Fire-Eaters: Blacksmiths and the Products of the Forge in Pre-Colonial Zambia

By Mwelwa C. Musambachime

As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, despite the many years of direct contact with European traders and the influx of European goods, most African societies still produced their own iron and its products, or obtained them from neighbouring communities through local trade. The quality of iron products was such that, despite competition from European imports, local iron production survived into the early twentieth century in some parts of the continent. The production process covered prospecting, mining, smelting, and forging. Different types of ore were available all over the continent and were extracted by shallow or alluvial mining. A variety of skills were required for building furnaces, producing charcoal, smelting, and forging iron into goods. Iron production was generally not an enclave activity but a process that fulfilled the totality of socio-economic needs. It also fit the gender division of labour within communities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jan 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524594411

Mwelwa C. Musambachime

The author is a graduate of the Universities of Zambia in Lusaka (1974), Wisconsin at Madison, USA (1976, 1981) and Uppsala, Sweden (1994). He has taught at the University of Zambia 1974 1997, 2005 - to the present. As a member of staff at the University of Zambia from 1974 to 1997, he served in many positions as Head of Department, Dean of the School of Education, Director of the Institute of Human Relations and Research and Graduate Studies He was also a visiting scholar at Miami University, oxford, Ohio), in United States of America(1984 to 1985); Cape Town (1991) and Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa(1993); Chancellor College, Malawi (1995) the several universities in the USA, South Africa, Malawi, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Burundi, Madagascar and France. History He was also a recipient of many awards. Between1997 to 2000, he taught at the University of Namibia as Professor and Head of the Department of History. Between September 2000 and March 2005, he served as Zambias Ambassador and Permanent Representative at the United Nations, New York and was non -resident Ambassador to the Republic of Cuba, and nonresident High Commissioner to Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana and other English-speaking Commonwealth countries in the West Indies. Currently, he is Professor of History at the University of Zambia. He has done extensive research and published widely on in political, economic, social, health, veterinary, and environmental issues in Eastern and Southern Africa.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Glossary of Technical Terms Used in the Text

Introduction: Some Preliminary Observations

Chapter 1 The Role and Function of Blacksmiths

Chapter 2 The Process of Transformation: Iron to Iron Products.

Chapter 3 Trade Iron and Iron Products

Chapter 4 The Process of Transformation: Copper to Copper Products

Chapter 5 Trade in Copper and copper products

Chapter 6 Processing of Gold

Chapter 7 Colonialism and the Disintegration of Blacksmithing

Chapter 8 Observations

Chapter 9 Conclusion

Glossary of words relating to mining in English and some local Zambian languages

Sources

Unpublished papers, theses, and dissertations

Field Research Interviews

About the Author

As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, despite the many years of direct contact with European traders and the influx of European goods, most African societies still produced their own iron and its products, or obtained them from neighbouring communities through local trade. The quality of iron products was such that, despite competition from European imports, local iron production survived into the early twentieth century in some parts of the continent. The production process covered prospecting, mining, smelting and forging. Different types of ore were available all over the continent and were extracted by shallow or alluvial mining. A variety of skills were required for building furnaces, producing charcoal, smelting and forging iron into goods. Iron production was generally not an enclave activity but a process that fulfilled the totality of socioeconomic needs. It also fitted the gender division of labour within communities.

The study, which is thematic, as well as analytical in presentation, is set to achieve four purposes. The first place is to examine the nature of the blacksmithing technology and its relevance in precolonial Zambia.. The second is to assess the contribution of the technology to the production of tools and weapons for local use, regalia and other and intrinsic goods for personal adornment and exchange. And thirdly, to assess the impact of colonialism on the decline of this technology. .

Fire-Eaters grew out of my earlier experiences at the feet of my grandmother’s elder brother, Laban Kafutu-ka-Milimo who introduced me to the mysteries of the forge and the hammer. He was a very experienced and efficient blacksmith. We marvelled at his prowess, dexterity, and ability to transform a piece of iron into an axe, hoe, knife, spear, or something else. As a young boy, I worked at the forge. I prepared the fire at the forge using a special type of charcoal from hardwoods, then I collected the water and set bellows ready to begin the work of the day. As the work progressed, I undertook several errands and performed several chores from working the bellows, ensuring that the charcoal was brazing at the right temperature, hammering certain sections of the iron, applying water to the iron piece when ordered to, and sharpening the knife, axe, hoe, or spear. The beauty of the whole process was to see the production of an item from an ordinary piece of iron, smooth it, and later use it. It was a mystery that I and my friends marvelled at.

