24Z AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
Whatever the reason, it was a sin to instigate war. War occurred when members of one clan committed a grave injury (e.g. murder) against members of another from which theirs was divided by social barriers more powerful than any ties uniting them. It was not an instrument of policy, but an act of reprisal. Punishment, not conquest, was its purpose. Territorial annexation was incompatible with the social structure, nor could captives or booty be taken. It was a stern taboo to retain any of the food-stuffs or livestock pillaged in war. All had to be destroyed or immediately consumed. Yet war was clearly distinguished from armed self-help. To kill a man in war, though mystically dangerous, was not homicide, as it would have been if he were slain in a private quarrel.
War could occur only between contiguous communities or if the settlements intervening between the opponents were the attackers' allies. It implied the absence of clanship ties between the opponent clans, which could therefore intermarry. The highest frequency of marriage is with neighbouring communities; hence a man's kindred and affines would be amongst the enemy. Great vigilance was necessary, for it is both a sin and a serious breach of kinship ties to kill or injure such relatives. To take captives was impossible since they would generally be kinsfolk of the captor clan—people for whose welfare and on whose behalf elders of the captor clan must sacrifice to their ancestor spirits.
IV. The Network of Clanship and the Fundamental Cleavage of
Tale Society
Tale warfare illustrates the basic principles of the native political organization. Any analysis of it must begin with a more precise definition of the units I have called clans. They vary significantly in their actual constitution, but the ground-plan of all is the same.
A settlement is referred to as a tey, a word which means primarily the Earth in its material aspect. It denotes also the Earth in its mystical aspect (see below, p. 254). Ti ttyo may mean the whole country of which Taleland forms a part, or Taleland only, or the settlement, according to the context of discussion. T&y in the secular sense is not a territorial concept, but indicates always a localized social unit, a community, or part of a community.
The skeleton of every residential aggregate is a clan, a part of a