Ivory Trade and the Migration of the Northern Rhodesian Senga
1963; Éditions de l'EHESS; Volume: 3; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1777-5353
Autores Tópico(s)African history and culture analysis
ResumoThe Senga, or Northern Senga as they have sometimes been designated to distinguish them from the Nsenga of Petauke District, Northern Rhodesia, numbered some 26 thousand in 1958, according to estimates of local administrators (Northern Rhodesia, 1958). Records suggest about io per cent of them-about half of the adult males-are usually absent, being away at urban or mining centers for employment. The Senga are the principal inhabitants of the Luangwa valley between the tenth and twelfth parallels, roughly, a relatively hot and dry plain of approximately 3,500 feet elevation above sea level, commonly referred to locally as the Marambo. Rainfall is thought to be in the neighborhood of 33 inches per year, as a rule (Northern Rhodesia, 1958), and is confined to the December-March period. Little is known about the variability of precipitation. The soil is typically sandy and covered with a fairly sparse vegetation dominated by Acacia-Combretun near the river and Brachystegia-Isoberlinia as the surrounding hills are approached (Trapnell, I950). Characteristics of the Senga people are unknown for the most part; in fact, other than a brief summary of some of their oral tradition recorded by Lane Poole (Lane Poole, I949), they are practically unknown to the social scientist. Their language resembles that of the Tumbuka, a tribe occupying an area adjacent to Sengaland on the east and south; the two tribes are generally assumed to have a similar culture because there has long been considerable intermarriage between them; but with the data now available, very little can be said with certainty about how close the resemblance is. What I can tell about them relates mainly to economic aspects of their lives.
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