THE TALLENSI 265
compared with their predecessors. They stress jealously their territorial and political independence, instead of, as in the native system, the common basis of their rights and responsibilities. As agents of the Administration, they place their private interests first. To perform the duties and exact the rewards of their present administrative status, they r;ely on the assistance of their close agnates and of a new class of subordinate officers appointed by themselves; for the new sanctions deriving from the backing of Government could not operate through the hierarchy of lineage elders, who have no power to coerce fellow members.
The people accept the new powers and exactions of chiefs and headmen with a mixture of resentment and resignation. This does not affect their valuation of their traditional political institutions. For the new system and the native political organization are still largely discrete, though focussed partly in the same personages. The sanctions inherent in the native social structure are not effective in the framework of the new administrative organization. Chiefs and headmen are not restrained from what would be illicit extortions according to native values by the sanctions to which they submit unconditionally as members of the native social structure. Friction is inevitable when chiefs or headmen attempt to assert their administrative rights in situations defined according to the native political ideas by others; and factions coveting the wealth and power of office under the Administration are arising with claims to recognition based on their status in the native system.
At the same time, tendencies conducing to the fusion of the two systems are operating. Chiefs' and headmen's tribunals are especially important in this connexion. Though not recognized as part of the official judicial machinery,1 they were encouraged by Administrative officers. They are rapidly becoming an integral part of the native political structure, though their authority is derived from the power of the Administration to enforce the peace
1 The only officially recognized Native Tribunal in Taleland was, in *934> . that of the Chief of Kurugu (Kuna'aba). Its jurisdiction was limited to civil wrongs, with the exception of actions relating to land, inheritance, or damages or debts of over £5. Crimes fall under the jurisdiction of British courts, the District Commissioner sitting as magistrate. Actually, most cases dealt with by the Chief of Kurugu's court came on appeal from the unofficial chiefs' and headmen's tribunals, and appeal was allowed from this court to that of the Chief :>f Mamprusi, to which all land cases also went in the first instance.