Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T18:41:07.764Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Kings, Lists, and History in Kasanje

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Joseph C. Miller
Joseph C. Miller*
Affiliation:
University of Virginia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The more we hear about orally-preserved king lists, those initial favorites of the chronophiles among African historians, the less we trust them. Despite some early efforts to convert lists of rulers into rough calendars by applying arithmetic and statistical procedures, historians have since discovered that such dynastic sequences are filled with spuriously regular father-to-son successions, commonly exhibit telescoping in their remoter periods, and are susceptible to structuring that aligns purported kingly figures with local cosmological assumptions. Most worrisome of all is the implication of recent work on the consequences of literacy to the effect that listing may be a habit characteristic only of societies with reading and writing. If people in oral societies do not make lists, what appeared to African historians to be sequentially-ordered lists of rulers may in fact have been no more than conceptual “chunks” of royalty possessing little or no internal order. Thus the purported sequence in orally-preserved lists of kings may resemble chronology, even sequence, less than it resembles what structuralist anthropologists call “diachrony.” By “diachrony” they mean the artificial ordering of essentially unsequenced elements in a myth structure that is produced spuriously by the necessity in a non-literate culture of realizing them orally, in time. If what historians have taken as “kinglists”, imputing order and para-chronology to them, are in fact synchronous unordered categories, they have been even further off the mark than critics have charged.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 6 , 1979 , pp. 51 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1979

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

NOTES

1. Culminating in the publication of a special number of the JAH in 1970 devoted to the subject.

2. Henige, David, The Chronology of Oral Tradition (Oxford, 1974).Google Scholar

3. E.g., Atkinson, R.R., “The Traditions of the Early Kings of Buganda: Myth, History, and Structural Analysis,” History in Africa, 2(1975), pp. 17–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Vansina, Jan, The Children of Woot (Madison, 1978), pp. 228–31Google Scholaret passim; Berg, Gerald M., “Some Words About Merina Historical Literature” in Miller, Joseph C., ed., The African Past Speaks: Essays on Oral Tradition and History (forthcoming).Google Scholar

4. Goody, Jack, “What's in a List?” in his The Domestication of the Savage Mind (Cambridge, 1977), pp. 74–111.Google Scholar

5. Miller, Joseph C., “The Imbangala and the Chronology of Early Central African History,” JAH, 13(1972), pp. 549–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Kings and Kinsmen (Oxford, 1976), esp. chap. 7.

6. Miller, Joseph C., “Nzinga of Matamba in a New Perspective,” JAH, 16(1975), pp. 201–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Kings and Kinsmen, chaps. 5-7. See also my “The Formation and Transformation of the Mbundu States from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries in Heimer, Franz-Wilhelm, ed., The Formation of Angolan Society (forthcoming).Google Scholar

7. I have not formally developed my data on the history of Kasanje after 1620 but can refer the interested reader to partial descriptions in “Formation and Transformation,” “Slaves, Slavers, and Social Change in Nineteenth Century Kasanje” in Heimer, Franz-Wilhelm, ed., Social Change in Angola (Munich, 1973), pp. 9–29Google Scholar, “The Slave Trade in Congo and Angola” in Kilson, Martin L. and Rotberg, Robert I., eds., The African Diaspora: Interpretive Essays (Cambridge, Mass., 1976), pp. 75–113CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 99-100, and “Imbangala Lineage Slavery” in Miers, Suzanne and Kopytoff, Igor, eds., Slavery in Africa: Historical and Anthropological Essays (Madison, 1977), pp. 205–33.Google Scholar See also Vellut, Jean-Luc, “Le royaume de Cassange et les réseaux lusoafricains (ca. 1750-1810),” Cahiers d'études africaines, 15(1975), pp. 117–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. I am indebted to the Foreign Area Fellowship Program of New York for a generous fellowship in support of fieldwork performed in Angola during 1969 and 1970. The Program has no connection with the conclusions expressed in this paper. For complete reference to these oral testimonies, see Kings and Kinsmen, pp. 11-28, 283.

