Chefferie, idéologie et mode de production chez les Rukuba (Plateau State, Nigeria)

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article examines the relations between the office of chief and the various tributes and work prestations due to him among the Rukuba. It is shown that the basis of these prestations is ideological and that they derive from the position of the chief as a “divine king.” The chief is able to use the fruit of the villagers' labours only when his mystical work has been well done; when it is not the case and when the harvest is not plentiful, the villagers use the grain reaped on the chief's farm for themselves and the chief receives nothing and may even be deposed. The character of the chiefs power and of its concensual basis is analysed and it is argued that the degree of arbitrariness and of despotism exhibited by certain African rulers is a direct expression of the innate ambivalence of the “divine king.”