Joking tribes in town

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Page 35

JOKING TRIBES IN TOWNS

The kalela dance takes place during leisure hours in an African residential area. Europeans
other than officials are rarely seen in this area¹⁰² and on Sundays and holidays even
European officials are seldom present. As we have seen, it is in this situation, where Africans
interact with Africans, that tribalism emerges as a significant category of social intercourse.
Here where political matters are set aside for the moment, the dancers express their unity
against their spectators as members of a limited number of broad tribal groups and address their
taunting songs to them in these terms.

The kalela dance is only one of the many possible situations in which tribalism operates as a
category of interaction. I have already mentioned other situations in which it became
significant as, for example, in tribal fights, in the struggle for power within a trade union, and
so forth. If we take into account the great importance of tribalism in the life of African
townsmen who have diverse origins, it is surprising that more tribal conflicts do not arise in
urban situations. A full examination of this problem requires much more intensive work than I
was able to give it. Nevertheless from what evidence I have been able to collect it appears that
on the Copperbelt at least, one possible mechanism for the control of inter-tribal hostility lies in
institutionalized joking relationship.

The co-existence of traditional tribal hostilities and enforced peaceful association in industrial
areas presents us with an interesting sociological problem. We know that at the end
of the last century Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland were peopled by a large number of small,
relatively weak, tribal groups over which a few more powerful organized tribes such as the
Lozi, the Ngoni, the Bemba, the Western Lunda and one or two others had established some
sort of dominance. Between these more powerful tribes there was considerable hostility and it
is possible that were it not for the entry of the British at the end of the century there would
inevitably have been a trial of strength between these groups. In fact when the British South
Africa Company started administering the territory the first task they had before them was to
suppress the inter-tribal warfare and the slave-trade with which it was closely connected. The
result of this was that the trial of strength never came, and the dominance of some tribes over
others was never clearly established. Instead members of these tribes found themselves
occupying neighbouring houses or working shoulder to shoulder in the same gangs with their
erstwhile enemies. Moreover their European masters were exercised to see that hostility in their
work gangs was not openly expressed. It became increasingly clear that tribesmen had to co-
operate with their erstwhile enemies not only because of their

102 Under section 143 of the Townships Regulations (cap. 120 of the Laws of Northern Rhodesia) no person may loiter
or be within the limits of a location without a reasonable excuse or the permission of the Location Superintendent.

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common role in the productive process, but also because in the industrial situation they stood
united in opposition to their European employers.

It is exactly in this situation, as Radcliffe-Brown points out, that joking relationships
develop. He writes : 'The theory is that both the joking relationships which constitute an
alliance between clans or tribes, and that between relatives by marriage, are modes of
organizing a definite stable system of social behaviour in which disjunctive and conjunctive
components are maintained and combined.'¹⁰³

Scrivenor drew attention to the existence of joking relationships between tribes in
Tanganyika in a paper in 1937 and Moreau supplied some interesting detailed information in
1941.¹⁰⁴ There are several features of Moreau's paper which are particularly interesting in view
of the Copperbelt material. The first point is that Moreau shows unequivocally that joking
relationships between tribes have arisen where in the past there have been tribal wars. He noted
that the Ngoni, notorious for their warlike characteristics, had joking relationships with more
tribes than any other single tribe. He quotes an informant who tells how a certain tribe was not
admitted into a joking relationship with another because there had been no fighting with them.
Moreau goes on to say that : 'While I have gained the impression that [the joking relationship]
is still a living force of great importance there is no doubt that it is being constantly weakened
by a combination of modern influences. Especially in townships where many different tribes
are rubbing shoulders every day, [the joking relationship] inevitably falls into desuetude
through the physical impossibility of observing it. On the whole it would perhaps be safest to
regard the customs described in this paper as those of the last generation rather than of the
rising one.^'¹⁰⁵

