Abstract
Opening ParagraphThe contemporary development of African chieftainship is a question of considerable practical importance. The attitude which it will adopt towards the native chief in his relations with his own people is one of the major questions of policy which every colonial government has to decide. Some hold that a native society can only be satisfactorily ruled by—or through (the words are not quite synonymous)— its traditional head; others that the first duty of the civilizing power is to free its native subjects from the oppression and tyranny of their own rulers; others make it their aim to steer a middle course, and preserve the native authority in his traditional position while adapting his functions to the requirements of the present day. All have in fact considerably altered by their mere presence both the nature and the basis of the chief's authority.
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