The interest and experience at the forge was interrupted by my departure from the village to reside in a mining town of Luanshya and attend school. However, my interest in the forge was rekindled when I undertook a study on the Shila under Chief Mununga between 1970 and 1975. In trying to understand the link between the economic and political history of the area, I had a lot of discussions with the Shila elders on various aspects of crafts they were engaged in before colonial rule. A lot of focus was on metallurgy relating to the mining, smelting of iron ore, and the smithing to produce a variety of products—tools, weapons, and insignias of political and religious power. My informants were kind in sharing their knowledge with me, and where it was possible, they showed me sites where iron ores were mined and smelted. I saw derelict smelters, which were still standing, lots of clay pipes (tuyères), and slag, which were still visible. In some sites, I was allowed to pick some pieces and which I used them as teaching aids when I taught on the Iron Age. I used the information I collected to write my master’s dissertation submitted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1976. That study gave birth to my present one.

In undertaking this study, my primary focus is the reconstruction of the role function, importance, and standing of smiths and smithing in the society. I will also look at their toolkit, the variety of products they produced, and how they were used in the community. Some of the products had utilitarian, intrinsic, religious, and political use as regalia. Some of these were given to chiefs as tribute. The goods produced by smiths were highly regarded and valued and were items of trade traded at the local and regional levels. A critical look at the products used shows their contribution to agriculture, clearing of forests, hunting, fishing, personal hygiene, production of musical, and prestige items. .

Exploitation of minerals in the precolonial period, when three minerals were exploited for a variety of uses. The first was iron ore. It was more common and found in all parts of Zambia in varying concentrations, quantities, and quality. It was mined, smelted in various types of furnaces to produce, wrought iron which, after refining, was forged into a variety of tools, weapons, used in hunting and warfare, ornaments used in adorning the body and as insignias of religious and political power and hooks for fishing. The second was copper, which was less widespread and was confined to a few areas where it was mined in form of Malachite (oxidised copper which was green in colour) found at well developed mines by the indigenous people at Kansanshi near Solwezi, Bwana Mkubwa near Ndola, in the Kafue Hook stretching from the northern part of Mumbwa to Kasempa, parts of Kabwe and Lusaka. Copper was mined, smelted, refined, and used to make decorative ornaments such as copper wire worn by persons of status, as currency and insignias of political and religious offices. And the third was gold which was scarcer and confined to the extreme eastern parts of what is now Lusaka Province—in Chongwe and Rufunsa districts, and in Eastern Province, in Petauke, Chipata, and Chadiza—especially in the area around Sinda–Missale. It was collected from streams and rivers as alluvial gold in form gold grains, mined in a number of shallow mines and used in the making of jewellery won by important officers in the state and as a currency.

Scholarship dealing with the historical, technological, and social aspects of smithing in precolonial Zambia is rather limited. However, oral traditions in all ethnic groups are a good source . Ironworking is blended in oral traditions of each ethnic group. In addition, there are some good sources left by European visitors to various parts of what became Zambia who recorded some aspects of material culture, among these were the Portuguese expeditions of 1798 and 1832 to Mwata Kazembe, travellers like David Livingstone, and Emile Hollub; missionaries like Jalla who worked among the Lozi of the Central Zambezi Plain and Griffiths Quick among the Chishinga, Smith who worked with Dale, a Magistrate at Namwala among the Ila, Father Emile Foulon, who worked among the Bemba, Clement Doke among the Lamba, Johnson among the Lungu, Butt among the ethnic groups in the Kafue Flats. All administrative officers appointed to all districts recorded some information on the craft which is available in the District Note Books. However, some administrators took time to undertake ethnological studies of the people they supervised. These were later produced in books which are, today, valuable sources. Among these were Cullen Gouldsbury and Herbert Sheane who worked among the Bemba, Lungu, Mambwe, and Namwanga; Melland among the Kaonde, and Brelsford who looked at items collected by the Livingstone Museum.In the later years of colonial rule, young educated Zambians such as Ikachana, Sakubita, Silavwe, Kasonde, recorded and published some insights on smithing. They were followed by a number of anthropologists and historians, and many others; scholars like Andrew Roberts, William–Myers, Mwizenge Tembo, von Oppen, Cooper, Tim Mathews, and Musambachime have discussed the processes of metallurgy - mining, smelting, and smithing.