There are three points however to suggest a different interpretation. The first is not
explicitly stated by Moreau, but we may gather from the cases he quotes, that he collected the
material for his paper not in the rural areas but in administrative centres, which were
congregated tribes whose paths otherwise would never have crossed. The second and third
points are made explicitly by Moreau himself : (a) that all of the instances he cites have been
collected from men under the age of forty f ive, and (b) there appears to be no vernacular term
for tribal joking relationships : instead all tribes used the Swahili word ulani, which may have
been derived from an Arabic word watan, 'to reside in'. In summary, then, joking
relationships are still a living force of importance between tribes who were formerly at war
with one another, and a Swahili term was used by all tribes to describe the relationship - a fact,
incidentally, which puzzled Moreau. The material on which the observations were based seems
to have been collected in extra-tribal situations from comparatively young men. These facts
suggest strongly that joking relationships between tribes

103 Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., 1940, p. 96.
104 Scrivenor, T. V., 1937 ; Moreau, R. E., 1941.
105 Moreau, R. E., 1941, p. 2.

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is a relatively recent phenomenon. The older men apparently did not find them of much
interest but the younger men working in administrative centres together with former enemies
did, and they used a word from the lingua franca to describe relationships in this new situation.
The strong suggestion therefore is that tribal joking relationships came into being mainly after
the establishment of European law and government, and that in fact they are most viable in
townships where erstwhile hostile tribesmen were thrown together under conditions in which
peace was enjoined on them - in other words where ' a mode of organizing a definite and stable
system of social behaviour in which disjunctive and conjunctive components ' had of necessity
' to be maintained and combined.'¹⁰⁶ It is possible that the decline of tribal joking relationships
with the growth of towns, as Moreau posits, was in fact not an empirical observation but a
deduction based on the mistaken assumption that tribal joking relationships are traditional and
that modern urban situations are therefore inimical to them.

;In Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland joking relationships exist between certain
categories on kinsmen, between certain clans, and between certain tribes. In those tribes east of
the Luangwa River there appear to be no joking clans at all, but joking relationships exist, (a)
between certain kinsmen such as cross-cousins, and grandchildren and grandparents, and (b)
between a lineage section or village section and some individuals who have performed funeral
duties for them. Among the Chewa and Nyanja people these individuals are given quasi-
kinship status and called 'grandchildren' by the village or lineage section.¹⁰⁷ Among the Yao the
same type of joking relationship exists but it is referred to by a descriptive term, awilo, and not
by a kinship term.¹⁰⁸ Among the Yao also a former village headman may have performed the
funeral duties for a particular chief.¹⁰⁹ The joking relationship is then inherited through
professional succession and becomes perpetuated, but there are no institutionalized joking
relationships between clans whereby any member of one clan jokes with any member of its
opposite.

Clan joking relationships seem to be confined to the west of the Luangwa River.¹¹⁰Among these tribes joking relationships exist

106 Moreau, R. E., 19941, p. 10, however, quotes the Kami who had to pass through Doe country to reach the coast. The
Doe in turn were subject to periodical hunger and could most easily acquire food from the Kami. With the addition of the
mutual performance of funeral duties, these services could be subsumed under a joking relationship. Moreau, however,
significantly notes that the 'joking between these tribes is said to be relatively unimportant.
107 Marwick, M., 1956, Chap. IV. I prefer this view to the one presented by Pretorius, J. L., 1949, and Bruwer, J.,
1951, which is that the kinsmen are required to perform the funeral duties. Because of the significance of the funeral
duties in the relationship, Tew, 1951, suggests the term 'funeral friendship'. Colsen, E., 1953, disputes the central
importance of funeral duties in the relationship.
108 Mitchell, J. C., 1951, p. 339.
109 A commoner cannot perform these duties for a chief : they must be performed by a person of like status.
110 Richards, A. L., 1937 ; Stefaniszyn, B., 1950, 1951.

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between certain categories of kinsmen as among the people east of the Luangwa, but in
addition to this each clan recognizes at least one other clan as a joking clan. The relationship
between the clans is usually explained by a myth or formula based on their names, in which the
opposition or hostility of the objects to which the names refer is emphasized. The joking is
frequently expressed in the idiom of the myth. For example, the Crocodile and Fish clans are a
joking pair. A man from the Crocodile clan may say to one from the Fish clan: 'You are my
food !'. to which the man from the Fish clan may reply : 'You cannot live without me ¹¹¹ !'

