THE KINGDOM OF ANKOLE IN UGANDA 135
their unity in terms of clientship, this unity arising as a spontaneous response to well-defined external conditions. Clientship, as has been shown, can be described by its functions. Clientship as a system of co-operation carried out such collective enterprises as raiding, conquest, and domination, and served as a system of mutual insurance against the risks inherent in a raiding community. Exchanges of cattle among the Bahima were free exchanges depending upon the mutual interests of the parties concerned. The Bairu-Bahima relationship, or Bairu serfdom, on the contrary, was not a system of co-operation of this kind. The Bahima and the Bairu did not co-operate in collective activities, economic or political, nor can tribute payment be termed 'free exchange'. We might contest that the Bairu received protection for the services which they rendered to their masters, the Bahima. Yet if we carefully analyse this protection, it appears to be no different from that which the Bahima provided for their cattle, land, chattels, and slaves. And, moreover, the Bairu had to be protected from the Bahima of neighbouring kingdoms and not from other Bairu.
On the other hand, the distinction should not be pressed too hard, for serfdom is not slavery. The Bairu had well-defined rights which the slaves did not possess. Furthermore, Banyankole society was not static. The sharp differences between the Bahima and the Bairu which have been stressed in the preceding analysis were subjected to a steady pressure of social forces making for their obliteration. In spite of the prohibition of intermarriage, miscegenation took place. A class of half-castes arose known as Abambari, whose status, although not clearly defined, was not always that of the Bairu. An omwambari whose father was a chief often came into the possession of cattle and was recognized as a man of importance, if of uncertain status. In our description of the kinship organization, we had occasion to refer to a number of Bahima sub-clans of pure descent. It is also said that the present Mugabe's father established a Bairu band of warriors in order to counteract the determined effort of the Banyanruanda to conquer Ankole. From reports given to me by the natives of Toro and from Roscoe's account of the Bakitara, it appears that the Bairu-Bahima amalgamation had proceeded much farther in these kingdoms than in Ankole. In spite of these forces making for uniformity, the traditional political structure of the Banyankole