THE BEMBA TRIBE OF NORTH-EASTERN RHODESIA 93
to claims on the people's services. The potential heirs of a chief within his own branch of the family—that is to say, his brothers, maternal nephews, or maternal grandsons—are treated with particular deference. The former two categories are described as chiefs and addressed by the title mfumu, while the latter, only slightly lower in status, are referred to by a special name beshikulu ba mfumu ('grandchildren of the chiefs') and have their own ritual and social prerogatives.
Women of the royal line, the mothers, sisters, maternal nieces, and granddaughters of the chiefs are called banamfumu and are treated with much the same deference as are the men of the family. The mother of the paramount is highly honoured, succeeds to a fixed title—the Candamukulu—takes part in tribal councils, and has several villages of her own. The sisters of chiefs are privileged persons, protected and supported by their royal brothers, and usually granted one or more villages to rule. They are above the law in matters of sex morality, and a princess is allowed to have as many lovers as she pleases, provided she produces many children as potential heirs to the throne.
Not only members of the royal clan, but also persons who merely belong to the ulupwa of the chief, can claim high rank, i.e. his relatives on his paternal side, and his own sons. Some fathers of chiefs were nobodies and were quickly forgotten, but some have been famous men, honoured by their sons when the latter succeeded to the throne. The children of chiefs, though not members of his clan, and therefore not heirs, are also entitled to special privileges, and the bana bamfumu ('children of the chief) form a class of their own. They are brought up at the court, where they are treated in many ways more favourably than the heirs themselves and are able to claim headmanships and even chieftainships.1 Even the half-brothers of chiefs, through other fathers (bakaulu), have rights to special treatment at court.
Added to this, already numerous class of royal personages are the descendants of close relatives of dead chiefs. Roughly speaking, any person who can claim to be maternal nephew, grandson, or son of a chief is succeeded by a man who continues to hold the same rank by the ukupyanika system described on p. 98. He is then addressed as 'chief or 'son of chief. The descendants of
1 A few chieftainships are definitely handed on to 'sons of chiefs* instead of to 'chiefs*, e.g. the Makassaship, the Lucembeship, or the Munkongeship.