264 AFRICAN POLITICAL SYSTEMS
the kinship of all tmdaanas evinced in their common cult of the Earth, and the complementary functions of these offices. It means the dominance, for a period, of the forces of integration ever-present in the social structure—in kinship, clanship, neighbourhood ties, chiefship and tendaanaship—but generally submerged by the sectional interests, springing from these same institutions, that divide Tale society into a multitude of independent corporate units. The festivals are annual events reputed to be of immemorial antiquity. This is proof of the relative stability of Tale society over a long period of time and of the well-adjusted balance maintained, in the long run, between the forces of integration and those of differentiation.
The mainspring of this synthesis is Tale ritual ideology. Principally, it is the notion of the common good as referring to human welfare and prosperity in their most vital and universal aspects, superseding all sectional interests rooted in the social structure. The mystical determinism postulated for it raises the common good above all mundane issues and subjects the obligation to collaborate for it to unchallengeable and eternal sanctions which it would be inconceivable to flout. It stands for the widest body of established custom, the *rule of law' as the Tallensi understand it, which regulates their social life.
XL The Secular Authority of Chiefs and Tmdaanas
The secular powers and authority of chiefs and tzndaanas have been radically altered by the advent of British administration. Chiefs are now the agents of the Administration, exercising judicial and executive authority in its name and with its backing. Tzndaanas have no political status under this dispensation. Clans which have no chiefs are governed by headmen calling themselves 'chiefs' and exercising the modern powers of chiefs. They form part of the administrative machinery which has grown up to meet modern requirements—the provision of labour and materials for public works, such as roadmaking, formerly nonexistent, and especially the maintenance of peace and the enforcement of law.
The significant characteristic of the new order lies in the Administration's monopoly of the sanction of overwhelming force. Chiefs and headmen nowadays exact taxes, tribute, and labour from their people which have made them fabulously wealthy