1 - Descent categories and local ties in traditional Toka society

Summary

In Guta and Cifokoboyo, the two areas which have not yet been fully affected by the modern development taking place elsewhere among the Toka, all people to whom an individual can trace a genealogical connection are his or her babululu (kinsmen, sing. mubululu). Within this category he or she distinguishes babululu ba bataata (paternal kinsmen) and babululu ba mama (maternal kinsmen). There is no corresponding collective designation for affines. A distinct category of kinsmen are the basimukowa, the matrilineal kin. They are members of a social category called mukowa or luzubo.

Descent categories

Every Toka is a full member of his or her mother's, and a ‘child’ of his or her father's mukowa. These two mikowa (pl. of mukowa) are distinguished in verbal reference to membership. A Toka whose mother's mukowa is that of Bankombwe (sing. Munkombwe) and whose father's is that of the Bwoono (sing. Moono), refers to his or her membership of the former by saying ndili Munkombwe (I am Munkombwe), or ku mukowa ndili Munkombwe (I am Munkombwe to my lineage). When referring to his membership of his father's mukowa, he says ndili mwaana wa Bwoono (I am a child of the Bwoono) or ku kuzialwa ndili Moono (I am Moono to my birth). Others acknowledge his membership of the Bwoono mukowa by referring to him as Siyamoono. Through his mother and father he is attached to his mother's father's and to his father's father's mikowa.