BAROTSE, BAROTSELAND, a people and country of South Central Africa. The greater part of the country is a British protectorate, forming part of northern Rhodesia. The Barotse are the paramount tribe in the region of the Upper Zam bezi basin, but by popular usage the name is also applied to con tiguous subject tribes, Barotseland being the country over which the Barotse paramount chief exercises authority. The present article treats of the people and of modern political develop ments.
The Barotse.—These people, originally known as Aalui, have occupied the extensive plain through which the Zambesi passes from 14° 35' S. to 16° 25' S. throughout the reigns of twenty two successive paramount chiefs and therefore approximately since the commencement of the 17th century. Previously, for an indefinite period, they dwelt on the Kabompo river, 200 M. to the N.E. of their present country, and here the descendants of a section of the tribe which did not migrate still remain, under the name Balokwakwa (men of the ambuscade), formerly known as Aalukolui. The Makololo gave the Barotse their present name, an error for Marotse.
The Barotse proper are comparatively few in number; they are very black, tall in stature, deep in chest and comparatively speaking refined in feature. Being numerically small they form an oligarchy in which, with few exceptions, each man holds rank in a chieftainship of which there are three grades. As a reward of gallantry or ability the paramount chief occasionally conferred chief's rank on individuals not of Barotse birth, and these ipso facto assumed the name and privileges of the Barotse. In 1906 the paramount chief, by proclamation, abolished the state of slavery, an act which, however, left untouched the predominant position of the Barotse and their rights to chieftainship. The paramount chief shares with a queen (Mokwai) his authority and prerogatives. The Mokwai is not the wife but the eldest sister of the ruling chief. With his death her privileges lapse. Theoretic ally, these co-rulers are equal, neither may promulgate a national decree without the assent of the other, but each has a capital town, councillors and absolute authority in a province, the two having joint authority over all other provinces. The Barotse imagine the sun to be the embodiment of a great god whose sole care is for the amelioration of man. Him they worship, though more pains are taken to appease evil spirits. The spirits of ances tors—especially of deceased chiefs—are also objects of worship. Christianity of a Protestant Evangelical type was first introduced into the country in 1884 by Francois Coillard. See RHODESIA, The Establishment of British Suzerainty.—By the charter granted to the British South Africa Company in Oct. 1889, the company was allowed to establish its rule in the regions north of the Middle Zambezi not included in the Portuguese dominions, and by a treaty of June 11, 1891, between Great Britain and Portugal it was declared that the Barotse kingdom was within the British sphere of influence. The dispute between the contracting powers as to what were the western limits of Barotseland was eventually referred to the arbitration of the king of Italy, who by his award of May 3o, 1905, fixed the frontier at the Kwando river as far north as 2 2 ° E., then that meridian up to 13° S., which parallel it follows as far east as 24° E., and then that meridian to the Belgian Congo frontier. In the meantime the British South Africa Company had entered into friendly rela tions with Lewanika, the paramount chief of the Barotse, and an administrator was appointed on behalf of the company to reside in the country. A native police force under the command of a British officer was raised and magistrates and district com missioners were appointed. In the internal affairs of the Barotse the company did not interfere, and the relations between the British and Barotse have been uniformly friendly. The pioneers of Western civilization were not, however, the agents of the Chartered Company, but missionaries. F. S. Arnot, an English man, spent two years in the country (1882-84) and in 1884 a mission, fruitful of good results, was established by the Societe des Missions Evangeliques de Paris. Its first agent was Francois Coillard (1834-1904), who had previously been engaged in mis sion work in Basutoland and devoted the rest of his life to the Barotse. From the moment Great Britain assumed responsibility and the advance of European civilization became inevitable, all the influence acquired by Coillard's exceptional personal magnet ism and singleness of purpose was used to prepare the way for the extension of British rule. Direct imperial control was substi tuted for that of the Company in 1924. (See RHODESIA.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.--David Livingstone, Missionary Travels and ReBibliography.--David Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Re- searches in South Africa (1857) ; Major Serpa Pinto, How I Crossed Africa (1881) ; F. Coillard, On The Threshold of Central Africa (1897) ; Major A. St. H. Gibbons, Exploration and Hunting in Central Africa (1898) ; Africa South to North through Marotseland (1904) ; "Journeys in Marotseland," Geographical Journal, 1897 ; "Travels in the Upper Zambezi Basin," Geographical Journal, i9o1 ; L. Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa (1898) ; A. Bertrand, Aux pays des Barotse, haut Zambeze (1898) ; Col. Colin Harding, In Remotest Barotseland (1905) ; C. W. Mackintosh, Coillard of the Zambesi (1907) , with a bibliography. Consult also the annual reports of the British South Africa Company, published in London.