The Zyoba are an ethnic and linguistic group based near Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo who speak the Joba language.
Text from: Daniel P. Biebuyck / H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Anthropology and the Humanities, Emeritus
The original house (mushonge) of the Zoba was circular and made of straw or clay. During my research, they were mostly building the rectangular mud house (as prescribed by the administration). The wooden substructures of these houses were made by women, the roofs were covered by men and the walls filled with clay by women. Kitchens (kitekera) were often built separately from the house and parallel to it. Most houses had a kitala, a construction for storing cotton or drying wood.
Tools
Among the tools made by local blacksmiths the most important are: fumo, spear; fuka, hoe; makali, knife for cutting small branches and grasses; musholo, iron bar for digging manioc; mugushu, billhook; mbazo, adz; shenio, ax.
Most pots were traded from the Bembe; apart from the all-purpose vessel (nyungu) they included: kabindi. a big jar for water or beer; karabo also for water or beer. Calabashes for drinking water and beer; the water-pipe (kazoo).
There was a great variety of baskets; some were made by Fulero, others by Bembe, still others by Vira or Rundi, few by the Zoba themselves.
The manioc through and pounder come from the Bembe; the kifumbi stool also originated with the Bembe.
Staple foods included manioc, corn, and the small kafumba (ndagaa sardine-like fish from Lake Tanganyika). Banana beer was made by men. Major crops: manioc, corn, peanuts; banana trees ; beans, three kinds of peas. Some white millet and sugar cane. Cotton planting was obligatory for all adults since 1934. There were regular markets, e.g. in Kavimvira and Kamba, where Banyarwanda, Bembe, Bwari, Vira traded goods, cattle, goats, fish, milk, beans, millet, maize.
Fishing in the Lake with canoes (beat), torches (biomle) and large nets (kazango) by men, mostly nocturnal (the Lake was calmer at night). They also fished with traps and lines, mostly by boys and young men, in the Kibanga bay and Kilombwe swamps. Fishing spear (malobo) was known; nets (mutaho) and (kifungatumbo).
Dug-out canoes made by Bembe; note that the builders of canoes were called Bagoma; work was done in the forest by a mugoma and about six young men who received food for their work; the making lasted about 9 days. A large number of woods were appropriate to carve the canoes; the canoes are pulled down the mountains with ropes and lianas to the Lake. Three sizes of canoes: bwato bunini, small; bwato bwa nzanga, middle size, bwato buhamu, large.
The bimole bundles that hang burning over the canoes to attract the fish at night were bought from Rundi and Fulero; often exchanged for dried kalumba fishes. Paddles, kibando and bamboo pole (mukingi).
The Zoba made a large number of different nets, some of which took many months to finish.
Certain kinds of fish were not eaten, because they had certain physical features, or were said to be poisonous. There were numerous behavioral taboos linked with fishing (sexual abstinence, e.g. a man should not have intercourse when the moon was kituto, above the Lake or kabali, above the mountains; he would have to wait until it was malenga, above the heads. Bad luck in fishing was said to be due to anger of the spirits or ancestors, to sorcery, to curses against the canoes or the nets.
They had few beaded ornaments, but had numerous different types of hairstyles: limboto, zebwima and kitapa for girls; kahala, lumba and shule for boys.
Musical instruments
Following are some of their musical instruments: membranophone drums; munona and likimbi sanzas; zeze zither; kangungu and kashamba musical bows; kabunzekere, calabash rattle with grains; luhegere, dog bell; milonge, pieces of bamboo for percussion for the Nabingi cult.; kibuga, horn of cow; yunga, small metal bell.
Kirabo for hunting big game (buffalo,leopard, antelope, boar), kakongolo and mwesho for trapping birds, makila, hunting nets, buhya, pirtfall, kasholeko, big game.
Kyanga, men, a kind of mankala game board played by 2, 3, 4 men with 64 sholo grains. Children played ball (mupila) and trundled the hoop (goroli).
The sovereign of the Lake was called Mugazalugulu; he was the son of Kahungula and Nakulumbata; his wife, Kyataanda, had many children: Mlubire, Mufumbe, Mutundumulo, Mungeta, Kangula, Muhofu, Kwibe, Mutambala, Nguli, Wapemba. Offerings to them in fish etc were mostly made during the night.
His cult was particularly cared for by a female mufumu, ritual expert; but when the entire community was affected, it was the lineage head who became officiant on a shrine built near the Lake.
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