Tribal Rule and Modern Politics in Northern Rhodesia

Abstract

endeavour dug the past 30 years to build up an efficient system of African local government. It has clearly been based, with very few exceptions, on indigenous political systems; we have been endeavouring to adapt the old to the new and not to substitute the new for the old. This important point is brought home very forcibly when a window on other territones is opened on occasions like conferences on local government. There one leams that in many parts of Africa either the traditional Chiefs have some time ago taken a back seat or in many cases traditional institlltions such as we have known in Northem Rhodesia have hardly existed at all. I rnake no bones about the stress that we lay on chieftainship, because in the great majority of cases in African political systems it is the Chief who is the keystone of the local government arch. I have spent rising 29 years in this territory and I have been privileged to serve in all its provinces. I have met and known men who have looked every inch Paramount Chiefs or Senior Chiefs of their tribes. Aere have been many others who have impressed those who know them with their ability, personality, integrity, and in some cases solid determination to rule their countries wisely and well in what have been difficult times. I would be the first to admit that there are at the same time a number of Chiefs whose performance administratively is indifferent and that there are others whose administration of their areas is lacking in efficiency, or who are so conservative in their outlook that genuine progress is not easily understood by them. But the point is that in all cases the Chiefs are respected because they are the traditional leaders of the tribe. The Chief is the most important man in his country. His power and influence is derived from the fact that he is as it were the anointed head of his people. He is the man whose election to the chieftainship had the full support of his subjects and who has later been recognised by the Government as Chief of the area. He has administrative and judicial functions, but at least of equal importance is the spiritual relationship whereby the Chief is seen through the eyes of his people to be the intermediary between them and their ancestors. Izhe Chief, in most cases in this territory, is the man who has gone through the customar,r initiation ceremony, which is the overture to the assumption of the Chieftainship. It is he who is the guardian of the relics, the arcana