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They Are Back,
The White Tribesmen
By Yuyi K.
Libakeni
The third in
our series on The White Tribesmen. Read the previous ones
here,
here,
here
and here.
Owen WSM,
was in 1918 Native Commissioner (NC) at Senanga where he was named
Mutundwalo, the title distinguishing the Ngambela at
Chief Lukama’s court, Shangombo District, previously part of
Senanga. Mutundwalo, describes one who walks with an aura of
authority when in reality one has no such authority. A Ngambela
walks with authority and power but in reality he holds that only in
trust, it belongs to the people who can recall it. As a title it is
used to remind the occupier of the Ngambelaship of his obligation to
the people at large. He was also known as Mulelelwa, one who
never does things for himself, literally one whose children have to
be taken care of by other people. Owen started his career at
Chilanga as Assistant Native Commissioner (ANC) in 1907 and
apparently ended it there in the thirties when he was Chairman,
Lusaka Roads Board, during the construction of the new capital.
Orr-Ewing JE
was DO at Senanga in 1948/9, a year of great famine in the district
during which officers were kept busy touring, assessing the
situation and distributing relief food to villagers. It is in
organising such public meetings that Orr-Ewing earned the nickname
of Muhuwelezi, the trumpeter, the shouting one. At Lealuyi he
would have been given the lowly but critical title of sahuhula,
the barking one i.e. town crier. He was a prolific linguist having
pocketed higher level certificates in Nyanja, Luvale, Bemba and Lozi
Orr W
a former missionary in Angola came to Kalabo in 1938 working for
Dempster and WNLA before trading at Kalabo Boma. He spoke fluent
Luvale for which he was given the Luvale name Sakatengo.
Sakatengo mwanami na tubi ngombe lya ushiwa, Sakatengo my son
has stolen a cow from a bereaved family, the popular Luvale song
goes. Maybe Orr had run away from some mischief in Angola!
RH Palmer was the first Assistant Native
Commission (ANC) at the Lukona sub district which today is Kalabo
district. He also served in Balovale, Kaoma, Sesheke and Mongu as
Native Commissioner. In 1932 he was provincial Commissioner for the
Western Province when he Inaugurated the first Mongu Livingstone
wireless service with the following message to the Governor
“All
rejoice to think that its (Barotse Province) integration with
established air routes renders the adjectives remote no longer
applicable to this part of the Protectorate”
Palmer was nicknamed Sandongo, which source is not entirely
clear. One source claims he ate a lot of ndongo, groundnuts.
Others more plausible refer to ndongo, the prow of the boat.
It is the man in the stern who gets the full blast of the storm.
Palmer’s appointment at Lukona (Kalabo) coincided with the early
years of taxation in the province. YW Mupatu, Palmer’s interpreter
in 1911 has described the situation “however two things really
displeased people. One was that when a tax defaulter was arrested he
was chained around the neck…..This was something they greatly
disliked. Also it angered people that prisoners had to sleep near
buckets of excreta and that they had to empty those buckets
everyday”. Palmer was at the forefront of this war as if he was in
the stern of the boat, ndongo, hence Sandongo .
About Palmer’s successor J Berringer, Mupatu notes “Palmer went on
furlough and his successor was a rough and unfriendly man” who was
appropriately nicknamed Komu ye pumba, the ox that charges.
From Kalabo, Palmer went to Balovale only to be replaced by
Berringer again. It is said that before Balouvale Boma was so named,
Sandongo, apparently after Palmer had been proposed.
AR Pollock
was a livestock officer in Senanga at a time of increased stock
diseases and veterinary personnel were continuously out in the
villages warning of new outbreaks or vaccination campaigns. Cattle
population in the district fell from 66,000 in 1955 to 64,000 in
1956 and 62,000 in 1957. In 1957 government organised the first
cattle trial sales and
“a
good deal of propaganda was put out before sales including special
films and demonstrations of slides”.
Pollock was identified with these campaigns as the trumpeter, the
cock crowing out, ku tungula, warning it is time for sales or
vaccinations etc, and soon he was known as Situngula or
Mukombwe (cock).
Philipps FRG
or Libombolwa served at Senanga intermittently during the
1942-46 period. As DC at Kalabo in 1941 he was responsible for
drawing up the Kalabo- Balovale boundary (with GS Jones, DC Balovale)
following the McDonnell Commission report leading to the severing of
Balovale from Western Province. Libombolwa is an insect of the ant
family but has a reputation for not biting, hence a humble, harmless
person. Philipps became RC, Mongu in 1954.
Roulet MA,
nicknamed Manyoko was an artisan brought in by the Paris
Missionary Society (PMS) to build the church at their Lukona Mission
Station in 1906. Manyoko is derived from nyoko, Siluyana for
mother. Depending upon tone and usage, nyoko can be an insult
against the subject’s mother which then can attract Manyoko, a
curse, in response. It appears Roulet habitually shouted “nyoko
nyoko” to his workers. The completion of the new Church enabled
the School to increase enrolment (classes were held in the church)
from 40 to 73 and for the first time to include girls.