There is a need to understand aspects of smithing as an important craft among the Zambian people. It was the last stage in metallurgy preceded by mining and smelting of the ore which were important in the lives of the people for food security, trade sustainability, and security. Although mining and smelting of metals was proscribed at the beginning of colonial rule, smithing remained-though a shadow of its former self. Smiths took scrap metal collected from the industrial areas and used it to produce a variety of items which were needed in the community. This craft still continues at a much reduced scale.

The study is presented in nine chapters. It begins with discussing preliminary observations relating to the importance of the craft in various societies in precolonial Zambia. From here, I discuss Chapter One: The Role and Function of blacksmiths.I also look at the training of smiths in guilds and the tools they used, I also look at comments of some European travellers who praised the work of the of the smiths they came across. Chapter two discusses the process of transformation from wrought iron into a variety of Iron Products. Chapter three: looks at the trade in Iron Products. Chapter four discusses the process of transformation of copper ingots into copper products and its use as a currency. Chapter five discusses trade in copper products and the use of copper as a currency, Chapter six looks at the: processing of Gold into intrinsic items such as necklaces… Chapter seven discusses the coming of Colonialism and the decline of blacksmithing in all parts of the new colony. Chapter eight looks at some observations. And Chapter nine looks at the conclusions. To give clarity to the study and help the reader, the study has provided a glossary of terms used relating to blacksmithing in English sand some Zambian languages. Is also provides diagrams, pictures, and tables to illustrate the issues discussed. It also provides a detailed list of sources and a bibilography.

Dedicated to Laban Mumba Kafutu-ka- Milimo for introducing me to the mysteries of the forge, fire and hammer.

Acknowledgements

Laban Mumba Kafutu-ka-Milimo was the elder brother of my grandmother. According to our tradition, he was my grandfather. He was a quiet, serious-looking man with a well developed physique. He was also a renowned blacksmith (Kafula) around Chisembe area, 13 kilometres east of Mansa on Kawambwa-Luwingu road. He was also a well respected village headman. In addition, he was a hunter of all types of game, a good farmer, herbalist, and more importantly, as an accomplished blacksmith. He used to tell initiates of the blacksmithing guild, including myself, that long before the advent of colonial administration, technology was spread by six men—a miner who located and mined the minerals; the smelter who smelted the ores to get wrought iron; the smith who forged iron into a variety of items; the farmer who cleared the forests and cultivated the crops on which the villagers depended on for survival; the hunter who used the weapons to hunt game for meat, skins, and horns which he put to several uses. He also hunted the animals that threatened the security of the villagers; and the fisherman who used the hooks to catch varieties of fish. The six individuals could be one person changing roles and lived by utilising various types of technologies, some of them local, and others from near and far-flung areas, to help with their productive work and processes. Many of these technologies grew into full-pledged skills with established hierarchies and codes of conduct. One of these was blacksmithing, which he practised with passion.

In many parts of what became Zambia, blacksmithing was a flourishing profession among the many ethnic groups. It was highly desired by strong young able-bodied men. In some societies, smiths were feared because of their skill in metalworking, was equated to a form of magic. In many societies, smiths were highly admired and held a high social status. Because the trade was so specialised, smiths guarded the secrets of the trade jealously. Admission was through a carefully designed training which took many years. After this the smith was given his certificate to operate as a smith. Some smiths became well established and famous because of their skill and the products they produced which were used by the local peopled and circulated within and beyond the region. Some of these were often invited by chiefs and headmen in areas and villages where there are none. Accomplished and well-acclaimed blacksmiths forged a huge array of tools used to clear the forests, cultivate gardens, weed and harvest crops; weapons for hunting wild game, for defence and offence; royal regalia, gongs, jewellery and ingots. Smithing was also a dangerous profession. Exposure to fire resulted in serious burns.

Livelihood, status, security, and expression of political power was all dependent on the products of the blacksmith at the forge. The significance and influence of this industry were pronounced within and outside the local communities and regions. Through this indigenous technology, the people developed various means with which their socioeconomic as well as military needs were met. Depending on the ingenuity of the local blacksmiths, the community bagged the sobriquets relating to the skills of the blacksmiths—creating symbolisms, praises, and phrases that related to sharpness (intelligence, prowess, productivity), durability (long lasting), or blunt (lazy, lack of productivity and indolence). These terms were derived from their knack for blacksmithing. Unfortunately, with the advent of colonial rule. And introduction of migrant labour forcing able-bodied men to travel long distances to new work places, this renowned traditional technology suffered neglect and near abandonment. The decline in this local technology has been attributed to the advent of colonialism as well as to the poor policies towards indigenous technology. This study is an attempt discuss and highlight the importance of this technology among the Zambian ethnic groups in the precolonial period.

