Friday, Sep. 27, 1963
Back in the Bush
On the balcony of the only stone house in the thatch-roofed Katangese village of Musongo last week, a middle-aged potentate stared dully as a dance troupe of local girls frantically undulated their hips before him to the rhythm of pounding drums. Slouched on a throne consisting of a grey army blanket thrown over a schoolroom chair, his feet resting on a leopard skin, the Lunda tribe's newly installed 25th Mwata Yambo (Great Chief) received the adulation of his people. His ascension is an interesting case history of the tribalism that is still deeply rooted in the Congo; for on a continent where firebrand leaders talk constantly of forging ahead, Mwata Yambo XXV has won success by forging backward.
Snakes & Sinews. It is no small honor to be Mwata Yambo of all the Lunda. With a history dating back at least four centuries, and boasting a population of 1,000,000, the tribe spreads from the Congo's Katanga province into both Portuguese Angola and Northern Rhodesia. The Lunda's most illustrious son is Katanga's secessionist leader Moise Tshombe, who married a daughter of Mwata Yambo XXIV. When his father-in-law died last June of a burst bladder, Tshombe for a time was considered as successor. But the tribal elders, suspecting that Moise might sell them out to the white man, finally settled on a minor chieftain (original name: Gaston Mushidi), who was invested in impressive rites that raised him to the status of a god.
In accord with early tribal belief that a serpent, the Lunda's most sacred creature, had a head at each end and was both male and female, the new Mwata Yambo's final approval came from the senior chief, Kanampumbe, and the senior chieftainess, known as the Ruwej. Then the chosen one was dragged to a hut and surrounded by villagers spitting filthy insults at him--to point up the fact that he was not yet divine. At last, on a sacred mountain 150 miles from Musongo, the Mwata Yambo was installed. From the gnarled hands of the Ruwej he accepted his symbol: a sacred bracelet of copper and iron, overlaid with sinews from the penis of a freshly slaughtered goat.*
Groveling Subjects. Mwata Yambo XXIV had been a progressive sort who encouraged tribal children to attend school and urged males to work instead of loafing while wives labored. He spoke French, got along well with Europeans. His successor displays no such interest in 20th century manners. He is suspicious of whites, speaks only Lunda and a little Swahili.
He runs a taut ship indeed. In his presence even his wife and senior chiefs must squat on the floor. Those who drink with him must first get down on one knee and touch the floor twice with the palms of their hands, and even his closest courtiers may not speak to him unless they fall to their knees; all who pass in front of him must crouch low and snap their fingers repeatedly as a safeguard against Mwata Yambo's possible displeasure.
Habitually resplendent in a natty wool jacket, skirt and beaded cap, the paramount chief spends most of his time quaffing Simba beer and palm wine, the latter poured for him from a blue enamel teapot.
One would think that such autocratic and slothful leadership might trigger revolt. After all, economic conditions are also pretty pitiful. Because their manioc crops have been repeatedly plundred by Congolese soldiers and Katangese ex-gendarmes, many Lunda have stopped planting, and more than one village suffers near starvation.
Yet, strangely, the new Mwata Yambo is more popular among tribal elders and even some youth than his predecessor. Says one young Lunda just back from the bright lights of Elisabethville: "While I was away I began to think all this tribal ceremony was perhaps a lot of nonsense. But now that I am back home it seems perfectly natural, and I like it."
* A pale substitute for an earlier practice, banned years ago by the Belgians, which employed sinews from the penis of a Lunda warrior ceremonially slaughtered for the occasion.
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