From Anarchy to Satrapy

Abstract

IT IS a commonplace in the study of changing political systems that the imposition of alien rule restricts the power of traditional authorities. Yet I am going to claim what may seem to be the opposite--that alien rule gives new powers to the native authorities it establishes-and present a case to demonstrate the point as well as draw attention to a growing body of data substantiating my assertion. Our expectation that native rulers will be shorn of power by colonial administrations has a respectable history in the statements of anthropologists studying political change in centralized African states, and in colonial administrative theory. Lugard (1923: 205) recognized the limitations to independence required by Indirect Rule. Administrators of colonial territories quickly sought to eliminate those chiefly prerogatives such as levying tribute, legislation, and the raising of armies which were inimical to the controlling power. The colonial government reserved the right to approve successors to the chieftainship and depose a chief for misrule. These changes were described by Richards and Tschekedi Khama in the 1930's.