Tears of Rain: Ethnicity and History in Central Western Zambia (Monographs from the African Studies Centre, Leiden)

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company. "This study of the Nkoya people in central western Zambia examines in detail the fascinating ways in which ethnicity both creates, and feeds upon, ethno-history. It also assesses the possibility of reconstructing objective historical processes in the region since the sixteenth century, including state formation and changing patterns in the economy, gender relations, ideology, symbolism and cosmology. The work sheds an unexpected light on the southern periphery of the Lunda political culture, on the nature of political relations in the eastern periphery of Barotseland in the nineteenth century, the role of gender relations in state formation, the redefinition of African political leadership in the context of the colonial and post-colonial state, and on the impact of cosmopolitan conceptualizations--of a colonial, Christian and academic nature--on popular modes of history in Africa." "Above all, this is a book about that fundamental act of scholarship--reading. Specifically, the reading of works of literate ethno-history which form an increasingly important category of sources for modern African historiography. Tears of Rain is largely based upon one such source, the extensive and brilliant Likota Iya Bankoya. In his analysis, van Binsbergen addresses himself to the questions of how the reading of such sources is to be informed by anthropological theory--specifically by structuralism and the analysis of kinship and modes of production--by oral and documentary sources from the region, and by techniques of close reading and linguistic analysis seldom applied in Africanist social-science discourse. In this sense the book is a typological and methodological contribution to African history." "The book comprises an analytical study of the Likota Iya Bankoya manuscript, a critical edition of the Nkoya text and an English translation of it, and substantial reference material. This innovative work will set standards of research for years to come."--Jacket. Cover 1 Tears of Rain Ethnicity and history in central western Zambia Wim van Binsbergen 4 Table of contents 6 Preface and acknowledgments 14 Part I Tears of Rain Ethnicity and history in central western Zambia 24 Chapter 2 The Likota lya Bankoya manuscript 73 Chapter 3 Historical criticism of Likota lya Bankoya 118 Chapter 4 State formation in central western Zambia as depicted by Likota lya Bankoya 173 Chapter 5 State and society in nineteenth-century central western Zambia: Regalia, legal aspects, ideology and gender 214 Chapter 6 Likota lya Bankoya as cosmology and as history: Aspects of Nkoya symbolism and its transformations 256 Part II Likota lya Bankoya edited Nkoya text 355 Part III The history of the Nkoya people English translation 287 Part IV Reference material 432 Appendix 1 A description of the constituent parts of the Likota lya Bankoya manuscript 433 Appendix 2 Variants of the Likota lya Bankoya manuscript 437 Appendix 3 Genealogies constructed on the basis of the text of Likota lya Bankoya 443 Appendix 4 List of published texts in the Nkoya language 453 Appendix 5 List of oral sources 456 Appendix 6 List of archival sources and district files consulted 460 Appendix 7 Zinkena in western Zambia in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 462 References cited 468 Author index 484 Subject index 486 Wim M.J. van Binsbergen,Tears of Rain: Etnicity and History in Central Western Zambia,London/Boston: Kegan Paul International,1992 Tears of Rain 071030434X First published in 1992. This is a book about ethnicity among the Nkoya people in central western Zambia, and about the historical background out of which that ethnicity is made. It studies in detail the fascinating ways in which ethnicity both creates, and feeds upon, ethno-history. At the same time it assesses the possibility of reconstructing objective historical processes, in that region since the sixteenth century, on the basis primarily of one very extensive source, Rev. Johasaphat Malasha Shimunikas Likota lya Bankoya, whose production (as a compilation and processing of local oral traditions) is intimately related to contemporary ethnicity. But most of all this is a book about that fundamental, and humble, condition of reading. 2.2. Likota lya Bankoya as belonging to a genre of historiographic production -- characteristics of the genre and methodological implications -- between colonialism, missionary influence and ethnic concerns -- narrative structure and style -- the uses of a religious education -- 2.3. Reconstructing the original manuscript -- 2.4. Editing the reconstructed manuscript -- Nkoya as a written language -- editorial conventions -- 2.5. Problems of translation -- the identification of gender -- gender and death from natural causes: an example -- Shakalongo as female: another example Pan-Nkoya convergence and its implications for the study of history -- 1.3. The major Nkoya chiefs and their political environment today -- the distant Lunda association -- chiefs, royal kin and headmen: the internal structure of the neo-traditional Nkoya polities -- the indigenous Barotse administration and the colonial state -- the post-colonial state -- Mutondo and Kahare: moiety-like structure and the struggle for seniority -- Chapter 2. The Likota lya Bankoya manuscript -- 2.1. History of the Likota lya Bankoya manuscript Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of diagrams -- List of tables -- PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Acknowledgments -- PART I. TEARS OF RAIN: ETHNICITY AND HISTORY IN CENTRAL WESTERN ZAMBIA -- Chapter 1. The contemporary point of departure: The Nkoya-speaking people and their chiefs -- 1.1. The Nkoya -- 1.2. Nkoya subgroups and the recent process of their ethnic convergence -- the proliferation of Nkoya subgroups The handling of kinship terms and terms for social groups -- genealogies -- genealogical over-interpretation: the case of Mwene Kayambila Shishopa -- terms for court offices -- toponyms -- more specifically literary problems of translation -- Chapter 3. Historical criticism of Likota lya Bankoya -- 3.1. The apologetic intention of Likota lya Bankoya -- 3.2. The quest for authority -- identification of sources -- dates -- anachronisms Recycling of published historical texts -- dynastic numbers and the nature of the Nkoya royal titles: between ascription and achievement -- authoritative lists and biblical elements -- the spurious insertion of a mainstream event -- 3.3. Shimunika's possible biases -- Nkoya nationalism? -- Nkoya as a toponym Nkoya as the name of a dynastic group centring on the Mutondo kingship, and its emergence as an ethnonym