Bemba

By Robert O. Lagacé and Ian Skoggard

Awemba, Babemba, Chibemba, Chiwemba, Ichibemba, Wemba, Wawemba.

The Bemba are the largest ethnic group in the Northern Province of Zambia occupying the district of Kasama and parts of Mpika, Chinsali, Luwingu, and Mporokoso districts (an area between 9 and 12 degrees south latitude, and 29 and 32 degrees east longitude.) This area is part of the Tanganyika plateau, a dry tropical forest, 4-5,000 feet above sea level.

The Bemba recognize the following distinctive marks of societal membership: a common name, Babemba; a common language, Cibemba, which in their eyes forms a distinct dialect; special scarification, a vertical cut on each temple behind the eyes, almost one inch long; common historical traditions; and allegiance to a common paramount chief, the Citimukulu.

The population of the Bemba was estimated at around 140,000 in the mid-1930s, and there are figures indicating that the group may have doubled in size by the mid-1960s. The 1986 Zambian census placed the Bemba-speaking population at approximately 1,700,000 in Zambia, with another 150,000 in neighboring countries.

Some 17 or 18 ethnic groups in this general area of Zambia comprise the Bemba-speaking peoples, of which Bemba is a sub-dialect. The Bemba-speaking peoples, together with several other ethnic clusters, comprise a broader cultural-linguistic category know as the Central Bantu.

The Central African Plateau has been the cross-roads of various west-east migrations of proto-Bantu and Bantu agriculturalists and pastoralists over the past 500 years. In the 18th Century, the last migration of Bantu people, the Bemba, established the Benu Ngandu Paramountcy which was powerful enough to demand tribute from surrounding tribes. In 1900, north-eastern Rhodesia came under control of the British South African Company which recognized the Bemba chiefs, but appropriated much of their powers. In 1929, the institution of Indirect Rule restored some prestige to the chiefs by giving them power to adjudicate cases in the native courts.

With regard to culture, all the Bemba-speaking peoples have a matrilineal-matrilocal emphasis, and are predominantly agricultural. They practice shifting cultivation, with finger millet (Eleusinium coracanium) as the staple crop, supplemented by hunting and fishing. There is a general absence of cattle, since this area is within the tsetse fly belt.

Villages average 30 to 50 huts. There are larger settlements associated with chiefs of varying ranks. In 1934, the villages of the important chiefs observed by Richards had 400 to 600 huts. The nucleus of a common Bemba village consists of the headman's matrilocal extended family. In older villages there may be three or four related matrilocal family groups. Practicing shifting cultivation, the Bemba change the site of their villages every five to six years.

Each year, the Bemba cut down and burn woodland areas and plant it in millet. Because of generally poor soils, their practice is to cut down and burn six acres of bush for every one acre of ground sown. Fields, two years old and older, are used for growing root crops and legumes. A six-year cropping sequence could include millet, groundnuts, another crop of millet, beans and/or sweet potatoes, Kaffir corn and sweet potatoes. After five or six years the field is abandoned. Fields are planted during the wet season (from November to April) when the ground is soft. New fields can be 8-10 miles from the village requiring the use of temporary camps. Bemba also fish in the surrounding lakes, streams and marshes, using nets, weirs and spears. Goats and sheep are kept for purposes of prestige and for blood payments. In the past, the Bemba hunted elephants and buffalo. In addition to working their own fields, commoners are required to help clear and prepare their chief's land.

Marketing and organized trade were non-existent before the British occupation. In the colonial period, men have been employed in the copper mines earning cash which is used in marriage payments and the purchase of some foreign goods.

The Bemba are skilled woodworkers, making stools, tables, and drums of simple design. They also make their own clothes and baskets. Women wear bead necklaces, ivory bracelets and anklets.

According to Richards the uniform environment and extensive food-sharing among kin discouraged trade. However, there was some trade in salt, ironworks, guns and cloths which was monopolized by chiefs. Richards reports that in the 1930s, some grain was sold to town natives and government stations and missions. Also, hawkers from other tribes passed through Bemba villages selling merchandise. During periods of hunger, people traveled long distances to purchase food. Occasionally, men will organize a party to travel to the neighboring Bisa territory to buy fish.