9. Ravenstein, E.G., The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell of Leigh in Angola and Adjoining Regions (London, 1901), pp. 31, 33, 85–86Google Scholar, reprinted from Purchas, Samuel, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas, his Pilgrims, containing a history of the world in sea voyages and land travels by Englishmen (London, 1625)Google Scholar, and Purchas, Samual, His Pilgrimage (London, 1613).Google Scholar

10. Montecuccolo, João António Cavazzi de, Descrição Histórica dos Três Reinos de Congo, Matamba, e Angola (trans. Graciano Maria de Luguzzano)(2 vols., Lisbon, 1965).Google Scholar

11. Miller, Joseph C., “Requiem for the ‘Jaga’,” Cahiers d'études africaines, 13(1973), pp. 121–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Miller, , Kings and Kinsmen, pp. 158, 162–67.Google Scholar

13. Cavazzi, , Descrição Histórica, 1, pp. 175–90.Google Scholar

14. Neves, António Rodrigues, Memórias da Expedição ao Cassange (Lisbon, 1854), p. 108.Google Scholar

15. Schütt, Otto, Reisen im Südwestlichen Becken des Congo (Berlin, 1881),pp. 80-81, 114–15.Google Scholar

16. de Carvalho, Henrique Augusto Dias, O Jagado de Cassange na Provincia de Angola (Lisboa, 1898), pp. 33–34Google Scholar; idem, Ethnographia e Historia Tradicional dos Povos da Lunda (Lisboa, 1890), pp. 83-85; reprinted in Avelot, R., “Les grandes mouvements des peuples en Afrique: Jaga et Zimba,” Bulletin de géographie historique et descriptive, 27(1912), p. 159.Google Scholar

17. Machado, Fernando Paes Teles de Utra, No Distrito da Lunda: A Ocupação de Cassanje (Luanda, 1913), p. 147.Google Scholar

18. Pires, Albert Augusto, “História dos Sobados do Posto de Cinco de Outubro” (Xá-Muteba, 1952), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar Copy available in Salazar, Sigurd von Wilier, “Bondos e Bângalas: Subsídios etnográficos sobre as duas tribos, recolhidos no area da Circunscição do Bondo e Bângala, do Distrito de Malanje -- Angola” (Dissertação para o acto de licenciatura pelo Instituto Superior de Ciencias Sociais e Politica Ultramarina -- Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, 2 vols.: [ca. n.d. 1965]Google Scholar).

19. Pires, “História dos Sobados.”

20. Horton, Robin, “African Traditional Thought and Western Science,” Africa, 37(1967), pp. 50-71, pp. 155–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Evans-Pritchard, E.E., “Nuer Time-Reckoning,” Africa, 12(1939), pp. 189–216CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bohannan, Paul, “Concepts of Time Among the Tiv of Nigeria,” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 9(1953), pp. 251–62; etc.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21. Kasanje ka Kambolo in the typescript version of June 18 that omitted Kamasa ka Kiwende.

22. According to the standard defined by Vansina, Jan, Oral Tradition (Chicago, 1965), pp. 121–22.Google Scholar

23. A date of 1789 for Kitamba kya Shiba, no. 21, is known from written sources; see below.

24. Miller, , Kings and Kinsmen, pp. 89-92, 163-71, 210–17.Google Scholar

25. Recent work on oral traditions that has emphasized the influence of the writer on the oral information includes several studies by Henige, David, including “Royal Tombs and Preterhuman Ancestors: A Devil's Advocacy,” Paideuma, 23(1977), pp. 205–19Google Scholar; Berg, Gerald M., “The Myth of Racial Strife and Merina Kinglists: The Transformation of Texts,” History in Africa, 4(1977), pp. 1–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hoover, J. Jeffrey, “Mythe et remous historique: A Lunda Response to de Heusch,” History in Africa, 5(1978), pp. 63–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Berger, Iris, “Deities, Dynasties, and Oral Tradition: The History and Legend of the Abacwezi” in Miller, , ed., African Past SpeaksGoogle Scholar; and Thomas Q. Reefe, The Rainbow and the Kings (forthcoming).

26. Ravenstein, , Strange Adventures, pp. 33-34, 85.Google Scholar Battell called this king Calando or Calandola, simple and extended forms of the same name. References to this title establish that the short form predominated up to the mid-seventeenth century, while the extended name replaced it after that date. See for examples, Cavazzi, , Descrição Histórica, 1, p. 15Google Scholar, and letter from Gov. Luis Mendes Chichorro to the Portuguese King, 8/12/1656; Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisbon, (henceforth AHU), Angola, caixa 4, where both names occur. Zucchelli, Antonio da Grandisca, Relazioni del Viaggio e Missioni di Congo (Venice, 1712), p. 314Google Scholar, was using only Kalandula by the end of the century.

