Anyasa
under the Magololo are in the hands of aliens, by whom they are
consequently treated as if they were captives. When not promptly obeyed,
a Magololo cries, “All the Anyasa are my slaves”; hence although he
has many good points about him, his government is severe, and he is
more suspicious than the Yao chiefs who rule their own kinsmen. “The
Magololo,” according to Mr. Rowley (277), “sprung all at once from a
condition little removed from bondage to that of lords of the creation.
When left by Dr. Livingstone, they had little but their guns and
ammunition. With guns they knew themselves to be formidable. They hunted
the slavers far and near, released captives and took the plunder. The
women thus released they took for wives, the men and boys they kept for
slaves. They had no sheep, goats, nor corn, but the Anyasa had, and as
in their own country, the possession of cattle by a neighbour is a good
_casus belli_, they were prepared to make war on the Anyasa for their
flocks and corn, if the latter did not yield them without resistance.
The Anyasa yielded, and thus arose the bleating of sheep and goats, the
cackling of fowls and the well-stocked houses of corn in the Magololo
habitations.” “It was a great mistake on the part of Dr. Livingstone to
leave the Makololo at Chibisa’s unprovided with everything but arms. They
were identified with the English—they adopted our name in their raids.”
The remark that these men are identified with the English holds true
to this day. Chiputula, one of the Magololo, was viewed by Matekenya
as a “child” or “subject” of the English, and Matekenya often put the
question, “What will the English do if I kill Chiputula?” The latter
used to be constantly entreating us to send messages to Matekenya: and
Dr. Macklin once brought up a “son” of Matekenya to conclude a peace
with Chiputula. “Mangokwe talked of driving them out of the country, but
they would have driven like sheep five times the number of Anyasa that
Mangokwe could have brought against them, and so he appeared to think
...” (2nd edition, p. 278). “They had plundered the country on all sides,
and so great was the terror of them that the Anyasa were afraid to come
to us with food. It was necessary, therefore, to take vigorous measures,
and catching one of them (in the act of stealing), I laid hold of a stick
and gave the fellow a good thrashing.”
The writer describes how they continued amenable to the authority of
the English. When the Scotch Missions settled in Central Africa, these
Magololo readily sent their sons first to the Free Church Mission, and
subsequently to Blantyre, which was nearer their home. This was due to
their previous acquaintance with the “English”. Some Magololo children
came to Blantyre about a month after my arrival. But I wrought steadily
in school for three years afterwards, before Kapeni, the Yao chief, sent
his sons.
During the time of flight and famine, the beginning of which is described
by Mr. Rowley, some headmen of the Anyasa fled towards Tete, but the most
important died. People died without any reason (lulele), there was quite
a dying (chaola) among the race. Then the Magololo “got in their fingers”
(kwinjila yala). They took possession of the children of the deceased,
they killed others and took their families also. They had no right to
act in this way, but they relied on their power, which increased every
day till they could claim all the Anyasa on the lower Chiri for their
subjects. These helpless people have suffered exceedingly from war, and
have been enslaved in all directions. Near Blantyre many of them reside
as slaves among the Yao. At Zomba there is an important Anyasa headman
who although possessing several villages, is under a Machinga chief.
Even on Lake Nyassa (Nyasa) itself, most of the unfortunate tribe are
under Yao or Machinga rulers. On an island in Chirwa many of them are
packed together to escape slavers (62).
103. GOVERNMENT OF SLAVES.
In their normal state, the Anyasa have the same customs as the Yao
(1-102), but under the Magololo they are governed like prisoners of war.
In a Yao village the people are ruled by a headman of their own kindred
(62), who has power to try all village cases. Among the Magololo there
are no such headmen, the leading man in the village is merely a sort of
overseer or taskmaster, put there by the chief and possessing no civil
or criminal jurisdiction. While the Yao are not compelled to hoe their
chief’s fields, the Magololo villagers cannot begin to cultivate for
themselves till they have first “finished the chief’s farm”. After doing
this, the overseers and the villagers under them may begin to cultivate
ground for their own sustenance. At all times they may cut trees for
their own fires. When they make canoes these are not for themselves,
but for the chief. While the Yao have village parliaments, the Magololo
are autocrats, who keep their people at arm’s length. A subject of the
Magololo, on killing a buck carries the whole animal to the capital.
He gets back two legs, and the chief keeps the rest. The chief in like
manner takes all the ivory, and gives the poor hunter only a small
present of cloth. While among the Yao each woman has a surety (48),
the Magololo dispose of female children as masters dispose of slaves
(59, 92). They even try to make all the children of their subjects live
with themselves—a measure which alienates the more respectable of their
people. By the Magololo all refugees are expressly received as slaves
even though they were free before.
