In his 1961 article in the Northern Rhodesia Journal Vol. IV, No. 6, the late Mutumwenu Yeta gave an insider’s account of the Kuomboka ceremony under Imutakwandu Yeta lll, Litunga 1916-45. More personal vivid accounts have appeared including the most recent one by Chris Jayakaran (Home and Dry, Lowdown, March 2006). However the sublime mysticism in which the ceremony is held by both locals and visitors has led to some writers mistakenly ascribing spiritual and religious functions to the ceremony and the Nalikwanda in particular. For example Andrew Rooke (Kuomboka: Ancient Wisdom of the Malozi) refers to Kuomboka as ‘a dramatic spectacle of community and religious renewal’ and the zebra colours of the Nalikwanda as ‘white symbolizing spirituality and black the people’ and yet the article concedes that kuomboka has been necessitated by the annual flood of the Zambezi river, a point made clear elsewhere, ‘the concept of kuomboka was invented by Lozis as an answer to this annual problem (inundation)’ This article therefore intends to shed more light on the early beginnings of the Nalikwanda and its further development in the hope that this distorted picture may be rectified.

Nalikwanda is the Litunga’s principal boat, the symbol of Lozi kingship. The Litunga has two other official barges, Notila and Indila with white canopies and zebra colours, malimba-limba. Nalikwanda means the peoples boat, in as much as the kingship belongs to them. Indeed the title Mwanasilundu that goes with the name Mboo is said to mean son of the people. It is the only royal barge that is open to every Lozi tribesman, that is to say, its paddlers are not restricted to any specified section or group of Lozi tribesmen although in ages past only Mulozi kashemenenwa, full blooded Mulozi, were allowed. In the other barges one has to be a member of a specified grouping to paddle. For example, traditionally, only Indunas may paddle the Matende, the boat that carries royal property and only princes and prince-consorts could paddle the Mundende, which carried the personal property of the Litunga, now a surveillance boat. The most distinguishing features of the Nalikwanda are that it is the only royal barge that carries the Maoma royal drums and on its canopy or Lutatai, carries the elephant, symbol of the authority of the Litunga.

Early Lozi boats were made out of mukwa tree trunks, the bigger the trunk the bigger the boat, such a boat being referred to simply as likwa, a big mukwa tree (and plural, mikwa boats), hence Nalikwanda, mukulwa mato mu ngambayi, boss of all boats on the river and Natamikwa, mother of boats. The first Nalikwanda was made by Mboo Mwanasilundu, the first male Litunga. The full history of the barge is given in the Siluyana royal song, as sung to me on his traditional kañombyo by distinguished elder, Nawa Lilomba of Nandopu village in the Limulunga area: Sitandamwalye lyato linene linatangelwa ba malindi, miele yandiso. Ku tunda ba malindi linayayelwa……….…Kwa mbumu bo ku kale nanyi to no tanga Njonjolo? Mboo Mwanasilundu to no litanga.

The song takes us through the ages from the first boat made by Mboo out of mañele or mafalingi, a floating type of ligneous grass that freely grows during floods, and held together by strings, to the more advanced proto type of today, Njonjolo, of which it is said linayayelwa ba makwambimba a mushii, anyi a Sikwa Nañuwa a Ikabako imilala mu tu fuleleko miwayo ya ku culisa amakwambimba a Njonjolo, anyi a Mukulwambula wa Nakato mu tu fulele itilabo ta amalimbalimba ku feka Njonjolo: a barge made out of planks of the muzauli tree

held together by iron nails from Sikwa of Ikabako, and coloured paddles, from Mukulwambula (Mukulu-wa-mbula), the great rainmaker of Nakato. It is clear Nalikwanda is not a product of the great flood, Meyi a Lungwangwa, which is as much a part of Lozi mythology as Noah’s flood is of Jewish mythology. Nor was the first barge made, as is claimed by one website, at Liayelo village, north of Limulunga. True, liayelo means the chief’s wood workshop but this village was founded by Imwandi, a son of Mboo, to work timber from a nearby forest. He lived at his village Namakala, now belonging to Princess Mataa Mwananyanda, on the banks of the Zambezi. Nambayo, the wood carver, cited in connection with Liayelo (and ancestor of Nawa Lilomba) did not come on the scene until the seventh Litunga, when he was that Litunga’s Ngambela.

