CHAPTER IX
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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.
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