2.— THE FATE OF THE WIDOWS AMONGST THE 

 BA-RONGA. 



By Rev. H. A. Junod. 



EverylxKly has heard about the tei-rible condition of tlie widows 

 in India, and we all remember having been tohl frightful stories of 

 wives buried alive in the grave of their deceased husband. The natives 

 of South Africa are not so hard and cruel on the poor women who iiad 

 the misfortune of losing their master. The Bantu of these parts are 

 common-sense people ; they form, after all, a cool-headed race, which 

 does not go easily to such extremes. Their ideas of woman and of 

 her rights are not much higher, I suppose, than they are in India ; 

 but in this, as in every other domain, they correct their false and 

 sometimes dangerous social principles by a wonderful indulgence in 

 practice. This contrast between principles and practice is frequent in 

 their life. For instance, the chief amongst them is endowed with 

 almost ab-solute power over his subjects, yet in everyday life they 

 enjoy an enormous amount of individual liberty. In the same way 

 one can say that the woman is the property of her husband ; she is 

 merely a "thing bought": nevertheless she knows quite well how to 

 keep her own. Though she has not yet reached the "suffragette's" 

 era, she very often makes her will predominate. The life of husband 

 and wife is pretty well what the Fiench saying describes under these 

 words: Moiittieur rhjne et madame commande. This state of things 

 is alst> noticeable when the husband has died. Accoixling to the great 

 Bantu social principle, the widow is but a part of the inheritance, and 

 is absolutely owned by the husband's family. Notwithstanding this, 

 she knows ciuite well how to impose her preferences, and nothing is 

 decided without consulting her. We ma\' therefore safely say that 

 undei- the primitive Bantu law widows have not much to complain 

 of. But when Christianity steps in, and a widow is placed between 

 the native law, wliich gives her to a polygamist brother-in-law, and 

 her conscience, or rather the Christian law, which does not admit of 

 such a marriage, her case may become very hard indeed. Such cases 

 are bound to increase in number every year. I had myself to consider 

 two of them a very short time ago, and it led me to inquire a little 

 deeper into the old customs concerning widows. The question is well 

 worth studying, as well for the ethnological interest attached to it as 

 for the practical benefit which missionaries and native commissioners 

 will find in that knowledge. 



Let us now tell the whole story of a wido%v amongst the Ba- 

 Ronga,* translating as literally as possible the expressions used by 



* These customs are those observed amongst the Ba-Ronga of the iiortli of 

 the Bay of Delagoa. Tliey sliffhtly differ from those of the soutli of the liay, 

 which I flescrihed in my book, Lrs Ba-Eonqn, p. 66. 