27. For the evidence bearing on this date, see Miller, “Imbangala and Central African Chronology.”

28. “Copia dos excessos que se cometem no governo de Angolla que o bispo deu a V. Mg. de pedindo remedeo delles de presente e de futuro,” 7/9/1619; AHU, Angola, cs. 1, doc. #176; published in Brásio, Antonio, Monumenta Missionária Africana - Africa Ocidental (Lisbon, 10 vols.: 1952–1971), 6, pp. 366–74.Google Scholar

29. Cavazzi, , Descrição Histórica, 1, pp. 180-81, 190Google Scholar, identified a “‘Jaga’ Kasanje Kalunga” as the king who agreed to abolish some of the Imbangala customs most offensive to the Portuguese. Since “Jaga” was a title of Portuguese origin never used by the Imbangala and kasanje was the equivalent Imbangala title, this ruler must have been the “Jaga” kasanje Kalunga ka Kilombo.

30. Ibid., 1, pp. 197-98.

31. Letter from Gov. João da Silva e Sousa to the Portuguese king, 18/3/1682; AHU, Angola, cx. 9; published in Arquivos de Angola, 4, nos. 37–40 (1940), pp. 5–15Google Scholar; also summarized in de Cadornega, António de Oliveira, ed. Delgado, Jose Matias, História Geral das Guerras Angolanas (3 vols.: Lisbon, 1940), 2, p. 555.Google Scholar

32. The kinguri Ngonga a Mbande received the Christian name Dom Pascoal Rodrigues Machado when he accepted baptism in 1657; see Cavazzi, , Descrição Eistórica, 1, p. 190.Google Scholar The Portuguese continued to refer to most Kasanje kings by this same Christian name throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, apparently by analogy with the perpetual name (kinguri) in use among the Imbangala. Similarly, the later rulers of Matamba were known as the “Queen Nzinga” (“Rainha Ginga”) after that state's founder (died 1663), regardless of their sex. They also carried on her Christian baptismal name, Dona Ana de Sousa, or that of her early successor, Francisco Guterres.

33. Cadornega, , História Geral, 2, p. 430.Google Scholar

34. Arquivo Histórico de Angola, Luanda (henceforth AHA), códice G(6)-2-68, f. 76.

35. The AHA códice (G(6)-2-68) from which the 1713 date comes allegedly contains the record of all correspondence sent by the governors in Luanda; it contains only one other letter to Kasanje in the period before Gov. Sousa Coutinho (1764-1772), addressed to “Cassange Caquinguri” sometime between 1747 and 1751; see f. 236v.

36. Copy of a letter from the Escrivão das Terras de Cassangi, Francisco José Franco, 25/8/1739; also letter from Gov. João Jacques Magalhães, 29/12/1740; AHU, Angola, cx. 21.

37. Manoel Correia Leitão, “Viagen que eu, sargento-mor dos moradores do distrito do Dande, fiz as remotas partes de Cassange e Olos, no ano de 1755 até o seguinte de 1756,” ms. in the Arquivo Histórico Militar, Lisbon, published as “Uma viagem a Cassange nos meados do século XVIII,” ed. Dias, Gastão Sousa, Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, ser. 56, (1938), pp. 3–30.Google Scholar

38. Letter from Gov. Sousa Coutinho to Francisco Alves Rodrigues, 12/8/1767; AHU, códice 79, ff. 29v-30; also letter from Sousa Coutinho to António Anselmo de Siqueira, 25/11/1767; AHU, Angola, cx. 31.

39. “Termo de felidade, e Vassalagem, que jurou o Iaga Cassange na prezenca do Embaixador Marcos Pereira Bravo, cujo S. Ex.a deo ao Director Paulo Jozé de Loureiro para sua maior instrução quando partio desta Capital; no forma seg. te,” Banza do Potentado Iaga Cassange, 19/12/1789; AHA, códice G(6)-2-66, ff. 39-41v; published in Arquivos de Angola, 2, 11(1936), pp. 341–43.Google Scholar

40. Testimony of Sousa Calunga, 16/6/1969.

41. AHA, códice C-15-2, f. 74v.

42. Neves, , Memória, pp. 108–09.Google Scholar

43. Letter from Felix Velazco Galiano to Dom Fernando António de Noronha, Pungo Andongo, 4/12/1795; AHA, códice G(5)-2-20, ff. 80-85v.

44. Letter from Gov. José de Oliveira Barbosa to Francisco Honorato da Costa, 5/10/1815; AHA, códice A-20-2, ff. 93-93v.

45. Galiano's consistent habit of referring to Imbangala nobles by their patronyms (kya ngonga, Kambolo, etc.) may support further the conclusion drawn from the names he mentioned.

46. Letter from Christovão Avelino Dias to Jaga Cassange, 3/1/1824; AHA, códice A-21-1, ff. 53v-54.

47. Neves, , Memória, p. 109.Google Scholar

48. AHA, codice B-1-3, passim.

49. Implied in Carvalho, , Jagado, pp. 122–23.Google Scholar

50. Francisco Joaquim da Costa e Silva to Jaga Cassange, 29/8/1849; AHA, códice B-3-1, f. 104v; cf. Carvalho, , Jagado, p. 126Google Scholar, who erroneously reported the date as 1850.