Women gather fire wood, prepare and cook food, and garden. In preparing fields, men cut the forest, while women gather and pile the wood to burn. Both men and women hoe mounds for the secondary crops. Women form gardening groups which primarily include a mother and her married and unmarried daughters, but can also include other female relatives. Men of the village collectively cut the forest and two to three men will form a hunting party. In the 1930s, Richards estimated that between forty to sixty percent of men were away working in the copper mines.

Districts are identified with territorial chiefs who have a hereditary claim and supernatural powers over the land. Village headmen lay claim to territory surrounding their villages for the purpose of cultivation. Rights to use any land depends upon one's political allegiance to both a headman and a chief. Although chiefs do not actually allocate land for cultivation, as there is plenty available, their prior consent is required to settle or farm an area. Through his "spiritual ownership" of both land and crops, the chief demands from village headmen an annual tribute.

Descent, sib affiliation, and succession to office follow the matrilineal line, and marital residence is matrilocal. Each individual belongs to a matrilineal lineage, which determines his succession to different offices and his status in the community. He also belongs to an exogamous, matrilineal sib (mukoa), which is important for certain hereditary offices. There are about 30 sibs among the Bemba, and they are ranked according to status based on their relations with the royal crocodile sib.

The Bemba kinship terminology system closely resembles the Iroquois system which distinguishes between cross and parallel cousins, with names for the latter lumped with those found in the nuclear family. One difference is that the Bemba terms do not distinguish between the sex of parallel cousins.

Bemba marriage practices include matrilocal residence, trial marriage and bride service. The preferential marriage partner are cross-cousins. Marriage payment is insignificant: a bracelet and some cloth or money. The bridegroom moves into the bride's village, builds himself a hut and helps his father-in-law cut a new garden. Only after working for his father-in-law for a period of six to seven years, is the marriage fully recognized. The husband can now continue to live with his in-laws and eventually be ceremoniously admitted into his wife's family, or he can leave and return with his wife and family to his own village.

The basic domestic unit is the matrilocal household which is comprised of a grandmother, married and unmarried daughters and granddaughters, who together form independent cooking and gardening units. Several matrilocal households comprise a polygynous household, or "big house," consisting of the father, his co-wives, son-in-laws and grandchildren.

Because there is little in the way of storable goods, the inheritance of wealth is relatively unimportant. Individuals do inherit the name and spirits of a dead person and, in the case of a dead chief, political office. Within the royal clan, members inherit their status from their mother based on her proximity to the main branch. The line of inheritance is as follows: first, younger siblings, then sister's children, and finally maternal grandchildren.

Despite this matrilineal orientation, the Bemba kinship system in some ways is bilateral in nature. The kin group to which a person constantly refers in everyday affairs is the lupwa, a bilateral group of near relatives on both sides of his family (i.e., a kindred), who join in religious ceremonies, matrimonial transactions, mortuary ritual, and inheritance. This group may be more important to a Bemba than his matrilineal sib. In addition, a patrilineal emphasis has been increasing in the late twentieth century, including a broadening of the father's authority within the family.

The Bemba political system consists of three levels of organization: the state, the district, and the village. The state is ruled by a paramount chief (citimukulu), whose office is hereditary within a royal sib and is associated with supernatural powers. The citimukulu is assisted by a council consisting of thirty to forty hereditary officials, many of royal descent, and each responsible for some special ritual duty kept secret from the ordinary members of the society. The Bemba state is divided into political districts, which are both geographical and ritual units, ruled by hereditary chiefs (mfumu), usually brothers or parallel cousins of the paramount chief. These chieftainships are hierarchically arranged according to their nearness to the center of the country and the antiquity of their offices. Each district, or territorial, chief also has his own councilors. Under the territorial chiefs are sub-chiefs whose rule extends over several villages, and below the sub-chiefs are the village headmen.

