Archival Significance
Doke was a missionary-linguist and later Professor of Bantu Philology at the University of the Witwatersrand, author of the standard Lamba and Zulu grammars of his era. This study is one of the earliest systematic ethnographic accounts of the Lamba people, combining linguistic fieldwork with documentation of custom and belief.
Institutional Context
Produced out of Doke’s missionary period in Lambaland before his academic appointment, the work reflects the early twentieth century pattern of missionary-scholars producing the first written ethnographies of Central African peoples they had lived among.
Content Summary
Covers Lamba customs, social structure, and oral tradition, drawing on Doke’s fieldwork and fluency in the Lamba language, complementing his companion linguistic works, the Lamba grammar and Lamba Folk Lore.
Research Utility
A primary source for Lamba ethnography with few contemporaneous equivalents, useful alongside Doke’s linguistic publications for researchers working on Copperbelt-region ethnic history.
Abantu Archives Note
Held in-house. Despite the title’s reference to Southern Rhodesia, catalogued under Northern Rhodesia, since the Lamba homeland sits in what is now Zambia’s Copperbelt region; the title reflects a period naming inconsistency rather than the book’s actual subject matter.