Among the peoples west of the Luangwa this type of joking has a term of its own : the
Bemba word is bunungwe. Among them it is institutionalized : funeral duties flow from the
joking relationships. Among the peoples east of the Luangwa on the other hand joking
relationships flow from the funeral duties, and are referred to by kinship or descriptive
terms.¹¹² In either case the relationships may be looked upon as an extension of the kinship
system whereby strangers are brought into a special relationship because they perform those
funeral duties which kinsmen may not.

Colson makes an observation about the operation of the joking relationship among the
Plateau Tonga which has a bearing on the system of social relationships on the Copperbelt.
She points out that since the joking clan is not usually one of the clans to which a man is linked
through his father, mother or wife, it provides the means whereby a man could operate further
afield than his own vicinage in the days when it was dangerous to be a stranger anywhere. The
similarity between the way the joking relationship operates here and the way in which it
operates between joking tribes on the Copperbelt will emerge later.¹¹³

On the Copperbelt there are several tribes who stand in joking relationships to each
other. I was able to record incidents involving joking between the following tribes :

Bemba

- Ngoni

Lozi

Tonga / Ila

Lozi

- Ndebele

Yao

- Bisa

111 Dokes says of the Lmba : 'It is probable that originally some of these clans were violently opposed, though to-day
the opposition is confined to jesting.' Doke, C., 1931, p. 197. He then lists some typical opposites and quotes a few
of the formulae. Stefaniszyn, B., 1950, 1951, gives extensive lists.
112 Thus the Ngoni explain the joking relationship with the Bemba by the fact that since they were formerly enemies
they came into possession of each other's corpses and therefore had to perform the burial duties for them. Brewer,
1951, p. 31.
113 Colson, E., 1953, makes another observation that this is very likely of importance on the Copperbelt but about
which I have collected no information. She points out that because no umbrage may be taken at the things said within
the framework of the joking relationship it may operate as a powerful medium of social control. Although I did not
realize it t the time, this is obviously an important element in the joking relationship perpetuated between a Yao chief
and some of his village headmen. In this privileged position they are able to criticize the chief's behaviour as no other
person may.

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The Lamba, Swaka, Lala, Lenje, Soli, Sala, Chokwe, Western Lunda, Ambo and many other
smaller tribes appear to have no joking relationships with other tribes.

Before I can proceed to illustrate the sort of situation in which the joking relationship is
invoked, I must revert to a point which emerged from the tribal distance experiment¹¹⁴. The tribal
labels in the list of joking tribes I have mentioned are really much broader categories than is
implied. The point is perhaps well illustrated by an incident which took place in Lusaka. A
Bemba-speaking man grew some carrots near his house in one of the African townships. His
neighbour's children came one day and uprooted some and started to eat them. When the
Bemba-speaking man complained to his neighbour about the children's behaviour, the
neighbour, who spoke Nyanji, retorted in such a way that it was obvious that he was treating
the incident as part of the Ngoni-Bemba joking relationship. The Bemba speaking man
happened to be a Lungu from Chief Mukupa's area and the Nyanji-speaking man a Chewa.
They were able to rationalize their relationship and avoid conflict by invoking the Bemba-
Ngoni joking relationship.