A belief that all sickness and death is attributed to humans, living and dead, is a strong sanction among the Bemba to uphold and strive for harmony within the village. Divine Parenthood is another ideal to strive for, discouraging adultery and developing a close, mystical identification with one's spouse. The Royal Cult inculcates respect for chiefs who are seen to have magic influence on Bemba prosperity through their control of chiefly ancestors who control the productive capacity of the land. In the past, chiefs instilled fear in their subjects by their power to mutilate those who offended them or injured their interests.

The three great scourges in Bemba history--the quest for ivory, intertribal warfare and the slave trade--all took their toll on the Bemba. Added to this was the internal scourge of the Bemba chiefs whose rule before the colonial period was both harsh and cruel. Then, chiefly succession often involved civil war between senior and junior branches of the royal clan. At the village level, the father and mother's brother were both considered legal guardians of a child and tensions could mount between them for control of children. Also, a married man often had difficulty balancing loyalties between his own matrilineal descent group and that of his wife's.

Bemba religion is a mix of animism, ancestor worship and Christianity. The Bemba ascribe all fortune and misfortune to supernatural agencies whose blessings they continually seek. Married women were in charge of a domestic cult, controlling access to the divine through the intercession of their forebears (mipashi). They also led the public remembrance services to the ancient guardians of the land (ngulu), who occupied a realm beyond the mipashi. Furthermore, the knowledge of the community's religious heritage and the guidelines for worshipping the transcendent were passed on by the women during the ceremonies of initiation (cisungu). In their traditional religious role, women occupied a sacred place in Bemba society.

The original house religion was radically altered in the 18th century with the imposition of Bemba paramountcy. The chiefs manipulated Bemba religion to enhance their own power by establishing in each village a shrine for the ch iefly ancestors. The worship of the spirits of dead chiefs (milunga) became an essential element of Bemba religion.

The Bemba commoners embraced as liberators the first Christian missionaries, who arrived toward the end of the nineteenth century. Their medical and social work seemed to have preferential regard for the poor and for those who suffered, as well as, fit into a prophecy of healers arriving from the East, the realm of the future. Women accepted them as allies in their struggle to restore the house cult, the family spirits, and the guardians of the land. However, from the 1920s to the 1950s, women experienced increasing difficulties with the demands of the "New Way," with its emphasis of Western style of education and modernity.

In 1953, a religious revival was started by the Prophetess Lenshina who when suffering from cerebral malaria fell into a coma and had a vision of meeting Jesus Christ. He told her to found a new Church. She composed new hymns that stressed individual freedom and self-reliance, and preached against polygamy and adultery. Her teachings encouraged young men to rally against prevailing authorities, resulting in her house arrest and eventual death in 1964.

Beside the important role of married women in the domestic cult, Bemba religious specialists also include healers, sorcerers, and diviners.

Commoners and chiefs both carry out agricultural rites including, tree-cutting, sowing and first-fruit ceremonies. In the past, chiefs also carried out special rites in case of national calamities, or for success in warfare. The tree-cutting ceremony involves the propitiation of the mipashi to protect the tree-climbers, and also to grant health, children and peace. The cisungu ceremony is preface to marriage and is a lengthy initiation rite for young women following their first menstruation.

Very little has been written on Bemba arts. Richards does mention a variety of pottery designs used in the cisungu ceremony. Solo and group dancing to show respect or tell stories are an important part of Bemba ceremonies. The Bemba also dance spontaneously for amusement, usually at gatherings of youth and accompanied by drums and the drinking of beer.

The Bemba have the same name for tree and medicine. They have extensive knowledge of trees which are the source for various sacred emblems used in rituals and curing ceremonies.

Death is attributed to sorcery or breach of some taboo. For example, the Bemba believe that adultery can bring death to the mother and her child. The recently dead inhabit the woods surrounding the village and eventually move on to an outer realm associated with the bush as memory of them fades. In a special ritual the Bemba identify a successor to the deceased who acquires the name, symbols of succession (bow and arrow, or girdle), and the spirits of the dead person.