51. Neves, , Memória, pp. 124–25Google Scholar; letter from Francisco Joaquim da Costa e Silva to José Valentim da Costa, 23/9/1850; AHA, códice C-8-5, ff. 33-38v.

52. Neves, , Memória, p. 30.Google Scholar

53. Letter from Gov. General Adrião Accacio da Silveira Pinto to Ministro e Secretario de Estado dos Negocios da Marinha e Ultramar, 16/5/1851; AHU, Angola, pasta 17, letter no. 559. The pasta includes a copy of the treaty executed on that date between Kambolo ka Ngonga and Salles Ferreira.

54. Schütt, , Reisen, pp. 114–15Google Scholar; kinglists infra.

55. Portaria of José Rodrigues Coelho do Amaral, 26/1/1855; AHA, códice C-16-5, f. 109v; M.A. de C. Francina to chefe in Tala Mugongo, 30/4/1856; AHA, códice B-17-2, ff. 19-19v. Also José Rodrigues Coelho do Amaral to Ministro e Secretario d'Estado da Marinha e Ultramar, 6/4/1856, #444, AHU, Angola, pasta 22.

56. Schütt, , Reisen, pp. 114–15Google Scholar, later confirmed that Kamweje ruled only a year and a half.

57. Summaries of letters from the governador of Golungo Alto, no. 368, 9/9/1857, no. 434, 10/6/1857, and no. 596, 12/1/1857; AHA, códice D-9-6, ff. 74, 86, and 114v; also Boletim Oficial de Angola ,#626 (26/9/1857) (letter from António Joaquim de Castro to Governor-General, Golungo Alto, 7/9/1857) and relatório from the Concelho de Talla Mugongo, Agosto de 1857, Boletim Oficial de Angola ,#628 (10/10/1857).

58. Ibid, #32 (9/8/1873), pp. 352-53.

59. Letter from chefe in Tala Mugongo to Governor-General 17/11/1885; AHA, códice G(5)-3-46, ff. 62-63v; this report was confirmed by Ivens, Roberto and Capello, H., From Benguella to the Territory of the Yacca (2 vols.: London, 1881), 1, pp. 329–30Google Scholar, but Carvalho, , Jagado, p. 282Google Scholar, noted that Malenge a Kitumba had conquered his enemies (unidentified) early in 1874 and had been elected kinguri at that time. Cf. Carvalho, , Ethnographia, p. 85Google Scholar, for a mention of Malenge a Kitumba without dates.

60. Letter from chefe in Tala Mugongo to Governor General, 30/10/1883; AHA, códice G(5)-3-46, ff. 35v-36; for the portaria see Boletim Oficial de Angola ,#213 (8/12/1882), no. 32.

61. Carvalho, , Jagado, p. 286.Google Scholar

62. Letters from the chefe (Vandunen) in Tala Mugongo, 25/8/1883 and 30/10/1883; AHA, códice G(5)-3-46, ff. 30-30v, 35v-36; also letters nos. 21, 24, and 19, 16/7/1884, 16/10/1885, and 31/10/1885, ffs. 45, 59-60, 60v-61. Cf. Carvalho's, version in Jagado, pp. 296, 305Google Scholar, and Ethnographia, p. 85. The ahefe Vandunen claimed that Carvalho was meddling in Kasanje politics; Carvalho admitted his partisanship on the side of Kwango in Ethnographia, p. 85.

63. Carvalho, , Ethnographia, p. 85Google Scholar; letter from António Martins Crespo e Sousa to Governor General, October 1888; AHA, códice G(5)-3-46, ff. 72-72v incomplete.

64. Carvalho, , Jagado, pp. 383, 383, 431Google Scholar; Machado, Utra, Relatório, p. 147Google Scholar, said that Mushabata died in 1909.

65. Utra Machado, Relatório, passim.

66. Miller, “Imbangala and Central African Chronology,” for summary.

67. Testimony of Ngonga a Mbande, 26/6/1969. All other informants agreed that the kaza came to Kasanje with or shortly before Kalunga ka Kilombo. Cavazzi, Descrição Histórica, confirmed from eyewitnesses.

68. Miller, , Kings and Kinsmen, pp. 219–20Google Scholar and evidence cited there.

69. See text above; testimony of Sousa Calunga, 28/7/1969, explicitly included Kitamba kya Keta in the list of unconfirmed kinguri.