In the Lozi tradition the story of Noah, or Nakambela, is told in the Siluyana saying, Nakambela akalume n’o lipumo a kana ka yoyela mu sinunga ba meyi a Lungwangwa, a small man with a large belly who survived the great flood in a self made boat. The story of Meyi a Lungwangwa is about Kamunu (Adam), Man’s creation, while Nalikwanda is about the millennium after Jesus. The confusion may well be due to what Prof Gluckman discussed as Time in Tribal Histories quoting Evans-Prichard “the distance between the beginning of the world and the present day remains unalterable, a constant between two points, the first and last persons in a line,” the tendency to telescope historical events, associating the recent with the more remote and rearranging others, what Prof Ali Mazrui has called calculated amnesia.

While Nalikwanda is the generic name, various Litungas have given special praise names to their barges. Such are Mboo’s Sitandamwalye in recognition of the floating material it was made of, while his successor, Inyambo, called his Lyamashandi in view of the mashandi bark strings used to tie it up. For his part Ngalama, the fourth man, named his Notila, probably from Siluyana ku tila, the making of designs (usually black/white) with hot iron, such as wood carvers still do. This is thought to be the origin of the zebra colours on the Nalikwanda not as claimed by one website ‘the object was to create shades of light and dullness, which were to resemble designs on the altars used to worship the Luyi God, Nyambe.’ Today Notila is the second barge used during non-ceremonial visits and tours, not requiring the use of the maoma. Its praise name Notila Mulonga kale ba lino ni ba lumbo is given in praise of the ancient strong Lozi governments, Mulongaluyi, such as Plato’s Golden Age of the Greeks, in contrast to those of to day. Njonjolo is the praise name given to the Nalikwanda of Mulambwa Santulu, Litunga 1780-1833, one who made Kuomboka the pageantry that it is today, more by accident than design. This barge was constructed using the technology of the day to provide maximum space and comfort, hence the name Njonjolo. Emphasizing its size, the Nalikwanda is praised as lyato linene kalonga ngombe a boat large enough to carry a bull, for its construction material lyato lya nyenge na makumba and for its origin lyato la Mboo Mwanasilundu.

Nowadays the Nalikwanda at Lialuyi is commonly and interchangeably called Njonjolo, thus distinguishing it from the Nalikwanda of the Mulena Mukwae at Nalolo which has its own distinguishing name of Umitule (wato no ku feka nyoka na mbulwa mañelele, a boat which, like a snake, makes no ripples in water.) Some reliable sources trace this name, which means take me along, to Matauka, Lewanika’s sister who ruled at Nalolo 1878-1934. It is said Matauka had appealed to Lewanika to take her along with him during his visit to England in 1902. Other names include Sanyiketo, something temporarily held, for Atangambuyu who was dethroned in 1936 after a year and half, making room for Mulima who named hers Kutafuna (ku tafuna ku kulubela, ku mina u kuubula, food in the mouth tastes sweet while being chewed but once swallowed the mouth is left tasteless). Yet other names are Mungulo and Ñongola.

The last of the Litunga’s personal fleet is Indila, smaller and faster than the other two, quick to find its way, hence the name Indila, the Way. It represents the barge that the Aluyi matriarch Mwambwa, Mboo’s grandmother, had used leading her people into the Zambezi flood plain down to Makolotela-a-Nyala. This is the history in the royal song Naende “ku sinu kakwisa satunda banu, ulukeke ku tunda balinyina munu. Naende ni mu tunda belaba ya ñono (All things start with Man, a baby comes from its parents). Naende, the sandy bank on which Indila first docked, is the beginning of Aluyi dynasty in Bulozi.)

It is said that upon hearing her say Indila when the new boat was presented, Mwambwa was asked “ Indila ninga sibi, Indila what is it?”she replied “Indila, litina lya wato wange, that’s the name of my boat”. Considered the original royal boat it is Indila that carries the new Litunga from Makono back to Lialuyi at installation time, not the Nalikwanda. It is also the name given to the official barge of Senior Chieftainess Mboanjikana.

It is clear from the above discussion that the first Nalikwanda did not predate Mboo nor is there any specific religious role for it in Lozi mythology. Unfortunately there seems to be a penchant among some writers for the mesmerising, a tendency to talk about African societies in condescending fashion ignoring the old dictum ex Africa aliquid semper novi. Why should the Lozi boat building technology or the idea of using planks be other than their own! ‘Could it be that some knowledge of this sort of boat building had arrived by way of the Arabs from the east or could there have been some kind of infiltration of knowledge from the Portuguese who had interacted with the Lunda-Luba Empire by the 1600s? Clearly, as there were virtually no trees in Bulozi, this could have not developed locally’. It is common knowledge that the Andonyi (Portuguese) and Mambali (Arab slave traders) were never allowed to set foot in Luyiland nor does the mass of literature available support the view that there were no trees which in any case still exist today despite heavy exploitation since colonialism. Necessity is the mother of invention.

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