THE NGWATO OF BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE 63
//. The Administrative System
The administrative system just described, and the social organization upon which it is directly based, separate the members of the tribe into groups distinguished one from another by local powers and loyalties. In certain respects each section, district, community, village, ward, and family-group is independent of the rest, managing its own affairs under the direction of a recognized head whose authority extends over almost every sphere of public life. The many communities of which the tribe is composed frequently also differ from one another in language, custom, and tradition, and so have not even a common cultural background. We must now consider how all these groups are welded together and given a solidarity and cohesion enabling the tribe as a whole to present a united front to the outside world in defence or aggression, maintain law and order and adjust disputes between the members of one group and another, and carry on large collective undertakings.
One of the mechanisms through which this is achieved is the administrative hierarchy into which the various forms of local authority are graded. In Serowe, as we have indicated, the elder of a family-group is directly subordinate to his ward-head. The ward-head, in turn, is subordinate, either directly or through the headman of the ward from which his own is derived, to the headman of the nuclear ward in the same section.1 The sectional headman, finally, is subordinate to the chief. In the outlying districts, the ward-head is, either directly or through his village headman, subordinate to the hereditary chieftain of his tribal community. The latter, again, is subordinate to the district governor, who is finally subordinate to the chief. In each case the superior authority has powers overriding those of the lesser authorities in his own group. The latter must obey his commands and carry out his instructions, must refer to him all cases which they are unable to settle or with which they are not competent to deal, and there is an appeal to him from all their judicial and executive decisions.
The judicial system is fundamentally the same for all courts. The victim of a civil wrong, such as breach of contract, seduction,
1 In the foreign communities living in Serowe, the local chieftain of each is intermediate between the ward-head and the sectional headman.