As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, despite the many years of direct contact with European traders and the influx of European goods, most African societies still produced their own iron and its products, or obtained them from neighbouring communities through local trade. The quality of iron products was such that, despite competition from European imports, local iron production survived into the early twentieth century in some parts of the continent. The production process covered prospecting, mining, smelting, and forging. Different types of ore were available all over the continent and were extracted by shallow or alluvial mining. A variety of skills were required for building furnaces, producing charcoal, smelting and forging iron into goods. Iron production was generally not an enclave activity but a process that fulfilled the totality of socioeconomic needs. It also fitted the gender division of labour within communities.

The study which is thematic as well as analytical in presentation, is set to achieve three purposes: First, it examines the nature of the blacksmithing technology and its relevance in precolonial Zambia. Secondly, it assesses the impact of colonialism on the decline of this indigenous technology. And finally, it seeks ways through which such indigenous technologies could be understood and appreciated for the role they played in the social, political, and economic spheres of their society.. In the methodology, primary and secondary sources were consulted, analysed and used.

Fire-Eaters grew out of my earlier experiences at the feet of Laban Kafutu-ka-Milimo He introduced me to the mysteries of the forge, fire and the hammer. He was a hefty and strong man with bulging muscles because of lifting heavy items and working in a village forge. He was very accessible, open, jovial and a very good story-teller He was a very experienced and efficient blacksmith. We marvelled at his prowess, dexterity and ability to transform a piece of iron into an axe, hoe, knife, spear or something else. He was my hero.

As a young boy, I worked at the forge. My day started very early. I swept the forge and prepared the fire using a special type of charcoal from hardwoods, then I collected water to use in the forge, and set up the bellows ready to begin the work of the day. As the work progressed, I undertook several errands and performed several chores from working the bellows, ensuring that the charcoal was brazing at the right temperature, hammering certain sections of the iron, applying water to the iron piece when ordered to, and sharpening knives, axes, hoes, or spears. The beauty of the whole process was to see the production of an item from an ordinary piece of iron, smooth it and later use it. It was a mystery that I and my friends marvelled at. I looked forward to the day I would become a smith myself.

The interest and experience at the forge was interrupted by my departure from the village to reside in a mining town of Lunacy and attend school. However, my interest in the forge was rekindled when I undertook a study on the Shila history under Chief Mununga between 1970 and 1975. In trying to understand the link between the economic and political history of the area, I had a lot of discussions with the Shila elders on various aspects of crafts they were engaged in before colonial rule. A lot of focus was on metallurgy and the variety of products- tools, weapons and insignias of political and religious power. Were kind in sharing their knowledge with me. . I used the information I collected to write my master’s dissertation submitted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1976. That study, in a way, gave birth to my present one.

In undertaking this study, my primary concern was the reconstruction of the role function, importance and standing of smiths and smithing in the precolonial Zambian societies. I will also look at the toolkits, the variety of products they produced and how they used them in the community. Some of the products had utilitarian, intrinsic, religious values. A critical look at the products used shows their contribution to agriculture, clearing of forests, hunting, fishing, personal hygiene, production of musical, and prestige items. Some had political use as regalia. Some of these products were given to chiefs as tribute which was redistributed in a reciprocal manner to ensure loyalty. The goods produced by smiths were highly regarded and valued. Some became items of trade traded at the local and regional levels.

Exploitation of minerals in the precolonial period, when three minerals were exploited for a variety of uses. The first was iron ore. It was more common and found in all parts of Zambia in varying concentrations, quantities, and quality. It was mined, smelted in various types of furnaces to produce wrought iron which, after refining, was forged into a variety of tools, weapons used in hunting and warfare, ornaments used in adorning the body, and as insignias of religious and political power and hooks for fishing. The second was copper, which was less widespread and was confined to a few areas where it was mined in form of Malachite (oxidised copper which was green in colour) found at well-developed mines by the indigenous people at Kansanshi near Solwezi, Bwana Mkubwa near Ndola, in the Kafue Hook stretching from the northern part of Mumbwa to Kasempa, parts of Kabwe and Lusaka. Copper was mined, smelted, refined, and used to make decorative ornaments such as copper wire worn by persons of status, as currency and insignias of political and religious offices. And the third was gold which was scarcer and confined to the extreme eastern parts of what is now Lusaka Province—in Chongwe and Rufunsa districts, and in Eastern Province, in Petauke, Chipata and Chadiza—especially in the area around Sinda-Missale. It was collected from streams and rivers as alluvial form (as a grains of gold), mined in a number of areas and used in the making of jewellery won by important officers in the state and as a currency.

