History of Warori or Basango (Excerpt from David Livingstone's Notebook, [March 1866-March 1870])
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Warori or Basango = History of
A foreigner arrived in Urori
from the South West coast having
six attendants and a quantity of red
coral beads - He was light coloured
had a prominent large nose and a
profusion of long hair – During
his stay the Warori went three
times to fight with another tribe
and each time waswere beaten off -
The stranger whose name was
Charura asked about this fighting
and percieved that they needed a
war charm - for which he desired
the chief to give an ox & a goat –
divide the carcases equally betwe[ ][en]
himself and the stranger - This
being done Charura invited all
the people who chose to come &
eat his share – The charm given
proved successful and the
Warori returned laden with
captives and spoil - Every time
they went to plunder the same
process was repeated and all
the spoil was divided
The people eat the sacrifices - &
all his half spoil too
Charuras six men died and
so did the Warori chief - The
people then said Why should we
make chiebren our chief - Let us
have Charura who is a wise
and generous man as our
0089
Monyegumbe died about 10 years
ago was then younger looking
than his sons -
head & ruler - A son Maakasii was
born to Charura and turned out
to be a fool who preferred cooking
and domestic life to everything else
In process of time this foolish
son got a son himself who was
called Monyegumbe and a wise
man The grandfather sent him
on his forays which were always
successful, and always were
accompanied with great
feasting for all as was Charura's
custom and is still in vogue
lived upwards of 100 years &
Monyegumbe is the father of
Merere and only the royal
family dare wear the coral
beads brought first by Charura
into the country - the Basango are
very white but Merere is yellow
Charura is said to have had a
Kitabu or book which was
kept with great care till an
inroad of Watuta caused a
flight & the book was lost - He
is said to have been very tall &
immensely strong - could catch
a man by the ankle and throw
him up on to the top of a
house or tembe - & when young
killed elephants with his iron
club -- From M. Bogharib
Kasanga 19th July 1869
Item Details
Author(s) & contributor(s): Mohammed Bogharib; David Livingstone
Date(s): 19 July 1869
Place(s) of creation: Kasanga
Form & transmission history: Original narrative, as translated (possibly with the help of an intermediary) and written down in a notebook by a British explorer.
Object description: Beige two-page journal excerpt on facing pages with printed header, with one hand in brown ink.
Repository: David Livingstone Centre (Blantyre, United Kingdom)
Shelfmark / Identifier: 807
Digital edition & date: One More Voice, 2020
Critical editing & encoding: Heather F. Ball, Anne M. Martin, Adrian S. Wisnicki
Cite this digital edition (MLA): Bogharib, Mohammed; David Livingstone. “History of Warori or Basango (Excerpt from David Livingstone's Notebook, [March 1866-March 1870])” (19 July 1869). Heather F. Ball, Anne M. Martin, Adrian S. Wisnicki, eds. One More Voice, site launch edition, 2020, https://onemorevoice.org/html/transcriptions/liv_020040_TEI.html.
Rights: Critically-edited text copyright One More Voice. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Explore complete/original item: Livingstone Online
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Production note: The editors produced this edition through a rigorous process that involved transcribing and encoding the text directly from images of the original document using the One More Voice coding guidelines (PDF). Users, however, are encouraged to consult the original document if possible.