THE KINGDOM OF THE ZULU 39
lineage groups and homesteads. All the people were entitled to express their opinion on affairs and they did this through the heads of their kinship groups and then their immediate political officers. In addition, the chiefs and indunas had administrative duties within their own districts, including the allocation of land, the maintenance of order, trying of cases, watching over their districts' welfare, taking ritual steps to protect the crops, looking for sorcerers. Chiefs, like the king, received gifts of corn and cattle, but they levied no regular tribute. They could call out their subjects to work their fields, build their homesteads, arrest malefactors, or hunt. In turn, they were expected to reward these workers with food and to help their people who were in trouble. Like the king, too, they were bound to consult and listen to a council composed of their important men.
Thus authority from the king was exercised through the chiefs, his representatives in various districts. They ruled through their brothers and indunas of smaller districts, under whom were the lineage- and homestead-heads. Zulu political organization may therefore be seen as delegated authority over smaller and smaller groups with lessening executive power. From inferior officers there was an appeal to higher ones; in theory the king's will was almost absolute. At the bottom were the heads of kinship groups who could issue orders and arbitrate in disputes within their groups, but who could not enforce their decisions, except over women and minors. On the other hand, as the groups became smaller the ties of community and kinship grew stronger, and as force lessened as a sanction other social sanctions increased in importance. The dependence of men on their senior rektives in religious and economic matters, as well as in trouble, was strong; even at the barracks they shared huts with their kinsmen and relied on them for food and support in quarrels. In kinship groupings the main integrating activities and social sanctions were based on reciprocity and communal living. Some kinship rules were backed by judicial sanctions, but when these obligations were enforced at law, force was used on the chief's judgement, not on the obligation itself.
I have described the tribes and smaller groups as part of a pyramidal organization with the king at the top in order to bring out the administrative framework which ran through the social groupings, but the position of the head of each group in the series