Folklore

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Bantu Totemism.

G. W. Stow , A. Lang & N. W. Thomas

To cite this article: G. W. Stow , A. Lang & N. W. Thomas (1904) Bantu Totemism., Folklore, 15:2,
203-205, DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.1904.9719403

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.1904.9719403

Published online: 06 Feb 2012.

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 Collectanea. 203

BANTU TOTEMJSM.

IT has been observed that civilised theories are often anticipated

by savage myths. The following extracts from a MS. work in the
possession of Miss L. C. Lloyd, the collaborates of the late
Dr. Bleek in his Bushman Reports, show that Mr. Lang's theory
of the origin of totemism has been anticipated implicitly by some
totemic tribes of South Africa, and explicitly by their civilised
observers.
" ' Tradition says that about the time the separation took place
between the Bahurutshe and the Bakuena, Baboons entered the
gardens of the former and ate their pumpkins before the proper
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time for commencing to eat the fruits of the New Year. The
Bahurutshe were unwilling that the pumpkins which the Baboons
had broken off and nibbled at should be wasted, and ate them
accordingly. This act is said to have led to the Bahurutshe being
called Bachwene, Baboon-people, which is their Siboko to this
a
^ y ; and their having the precedence ever afterwards in the matter
°f taking the first bite of the New Year's fruits.'" [Letter from
the Rev. Roger Price, of Molepolole, in the Northern Bakuena
country, to G. W. Stow, 9th December, 1879.]
' " I f this story be the true one,' continues Mr. Price, 'it is
evident that what is now used as a term of honour, was once a
term of reproach. The Bakuena, too, are said to owe the origin
of their Siboko to the fact that their people once ate an ox which
bad been killed by a crocodile.' Mr. Price is strongly inclined to
think ' that the Siboko of all the tribes was originally a kind of
nickname or term of reproach, but,' he adds,' there is a good deal
°f mystery about the whole thing.' The Siboko of the Bangoaketse,
another branch of the Bakuena, is still the Kuena or Crocodile.
The Bamangwafo, another great offshoot of the same parent stem,
however, changed their Siboko at the time of the separation from
the Bakuena. The chief Mathibe, under whom the separation
took place, had for his head wife a woman of the tribe of Seleka,
living near the Limpopo. The forbidden animal or Siboko of that
1
tribe being the Phuti (putie) or Duiker (Dutch), when the Bamang­
wato adopted that, instead of the Kuena.'" (G. W. Stow, MS.
8
» . 813.)
1
Duiker, a kind of antelope, Cephalophus mtrgem, (Proc. Zool. Soc.,
1 8 8
>. ?• 763.)
 204 Collectanea.

" . . . . From the foregoing facts it would seem possible that the
origin of the Siboko among these tribes arose from some sobriquet
that had been given to them; and that in course of time, as their
superstitions and devotional feelings became more developed, these
tribal symbols became objects of veneration and superstitious awe,
whose favour was to be propitiated, or malign influence averted,
by certain rites and ceremonies, more or less elaborate, with
ablutions and purification, with solemn dances and singing, the
kindling and distribution of the sacred fire, and placing ashes on
the forehead as a sign of grief." (MS. 819, 820.)
From MS. work entitled The Races of South Africa, their
Migrations and Invasions, showing the Intrusion of the Stronger
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Races into the Hunting-Grounds of the ancient Abatwa or Bush­

men, the Aboriginal Cave-dwellers of the Country; by [the late]
George W. Stow, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., of the Geological Surveys of
Griqualand West and the Orange Free State. Two vols., with
Tribal Genealogies, Maps, and Illustrations Quoted by kind
permission of Miss L. C. Lloyd, author A Short Account of
Further Bushman Material Collected, (Third Report concerning
Bushman Researches). 1 ) . Nutt, 1889. ( E D . )

On this Mr. Lang comments as follows :

" The myths here given, and the remarks of Mr. Stow, antici­
pate my own hypothesis that group-names, given from without,
were the germs of totemism. But the incidence is of no service
to my argument. Tribal Siboko represent the extreme decadence,
not the primal form, of totems, and are probably the survivals
of the totem of the chief local totem groups in a tribe reckoning
descent in the male line, as among the Arunta; a method
remote from the primitive mode of transmitting totems by female
descent. Siboko could not arise in the manner suggested by the
myth, among an advanced agricultural African people.
" I may add that the name of the Arunta tribe means " White
Cockatoos," so given by Mr. Curr in 1886. We do not hear that
the whole tribe adores the White Cockatoo."

Mr. N. W. Thomas sends us the following note :

" The myth is clearly post-totemic and ^etiological, and has no
value as evidence of origin. It may be compared with that of
the Banoukou kin of the Baperi given by Merensky (Beilrdge,
p. 133 n.). Dr. J. G. Frazer (Alan, 1901, No. i n ) has quoted
 Collectanea. 205

from Theal a passage showing that many of the Bantu tribes ex­
plained their respect for their siboko by the fact that they were
inhabited by the souls of their ancestors. This is an aetiological
myth, but hardly a myth of origin, as no explanation is given of
bow the animals were originally selected. Siboko is, according to
Arbousset and Daumas ( V o y a g e , p. 422), properly speaking, "glory,"
a
nd in its transferred meaning, clan or kin. The relation between
the man and the animal is that of xa, fear or hatred ; they show
their respect to it by dancing (im); the name is called bonka,
name of honour."
" The following passage from Arbousset and Daumas (p. 349)
clearly refers to the Bachwene:
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" ' D'autres Baperis venerent le Khabo, sorte de singe inconnu

dans ce pays-ci. D'autres jurent par le grand papion. Ils ne
vont point a leur champs au renouvellement de la lune, se con­
formant en cela a la pratique de ceux qui chantent le soleil. Ils
craignent s'ils se rendaient ainsi a leur labeur que le millet ne
restat en terre sans lever ou bien qu'il manquat d'etre formti,
meme qu'il ne fat tout rong<5 par la rouille.'"
" Casalis mentions the name of the Bachwene (les Bassoutos,
p. 221), 'Tel district du pays des Bassoutos est appels5
Chueneng, chez les hommes du singe.'
" In connection with the origin of clan names, attention may be
drawn to the statements of Arbousset and Daumas (p. 299) on the
subject of the Zulu regiments. The first is called Omo bapakul—
panther-catchers—-and a story is told of an adventure with a
panther, to which we find parallels in North-West America and
Madagascar; the regiment imitates the roars and the ferocity of
the panther, and its leaders wear panther-skins.
" The South African clans were localised, as the quotation from
Casalis shows. It seems possible that the Zulu regiments have
preserved for us traces of earlier totemic myths.
" In connection with the names of regiments, we may recall that
at the battle of Cattraeth there were bands of warriors known as
dogs, wolves, crows, and bears. Bearing in mind that the chiefs
were especially known by the clan name (Folk-Lore, xii., 36), it is of
some interest to note that the leader of the war-dogs at Cattraeth
was Cian, the dog. Here too there is a possibility that we have
to do with a faint echo of totemism."