Scholarship dealing with the historical, technological and social aspects of smithing in precolonial Zambia is rather limited. However, oral traditions in all ethnic groups are a good and fertile source..In various parts of Zambia, there are some good sources on metallurgy left by European visitors to various parts of what became Zambia, who recorded some aspects of material culture, including metallurgy. Among these were the Portuguese expeditions of 1798, 1806 to 1810, and 1832 to Mwata Kazembe; David Livingstone and Emile Hollub; missionaries like Jalla who worked among the Lozi of the Central Zambezi Plain, Dugald Campbell who worked among the Luba and Lomotwa and Lunda of Luapula Valley, Griffiths Quick among the Chishinga, Smith who worked with Dale, a magistrate at Namwala among the Ila, Father Emile Foulon, who worked among the Bemba, Clement Doke among the Lamba, Johnson among the Lungu, and Reverend Butt who worked among the ethnic groups in the Kafue Flats. All administrative officers appointed to districts recorded some information on the craft which is available in the District Note Books in the National Archives of Zambia. However, some administrators took time to undertake detailed ethnological studies of the people they supervised. These were later produced in books which are, today, valuable sources. Among these were Cullen Gouldsbury and Herbert Sheane, who worked among the Bemba, Lungu, Mambwe, and Namwanga; Melland among the Kaonde; and Brelsford, who conducted research among the Chishinga people and looked at items collected by the Livingstone Museum and described them for the benefit of the reader. In the later years of colonial rule, young educated Zambians such as Ikachana, Sakubita, Silavwe, Kasonde, recorded oral traditions of their ethnic groups and published them as books in their vernaculars and gave insights on smithing and other forms of material culture. They were followed by a number of anthropologists and historians, and scholars like Andrew Roberts, William–Myers, Mwizenge Tembo, von Oppen, Cooper and Tim Mathews, who discussed in passing and in depth, the various processes of metallurgy.

As I taught some aspects of metallurgy to my undergraduate and graduate students, I felt the need for a thorough study of smithing in the Zambian societies. There is a need to understand aspects of smithing as an important craft among the Zambian people. It was the last stage in metallurgy which was important in the lives of the people in terms of food security, nutrition, health, trade sustainability, and security. Although mining and smelting of metals were proscribed at the beginning of colonial rule, smithing remained—though as a shadow of its former self. Smiths took scrap metal collected from the industrial areas and used it to produce a variety of items which were needed in the community. This craft still continues at a much reduced scale. As I looked back to my childhood and my association with smithing, the interest grew. Each time I had some spare time from my busy schedule, I looked for sources on the subject. As Ambassador at the United Nations in New York, I got in touch with Professor Eugenia W. Herbert, who was very helpful in guiding me to a number of sources, including her well-researched studies on copper and iron. She was also very kind to read and comment on some of the early drafts I wrote.

On my return from diplomatic service, I continued working on this aspect whenever time allowed. In undertaking this research, I owe a lot of inspiration from Laban Mumba Kafutu-ka-Milimo who introduced me to metallurgy at a very young age and gave me the opportunity to learn the basics and intricacies of iron working; my extended family on my mother’s side at Kunda’s village in Mansa; the people of Mununga area under the leadership of the Chief, the many informants in various parts of Zambia.and the various libraries I consulted in Africa, Europe, and United States of America.

I would like to pay special thanks to my parents, George and Joyce Musambachime, who unselfishly supported my quest for education. I thank my lecturers and professors at the Universities of Zambia and Wisconsin-Madison; my colleagues in the Department of History at the Universities of Zambia and other universities where I spent periods of attachment. Here, I want to single out the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cape Town for their comments and suggestion on the talk on metallurgy in the precolonial Zambia that I gave in March 1991; the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), through Dr Edwin M. Koloko, with the unfailing support of the leadership of Mr Francis H. Kaunda, the Managing Director, enthusiastically supported my research project on metallurgy in 1990 and 1991, This allowed me to collect a lot of data on metallurgy in Central, Copperbelt, Luapula, and Northern Provinces which broadened my understanding of the role and function of technology in precolonial Zambia considerably. The staff in the various libraries I consulted were very helpful in so many ways in accessing the needed information; the staff of the National Archives of Zambia, particularly, the then director, the late Mr Pambi Mukula, was extremely helpful. Professor Robert Gordon of the University of Vermont gave me a gift of a rare book by Vernon Brelsford on the David Livingstone Museum (now the Livingstone Museum) which was a great help in my work. I also drew a lot of inspiration in the discussions I had with Mr Kabani, an MA student who wrote his dissertation on metallurgy in Bulozi, Western Zambia, under my supervision.

