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The Village Headman in British Central Africa1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

Max Gluckman
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Extract

The Rhodes-Livingstone Institute is attempting a comparative study of the tribes of British Central Africa and of the processes of change affecting their lives to-day. Social anthropologists have been sent to tribes selected both for the variety of forms in their indigenous social organization and for the different ways in which they have been absorbed in the modern world-system. Though we, of the Institute's staff, are spread over thousands of square miles, and have had very different trainings, we have tried to collect our data on comparable bases and to study similar problems. This short symposium, which opens what we have come to consider a crucial problem, is the first-fruits of our collaboration.

Résumé

LE CHEF DE VILLAGE EN AFRIQUE CENTRALE BRITANNIQUE

Cet article est le résultat de recherches organisées par l'Institut Rhodes-Livingstone au cours desquelles la structure sociale de diverses tribus de l'Afrique Centrale a été étudiée et comparée. L'introduction décrit l'organisation du village parmi plusieurs tribus, et la position du chef vis-à-vis du village et vis-à-vis de l'administration. L'auteur signale que le chef dirige le village, tout en le représentant auprès de l'administration, et qu'il est en train de devenir, en même temps, l'agent de l'administration vis-à-vis du village. Les obligations que lui imposent les liens de parenté se heurtent parfois à ses devoirs de chef. La seconde partie de l'article décrit la structure des villages parmi les Yao du Nyassaland, et les facteurs qui tendent à unir ou à diviser la communauté. La troisième partie décrit la cérémonie accompagnant l'installation d'un aide-chef dans un village des Ngones de Fort Jameson dans la Rhodésie du Nord. Les trois auteurs soulignent l'importance du chef dans la structure de la vie du village et dans l'administration, et insistent sur la nécessité de pousser plus loin l'étude de ce problème.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 1949 , pp. 89 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1949

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References

page 89 note 2 The most important published anthropological studies of the region by students who were not officers of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute are: Smith, E. W. and Dale, A., The Ila-speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia, London, 1920Google Scholar; Doke, C. M., The Lambas of Northern Rhodesia, London, 1931Google Scholar; Melknd, F., In Witehbotmd Africa, London, 1923Google Scholar; Richards, A. I., Land, Labour and Diet in Northern Rhodesia, London, 1939Google Scholar, and Bemba Marriage and Modern Economic Conditions, Livingstone, 1940Google Scholar, as well as many papers; and G. and Wilson, M., The Analysis of Social Change: Based on Observations in Central Africa, Cambridge, 1945Google Scholar, Land Rights of Individuals among the Nyakyusa, Livingstone, 1939Google Scholar, and The Constitution of Ngonde, Livingstone, 1940Google Scholar, as well as several papers; Brelsford, V., Fishermen of the Bangweoulu Swamps, Livingstone, 1946.Google Scholar Institute officers have studied and have published on: Broken Hill township (the late Godfrey Wilson, first Director); Barotseland, Tonga of Mazabuka and Lamba (Max Gluckman, formerly Assistant Anthropologist, then Director, now Lecturer in Oxford University); Ngoni of Fort Jameson and Lamba (J. A. Barnes); Tonga of Mazabuka (Elizabeth Colson, now Director); Yao and Lamba (J. C. Mitchell); Hera tribe among the Shona of Southern Rhodesia (J. F. Holleman). I. Cunnison is beginning a study of the Lunda of the Luapula Valley. The present symposium was worked out in close collaboration with our colleagues, Dr. Colson and Mr. Cunnison. We are grateful to the Institute of Social Anthropology, Oxford University, for its stimulating criticism of our field reports.

page 90 note 1 Colson, Elizabeth, ‘Rain-shrines among the Plateau Tonga of Northern Rhodesia’, Africa, xviii, No. 4 (1948).Google Scholar

page 91 note 1 See my Economy of the Central Barotse Plain, Livingstone, 1941Google Scholar, and Essays on Lozi Land and Royal Property, Livingstone, 1943Google Scholar.

page 92 note 1 Allan, W., Gluckman, M., Trapnell, C. G., and Peters, D. U., Land-holding among the Plateau Tonga of Mazabuka District, Cape Town, 1948.Google Scholar

page 92 note 2 Wilson, G., ‘An Introduction to Nyakyusa Society’ in Bantir Studies, vol. x, No. 3 (1936), at p. 276.Google Scholar

page 100 note 1 Cf. Richards, A. I., ‘The Political System of the Bemba Tribe, North-Eastern Rhodesia’ in African Political Systems (ed. Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E.), London, 1940, at pp. 103–4.Google Scholar

page 101 note 1 All proper names in this paper are fictitious.