The joking relationship comes into operation in many different situations. Miss
Richardson noticed in Kitwe that Bemba women who were performing puberty rites for a girl
chose to sing outside the huts of the Nsenga who lived in that part of the township until the
Nsenga gave them some money as a gift. But it is particularly in drinking situations that joking
relationships between tribes are invoked. A man for example may appropriate a pot of beer
from another who belongs to his joking tribe and expect to have the same thing done to him in
similar circumstances. A typical incident was recorded by an African Research Assistant of the
Rhodes-Livingstone Institute who is himself an Ngoni.¹⁰⁴ He writes : ' One Sunday afternoon
in March 1955 I came across a drinking party in a compound. Among the people drinking were
two Ndebele women who live in the neighbouring compound. Shortly afterward a Lozi woman
came in and sat next to the Ndebele women. I greeted the Ndebele women in my poor Ndebele
and they offered me a cup of beer. After drinking the beer I asked the beer seller to bring
another sixpenny cup of beer which I gave to the Ndebele women. The Lozi woman was quiet
all the time. I produced the sixpenny to pay for the cup of beer that was given to me and passed
it in front of the Lozi woman. I thought she was going to give it to the beer seller but she put
the sixpence in her pocket saying with a smile to me in the Lozi language " "A foreigner has
lost his money." I was surprised at this but the Ndebele women explained that this was
because of the joking relationship between the Ndebele and the Lozi. I told the Lozi woman
that I was not an Ndebele but an Ngoni from Fort Jameson and that I wanted my money back.
She stood up and asked the beer seller to give her a cup of beer, paying for it with the sixpence
she had taken from me. She sat down and started drinking

114 See pp.22 ff.above
115 Mr. M. B. Lukhero.

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the beer saying : "You are all cattle stealers and you should Thank God we did not drown
all you people in the Zambezi." When I went further with my investigation the Lozi woman
said that the joking relationship existed between the Lozi and the Ngoni and the Ndebele
because they both came from the same Zulu origin.'

The joking relationship not only avoids open conflict between hostilely opposed tribes
in the urban areas but also provides the basis of active co-operation. This is most obviously
demonstrated in the funeral duties that these tribes perform for each other. Above I have given
an example of this where the Yao performed funeral duties for the wife of a Bisa man. But
there have been other occasions also where the joking relationship has been the basis of active
co-operation. One example was when a well-known and respected Ngoni died in Luanshya. It
was a Bemba tribal elder who initiated a collection to assist his widow and dependants.

But the joking relationship is not accepted without question by all in urban areas. Some
of the joking leads to court cases. The following case was heard by the urban court in Lusaka
in November, 1953.¹¹⁶ A Lozi woman complained to the court that an Ila man had assaulted
her at the butchery. She said : ' I went to the butchery to buy meat on Saturday morning and
the Ila man was at the counter. When I had bought the meat I went outside to where my bicycle
was and was packing the meat into my cycle bag when the Ila man came up to me and started to
joke with me. There is a joking relationship between the Lozi and the Ila : he started touching
the beads around my waist and fondling my breasts. I tried to stop him but he carried on doing
so. He then used bad language to me and I was annoyed at this. I told him I was a married
woman and did not like joking in that manner. I told him I would summons him to court.' The
woman went on to say that she was loyal to her husband and although he did not like her
taking this man to court, because of the joking relationship between the two tribes, she had
decided that if she did not do so he would suspect her of adultery with other Ila men.

The Lozi assessor on the Bench, who was the Court President, said that he knew that
there was a joking relationship between the two tribes but that in this case the joking had been
conducted in a bad and disgraceful manner. He said that it was not right that the man should
have touched the woman's beads in public. The Lozi assessor then asked the Ila man if he did
not agree with this view. The Ila man pointed out that the incident had taken place in public.
Had the affair occurred in private it would have been tantamount to adultery but since it was
done openly it could only have been joking. The parties were dismissed while the assessors
discussed the case. The assessors could not agree among themselves on the case. The joking
relationship between the Lozi and the Ila was not questioned. The point was whether touching
a woman's beads in public could be accepted as suitable joking behaviour. The division of
opinion between the Lozi

116 I am grateful to Mr. B. Lukhero, once again, who recorded this case.

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assessor and the others. The Lozi assessor maintained that the behaviour was incorrect while
the others were prepared to accept it. Eventually the Lozi assessor's views prevailed and the
parties were recalled. In passing judgment the Lozi assessor said : 'We all know that before the
Europeans came to our country different tribes used to have many disgraceful customs some of
which have died. In my opinion this joking relationship is one of them. Using insulting
language to the woman and touching her beads in public would be a serious crime if her
husband were present. For this reason the court awards 20s. 0d. damages to the woman and
5s. 0d court fee.' The Ila man paid these amounts.

