Chapter II: The Administration of Barotseland

The Barotse Reserve is administered by the British South Africa Company in agreement with the Paramount Chief Lewanika. By this agreement the Chief Lewanika has handed over certain powers and privileges to the B.S.A. Co. The company is empowered to collect a poll-tax, of which a percentage is set aside for the Barotse nation. Out of this percentage the Barotse National School and its industrial branch is maintained. The school is controlled by a European principal and vice-principal, as well as a European instructor, at the head of the industrial side, supported by an effective staff of native teachers. The B.S.A. Co. further have a resident magistrate near Lewanika’s capital at Lialui, who is supported by two Northern Rhodesia police officers and a company of native police (recruited in Angoni and Awembaland). Native commissioners are maintained at Lialui, Nalolo, Balovale, Mankoya, and Lukona, with an assistant magistrate and a native commissioner at Sesheke.

Lewanika has ceded all judicial rights to the B.S.A. Co. with the exception of very minor items and of civil cases between natives. At the same time the B.S.A. Co. recognizes native laws where such native laws are not repugnant to British ideas of justice.

At present Lewanika has his capital at Lialui, where his Kotla (Parliament)[6] sits daily. His sister Mataŭka is Mokwai of Nalolo (Mokwai being a title designating a woman of royal blood on the father’s side).

A younger sister, Mbwanjikana, is Mokwai of Libonda, and Lewanika’s eldest son Litia (or Yeta, as he is now called by all Barozi since his youth) is stationed at Sesheke. (Yeta, styled Yeta II, has since succeeded his father as Paramount Chief.) The two sisters and Yeta are subordinate to Lewanika, but all three have their Kotlas (Parliaments) and Prime Ministers. There is a right of appeal from any of these subordinate Kotlas to the Lialui Kotla.

The Barozi Reserve is closed against farming or mining, and is reserved for the Barozi only. Trading is allowed, but any applicant for a licence has to be proved by the Administrator, Resident Magistrate, and the Chief Lewanika—Lewanika getting a half share of all gun and store licences issued throughout Barotseland.

Liquor is naturally not allowed to be sold in the Reserve, nor are powder, caps, nor guns. The Administrator will grant permission to the Chief, at his request, for any of the more important Indunas to buy sporting guns and a limited amount of ammunition.

Slavery has been suppressed, although, in due justice to the Barozi, it does not appear to have existed in its more brutal form in this country. The B.S.A. Co. has given every encouragement to the Paris Huguenot Mission in the Reserve, and the Mission have several privileges to assist them, such as free inspection of their schools by the Principal of the Barozi National School, the reservation of vacancies in the Barozi National School for members of the Mission Schools and other items. The Chief Lewanika has always lent the mission the support of his approval, although he himself has not become converted.

The B.S.A. Co. has endeavoured in every possible way to protect the interests of the Barozi people and their Chief Lewanika. The Resident Magistrate at Mongu, besides his magisterial duties, acts as adviser to the Chief and the Kotlas (or Parliament) as well. The native is safeguarded against himself as regards his cattle by restrictions placed on the local traders as to numbers purchased annually—restrictions on breeding stock being much more stringent than on bulls and bullocks. The Rhodesian Native Labour Bureau is given free access to the country to recruit labour, but is under close Government supervision.

Photo by J. C. Coxhead, Esq.]

Photo by J. C. Coxhead, Esq.]

Besides all these safeguards, there is a Resident Commissioner stationed at Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia, a large part of whose duties is the protection of natives’ rights. Beyond him again is the High Commissioner for all native protectorates, who directly represents His Majesty King George V, and is also Governor-General for the Union of South Africa.

A poll tax of 10s. is collected, which is very much lighter than the tax collected from any native race south of the Zambezi. This tax is collected from adult males only, boys, old men and women not being taxed, with the exception of second and other wives of polygamous marriages. A man’s first wife does not have to be paid for, but, as a man who marries more than one wife is nearly always a man of means, he is responsible for the tax of his second and other wives. Exemptions are granted from payment of tax, either for a number of years or for life, for sickness, disease or old age.

The Administrator of Northern Rhodesia pays a visit to the Barozi Reserve in person or by proxy every year, and during his visit the Chief and the people are at liberty to bring any complaints and grievances before him. No matter is too trifling or insignificant to receive the fullest and most careful attention and it is doubtless the care taken over these minor points that has solidified the excellent relations at present existing between the Chief Lewanika and the officials of the B.S.A. Company.