Ila

By Teferi Abate Adem

Baila, Mashukulumbwe, Shukulumbwe, Sukulumbwe

The Ila are a Bantu-speaking people whose traditional homeland along both banks of the Kafue River in Zambia encompassed about 6,000 square miles, between longitudes 26° and 27° east. As of 2010, they remained largely concentrated in the Namwala and Itezhi-Tezhi districts of Southern Province, with smaller numbers in neighboring districts and provinces.

A 1915 review of tax records found at least 31,760 Ila and related peoples, among which 7,669 "Ila proper" resided in unmixed communities, with perhaps several thousand more in mixed settlements. Available estimates suggest a gradual increase since then, to 18,653 Ila in 1934, and 21,800 on reservations alone in 1946 (reportedly only 12,818 "pure" Ila). In 1958 the Ila were believed to number around 22,000. A 1963 census of native villages counted 32,534 Ila. Judging from general census data, there would have been about 61,000 Ila in 1990, estimated to have risen to above 70,000 by the middle of the decade. The 2000 national census puts the proportion of Ila among the ethnic population at 0.8%, or about 74,700. The 2010 national census gives hard figures of 97,411 ethnic Ila, with 82,940 Ila speakers.

The Ila speak a Bantu language, also called Ila, closely related to Lenje, Sala and Tonga.

Oral tradition and scholarly studies alike describe Ila history as one of numerous wars, both among themselves and against invaders. The latter included the Luba, Lunda, Lozi, and Kaonde. The high frequency of internal wars indicates the Ila were not politically united.

In the 1820s, the Ila were invaded by the Kololo. In the same decade, they also were raided twice for cattle by the Ndebele. When the Lozi overthrew the Kololo in the 1860s, and began collecting tribute from the Ila. Following the advent of colonialism in the 1880s and the creation of Northern Rhodesia in 1911, the Ila homeland was reorganized as a district consisting of several communities administered by village headmen.

In the early 1920s, European missionaries and colonial officials alike were impressed by the Ila peoples’ ability as fighters and wealth in cattle. Beginning in the 1930s, however, colonial officials were alarmed by low birth rates and a population decline, ostensibly caused by a high incidence of venereal disease.

When studied by Smith and Dale during the opening decades of the twentieth century, the Ila lived in villages consisting of up to two hundred houses. Traditional Ila houses are round, with mud-plastered walls and conical thatched roofs. In each village, houses were arranged in a circle around a central cattle kraal, with the headman’s house opposite the main entrance, facing west. Each extended family occupied a fenced compound.

The Ila were primarily pastoralists who valued cattle highly. Ila villagers living in the tsetse-infested areas along river banks and adjacent thick bush were hoe-cultivators, and supplemented their diet with hunting, fishing, and some gathering. Their primary staple crops were maize and sorghum. Other crops included millet, sweet potatoes, beans, peanuts, pumpkins, and cassava.

Commercial fisheries existed on the Kafue River, but the industry was dominated by immigrant Lozi. The area is home to some tobacco farms, producing for both domestic consumption and export.

Important Ila crafts included ivory-turning, iron-smelting blacksmithing. Blacksmiths manufactured a variety of spears, bullets, axes, adzes, hoes, razors, tongs, bells and fishhooks. Iron work was viewed as a secret craft with ritual prohibitions. Crafts demanding less specialization and secrecy included pottery and basketry.

Clearing fields, tending cattle, milking, hunting, and fishing are the responsibilities of men. Women do much of the agricultural work, gather wild produce, process food, brew beer, plaster huts, and provide most of the child care. Starting in the 1930s, Ila villages experienced a growing trend of male absence, with most able-bodied men migrating to towns in search of paid work.

Land was collectively owned by the village. The village headman was responsible for administering land, including allocating plots for individual use. Additionally, a man who wished to clear or cultivate land was obliged by custom to obtain the permission of fellow villagers whose land adjoined the plot he wanted for himself. Land was not transferable, whether by sale or inheritance.

Traditional Ila society was divided into about ninety-three exogamous matrilineal clans or mukoa. Each clan had a totem, typically associated with certain animals, plants, or natural objects, which are avoided by clan members. Clan members lived dispersed across different communities. They lacked rituals or other means for enforcing clan solidarity. Each clan is associated historically with a specific locale.

The most enduring and political important kinship group in Ila society are a smaller group of largely localized matrilineal groups called cishi. Among other functions, each cishi is responsible for executing blood feuds, managing inheritance issues, and redeeming slaves.

The Ila also recognize exogamous, localized patrilineages, called lunungu, associated with the worship of patrilineal ancestors.

Alternate generations are merged. Within-generation speakers refer to each other as senior or junior. Iroquois cousin terms are used.

Traditional Ila marriage involved a substantial bride price paid in cattle, together with gifts of blankets, shells, and hoes. The bride price was largely provided by a man’s matrilineal relatives with some help from his patrilineal kinsmen, and was in large part distributed to the bride’s maternal kinsmen, with a very small share going to her parents. The bride price gave the husband the right to remove his wife immediately. More importantly, the bride price guaranteed a man’s paternity over children born of the marriage, for it is believed that a man’s spirit can only be perpetuated through his sons.