A relative of the Ila man now stood up and addressed the court. He said :'We have
watched with interest the way this case has been conducted. But let it be known from this time
that no Lozi person will joke with an Ila person, especially at the butchery, and in beer parties
where this happens frequently.' An assessor representing the Ila and the Tonga in court said
that it was the first time that a case had been decided in this way since he had been on the
Bench. He mentioned several other cases brought by Ila or Tonga against Lozi but these had
been dismissed because of the joking relationship.

The fact that the cases should have been brought to court at all indicates that the joking
relationship is not accepted completely by all in town. In the trial reported here the existence of
the joking relationship was admitted by the complainant and accepted by the court. In his
summing up the Lozi assessor said he thought that it was a custom that should fall away but it
was clear he was expressing his own opinion for the other assessors did not agree with him.

The main issue in this case was the sort of behaviour acceptable under the joking

relationship between tribes and on this the courts are arbiters. But a point raised in the
proceedings bears on Moreau's contention that the joking relationship is disappearing in town.
This hinges on the particular situations in which the joking relationship may be invoked. The
Ila man's kinsman mentioned two situations in which joking is most likely to occur, namely in
the crowd outside the butcher shop and in drinking parties. The drinking relationship is
invoked mainly in situations of casual social intercourse, where interaction does not take place
within the framework of some well-defined social structure. It is highly significant in terms of
my interpretation of the role of tribalism in urban areas that the joking relationship does not
operate between co-workers in industry or between officials of an organization like a Trade
Union. Not every social situation in an urban area, as Moreau seemed to assume, evokes the
joking relationship between tribes.

The situation in which the kalela dance takes place has some of the features of a joking
Hah, how unhappy are the Nsenga !
There have been some slanderous rumours
Unheard of before.

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What have I heard ?
The Nsenga woman slept with what ?
You tell me - you who have heard it.
She slept with a dog.
I should deny it for the sake of the Nsenga,
People are just telling lies about them.
But yesterday I desired an Nsenga woman,
Why did she refuse me ?
I pleaded with her but she entirely refused,
Saying that I did not know how to copulate.
I said that I would teach her how to.
She entirely refused.
How do you speak falsely against the Nsenga?
Saying that they have fornicated with a dog?
If they refuse human beings
How can they accept a dog - a beast ?
Can they agree to it ?
You are just teasing.
I shall send my dog to the Nsenga woman,
The one that refused me will then acquiesce.

There has never been, as far as I know, any umbrage taken by the Nsenga people
against this song, nor by the Lamba, Lwena or any other of the tribes that are mocked by the
kalela singers. In fact, the spectators, of whom there are usually many, appear to enjoy the
songs immensely. I think it is significant that this most insulting of all stanzas should be
directed towards the Nsenga. This would fall into line with the broad pattern of joking
relationships between Bemba and the Ngoni categories. But in general the kalela dancers, as
representatives of the Bisa tribe, set up a sort of unilateral joking relationship with their
spectators in which they express their hostility towards other tribes and yet do not incur
animosity.

KALELA IN THE URBAN SITUATION

We are now able to return to the apparent paradox which originally attracted my
attention to the kalela dance. It will be recalled that one of the outstanding features of the kalela
dance was that it was undoubtedly a tribal dance, in the sense that the team was composed
mainly of Bisa tribesmen and they set out to praise the Bisa in general, and their chief Matipa in
particular. But the clothing they wore and the language they used in their songs served to sink
their identity as a tribal group, and to merge them with the Copperbelt African population as a
whole.