70. Testimony of Apolo de Matos, 7/8/1969.

71. Testimonies of Sousa Calunga, 28/7/1969, 1/10/1969; Apolo de Matos, 8/7/1969.

72. Testimonies of Apolo de Matos, 18/6/1969 and 4/10/1969; also Sousa Calunga, 7/9/1969. This ruler was also known to both informants as Lundo dya Fuko and as a member of the Kulashingo coalition. He was almost certainly a protegé of the powerful mid-nineteenth-century kinguri, Ngunza a Kambamba, as indicated by his membership in the Kulashingo faction and by his patronym.

73. Testimony of Sousa Calunga, 7/9/1969.

74. Testimony of Apolo de Matos.

75. Testimony of Sousa Calunga, 20/8/1969. The diversity of opinion over the position of this name makes it dangerous to draw any conclusion, especially in view of the documented appearance of another “Kwango” as an elected but not installed kinguri in 1883 (see fn. 61) and the mention of a Kishindo as a late kinguri in the Pires kinglist. The repeated mentions of this name may indicate a powerful noble (related to Ngunza a Kambamba?) who remained a constant contender for royal power in Kasanje throughout the nineteenth century. Sousa Calunga, 7/9/1969, added the undatable name of Luhame lwa Kambala ka Kanyongo to the list of uninitiated kings.

76. Testimony of Sousa Calunga, 28/7/1969 for Kalunga ka Kisanga; testimony of Apolo de Matos, 4/10/1969 for Kambolo ka Ngonga (note that de Matos elsewhere [18/6/1969] included this king as a fully initiated ruler); for Kamweje, testimony of Apolo de Matos, 18 June 1969.

77. Curiously, Schütt, Reisen, p. 114Google Scholar, noted that Mbumba managed to avoid the final ceremonies until his death in 1873. Yet the Imbangala today regard him as fully legitimate. The opponents of the Mbumba party may have fabricated the tale for Schütt's benefit.

78. For example, Sousa Calunga once claimed that all modern incumbents in titles held by men who were elected but not installed as kinguri wore a certain distinctive emblem. When I asked him to illustrate the rule with specific examples, he mentioned the names of Luhame lwa Kambala ka Kanyongo (after Mbumba in 1873?), Kwango/Kishindo (1780/s - 1810's???), Kibuna kya Mwanya (late seventeenth century) and Kitamba kya Keta (1680), all confirmed by other sources as belonging in this class. But he then appended the names of Kisweya kya Kambamba, Kiluanje kya Ngonga, and Kitumba kya Kalunga, men elsewhere established as full kinguri.

79. Miller, Joseph C., “The Archives of Luanda, Angola,” IJAHS, 7(1974), pp. 551–90.Google Scholar

80. Carvalho, , Jagado, p. 107Google Scholar, for a report from the nineteenth century. Confirmed also by modern traditions. See background in Miller, , Kings and Kinsmen, pp. 229–33.Google Scholar

81. I have argued the case for the professionalism of historians in oral cultures and cited relevant recent work in “The Dynamics of Oral Tradition in Africa” in Bernardi, Bernardo, ed., Fonti Orali: Storia e Antropologia. (Milan, 1978), pp. 75–101Google Scholar, and in “Listening for the African Past,” in Miller, , ed., African Past Speaks.Google Scholar

82. One would result from inserting a period of rule by Muhungo a Kalunga (of Kalunga ka Kilombo), known to have been a powerful contender in the late seventeenth century, between the recognized reigns of Mwanya a Kasanje (of Kulashingo) and Kiluanje kya Ngonga (of Ngonga a Mbande). It is possible that later historians dropped Muhungo a Kalunga (whose extended efforts to win the title might have resulted from assertions resting on his right to succeed by virtue of the rule of rotation) from the set of recognized kings and thus rendered irregular a cycle of rulers that originally conformed to the ideal. Similarly, inserting the partially-installed kinguri Kasanje ka Ngunza remembered as coming between Kitamba kya Shiba (no. 21, of Kulashingo, in power in 1789) and Malenge a Ngonga (no. 22, of Ngonga Mbande, ruling in 1805), could create a regular cycle if he represented the Kasanje ka Kalunga faction. His faction affiliation, however, is not known.

83. Miller, “Dynamics of Oral Tradition,” with credit for the term to Gibson, Gordon D., “Himba Epochs,” History in Africa, 4(1977), pp. 67–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

84. Miller, “Listening for the African Past.”

85. E.g., those of the Himba, who use the intensity of the annual rainy season as a basis for a highly regular system of epochs that are virtually equivalent to years; see Gibson, “Himba Epochs.”