The gestation period has been quite long and the study has gone through many revisions necessitated by access to new studies on the subject and my desire to be meticulous. My wife, the children, grandchildren, and other members of the extended family, have contributed in so many ways to the completion of this study.. I thank them for their support and encouragement. I wish to thank friends, serving teachers in many primary schools and district administrative officers in various districts who assisted me in many ways., This study would not have been completed without their assistance and support. I wish to express my deepest thanks and appreciation to the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cambridge, for giving a visiting fellowship from October 2008 to March 2009. It gave me the opportunity to do further research on various aspects of the study. I am grateful to the staff in the library for their valuable assistance. Professors Megan Vaughn, John Iliffe and Henrietta Moore. were a great source of inspiration. I wish to add that none of the institutions and individuals mentioned above are responsible for any errors of fact and judgement which appear in this study. These remain my own responsibility

Mwelwa C. Musambachime

Lusaka, Zambia

Glossary of Technical Terms Used in the Text

Air blast: The air required for combustion that is forced into the combustion zone under pressure. This pressured air is supplied by bellows.

Ancestors: Many African groups believe that the spirits of dead ancestors remain near their living descendants to help and protect them—as long as these relatives perform certain ceremonies and pay them due respect.

Ancestral cults: play a leading role in the mythologies of some peoples. The honoured dead—whether of the immediate family, the larger clan or kinship group, the community, or the entire culture—become objects of worship and subjects of tales and legends.

Annealing: Is a process that decreases the internal stress in metal caused by hammering through heating and gradual cooling; taking a piece of metal through a cycle of heating, holding it at temperature, and then cooling it in order to modify its properties; Alternate heating and cooling metals slowly to make it tougher and less brittle. (See tempering also). Process in which metals and other materials are treated to render them less brittle.

Anvil: A solid mass of stone or metal, shaped with a working surface suitable for hammering out metals into objects.

Archaeology: The study of the material remains of the past, ranging from the earliest bones and stone tools to things that are buried or thrown away in the present day.

Archaeometallurgy: The study of archaeological metal processing waste and intentional metal products in order to reconstruct the processes used, to infer the technological skill of the manufacturers, and to derive a record of the human choices, decisions, and influences involved in metals production and use.

Assay: A system used to determine the contents of valuable minerals in an ore sample

Azurite: Hydrated copper carbonate (2CuCO3. CU(OH)2). It is blue in colour.

Bag bellows. Bellows often made from a whole goat’s skin and operated by hand to force air into a furnace pipe or tuyère; an instrument designed to pump or force air into a fire in the furnace.

Base metal: This term means and includes copper, iron, lead, and any other metal and slimes, concentrates, slags, tailings, residue, or amalgam containing any base metal other than metals, slimes, concentrates, silages, tailings, residues or amalgam under the term ‘Precious metals’.

Blacksmiths: These were men who belonged to a guild and played an important role in producing tools, weapons, and insignia. They were responsible in shaping science and technology in metallurgy. Some of them were traders in iron goods. Others were itinerant selling their skills to chiefs.

Blacksmithing: Blacksmiths worked by heating pieces of wrought iron until the metal becomes soft enough to be shaped with hand tools, such as a hammer, anvil, and chisel. Heating was accomplished by the use of a forge fuelled by charcoal

Blast Furnace: A columnar furnace for smelting ore, in which fuel is charged mixed with ore and combustion is assisted by a blast of air introduced near the bottom of the column.

Bumbuti: A term used for smelters and blacksmiths in Barotseland.

Carbonate: A chemical combination of carbon dioxide and a metal.

Carbon monoxide: A reactive gas (CO).

Cast Iron: The iron that contained between 2 and 4.5 per cent carbon. Iron with this amount of carbon can become liquid at temperatures well below the melting points of wrought iron and steel and was thus very easy to cast.

Charcoal: Incompletely combusted wood providing a highly porous carbon-rich fuel.

Charge: The placement of iron ore, fuel (and flux in any) into the smelting furnace.

Draft: This was the pressurised air that fed combustion in a furnace.

Cult: Group bound together by devotion to a particular person, belief, or god.

Drum bellows: A synonym for bowl bellows, usually implying that the bowl is made of wood rather than of ceramic.

Durable: This is something that lasts for a long time.

Engraving: Technique of embellishing a surface of an iron tool, weapon or status symbol with personalised marks.