I have tried to show in this essay that one of the features of the social structure of the
African population on the Copperbelt is that except in these dancing teams, tribalism does not
form the basis for the organization of corporate groups. It remains essentially a category of
interaction in casual social intercourse. Similarly the prestige ranking system does not serve to
organize Africans into corporately acting

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groups. It operates as a category of interaction together with tribalism in mediating social
relationships in what is predominantly a transient society. These two principles of association
determine the behaviour of comparative strangers to one another mainly in day-to-day
relationships. It is impossible to generalize about the operation of these principles without
reference to the specific social situation in which the interaction takes place.¹⁰⁶ McCall writes
of 'collectivities which have begun to knit the disparate tribal elements into common units', and
mentions as examples of these 'schools, churches, trade unions, political parties, nationalist
movements, and public places of recreation such as beer-halls and football fields'. He goes on
to say that : 'The more that Africans identify themselves with these groups the less important
tribal affiliation becomes.'¹⁰⁷ The evidence that we have from Northern Rhodesia is that in
certain situations Africans ignore either class differences of tribal differences (or both), and in
other situations these differences become significant. I have presented evidence to show that in
their opposition to the Europeans, Africans ignore both their 'class' and tribal differences.
Inside a tribal association such as those found in Southern Rhodesia I would expect
oppositions to be phrased in terms of 'class' differences. I would expect the discussion within
a teachers' or clerks' association to be phrased in terms of tribalism. The same people who
stand together in one situation may be bitterly opposed in another. The fact that tribalism
emerges as a significant category of interaction only in certain situations, may help to explain
some of the apparent contradictions which acute observers have noted from time to time.
Hellman for example writes that the widening of perspective and increase of knowledge that
urban living has brought to the African, 'has created a Native with divided loyalties. He feels
unity with the Bantu people as a whole ; but he has not emancipated himself from the feeling of
tribal superiority which has caused each tribe in turn to call itself "The People ".¹⁰⁸ Hellman
mentions tribal fights in the slum area in which she worked and in segregated mine compounds
as typical situations in which tribalism serves to divide the population into opposed groups.
Her example of a situation in which tribal distinctions are minimized is equally significant. She
writes : 'There is in Johannesburg the Bantu Men's Social Centre where any mention of purely
tribal loyalties is deprecated, and where English as a language medium is assiduously fostered
in the brief that a common language will help to merge Natives of different tribes, each with its
different language, into a Bantu nation.'¹⁰⁹ Earlier in the same paragraph she had written :
'White South Africa is intimidated by the threat that this emerging "nation" directs at its own
security.'

The kalela team, being all Bisa and having eliminated possible 'class' differences by

adopting clothing appropriate to those in the higher positions in the prestige scale, are able to
present a united front

117 Cf. Gluckman, M., 1955, pp. 151-63.
118 McCall, D. F., 1955, p. 158
119 Hellman, E., 1948, p.114.

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to outsiders. To the spectators there is no paradox in this. I think the paradox to us stems
from the ambiguity of the concept of tribalism. Consider these manifestations of tribalism. The
Chewa use the spectacular masked dances from the nyau ceremony in their dances on the
Copperbelt. In Southern Rhodesia where tribesmen form corporate groups in the shape of
burial and friendly societies, a title and a constitution perform the same function. It so happens
that the Bisa in common with many other tribes from the northern parts of Northern Rhodesia
have no particular distinctive dress by means of which they express their unity. Hence they fall
back upon the praise verses in the song they sing. But the burial societies and the tribal
dancing groups are not led by a headman and a group of tribal elders. Instead that have a
committee with a chairman or a 'king' with secretaries, treasurers and other officials, and
conduct their business on the same lines as any European association does. The rural tribal
structure has no immediate relevance to the composition of the dance team and the particular
symbol it uses to express its unity is not definitive.

I contend that the set of relationships among a group of tribesmen in their rural home is
something very different from the set of relationships among the same group when they are
transposed to a urban area. In the rural area the relationships of the members form part of a
complete tribal system. They fix their relationships to one another in terms of kinship links, by
clanship and by their membership of villages.

In towns the pattern of the social system is determined largely by the industrial system
which forms the basis of their existence, and by the laws which Government has enacted to
regulate the life of the town-dwellers. As cities have developed on the basis of industrial
production, 'the pecuniary nexus which implies the purchasability of services and things has
displaced personal relations as the basis of associations. Individuality under these
circumstances must be replaced by categories.¹²⁰ 'Tribe' on the Copperbelt has become one of
these categories and it is in this sense only that kalela is a 'tribal' dance.

