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11 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett depths Xama Ngonzola, the evil rainbow-snake, rises, as I shall describe in the chapter on OMENS. The numbu tree is this valley's sacred tree. In a very few years all traces of these trees and places may be lost, so that we have been fortunate in visiting them while they still remain intact. On another occasion after trying very hard to get a photograph of a muamba-trce, and finding it impossible on account of the density of the bush, we left Mambuku's town about ten o'clock in the morning, and found our way to Buali, expecting to find MANILUEMBA installed in state. We found him dressed in a loose cloth hung around his waist, the iron chain BICIMBO slung over his shoulder; he was sitting on a very shaky chair in front of a crowd of men and women, all seated on the ground and wearing wreaths of palm-leaves over their shoulders. 6 These were Nganga Mpunzi and his people, who were "jamming" about the pay they were to receive for clearing the sacred ground. This is the office of the priest Mpunzi (Mpu=hat or crown, Nzi=he that produces); he is the crowner, or, as it were, the creator of kings. It seemed that having arrived and been received by the princes at the nkumbitree, Maluango had now to await the visits of the Bakici baci; i.e., the representatives of all the different families owning sacred ground within his kingdom. These people were described to me as the "eyes" of the people. Each one of these had to visit Maniluemba and receive a present from him, before NGANGA MPUNZI and his people could come and cut the grass and prepare a place where NGANGA NVUMBA, the king-elect, could erect his dwelling (shimbec). Until all these ceremonies were over Maniluemba was not allowed to live within a shimbec. Thus the sacrifice the old man was making was no imaginary one, for, as will be remembered, he was very comfortably housed and surrounded in his village NDEMBUANO. The place about to be cleared was pointed out to us, and we were told that it was there that the late Maluango Prati had lived. I noticed two Baobabs, a NUMBU and an NFUMA (silk cotton tree) upon this ground. As soon as Maluango caught sight of me he left the palaver and came to offer me his chair. Then he sat beside me and asked me if I had lunched. I answered, No; so he gracefully offered me all he could, namely, four pieces of miaka or prepared mandioca. While this was being roasted he told me that this was the last ceremony in connection with his accession, except that of receiving the congratulations and submission of all his petty princes. These, he said, he would send for as soon as he was settled. On that occasion he would declare that Maluango Prati had been buried, and crown himself as Maluango, and reinvest his chiefs with their caps of office. 6 The lembekmbe, wreath or rather sash of palm-leaves, also worn by the king elect, gives us the idea of the coming marriage of MANILUEMBA to his new duties as king. The plant or bush-string with which the two ends of the lembelembe are tied together is called mobula. Nganga Mpunzi's sacred plant is the mobula; his fetish lembelembe; his xina, that he must not eat together with other people, and that his food must not be cooked by an unmarried person www.globalgrey.co.uk
12 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett He said he was a little worried about the chiefs of those provinces which he understood were now under the dominion of the King of Portugal; "but," he added, "as Maluango, I am FUMU (=chief) of all the country from Mayumba to the river Xiluango." He also said that he had spent a great deal of money in all these preliminary ceremonies, and did not exactly know where more money was to come from, as he could no longer receive customs from the traders, and was in fact only king in name. www.globalgrey.co.uk
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