onkings Page 28
north. (Cohen 1976: 200)
164
ON KINGS
From the sixteenth century, the Sultans of the Bura realm became subordinates
of the Bornu rulers, tributary to them materially as well as culturally. Like the
Bornu potentates, these Pabir were not only Muslim—by contrast to Bura peas-
ants, who later were largely Christianized—but they also adopted Kanuri titles
from Bornu, as well as dress styles, house styles, and Kanuri speech, among
many other items. They even adopted Kanuri cross-cousin terms and marriage,
in order to marry endogamously, unlike the exogamous Bura clans. The Bura,
however, remained “owners” and priestly masters of the country, where their
original ancestors had made covenants with the local spirits.6
In their actual-historical situation, galactic polities in various states of de-
velopment or decline exhibit a variety of regional patterns: from centralized
“empires” like the old Bunyoro-Kitara realm, or the Bornu and Lunda “empires,”
through multiple kingdom orders like Azande, to a series of greater and lesser
domains acknowledging the spiritual authority of a quondam galactic center
that has become politically decentralized like the Borgu kingdoms—and ap-
parently Kongo before the Ntinu Wene regime (see below). Historians tell that
at the beginning of the seventeenth century, Bunyoro, centered in a territory
ranging south from Lake Albert, was ringed by a variety of smaller tributary
kingdoms and chiefdoms, beyond which “other small stayed usually independ-
ent of Nyoro armies: Buganda on the east . . . and Rwanda on the south . . . are
examples” (Alpers and Ehret 1975: 472). Moreover, Buganda, which was des-
tined to largely displace Bunyoro as the core state of its own “empire,” illustrates
how great stranger-kingdoms may be developed from the galactic margins by
smaller states—again, like the takeover of Kongo from Vungu across the Con-
go—as well as extended from the center by powerful armies or the migrations
of turbulent princes.7
Another development on the northern borders of Bunyoro, leading to the
creation of the Acholi chiefdoms under Luo domination, is an instructive ex-
ample at once of stranger-king formation in the context of galactic-political
6. See chapters 4 and 6 for a fuller discussion of galactic polities.
7. The takeover of Bantu polities by marginal Luo immigrants, followed by the cultural
assimilation of the latter by the former, was a common process in the Interlacustrine
area. Alpers and Ehret (1975: 455) write: “over most of northern Busoga, the
assimilation of Luo elements by the Bantu speakers preceded in accordance with
the Interlacustrine pattern of immediately preceding centuries—immigrants
acculturating to local language and customs but being able to move into positions
of chiefly authority.”
THE ATEMPORAL DIMENSIONS OF HISTORY
165
conditions and of the advantages accruing therefrom to the indigenous popula-
tion—especially to its leaders (ibid.: 478; Atkinson 1989; Girling 1960). The
process began in the late seventeenth century and in the usual fashion when two
Paluo groups which had supported the losing side in a Nyoro succession strug-
gle were forced to emigrate. Moving northward, they were able to set them-
selves up as rulers—complete with the paraphernalia and concepts of Nyoro
kingship—over several clans in what became the nucleus of Acholiland. Their
success stimulated other Luo parties to follow suit, until the former complex
of independent indigenous communities, usually composed of one clan, “had
become centrally-organized chiefdoms controlling an average of eight to ten
clans” (Alpers and Ehret 1975: 478). The centralization was often literal: the
village of the paramount, the Rwot, was encircled by a protective screen of sub-
ordinate native communities. In the usual dual pattern of stranger-kingship, the
Rwot had an indigenous counterpart in the figure of the “father of the soil,” the
elder of the first lineage encountered by the Luo founding chief. F. K. Girling
notes that the “soil” ( won ngom) in question referred to its aspect as the source
of food, for again the indigenous leader was ritually in charge of the productivity
of the land as well the fertility of the people: “The ‘father of the soil’ symbolized
in his person the mysterious forces of jok [spirits] which are responsible for the
fertility of the land and of human beings, and which also controlled hunting in
the area” (1960: 122). But if the indigenous authority instantiated the bearing
powers of the local earth and its inhabitants, the Rwot remained connected to
his foreign origins, and not only through the assumption of Nyoro trappings of
rule. “Frequently, disputes about the succession in Acholi domains were taken to
the kings of Bunyoro-Kitara for settlement” (ibid.: 8). Although they had long
since left Bunyoro, the Acholi paramounts still considered themselves under the
sway of Nyoro kings.
Meanwhile the native lineage heads of the Acholi chiefdoms were able en-
hance to their own powers and privileges under the sway of the Luo rulers.
Ronald Atkinson (1989: 24ff.) penned a detailed and persuasive argument to
the effect that the establishment of the Luo stranger-chiefdoms offered ad-
vantages to the local people not achievable under the previous lineage regime.