104. PROOF AND PUNISHMENT.
_Ordeals._
The Magololo prepare mwai, call their people in great numbers and command
them to drink it. Several die in one day, who were therefore bewitchers
and deserved their fate. I have seen so many who have drunk mwai with
the Magololo and recovered, that I am inclined to think either that
the poison is of a milder type, or that it is not fairly administered.
Although the Yao are not compelled to drink it, except for strong
reasons, among them the chance of recovery is smaller.
Investigation by torture is one of the saddest things that the Magololo
practise. It is often employed in cases of alleged adultery. When a
Magololo suspects his wives of this crime, he places a stone in a jar
of boiling water or oil, and orders them to fetch it up with their
bare arms. He then judges of their guilt by the amount of injury they
sustain. When a woman is thus convicted, he makes her confess who seduced
her. In vain does the helpless creature protest that she is innocent.
Notwithstanding that her arm is severely scalded, she is subjected to
the most cruel torture by a kind of “thumbscrew” (mbanilo) which is
applied to her head. A small tree (katela) is partly divided along
the middle, the skull of the poor woman is inserted as if it were a
wedge for splitting the tree still farther. Great pressure is exerted
by forcing the halves of the tree together with the aid of pulleys. The
instrument works like a gigantic nut-cracker, and during its operation
the chief and his assistants look on with calm satisfaction, and suggest
the name of her seducer. When the woman, under this torture, indicates
that the man is guilty, he is put to death without a trial. Should he
plead that he knows nothing of the crime, the chief takes no notice of
his protestation. Perhaps the woman herself is quite guiltless, and has
been convicted solely by the ordeal. The Yao used to apply this method
of torture (kuwana) to a bewitcher in order to extort a confession.
The bewitcher was first proved guilty by the oracle, and then had his
head squeezed till he told where he had buried his horns. But now the
detective both proves the guilt and finds the horns (107). Among the Yao
at present this process of torture is seldom applied to free people.
Even in serious cases the Magololo may refuse to give any trial “because
the accused was their slave”.
_Crimes and Punishment._
_Petty theft_, as of a fowl, is punished among the Magololo by flogging
with whips of elephant hide. There is no formal trial. If the criminal
says he has not stolen, the chief says he is a liar, which, to do the
chief justice, is often the case. Cropping a thief’s ears, and cutting
off his fingers, are also practised. Few Yao take such decided measures
even with their slaves. For _theft_ of anything more valuable the
punishment is death. A man that steals a sheep or a goat is stabbed and
thrown into the river. On other occasions he is flogged to death with
whips of elephant hide. “But do they always want to kill a thief when
they flog him?” “No, sometimes they stop before he is dead, and then the
man’s companions remark, ‘You have been very fortunate to-day!’” At other
times a thief is made a public _example_, in which case he has his hands
and his feet, or one or more of these members, cut off, and is placed in
the forum for “two days”. After this he is killed and thrown into the
river. We asked, “But does not the man bleed to death in a short time?”
“Not always,” was the reply, “but the place where he sat is covered
with his blood, and the chief kills a goat, which is disembowelled on
that spot”. The Yao do not often kill or mutilate in this way except in
cases where they can get no compensation: but when they catch an enemy,
they cut off his hand and tell him to go home and show how he has been
received.
_Adultery_ with their own wives the Magololo all punish with death.
But when the crime is only among their people, their punishment is
not uniform. Chiputula inflicts capital punishment on all adulterers,
remarking that “next day they would interfere with his own wives”.
Makukani, when one of his men complains against another, may order the
accused to hand over his wife for a week or more to the accuser.
When one of these chiefs wishes to make an example of an adulterer, the
method is as barbarous as can well be conceived. The victim has his
hand or some other part of his body cut off, and he is then compelled to
eat it. I was unwilling to believe this, till I met men that had been
eye-witnesses on several occasions, and then it appeared that the custom
was notorious. We asked, “Why do the criminals consent to eat part of
their bodies?” The reply was, “The chief persuades (nyenga) or cheats
them to do so. They think that if they eat, he will allow them to live.”
But in all such cases execution soon follows.
The practices of the Magololo not only furnish an illustration of how
individual slaves and captives are treated, but show how a strong
government in a barbarous land may “grind” its subjects. After a chief
has been successful in many wars, he begins to think that both his slaves
and his own kinsmen derive all life and property from him, and hold these
privileges during his pleasure.