Polygyny was common, with the first wedded recognized as the principal wife. Each co-wife owned her own house, and the husband visited them in rotation. Widows were ideally inherited by one of the husband's brothers, nephews, or a chosen relative. When a wife died, it was the duty of her matrilineal kin to provide the surviving husband with a replacement.

Another important aspect of Ila marriage practices is lubambo, an arrangement whereby the husband allows the wife to have a publicly recognized paramour, from whom he receives payments in cattle. The relationship may last a few months or for years, and no adultery compensation is demanded, as would be the case if the woman were to have sexual relations with any other man without the consent of her husband.

The most common domestic group was a patrilocal extended family, occupying a fenced compound. The compound of a polygynous man consisted of separate houses for each wife, with the house of the principal wife typically located at the center. The husband moves from wife to wife. Young, unmarried men and women occupied separate houses for each sex within the family compound.

The heir to a deceased man is selected after considerable discussion by a council of matrilineal relatives. The heir distributes a considerable share of his inheritance of livestock and personal belongings among the sons, sisters’ sons, and brothers of the deceased. In most cases, the inheritance also involved widows, social status and slaves.

Infants are nursed for up to three years and the mother may not cohabit with her husband during this time. When approaching puberty, boys and girls received rigorous training, skills, and instructions essential to rural life through gender-specific initiation ceremonies.

Status distinctions in traditional Ila society included prestige for wealth in cattle, and moderate prerogatives for the families of chiefs and headmen. When slavery was prevalent, the children of slaves were incorporated into the descent group of the owner.

The basic administrative unit of traditional Ila society was the village, with a headman and an informal council of elders. A group of villages formed a territorially defined local community (cishi, chishi) consisting of 100 to 300 inhabitants. Each local community had a chief, with village headmen forming a council. The chief served as war leader and received tribute.

A new local chief was selected by the council of matriclan seniors and village elders. Succession was basically matrilineal but wealth was also an important factor.

Beyond the local community, the Ila lacked political integration. They have never had any centralized political organization or a paramount chief over all local chiefs.

Homestead members lived under the authority of the household head. Disputes and quarrels among villagers were settled by a council consisting of the village headman, the local chief (or his representative) and selected elders.

As a war leader, each chief was responsible for protecting his community, notably against Lozi invaders and Ndebele raiders. This included avenging feuds and mounting retaliatory raids.

Traditional Ila religion recognized a supreme being, Leza, associated with the sky and rain-giving. Relations with Leza and the Ila ancestral spirits were believed to be mediated by an earthly god called Bulongo. The ancestral spirits of each chief or headman were believed to be the guardians of his community or village. In a similar way, each household head had his own personal spirits—believed to be associated with deceased grandparents, father, mother, uncles and aunts—concerned with the welfare of himself and his dependants. The Ila prayed to each of these beings and spirits, and organized offerings of different amounts.

The Ila marked important social relationships and life-cycles and with organized ceremonies. Individuals who wished to establish a socially recognized friendship with one another organized a solemn ceremony of mutual skin incision and consumption of each other’s blood. All boys born in the same year formed age-sets and underwent initiation ceremonies that lasted three days. Girls who came of age went through three months of seclusion and instruction.

In addition to ivory-turning, iron-smelting, pottery, basket-making and related crafts, the Ila have a rich tradition folklore and performing arts.

The Ila attribute most illness to the anger of ancestral spirits. Minor illnesses are considered normal. Treatment may involve appeasing indignant sprits through offerings, prayers and rituals.

According to traditional Ila religious belief, at death the spirit of a man would join his ancestors. Ila custom dictates that proper burial rites be given to the deceased. If a person was known to have died with a grievance, the corpse might be disposed of without rites in order to prevent the spirit returning to avenge itself.

Teferi Abate Adem wrote this culture summary and synopsis in February 2014. Leon G. Doyon updated the population figures in April 2014.

Callahan, Bryan, 1997. "'Veni, VD, Vici'?: Reassessing the Ila Syphilis Epidemic." Journal of Southern African Studies. Vol. 23 (no. 3), pp. 421-440.

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Jaspan, M. A., 1953. The Ila-Tonga Peoples of North-western Rhodesia. London: International African Institute.

Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.), 2013. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Seventeenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com. Accessed April 1, 2014.

Olson, James S., 1996. The Peoples of Africa: An Ethnohistorical Dictionary. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

Smith, E. W and W. M. Dale, 1920. The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia. Volumes I and II. London: McMillan and Co. Ltd.

Statoids. "Zambia Districts.” Last modified February 22, 2014. http://www.statoids.com/yzm.html

Tuden, Arthur, 1958. "Ila slavery." Rhodes-Livingstone Journal, Vol. 24, pp. 68-78.