120 Wirth, L., 1938, p. 44.

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APPENDIX I

Occupational Prestige Ranking

Distribution of Prestige Rankings.

Occupation

Very

High

Med.

Low

Very

Don't

Mean S.D

High

Low

Know Rank

African Education Officer

546

0.83 0.51

African Minister of Religion

395

178

1.18 0.73

Secondary School Teaching

382

229

1.18 0.69

African Police Inspector

403

189

1.19 0.77

Headmaster

350

266

1.26 0.70

African Welfare Officer

319

257

1.34 0.73

Mediccal Orderly

253

323

1.47 0.70

T.U Branch Secretary

231

323

1.52 0.70

Senior Clerk (mines)

178

346

1.65 0.68

Senior Clerk (govt.)

180

345

1.66 0.68

Primary School Teacher

112

336

154

1.86 0.62

Carpenter

111

303

201

1.86 0.61

Typist

301

214

2.02 0.59

Bricklayer

237

259

2.04 0.60

African Constable

270

197

2.11 0.65

Garage Mechanic

206

248

2.14 0.63

Boss Boy (mines)

173

150

114

2.19 0.79

Plumber

177

222

2.19 0.65

Contractor's capitao

206

259

2.21 0.56

Painter

116

312

132

2.32 0.56

Lorry Driver

154

320

121

2.35 0.50

Machine Boy

215

180

2.48 0.64

Boma Messenger

110

245

196

2.48 0.59

Office Messenger

260

114

2.72 0.55

Domestic Servant

174

217

168

2.75 0.68

Hotel Waiter

207

244

153

2.78 0.59

Station Boy

181

254

148

2.79 0.59

Petrol Pump Boy

128

252

231

2.98 0.58

Wood Cutter

147

211

251

3.00 0.58

Garden Boy

129

465

3.37 0.50

Scavenger

512

3.43 0.52

The respondents were African students and scholars at educational institutions in and around
Lusaka. They were made up as follows :

Secondary School 303

Teachers' Training College 124

Technical School 226

____

Total 653

The mean rank was obtained by apportioning a weight to each of the prestige categories and
then computing from them a weighted mean.

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The weights were computed on the assumption that the distribution of ranks over all
occupations was 'normal'. The method is set out in Yaukey, D., ' A Metric Measurement of
Occupational Status'. Sociology and Social Research, XXIX, 5 (May-June, 1955), pp. 317-
23.

The weights were :

Very high prestige 0.62

High prestige 1.96

Neither high nor low 2.27

Low prestige 2.85

Very low prestige 3.64

The means were taken to four places of decimal. The order of ranking in the tied ranks in the
table were thus decided by the third decimal place.

APPENDIX II

RANKING OF TRIBES FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUPS

TABLE I

THE EASTERN MATRILINEAL PEOPLE

	E. MAT.	S. PAT.	N. MAT	N.PAT.	BILAT	C.MAT.	W.MAT

1		Ngoni
2	Nsenga
3	Chewa
4			Bemba
5		Ndebele
6				Tumbuka
7				Mambwe
8			Bisa
9						Tonga
10			Aushi
11						Lenje
12				Nyamwanga
13					Lozi
14						Soli
15						Ila
16							Kaonde
17							Lunda
18							Cholwe
19							Luvale
20							Luchazi

	Eastern Matrilineal test group was made up of : Nsenga 17 ; Chewa 16 ;	Nyasa Tonga 7 ; Nyanja 4 ; Yao 2. Total 46.

Eastern Matrilineal test group was made up of : Nsenga 17 ; Chewa 16 ; Nyasa Tonga 7 ;

Nyanja 4 ; Yao 2. Total 46.

Eastern Matrilineal test group was made up of : Nsenga 17 ; Chewa 16 ; Nyasa Tonga 7 ; Nyanja 4 ; Yao 2. Total 46.

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Page 47.