(One is reminded of Lucy Mair’s observation of the African principle that it is
uncivilized to be without a king.) Socially and politically, the native headmen
not only continued to manage their own lineage affairs, “they also functioned
as the main advisors and councilors to the Rwot and as major spokesmen for
and representatives of their lineages within the polity as a whole.” Economically,
166
ON KINGS
they collected tributes for the Rwot, and perhaps retained a small portion. Reli-
giously, they were “collectively the main ritual figures within the chiefdom” and,
evidently referring to the father of the soil, “at least one lineage head—usually
from the group acknowledged as the oldest in the area—became the primary
ritual figure for the chiefdom as a whole.” In the pages that follow it will be seen
that these Acholi developments are hardly unique: at least some native authori-
ties enhance their standing and powers under the aegis of stranger-kings. Given
these benefits, it is not surprising that an important impetus for the formation
of the stranger-kingdom may well come from the internal politics of the indig-
enous communities.
Engaged in their own rivalries, indigenous leaders and would-be leaders
have been known to look upon the advent of a powerful stranger as a politi-
cal resource, most useful for the prosecution of their own parochial ambitions.
Competing for the leadership of the native community or region, one or anoth-
er of the rivals will go outside the field and enlist a potent foreign ally—what-
ever the cost in submission and tribute his people would now pay to the latter.
Or it may be the conflicts between local communities as such that lead one to
enlist outside support—upon which the othe
rs will probably do the same. The
competition in either case is of the form Gregory Bateson (1935, 1958) called
“symmetrical schismogenesis,” here involving the tactic of trumping the opposi-
tion by engaging an external political power beyond any that could be mustered
within the arena of the contest.8 Lloyd Fallers (1965: 145) recounts how the
endemic struggles over succession in Soga states made them much more vul-
nerable to the penetration of powerful outsiders by invitation than by invasion:
“Rulers and princes were constantly on the lookout for powerful allies, and both
the Ganda and the Europeans were ready to supply such aid in exchange for
overall control.” In the same way the Soga had viewed the Buganda king, they
saw the Europeans “as a powerful patron with whom they might ally themselves
in the traditional manner.” Similarly, among the Acholi in relation to outside
Luo chiefs:
Commoner households sought the protection of the Rwot for a variety of rea-
sons and contracted affinal ties with him directly or with one of the branches
of his agnatic lineage. Through the enjoyment of the ruler’s favor, some of the
8. Symmetrical and complementary schismogenesis, à la Gregory Bateson, are
discussed in more detail in chapters 4 and 6.
THE ATEMPORAL DIMENSIONS OF HISTORY
167
household heads became the founders of separate commoner village lineages.
(Girling 1960: 84)
Soga, Alur, and others also il ustrate the cascading effect that the acquisition of
an outside chief by one community can have on the aspirations of others. Speak-
ing of Mbegha’s accession to power among Shambala, Feierman (1974: 85) notes
of the two densely populated regions of Vugha and Bumbuli: “Bumbuli could
not accept the leadership of Vugha; Vugha would not be ruled by Bumbuli. But
both made al iances with a powerful outsider.” It is not only by the dispersion
of turbulent princes or by conquest that galactic regimes are formed; they are
also built up by certain impulses of “upward nobility” arising in the peripheries.
Indeed, beyond the native leaders, there may be substantial benefits of stran-
ger-kingship for the underlying population in general. The advantages would in-
clude: greater political security; judicial means of resolving disputes and curbing
feuds; a wider range of exchanges, notably by the establishment of markets where
peace is enforced by regional authorities; a wider social range of intermarriage;
and dividends from the ruler’s distributions of wealth. Not to forget the latter’s
magical powers of prosperity: “To believe in the chief,” writes Richards of Bemba
(1961: 355), “is to cultivate in the hope and assurance that the land is sure to yield
its utmost.” The benefits of Alur chieftainship for the underlying population are
summed up in his provision of “rain,” the one blessing standing for “his general
and ultimate responsibility in the minds of his subjects for both their mate-
rial and moral well-being” (Southall [1956] 2004: 239). Indeed, like the Lovedu
queen and the Shilluk king, the Alur paramount can be counted among African
rulers who rain but do not govern. Just as the landed native people as wife-givers
are to the immigrant stranger-princes as feminine is to masculine, so their capac-
ity to make the earth bear fruit is protected and realized through the encompass-
ing powers of the stranger-king over the natural conditions of human prosperity.
