92 AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
the Zulu, Swazi and other tribes with the regiment system. The icalo is also a ritual unit. At each capital are the sacred relics (babenye) of the first holders of the chiefly title and their ancestral spirits are thought to act as tutelary deities of the district, and are worshipped at the umttsumba, at village shrines, and old hut sites throughout the country, and are also commonly supposed to act as guardian spirits to children born within the icalo. * Naturally the ritual and political organization of the paramount's capital is more elaborate than that of his inferiors, but even the smallest sub-chief maintains his miniature court and tries to ape the state of those above him, while the bigger territorial chiefs sometimes rivalled the power of the Citimukulu in the old days.
The territorial chieftainships are arranged in order of precedence, according to their nearness to the centre of the country— Lubemba—and the antiquity of their office. To the most important of these chiefdoms—the Mwambaship, the Nkulaship, the Nkolemfumuship, and the Mpepoship, for instances—the Citimukulu appoints his nearest relatives, the one succeeding the other in order of seniority. Thus the present Citimukulu, Kanyanta, has acted in turn as the Nkolemfumu, and the Mwamba before succeeding to the paramountcy (cf. chart on p. 102). On the other hand, the sub-chieftainships have tended to become concentrated in local branches of the royal family, and the paramount's strong grip over the country and his intimate knowledge of affairs at the courts of his fellow chiefs is certainly weaker in these outlying districts than in the case of chiefdoms ruled by his close relatives.
To the commoner, membership of an icalo means his allegiance to the chief of that territory. He will describe himself as an inhabitant of a district, such as Idnga, i.e. mwine Iringa or, alternatively, as the subject of its chief, Nkula, i.e. mwine Nkula, and both terms are synonymous. He may move from village to village within the icalo, but he remains his chief's man. The latter, in his turn, reckons his assets, not in terms of the size of his territory or its natural resources, but rather by the number of his people and in particular the villages he has under his rule.
(3) Rank. Rank is a marked feature of Bemba society. It is based on kinship, real or fictitious, with the chief. All members of the royal crocodile clan (Bena yandu) are entitled to special respect, precedence on ritual and social occasions, and sometimes
1 Hence the great preponderance of one or two birth-names in.each district.