Ridley NCA
served at Kaoma and Senanga in the forties and was named
Kambelembele, a bird that is a menace with chicks. According to the
Senanga District Notebook, Ridley was not so named for the love of
the chicken or its eggs (the latter together with a bottle of fresh
cows milk were the number one favorites of a touring officer) but
because he “never finishes on anything”, there by implying Ridley
carried grudges. This is not so. Local sources in Senanga recall him
as one who had
an insatiable appetite for chicken, Kambelembele, as the bird never
stops diving for the chicks. He became Permanent Secretary for
Transport in 1961.
Serrano AF
or Ndonyo, a corruption of his first name Antonio was a
Portuguese, who came through Angola to trade in Lukulu and Mongu as
AF Serrano Ltd. He set up Barotse Transport Ltd. operating both
trucks and passenger buses – plying the Mongu-Machile and
Mongu–Lusaka routes. Serrano stocked Portuguese goods which he
ordered from Luanda transporting them by road to the Lungwebungu
River then down by barge to Lukulu on the Zambezi. On docking at
Lukulu, Serrano would shoot in the air, a warning to his wife that
he has arrived and if per chance she was entertaining a loiterer
such should be cleared.
Sykes AC
was a labour agent for the Southern Rhodesia Labour Organization
deep in the Makoma area of Kalabo. He was named Sokisi, a
corruption of Sykes. It is reported that his mixed blood descendants
can still be found in Makoma.
Wheatcroft H
was the Mongu local secretary of the SR labour recruiting agency,
Rhodesia Native Labour Bureau (RNLB) commonly known among locals as
“Pyulu” which began operations in the province in 1906 and
fizzled out at the end of the 1920s. He was named Kazungula,
after the small Botswana town, which was the bridgehead for the
agency. He had earlier operated from Kaoma 913-16.
Webb PE
had a store on the Luyi River, Senanga where he died in 1915,
probably on the Mongu-Livingstone wagon highway popularly named
Lihule road, which was used by men with money, returning labour
recruits, traders etc. He was nicknamed Mutugwane, from
Siluyana ku ngwana”, to find. Maybe Webb would always say,
“you
will find us”
for his goodbye. The Litunga’s chief steward is known as Induma
Ingangwana, one who finds (the Litunga)! Webb was previously
clerk (1905-6) at Senkobo subdistrict (Livingstone) before becoming
labour agent for RNLB in both Balovale and Kaoma, where he is
reckoned as probably the first non-Administration European in the
district.
Williamson J
worked for the veterinary department during the war years before he
went trading in Kalabo in 1946. Silunguboy or silapalapa is some
form of kitchen English, a mixture of English, Afrikaans and some
vernacular words to facilitate communication between the white
bosses, who were mainly Afrikaans, and African workers. Traders
commonly asked their African coustomers “Mangaki wena funa/kona?”
meaning what do you want or can afford, setting in motion the
bargaining process. Williamson must have overdone it to earn the
name of Mangaki.
Commander PAR Withers,
DSO, DSC was DO Kalabo in 1957. He was named Katonda because
he liked talking to everyone, that is, natives. Katonda is
Mbunda word which means to love, want or even miss something, as in
the popular Mbunda song “Katonda nji ku tonda”, my love, I
miss you; a song so popularized by elderman Chipango of the Zambia
National Dance Troupe (among the Baganda of Uganda Katonda is the
creator, God.) One retired senior African clerk at the time recalls
one evening working late under a hurricane lamp when he was
disturbed by Mrs. Withers who cautioned him against working late in
poor light as it was bad for his sight. The Withers lived close to
the office. Later when Withers returned from his tour, he repeated
his wife’s caution.
Vosloo AF
first traded at Nalolo, Boma Senanga in 1913. When his partnership
with ED Ellis, Kupalelwa failed, he worked for Dempster at
Lukona before establishing himself again at nearby Liomboko then
moving to Sioma where he is buried. Vosloo was called Mangasitutu,
probably indicating that Vosloo was an unfriendly character, hard to
get acquainted with as with a thick dense forest, but also a strong
man.
Dutchman Pelser
who first traded at Senanga in 1916 was named
Matengatenga. A boat rocking from side to side may be referred
to as matengatenga. A man with no definite stand or opinion on any
issue, a wavering character is a matengatenga.
This is the final part of this name game as the white tribesman must
now be allowed to rest wherever he may be. The source of the initial
data has been, as always, the National Archives of Zambia whose
assistance I wish to acknowledge. However, for background
information on the origins and meanings of the names I had to
foottrack to the countryside and I thank profusely those who have
assisted me. But there were two excellent sources I missed in Mongu.
The one though willing to talk was in excruciating pain. The other I
had missed on a previous visit and this time I found him in a coma
from which he never recovered. I therefore dedicate this article to
this late teacher and Scout Master of mine, KM Ikafa. And with this
I recall a comment by JA Cottrell, former Principal, Barotse
National School (BNS)
“
One stride of the next school generation and some foot print is
obscured: one wave from the tide of time and the whole path is gone
forever”.
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December
2005