Photographs from various archival collections catalogued in the online image libraries of the University of Southern California and the Frobenius Institute.
Barotseland is a historical kingdom of the Barotse people, also known as the Lozi, that once stretched across much of Western Zambia, and parts of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Angola.
“The Barotse landscape is a vast expanse of open land with a gently undulating topography incised with a network of canals that are denuded with the waters of the Zambezi when it bursts its banks at the height of the rainy season from October to May. It is also known as the Bulozi Plain, Lyondo or the Zambezi Floodplain and is one of Africa's great wetlands.”
-UNESCO
“The Lozi is a collective noun for around 25 different peoples that live in the nominated area but who are also spread out in the wider Western Province. It is generally accepted that the Lozi migrated with a number of related leaders to their current area as part of Luba migrations from central Africa in the first half of the 17th century. They displaced the Andonyi people who tradition states were living on the plains.
The first ruler called Mbuyuwamwambwa [the woman who led the migration of her people into the area] is believed to have been the daughter and wife of the god, Nyambe. She later abdicated the throne in favour of her son Mboo, who extended his domain by conquering the neighbouring tribes. Lozi history is characterized by such expansionary conquests and the absorption of other peoples under their rule to gain land and cattle.
The centralization of the Kingdom was achieved by the fourth Litunga Ngalama, the grandson of Mbuyuwamwambwa. He extensively expanded the Kingdom by defeating breakaway groups. During his reign, the Lozi Kingdom was no longer restricted to Kalabo district, but came to dominate the flood plain.
For thirty-four year in the 19th century, the Lozi were ruled by the Kololo after a military defeat. [In about 1830, an army that originated in the Sotho-speaking Bafokeng region of South Africa, known as the Makololo, led by a warrior called Sebetwane, invaded Barotseland and conquered the Lozi]. After the restoration of Lozi rule, the next Litunga established Lealui as the capital.
Naliele was the first capital of the Lozi during the reign of Mulambwa (1790-1825). Of the palace, nothing apparently remains, although the mound is still in existence. The current capital Lealui was built by Litunga Sipopa (1864-1876) and completed by Litunga Lewanika (1878-1916). The current wet season capital is Limulunga.
There was also a southern dry season capital for the second-in command at Nalolo and a complementary wet season one at Mooyo Village in Senanga.
Each of the palaces consists of the kwandu (palace), limbetelo (drummers’ house), kamona (induction house), kashandi (the visitors’ pavilion), lilenge (Litungas’ private house), and nanda (Queen’s house). The whole palace complex was traditionally surrounded by reed fences (imilombwe) that denote the presence of royalty.
"The royal graves [burial mounds] represent centres of mystical power. It is believed that those buried in them are grantors of plenty: good crops, many calves, and many children.“
-Barotse Cultural Landscape (Zambia) No 1429
On the canals that intersect the floodplain:
“Canals were primarily constructed to provide drainage for the arable fields but they were also used for transportation, irrigation, flood control, fish stocks and as sources of water for humans and livestock.
The Lozi must have created canals from the time of their earliest settlements as without water management any sizable settlements would not have been feasible. A massive extension of the canal system was undertaken between 1780 and 1916 (see history). The unlined canals are dug out of the clay subsoil and until the late 1880s, were dug with wooden tools.
At their greatest extent, the canal system across the whole of the Lozi flood plain extended to around 1,000km in length, with some canals up to 5 metres in width.”
-Barotse Cultural Landscape (Zambia) No 1429
On the Kuomboka ceremony:
“The Kuomboka ceremony has been an annual event on the ancestral landscape. The term, Kuomboka, means 'emerging out of the waters'. When the plains are fully flooded every rainy season, the Litunga (King) and all plain dwellers sail in a colourful ceremony accompanied by an orchestra of traditional music and dance all the way to the highlands in Limulunga, where a similar capital to the traditional Lealui in the plain stands established. Others living within the plain also move to higher grounds on account of the flooding.”
-UNESCO
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