Documents referred to in this section are included in this eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The file includes nine English language sources. Five of the sources are by Audrey Richards, a British social anthropologist and major authority on the Bemba. Richards carried out her field work in a two-and-a-half-year period between 1930 and 1934. Her major ethnography (Richards 1939, no. 2) is primarily a detailed functional analysis of Bemba subsistence activities and diet as related to the kinship system, political organization, ceremonial life and values. Her other works included in the file are an excellent analytical study of the Bamucapi, or witch-finders movement (Richards 1935, no. 9); the origin and functions of ritual sib relationships among the Bemba and the closely allied Bisa (Richards 1937, no. 8); a good general description of the Bemba political system (Richards 1940, no. 7); and a complete description and interpretation of the chisungu [cisungu], or girl's initiation ceremony (Richards 1956, no. 3). A colonial administrator, William Brelsford (1944, no. 6), provides a thorough study of the succession of Bemba chiefs. The missionary H. Barnes (1922, no. 10) provides an early account and commentary on the Bemba belief in the soul and its relation to the naming system. Two later studies examine the impact of Christianity on Bemba society and culture. Maxwell (1983, no. 11) examines the Bemba's pre-literate and oral religious and political life, and subsequent changes wrought by the superimposition of a literate, visual culture of Christianity. The Catholic missionary and anthropologist Hinfelaar (1994, no. 12) examines the impact of Christianity on the status of women and the traditional women-centered domestic cult. He also documents the tensions that have existed between commoners and the royal clan.

This culture summary was based on the article, "Bemba," by Robert O. Lagacé, from the Sixty Cultures: A Guide to the HRAF Probability Files. 1977. Robert O. Lagacé, ed. New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files, Inc. It was expanded and revised by Ian Skoggard, August 1996.

• BAFYASHI -- parents in charge of the female shrine -- 793

• BAKASESEMA -- prophet priests -- 793

• BULOSHI -- witchcraft -- 754

• BULUNGU -- bored stone; divinity -- 778, 776

• BUPYANI -- succession by ritual intercourse -- 788, 833

• CHIBINDA -- creator; enabler of the protection of the shades; leader -- 776, 793

• CISUNGU -- puberty rite for women -- 881

• FIWI -- spirits of malefactors, witches, murderers, etc. -- 769

• ICIFULO -- residence, place where people live, die and are buried-- 591, 769

• LESA -- light envoy (a divinity), healer -- 776

• LIBWE -- bored stone; symbol of productivity -- 778, 842

• MAPEPO -- worship -- 782

• MBUSA -- sacred emblems -- 778

• MILUNGU -- divinities -- 776

• MIPASHI -- ancestral spirits -- 775

• MUCINSHI -- respectful mode of behavior -- 576

• MUKABENYE -- wife of the sacred relics -- 793

• MUSUMBA -- chief's village; residence of the royal ancestral spirits -- 769

• MWINE MUSHI -- village head -- 622

• NACHIMBUSA -- tudor of the transcendent; mother of the things to be handed down -- 793, 788

• NG'ANGA -- healers -- 756

• NGANDA -- home shrine -- 778

• NGULU -- nature spirits -- 776

• SHIMAPEPO -- priests -- 793

• UKUPEPA IMIPASHI -- the worship of the forebears -- 769

Hinfelaar, Hugo F. (1994). Bemba-Speaking Women of Zambia in a Century of Religious Change (1892-1992). Leiden: E.J. Brill.

Labrecque, E. (1931). "Le marriage chez les babemba." Africa 4: 209-221.

Richards, Audrey I. (1940). "The Political System of the Bemba Tribe of North-Eastern Rhodesia." In African Political Systems, edited by Meyer Fortes and E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 83-120. London: International African Institute.

Richards, Audrey I. (1956). Chisungu: A Girl's Initiation Ceremony among the Bemba of Northern Rhodesia. London: Faber & Faber.

Slaski, J. (1950). "Peoples of the Lower Luapula Valley." In Bemba and Related Peoples of Northern Rhodesia, by Wilfred Whiteley, 77-100. Ethnographic Survey of Africa; East Central Africa, Part 2. London: International African Institute.

Whiteley, Wilfred (1950). Bemba and Related Peoples of Northern Rhodesia, 1-32, 7 0-76. Ethnographic Survey of Africa; East Central Africa, Part 2. London: International African Institute.