Exploitation: The work of mining and processing ore for the extraction of metal.

Forced draft: Air driven or induced into the furnace by through special openings (tuyères) at the base of the furnace. Air was channelled or forced into the furnace using the bellows.

Forge: A hearth, often with air provided by bellows, used for reheating metal or a fireplace where a smith works metals by heating and hammering; or a smith’s workshop during hot working to fashion it into the desired shape.

Forging: The process of working a piece of metal while hot. Forging is often defined as the act of shaping metal. The metal is usually molten in the furnace and then shaped in the small moulds..

Forging: The term ‘forging’ means to shape metal by heating and hammering.

Forging: Forging metal is a method of shaping metal by hammering. Cold forging is generally limited to relatively soft metals including gold, silver, and copper alloys. Most metals are hot forged. A metal object produced by hot forging tends to be stronger and less brittle than metal cast in a mould. In addition to hammering, the metal is also shaped by chisels and by punching tools.

Goethite: A hydrated ferrous oxide HFeO3

Haematite: Iron oxide (Fe203).

Handa: A copper cross produced in Katanga.

Heat treatment: A variety of processes in which the physical properties of a piece of metal may be altered by controlled heating and cooling.

Malachite: The bright green hydrated copper carbonate (Cu2 (0H) 2CO3.Cu (OH) 2) which was smelted to produce copper.

Malachite: A copper carbonate hydroxide Cu2CO3 (OH) 2.

Matte: A rich artificial sulphide of metal (copper) formed as an intermediate product in smelting between ore and metallic metal (copper).

Metallurgy: The process of recovering metals from ores.

Midrib: A rib or spine extending along the central longitudinal axis of a metal blade or bell created to strengthen it.

Natural draught: The passive provision of air to a forge by exploiting the chimney effect of hot gasses rising up the furnace to draw in air through numerous tuyères at the bottom. A natural supply or air into the furnace without the use of bellows.

Precious metal: includes gold, silver, and platinum in the unmanufactured state and valuable slimes, concentrates, slags, tailings, residues, or amalgam, containing precious metals.

Quenching: This process is used when iron is heated to a very high temperature and then thrust into cold water and cooled rapidly. This results in the hardening of the iron, a heat treatment involving plunging a hot metal object into a relatively cold liquid to produce a controlled microstructure and thereby alter the physical properties. In the case of carbon steel, this can harden and embrittle the metal very significantly.

Reduction: The chemical removal of oxygen from a compound.

Ritual: Ceremony that follows a set pattern.

Smith: The term ‘blacksmith’ comes from the activity of ‘forging’ iron or the ‘black’ metal—so named due to the colour of the metal after being heated (a key part of the blacksmithing process).

Smithing: The process of chemically reducing an oxide ore to a range of products including workable metal by the application of heat in a furnace, to form and shape metal by heisting it and hammering it.

Technology: The study or use of science by people.

Tempering: The heat treatment of a quenched metal at a moderate temperature of about 500°C to allow partial recrystallisation to take place in order to reduce the brittleness of the as-quenched material.

Welding: This is the bonding of iron pieces at their surfaces by smelting them together, which is a fusion of welding without solder being applied. This is indicated kin metallography by the presence of seems, often marked by slag stingers, gas bubbles, and sometimes oxide scale.

Wire drawing: A technique for thinning a copper or iron metal rod by drawing it through successively finer perforations in a plate.

Wrought iron: refers to iron smelted in the furnace which was highly variable. It was given to the smith to produce tools, weapons and insignias.

Notes on Orthography

In using terms from the Zambian languages, I have tried to balance three considerations: consistency, readability of the text, and ability of the readers to refer to the glossary provided. For place names, I have generally followed the forms used in the local maps and atlases.

Introduction: Some Preliminary Observations

Man has, from antiquity, depended on minerals for defence, shelter, building materials, agriculture, elegance and energy.

M. Mpande, 2009: 15

Technology is spread by man and that man lives by technology.

