Lozi

/loh"zee/, n.

a Bantu language spoken in Barotseland, in western Zambia.

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or Barotse

Complex of 25 Bantu-speaking peoples divided into six cultural groups centring on the area formerly known as Barotseland in western Zambia.

Numbering more than 700,000, the Lozi move between two sets of villages in response to annual flooding. Their economy is based on agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishing. Their stratified society consists of aristocrats, commoners, and serfs.

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▪ people

also called  Malozi , or  Barotse , formerly  Aluyi 

      a complex of about 25 peoples of about 6 cultural groups inhabiting western Zambia, the area formerly known as Barotseland in Zambia and speaking Benue-Congo languages of the Niger-Congo family.

      Formerly, the groups were all called Barotse as subjects of the paramount chief of the dominant Barotse tribe; the Barotse nation extended into other parts of Zambia, Angola, and the Caprivi strip of Namibia. The Barotse people, originally known as the Aluyi, were conquered in 1838 by the Kololo of South Africa; in Kololo speech “Aluyi” became “Barotse.” In 1864 the Aluyi defeated the Kololo, and “Barotse” has since become “Lozi” (“Malozi”), referring to both the dominant group and all its subjects. The dominant Lozi occupy the floodplain of the Zambezi River, and the people move between two sets of villages, in the plain and on the margin, in response to the annual flooding. They have made skillful use of varying water levels and of different soil and grass conditions to develop an elaborate economy of agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishing. The necessity for cooperation to exploit these resources has produced real social cohesion among the Lozi, but they have always been short of labour and have constantly imported people from their subject groups and serfs from raided foreigners. These serfs had substantial rights in Lozi law, within a social hierarchy of aristocrats, commoners, and serfs. Authority was divided among various rulers at the main and other capitals, and in an elaborate system of councils at each capital.

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