Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-26T05:11:38.365Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Zambezi Goba Ancestral Cult1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

C. S. Lancaster
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Zimbabwe culture of present day Southern Rhodesia and Mozambique, of which the main occupation at the nuclear site of Great Zimbabwe dates from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, is best known for its external trade in gold, ivory, and copper and for its monumental stone ruins. But while important in terms of prestige exchanges at the diplomatic level, mining and trade seem to have been seasonal occupations fitted in round the annual cycle of subsistence cultivation dependent upon the rains (Barreto 1667: 489–92; Mudenge 1974; Phimister 1974). Patron–client relations between Shona-speaking groups were expressed by limited, symbolic tribute in agricultural labor, military service, gold, ivory, livestock, wives, slaves, local produce, and other prestige items (Barros 1552:271; Conçeicão 1696: 66; Andrade 1955: 306, 310–11), but until recent times basic control over social and political groupings was probably exercised through belief in various levels of spirit cult, ranging from the grass-roots system of individual guardian spirits (mudzimu, sing.) in the ancestral cult controlled by village elders in the extended family and descent group, through a hierarchy of ritually senior, loosely territorial land spirits (mhondoro) holding sway over the progressively larger land shrine realms (nyika) of neighborhood leaders, petty chieftains, chiefs, and paramounts. Leaders at each level influenced a following of both spirits and living people who were interconnected, and the fluctuating network of alliances that existed between leaders was symbolized and kept going by an intermittent traffic in tribute, diplomatic missions, and religious congregations coming to the shrines and leaders located at the various headquarters (zimbabwes) of the confederacy. When the confederacy was large and free from civil wars and secession, the system sometimes culminated in a unifying central cult devoted to a supreme spirit (such as Mwari Nyadenga, Leza or Mulungu) supporting a Mambo, whom the Portuguese called King or Emperor (Santos 1609: esp. 196–9; Abraham 1966; Bullock 1928; Garbett 1966, 1969; Holleman 1953).

