Lozi Royal Barge
The Lozi royal barge, the nalikwanda, is the great wooden vessel that carries the Litunga, the king of the Lozi people of western Zambia, at the Kuomboka ceremony. When the annual floods rise on the Zambezi, the king leaves the lowland palace and is paddled in procession to higher ground, the barge covered with an immense shroud of black-and-white cloth and surrounded by dozens of escort boats. The crossing is the climax of Kuomboka, a pageant that renews the bond between the king and the waters that shape Lozi life, and the barge's heavy, deliberate movement through the flood is timed to the