so AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
series of steps was taken against the Ratshosas which led to their attempt, in April, to kill Tshekedi. For this they were imprisoned by the Administration and banished from the Reserve, but they have continued through their local partisans to be a disturbing factor in tribal life. Meanwhile, Tshekedi had trouble with his half-sisters, whom he also had to banish. This was followed by a conspiracy to claim the chieftainship for an illegitimate son of Sekgoma II, by a petition against Tshekedi's rule organized by several of the royal headmen, and finally by his open breach with the Rraditladi family, who are alleged to have been implicated in most of the preceding intrigues. All these disputes split the tribe into factions whose continuous agitations against one another obviously made the Chief's position very difficult. It is evident enough that the success of a chief's reign is determined in no small measure by his personal relations with his near kinsmen.
Formerly the chiefs power was to some extent limited also by tribal law. If he committed an offence against one of his subjects, the victim could get some prominent man to intervene; the chief was then expected to make amends for the wrong he had done. But so great was the reverence attached to him by virtue of his birth and ritual position that the people would put up with much from him that would never be tolerated in one of lesser rank; and often enough, in practice, the victim had no real remedy except to leave the tribe and transfer his allegiance to some other chief. It was only under extreme provocation that drastic action would be taken. If the chief flagrantly misruled the tribe, or in other ways incurred the hostility of the people, the leading headmen would withdraw their support and publicly attack him at tribal gatherings; or there might be a split leading to wholesale migration. Given sufficient provocation, the people might even begin to plot against him, in the hope that he would be overthrown and one of his more popular relatives take his place; or, as a last resort, an attempt would be made to assassinate him. Instances of all these forms of revolt have occurred often enough in the past history of the tribe, and they did not always meet with failure.
The imposition of European rule deprived the people of the principal remedies they formerly possessed against oppression and abuse. The Administration has intervened more and more in local disputes, and tried to adjust peaceably troubles which would formerly have culminated in bloodshed. But since the official