Bobo, Jama, 1983:47

The quotations are extremely important to this study. They allude to the importance of metallurgy in Africa from time immemorial. As late as the beginning of the nineteenth century, despite the many years of direct contact with European, Arab, Swahili, and Indian traders and the flow of European goods, most African societies in precolonial Zambia and her neighbour, still produced their own iron and its products, or obtained them from neighbouring communities through local regional or long distance trade. The quality of iron products was very despite competition from European imports. Local iron production survived into the early twentieth century in some parts of the country. Over the centuries, metals—gold, copper, iron—were mined and used for different purposes. They were, for example, made into different required and necessary utilitarian tools, weapons, intrinsic items, and regalia for religious and political offices. The dates when metals were first extracted from the mineral deposits are not known but range from time immemorial. The supply of metal and mineral products has underpinned human endeavour through the centuries. As the Zambian mineral economist Dr Mathias Mpande rightly observes, in the quotation above, gold and copper have intrinsic value but were also used as currencies. Iron was the substance and agent of transformation that allowed Africans to forage and hunt, till the soil, and assure their own protection and prosperity.¹Iron created and saved lives but also took them. Iron working has been the preeminent transformative process, a technology greedily sought and jealously guarded, for its control could promote a king’s ambition and a soldier’s fortune. Iron-smelting technology has often been considered divine inspiration brought to humans by culture heroes. Sacred kings were sometimes renowned as smelters and blacksmiths. In all communities, blacksmiths were indispensable to the communities as makers of tools, weapons, and regalia. In other circumstances, the transformative powers of ironworkers are deemed so great that blacksmiths are thought dangerous and avoided by ordinary people.²

Indigenous technology, which is the art of doing things, has played a significant role in the daily activities of man in precolonial and colonial era played a significant role in the daily activities of societies in precolonial and colonial era. Hence, there is a saying that technology is spread by man and that man lives by technology. This assertion is more relevant when the technology is indigenous (endogamous), often referred to as internally generated methods of learning and expressing initiatives or traditional technology.³ This remains a truism when the technological innovations are made to meet the growing and insatiable needs and aspirations of a given society. Of particular importance is when the technology was discovered at its infant stage, developed, modified, and consequently modernised to meet the increasing wants of the people. Through different technological innovations, people of various communities have been able to satisfy their environmental necessities. Instances of indigenous technology abound in precolonial and colonial times. In various parts of what became Zambia, blacksmithing was a remarkable indigenous technology. Employing this ingenuity, the people had been able to satisfy their basic necessities. They produced all sorts of agricultural and hunting implementations for economic, social, political, and military purposes. Thus, they gained for themselves the appellation ‘Fire-eaters’. Significant and apt are these assertions about the flowering blacksmithing industry prior to colonial rule.

Iron objects were used as tools and weapons, carried and worn, but their mundane purposes were matched, underscored, and complemented. Shrines were studded and graves were bedecked by and with iron implements. In this study, technology will be understood to mean what is broadly defended as the body of knowledge and skill of producing goods and services. Each technique was measured by its attraction and satisfaction, efficiency, effectiveness in serving or achieving the desired aims and objectives, and durability in comparison to other technologies or products. Each society also produced a variety of weapons used in hunting for food, defence of territory, extension, and protection of the territory under control in order to control, protect, and exploit the resources therein. Iron was mined, smelted, and forged into tools, weapons, prestige goods, and regalia. In very few areas, gold was mined and made into a variety of prestige goods. Some areas with salt pans produced salt for local consumption and needs as well as for trade. Indeed in all parts of Zambia, mining, smelting, and smithing of iron and copper were local industries of significance and great social, political, and commercial importance prior to the coming of Europeans. Iron work (mining, smelting, and smithing) was the most highly developed technically of the traditional crafts. The whole story of man’s development has been of progressive use and domination of his environment and the increasing exploitation of raw materials provided by earth around him to provide for his political, social, and religious systems, shelter, food security, defence and security, and recreation. In this study, smithing was a crucial and major factor as well as a continuing thread in the ways and method of exploitation of resources which sustained each community in the areas where they settled.³

Peter Schimdt has rightly observed the importance and role of African technological life before the coming of colonial rule. He argues that in the modern times, no study can capture the rich fabric of African technological life as it was in the past. In his view, whatever is learned of these technologies is ‘an approximation of the past’. He goes on to argue that:

As we gain more knowledge from the various African cultures where some technological practices remain [or can be remembered], we are gradually building an awareness that much of the genius of African [technologies] lies in its variety. Each technological system had distinctive ways to solve problems. Thus out of that variety comes unique insight into local innovation. This means that each technological history—from culture to culture—has a different and unique story to tell. Though most of those histories will remain forever silent, there is still time to capture the poignant lessons of a few remaining technologies.⁴

Schmidt is right. The surviving knowledge, largely based oral traditions and a few practitioners, provide valuable evidence on which our present understanding of the old technologies lies. Oral traditions are supplemented by reports by European visitors in the later part of the nineteenth century, missionaries and administrative officials in the early part of the twentieth century contained in some books and reports, tour reports of various parts of the districts, and