TABLE II

	S. Pat.	E. Mat.	N. Pat.	N. Mat.	C. Mat.	Bilat.	W. Mat

1	Ngoni
2	Ndebele
3		Chewa
4		Nsenga
5			Tumbuka
6				Bemba
7				Bisa
8					Lenje
9			Mambwe
10					Tonga
11							Kaonde
12						Lozi
13					Soli
14			Nyamwanga
15				Aushi
16					Ila
17							Lunda
18							Luvale
19							Luchazi
20							Chokwe

Southern Patrilineal test group was made up of 28 Ngoni.

TABLE III

The Central Matrilineal People

	Central	Bilat.	S. Pat.	N. Mat.	E. Mat.	N. Pat.	W. Mat.

1	Tonga
2	Lenje
3	Ila
4	Soli
5				Bemba
6							Kaonde
7		Lozi
8			Ndebele
9			Ngoni
10					Nsenga
11				Bisa
12						Tumbuka
13						Mambwe
14							Lunda
15					Chewa
16						Nyamwanga
17				Aushi
18							Luvale
19							Luchazi
20							Chokwe

Central Matrilineal group was made up of : N. Rhodesia Tonga 33 ; Lenje 11 ; Ila 7 ; Sala 3 ; Soli

2. Total 56.

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Page 48.

TABLE IV

The Northern Patrilineal People

	N. Pat.	S. Pat.	N. Mat.	E. Mat.	C. Mat.	Bilat.	W. Mat.

1	Mambwe
2	Tumbuka
3			Bemba
4		Ngoni
5	Nyamwanga
6		Ndebele
7			Bisa
8				Nsenga
9				Chewa
10					Lenje
11			Aushi
12					Tonga
13					Ila
14						Lozi
15							Kaonde
16					Soli
17							Lunda
18							Luchazi
19							Chokwe
20							Luvale

Northern Patrilineal test group was made up of : Tumbuka 15 ; Mamwe 11 ; Henga 10 ;

Nyamwanga 7 ; Fungwe 2 ; Nyakyusa 2 ; Ngonde 1 ; Sukwa 1. Total 49.

TABLE V

The Bilateral People

	Bilat.	C. Mat.	S. Pat.	W. Mat.	N. Mat.	N. Pat.	E. Mat

1	Lozi
2			Ndebele
3		Tonga
4		Lenje
5		Ila
6				Kaonde
7					Bemba
8							Nsenga
9		Soli
10						Mambwe
11				Lunda
12			Ngoni
13				Luvale
14						Nyamwanga
15				Luchazi
16					Aushi
17					Bisa
18						Tumbuka
19				Chokwe
20							Chewa

Bilateral test group was made up of : Lozi 30 ; Lumbu 1 ; Totela 1.
Total 32.

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Page 49.

TABLE VI

	W. Mat.	C. Mat.	Bilat.	N. Pat.	S.Pat.	E. Mat.	N. Mat.

1	Kaonde
2		Lenje
3							Bemba
4	Lunda
5		Tonga
6		Soli
7				Mambwe
8			Lozi
9		Ila
10				Tumbuka
11					Ngoni
12						Nsenga
13					Ndebele
14							Bisa
15				Nyamwanga
16						Chewa
17							Aushi
18	Luvale
19	Chkwe
20	Luchazi

The Kaonde and Lunda

Composition : Kaonde 10 ; Lunda 9 ; Total 19.

TABLE VII

The Chokwe, Luvale and Luchazi

	W. Mat.	Bilat.	S. Pat.	N. Pat.	E. Mat.	N. Mat.	C. Mat.

1	Luchazi
2	Chokwe
3	Luvale
4	Lunda
5		Lozi
6			Ndebele
7	Kaonde
8				Mambwe
9				Tumuka
10					Chewa
11						Bemba
12			Ngoni
13							Soli
14				Nyamwanga
15					Nsenga
16							Lenje
17						Bisa
18							Ila
19							Tonga
20						Aushi

Composition : Chokwe 2 ; Lovale 7 ; Luchazi 3. Total 12.

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Page 50.

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NOTE

The UNESCO publication, Social Implications of Industrialization and Urbanization in

Africa south of the Sahara was issued just as this paper went to press. It has not been possible to
consider its bearing on this study.

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