Providing prosperity is an aspect of the stranger-king’s civilizing benefits, as
usually acknowledged by all parties. His advent is frequently said to have raised
the native people from a rudimentary state by bringing them cattle, crops, iron
(tools and weapons)—even fire and cooking, hence a move from nature to cul-
ture. The Nyakyusa tell the story of the civilizing mission of the kingship—as
well as the powers retained by the native villagers:
All are agreed that chiefs and commoners belong to different stocks; the com-
moners being descended from the original occupants of the country while the
168
ON KINGS
chiefs trace their descent to a line of invaders from the Livingstone Mountains
eight generations ago . . . . Moreover, while the most sacred persons in the coun-
try were “divine kings,” descendants of the original heroes, chosen each genera-
tion to become their living representatives, to take their name, and to sacrifice at
their graves, it was the commoners who chose them and . . . put them to death
when it was expedient for the good of the people . . . . The invaders were sup-
posed to have brought into the country fire, cattle, crops, and iron; they were
creators, the guarantors and preservers of fertility; and it was to foster and in-
crease fertility that men sacrificed and worshipped at the graves of the mythical
heroes. The aborigines, on the other hand, without fire, without iron, and feeding
on raw meat as the myth depicts them, possessed one weapon of terrible potency,
witchcraft, which no chief, not even a priest of the chief ’s lineage, could with-
stand or would dare to challenge. (M. Wilson 1959a: 1–3)
Once more: an enduring complementarity coupled to a residual hostility.
To return to the stranger-king effects of the competition between groups
in galactic fields, the same kind of schismogenesis when it involves competi-
tion between the most powerful states can generate a politics of the marvelous,
leading great kingdoms to conjure ancestors of universal renown from exalted
realms of ancient memory.9 In the upshot, world-historical figures appear as the
founder of dynasties with whom they had no connection and progenitors of
rulers to whom they had no relation: Alexander the Great, for example, who in
his Islamic incarnation as Iskandar D’zul Karnain became the apical ancestor
of fifteenth-century sultans in Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. The historic
dynasty of Benin was founded by the son of the Yoruba ruler of fabled Ile Ife,
Oduduwa, who had been solicited from his father by the representatives of the
autochthonous Edo people. The latter, the Uzama elders, were reportedly dissat-
isfied with the unkingly behavior of their existing ruler (Bradbury 1957, 1967,
1973). Following a pattern we have already noted more than once, the Yoruba
prince Oduduwa thereupon married a local woman, and their son, combining
the Edo and Yoruba identities and powers, became the first king of the new or-
der. By a popular Yoruba narrative, however, the dynasty would have even more
fabulous antecedents: “The Yorubas are said to have sprung from Lamurudu,
one of the kings of Mecca whose offspring were: Oduduwa, the ancestor of the
9. See the extended discussion of this phenomenon in chapter 6 and the related
discussion of utopian politics in chapter 2.
THE ATEMPORAL DIMENSIONS OF HISTORY
169
Yorubas, and the founding kings of Gogohiri and the Kukuwa, two tribes in
Hausa country” (Johnson [1921] 2006: 3). In the context of the dynamic West
African Muslim states, a number of such dynasties competitively traced their
origins to legendary Middle East ancestors: whether to purported enemies of
t
he Prophet, such as the aforementioned Kisra of the Borgu kingdoms, or to
prominent Muslims such as Bayajidda of Baghdad, whose sons by a local prin-
cess founded the Hausa sultanates. Thus, a real-politics of the marvelous.
As the tradition goes, the power of the historic Kongo dynasty was abet-
ted by a similar conflict among the notables of the interior kingdom of Mba-
ta, which issued in the inclusion of that rich realm and its satellites in Ntinu
Wene’s regime. Mbata appears in Duarte Lopes’ late-sixteenth-century account
as a great and powerful kingdom that submitted voluntarily and without battle
to the oncoming Ntinu Wene owing to certain dissensions among its ruling
chiefs (Pigafetta [1591] 1988: 61). In the outcome, the victor was one Nsaku
Lau, the maternal uncle of the Kongo founding hero Ntinu Wene; he thus
became the ruler of Mbata, the Mani Mbata, within Ntinu Wene’s kingdom.
Following the usual pattern of the union of the stranger-prince with a daughter
or sister of the native leader, Ntinu Wene married a daughter of Nsaku Lau.
Thenceforth it was enjoined on Ntinu Wene’s royal successors to take a daugh-
ter of the Mbata rulers to wife, in principle as mother of the royal heir: her title
ne mbanda, referring apparently to “authority” or “tributary rights,” signified the
conveyance of sovereignty entailed in the union. In the event, the Mani Mbata
and his successors became the maternal “grandfather” of the kingship, a superior
kinship status consistent with his bestowal of legitimacy on the alien rulers as
well his continuing presence in the new order, including an important role as
kingmaker. The old regime was folded into the new.
NATURALIZING THE STRANGER-KING
The marriage of the foreign prince with a daughter of the native leader is the
final, contractual aspect of the critical process in which the stranger comes out
of the wild to be domesticated by the native people, and thus become eligible
to assume the rule of them. It is in this reining in of the king-to-be that op-
positional tensions between native subjects and foreign rulers are particularly
expressed. Ritual reenactments of the accession of the stranger-king have put
social anthropologists in mind of “rituals of rebellion.” But then, as Michel Izard
170