34 AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
plea that their indunas had decided against it. The king's power and the councillors' insistence on their rights and jealousy of one another might all affect the course of discussion and the decision on any matter or case.
From his subjects' point of view, one may say that the main duty they owed the king was military service, including labour seivke. The king was also entitled to certain royal game, though he had to reward the hunters. In addition, it was customary to give him gifts of grain, beer, cattle and, some say, girls. As he also received most of the cattle and women captured in war and fines for certain offences, he was easily the richest man in the nation.1 In return for this, he was expected to feed and help his people generously. He had to care for his regiments and give them their shields; in famine he was expected to help all his people and also at all times those in difficulties. Thus if the king ruled according to tradition, he was generous to his subjects, using his wealth for them; he gave them justice; he protected their interests; and through him they hoped to satisfy their ambitions on battlefield and in forum.
III. Status and Political Power
All the members of Shaka's family enjoyed a higher status as a result of his victories. Neither he nor Dingane had any children and it was the descendants of Mpande who came to form the royal family, though certain important collateral lines were regarded as princes. Any child of these lines, and the children of their daughters and adopted women, were referred to as abant-wana ( = children, but is equivalent to princes and princesses). They formed the superior rank in Zulu society, in status above even the chiefs; some of them also ruled as chiefs of tribes. Princes of the Zulu lines, and chiefs of other clan lines who were princes by royal women, were among the most powerful chiefs in the land. But the closer a royal prince was (and is) by birth to the reigning king the higher his social status, though he might exert less influence in the nation than other princes or even commoners. To a lesser extent the same rules applied to the reigning families within the tribes; the close relatives of a chief were the aristocracy in his tribe.
1 Shaka made all trade with Europeans pass through his hands; and later only important people were allowed to buy certain goods from traders.