Résumé

LE CULTE DES ANCÊTRES CHEZ LES GOBA DU ZAMBÈZE

L'organisation sociale et politique des Goba du Zambèze à l'époque pré-coloniale s'appuyait dans une large mesure sur toute une série de cultes religieux. Les families et les groupes de descendance fonctionnaient à partir d'un culte des ancêtres tandis qu'une hiérarchie territoriale composée de sous-chefs, de chefs et de souverains s'articulait selon des cultes des reliquaires eux-mêmes hiérarchisés. A diverses époques, le système des territoires de chefferies reliés entre eux était rattaché aux confédérations Zimbabwe des peuples de langue Shona occupant l'actuelle Rhodésie. Le présent rapport examine l'organisation locale qu'a développée le culte des ancêtres. Les Goba de l'époque pré-coloniale ressentirent le contrecoup des routes commerciales de la vallée du Zambèze et le culte des morts leur permit de préserver la solidarité des families devant l'hétérogénéité et l'esclavage, les déplacements et les changements. On relève ici une évolution récente vers une organisation plus profondément patrilinéaire.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , July 1977 , pp. 229 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abraham, D. P. 1961 ‘Maramuca: an exercise in the combined use of Portuguese records and oral tradition,’ Journal of African History, 2 (2): 211–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abraham, D. P. 1962 ‘The early political history of the kingdom of Mwene Mutapa (850–1589),’ in Historians in Tropical Africa. Salisbury: International African Institute.Google Scholar
Abraham, D. P. 1966 ‘The roles of “Chaminuka” and the Mhondoro cults in Shona political history,’ in Stokes, E. & Brown, R. (ed.) The Zambesian Past. Manchester: University Press.Google Scholar
Andrade, A. A. de 1955 Relações de Moçambique Setecentista. Lisboa: Ministério do Ultramar.Google Scholar
Barreto, M. S. J. 1667(1899) ‘Report upon the state and conquest of the rivers of Cuama,’ translated in Theal, G. M. (ed.) Records of Sputh-Eastern Africa, vol. III: 436–95. cape Town.Google Scholar
Barros, J. de 1552 (1900) ‘Decadas da Asia,’ extracts translated in Theal, G. M. (ed.) Records of South-Eastern Africa, vol. VI: 1–306. Cape Town.Google Scholar
Bullock, C. 1928 The Mashona. Cape Town: Juta.Google Scholar
Colson, E. 1960 ‘The cult of the shades, inheritance, and authority,’ in Social Organisation of the Gwembe Tonga. Manchester: University Press.Google Scholar
Colson, E. 1969 ‘Spirit possession among the Tonga of Zambia,’ in Beattie, J. M. and Middleton, J. (eds.) Spirit Medium ship and Society in Africa. New York: Africana.Google Scholar
Conçeicão, Frei A. da 1696 (1867) ‘Tratados dos Rios de Cuama,’ reprinted in Rivara, J. H. da Cunha (ed.) O Chronistade Tissuary, vol. II: 39–45, 63–69, 84–92, 105–111. NovaGoa.Google Scholar
Garbett, G. K. 1966 ‘Religious aspects of political succession among the Valley Korekore (N. Shona),’ in Stokes, E. & Brown, R. (eds.) The Zambesian Past. Manchester: University Press.Google Scholar
Garbett, G. K. 1967 ‘Prestige, status, and power in a modern Valley Korekore chiefdom, Rhodesia,’ Africa 37 (3): 307–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garbett, G. K. 1969 ‘Spirit mediums as mediators in Korekore society’, in Beattie, J. M. and Middleton, J. (eds.) Spirit Mediumship and Society in Africa. New York: Africana.Google Scholar
Gluckman, M., Barnes, J. A. and Mitchell, J. C. 1949 ‘The Village Headman in British Central Africa,’ Africa 19: 89–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holleman, J. F. 1953 ‘Accommodating the spirit amongst some north-eastern Shona tribes,’ Rhodes- Livingstone Papers 22. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kopytoff, I. 1971 ‘Ancestors as elders in Africa,’ Africa 16 (2): 129–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lacerda, D. J. de 1867 Exame das Viagens do Doutor Livingstone. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional.Google Scholar
Lancaster, C. S. 1966 ‘Reciprocity, redistribution and the male life cycle: variations in middle river Tonga social organization,’ African Social Research, 2 (2): 139–57.Google Scholar
Lancaster, C. S. 1971 ‘The economics of social organization in an ethnic border zone: the Goba (Northern Shona) of the Zambezi Valley,’ Ethnology 10: 445–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lancaster, C. S. 1974a ‘Brideservice, residence, and authority among the Goba (N. Shona) of the Zambezi Valley,’ Africa 44 (1): 46–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lancaster, C. S. 1974b ‘Ethnic identity, history and “Tribe” in the middle Zambezi Valley,’ American Ethnologist 1 (3): 707–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lancaster, C. S. 1976 ‘Women, horticulture, and society in sub-Saharan Africa,’ American Anthropologist 78 (3): 539–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lancaster, C. S. and Pohorilenko, A. 1977 ‘Ingombe Ilede and the Zimbabwe Culture,’ African Historical Studies, 10 (1): 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudenge, S. I. 1974 ‘The Role of Foreign Trade in the Rozwi Empire,’ Journal of African History, 15 (3): 373–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphree, M. W. 1969 Christianity and the Shona. London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Nicholas, R. W. 1965 ‘Factions: a comparative analysis,’ in Banton, M. (ed.) Political Systems and the Distribution of Power. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Phimister, I. R. 1974 ‘Alluvial gold mining and trade in nineteenth-century south central Africa,’ Journal of African History, 15 (3): 445–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santana, F. (ed.) 1967 Documentacao Avulsa Moçambicana do Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, vol. II. Lisboa: Centro de Estudos Historicos Ultramarinos.Google Scholar
Santos, Frei J. dos 1609 (1901) ‘Eastern Ethiopia,’ extracts translated in Theal, G. M. (ed.) Records of South-Eastern Africa, vol. VII: 1–370. Cape Town.Google Scholar