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Preface to 1973 edition
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Prefaceto1973edition By comparison with other areas of Zambia, Bulozi has attracted a good deal of scholarly attention. Professor Gluckman's studies of Lozi jurisprudence and government form one of the classics of Central African anthropology. More recently a good deal of historical writing has been published. Among these are Professor Vansina's survey of the material available for the pre-colonial Lozi State, contained in his general survey of the Kingdoms of the Savanna; Mr. Clay's biography of Lewanika; articles by Dr. Stokes and Professor Ranger dealing with Lewanika's role during the colonial period; Professor Rotberg's treatment of the missionary factorinBulozi inthewidercontextof missionaryactivityinZambia as a whole; Dr. Gann's account of Lozi history in his general history of Northern Rhodesia, and a doctoral thesis, now published, on the political history of Bulozi from 1878 by Dr. Caplan. Anyone presenting another extended treatment of Lozi history, therefore, must attempt to indicate what novelties of source or interpretation justifythework. The most important justification for further extended research onLozi historyliesinthefactthatthegreaterpartremainsunknown despite the considerable amount of material published. The great bulk of this material relates to the Scramble and to the colonial period. And the material which does deal with precolonial Bulozi hardly treats it historically at all. A different approach seemed necessary. A thorough examination of the Lozi's concept of their own historyrevealstheexistenceofcomplexanddetailedvariantsoforal ix tradition, whose character is fully discussed in this book. These different variants of tradition can be used to illuminate many of the crucialproblemsof Lozi history. Inaddition,thisstudydrawsupona variety of written sources, some of them hitherto unused by historians. It seeks to combine the written and oral material to produce a coherent interpretation of Lozi history, and at the same time toexplore thecharacterand reliabilityof each typeof evidence bycomparingandcontrasting,aswellasbysupplementingonewith theother. The main emphasisof thestudy ison theattempt toestablish the nature and lines of development of the Lozi traditional structure and institutions from the time of the founding of the present Lozi dynasty. It also endeavours to show how external factors affected this structure, and the extent to which such external factors were themselves exploited by the Lozi. This then is the basis adopted for the reconstruction of the Lozi past. In so doing, however, I have often been obliged to raise historical questions rather than give historical answers. The existing evidence is not full enough to answersome of the most important questions but I hope that it will be useful to have asked them against the day that further linguistic, archaeologicalandoralevidenceisavailable. Forthemuchbetterknownperiodof theScramble, noveltyisalso possible through the revaluation and reinterpretation of sources. Historical accounts of this period have been largely based, for example, on the missionary sources, diaries, letters and writings of Coillard and Jalla, the British South Africa Company correspondenceand BritishGovernmentdocuments. I makenoclaimthat oral evidence is more reliable than this written evidence. But when all the written evidence is examined closely, and cross-checked within itself, then balanced against oral evidence and set in the whole context of nineteenth-century Lozi history, we can see that it needs to bereinterpreted. Coillard isan immenselyvaluablesource, but he was very often recording events that he did not understand and imposing upon them an explanation which satisfied him but bore little relation to the facts. I have tried to give some instances of this process of reinterpretation. Company material falls into a number of categories which reveal the inner tactics of empire building. Needless to say, oral evidence is also constantly in need of re-evaluation in the light of written material and the ever-changing Preface x [34.203.242.200] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 01:00 GMT) forces which affect the general environment within which it is contained and transmitted. In this field, however, the novelties of my presentation depend also to a certain extent on new evidence. I have collected oral evidence much more extensively than has previously been attempted for an historical study of the Lozi. In doing so I would claim to have penetrated the formal collections of Lozi 'establishment' tradition published by Jalla, whoseworkon the traditional history of the Lozi was closely watched and strictly controlled byLewanikaandtheKuta. Finally, I must pointout that this is the first historyof Bulozi bya Lozi. This factdeserves mention because therearegreatadvantages in working from within a society and I should not otherwise have had access to a good deal of the material I have collected. But there are disadvantages as well. There are dangers in using material once collated inanarrowlyLoziway.TheseI havetriedtoavoid. MUTUMBA MAINGA Preface xi ...