IIO AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
to perform the ritual functions that are necessary to the chief's
state.1
Other advisory officials consist of the near relatives of the chief himself. These do not attend discussions as to succession to chieftainships, but are constantly informed of the progress of affairs. The paramount^ mother and the Makassa (the eldest 'son of the chief) play an important part in this way. In the past senior members of the royal family seem to have intervened occasionally when some chief was behaving too outrageously, as, for instance, in the case of a sub-chief, Fyanifyani, apparently attacked by a sort of blood-lust. This man was removed from his office, according to history.
In brief, the Bemba system of government is not a democratic one in our sense of the word. The elder commoner has fewer rights to speak on tribal matters than have the Zulu, Swazi, or even some of the Sotho peoples. The affairs of the icalo are in the hands of a body of hereditary councillors whose offices and most of whose deliberations are secret. But I was impressed by the sense of tribal welfare which these bakabilo showed, and they were quite able to discuss and shrewdly adapt some old tribal precedent to modern conditions. Their strength, as regards tribal government at the present day, is their esprit de corps and sense of responsibility; their weakness, the fact that in the eyes of the people and the Government their function is mainly a ritual one.
VI. The Integration of the Tribe
The integration of the tribe depends chiefly on the sentiment of tribal cohesion and loyalty to the paramount, and the means by which the activities of the different districts are brought under one control in this widely dispersed group. The dogmas of kinship have been shown again and again to be the basis of tribal feeling and of the allegiance given to the territorial and paramount chiefs. In other Bantu tribes there is some tribe-wide organization such as the Nguni regiment system, that seems to act as an integrating force. There are also forms of public ceremonial at which all the adult men of the tribe are gathered, or all the warrior classes. The first-fruit ceremonies of the Swazi or of the Zulu in
1 During 1934 1 found the paramount living in grass huts. He was unable to build his new village because the bakabilo, indignant at his behaviour, refused to perform the foundation ceremony for the new community.