Boguera is observed
by all the Bechuanas and Caffres, but not by the negro tribes
beyond 20 Deg.
South. The "boguera" is a civil rather than a religious rite.
All the boys of an age between ten and fourteen or fifteen
are selected to be the companions for life of one of the sons of the chief.
They are taken out to some retired spot in the forest,
and huts are erected for their accommodation; the old men go out
and teach them to dance, initiating them, at the same time,
into all the mysteries of African politics and government.
Each one is expected to compose an oration in praise of himself,
called a "leina" or name, and to be able to repeat it
with sufficient fluency. A good deal of beating is required to bring them up
to the required excellency in different matters, so that, when they return
from the close seclusion in which they are kept, they have generally
a number of scars to show on their backs. These bands or regiments,
named mepato in the plural and mopato in the singular,
receive particular appellations; as, the Matsatsi - the suns;
the Mabusa - the rulers; equivalent to our Coldstreams or Enniskillens;
and, though living in different parts of the town, they turn out at the call,
and act under the chief's son as their commander. They recognize a sort
of equality and partial communism ever afterward, and address each other
by the title of molekane or comrade. In cases of offence against their rules,
as eating alone when any of their comrades are within call,
or in cases of cowardice or dereliction of duty, they may strike one another,
or any member of a younger mopato, but never any one of an older band;
and when three or four companies have been made, the oldest
no longer takes the field in time of war, but remains as a guard
over the women and children. When a fugitive comes to a tribe, he is directed
to the mopato analogous to that to which in his own tribe he belongs,
and does duty as a member. No one of the natives knows how old he is.
If asked his age, he answers by putting another question,
"Does a man remember when he was born?" Age is reckoned by
the number of mepato they have seen pass through the formulae of admission.
When they see four or five mepato younger than themselves,
they are no longer obliged to bear arms. The oldest individual I ever met
boasted he had seen eleven sets of boys submit to the boguera.
Supposing him to have been fifteen when he saw his own, and fresh bands
were added every six or seven years, he must have been about forty
when he saw the fifth, and may have attained seventy-five or eighty years,
which is no great age; but it seemed so to them, for he had now doubled
the age for superannuation among them.
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