THE TALLENSI 267
are essential to permit the man to join the community and prosper.1 If the common interests of the clan or of a close community like Tongo and its neighbours are infringed, e.g. if a member is murdered or a member's wife abducted, the action to be taken is decided and often carried out by a conclave of the elders presided over by the chief or tendaana, or by a committee of all the twdaanas and elders, in a composite unit. It was a grave sin for a chief or twdaana to instigate war, but if an individual or a segment went to war, help would only be given by the rest of the clan if the chief or tzndaana consented, since his blessing and intercession with the ancestors and the Earth were indispensable for victory.
In these ways, chiefs and tendaanas have always exercised considerable authority in the affairs of the clan; formerly, they had no judicial or administrative powers comparable to those of contemporary chiefs and headmen.
Associated with every chiefship—integrally part of it, according to native ideas—is a number of titled elders (kpem) appointed by the chief in the same way as he is himself elected. Appointment to one of these titles is a signal distinction, though their value is mainly honorific. A conscientious chief distributes them fairly amongst all the segments of his clan, as well as amongst neighbouring clans closely bound to his. These elders never formed a regular council. In the affairs of the unit, the lineage elders played as great or greater part than they; but they, and through them their respective segments, have direct bonds of loyalty to the chief, independent of the lineage structure and counteracting the centrifugal forces of divergent segment loyalties. Na'am is thus, as it were, distributed amongst all the segments of the maximal lineage. In keeping with this, some of the titled elders have special duties and compensatory privileges connected with the chief's rights over locust-bean trees, bush, and river. The Yidaana, the most important titled elder, acted as the chief's deputy and spokesman in public matters. In the interval between the death of a chief and the appointment of his successor, when the na'amwas carried on by his brothers and sons, a Yidaanacould formerly exercise great influence on the conduct of affairs. These offices are not found in clans which have only twdaanas and
1 A Undaana can allocate unowned land within the locality over which he has ritual jurisdiction as fanning plots or house sites. The 'tenant', however, owes him only a ritual tithe in return, but no political allegiance.