134516310-tribalism-in-modern-british-central-africa-gluckman.pdf

7/27/2019 134516310-Tribalism-in-Modern-British-Central-Africa-Gluckman.pdf

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Monsieur Max Gluckman

Tribalism in modem British Central AfricaIn: Cahiers d'tudes africaines. Vol. 1 N1. 1960. pp. 55-70.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Gluckman Max. Tribalism in modem British Central Africa. In: Cahiers d'tudes africaines. Vol. 1 N1. 1960. pp. 55-70.

doi : 10.3406/cea.1960.2939

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cea_0008-0055_1960_num_1_1_2939
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/author/auteur_cea_158http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/cea.1960.2939http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cea_0008-0055_1960_num_1_1_2939http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cea_0008-0055_1960_num_1_1_2939http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/cea.1960.2939http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/author/auteur_cea_158


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MAX GL CKMAN

Tribalism in modern British Central Africa1

During the last twenty years fourteen members of the staff of theRhodes-Livingstone Institute in Northern Rhodesia have studied both

tribes an d urban situations in British Central Africa In this lecturediscuss some of the results of our researches am going to concentrate on describing how we see the persistence of tribalism intomodern times in spite of the industrial revolution which has producedsuch great social changes Our main argument is that in the ruralareas membership of tribe involves participation in working political system and sharing domestic life with kinsfolk an d that this continued participation is based on present economic an d social needsand not merely on conservatism On the other hand tribalism in townsis different phenomenon entirely It is primarily means of classifying the multitude of Africans of heterogeneous origin who livetogether in the towns and this classification is the basis on whichnumber of new African groupings such as burial an d mutual helpsocieties are formed to meet the needs of urban life In both rural andurban areas these affiliations to fellow tribesmen have to be analysedas they operate alongside new forms of association such as Christiansects political pressure groups an d economic groups These newgroups are clearly more important in the towns than the rural areasPersisting loyalty to tribe therefore operates for man in two quite

distinct situations and to large extent he can keep these spheresof activity separate

The study of whether tribalism is dying out or persisting and growing in strength was obscured in early British studies by fundamentalfallacy in sociological analysis It is easily understood that Government administrators an d missionaries should think of an African minerin the new copper mines as being the same man as he who left his tribalhome short time before These men of affairs therefore considered

Confrence prononce Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Vie Section

devant le groupe des tudiants de sociologie de Afrique Noire


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that the African tribesmen who came to the towns were undergoingprocess of detribalisation which they were changed and

change here meant being spoilt Worse than this in the towns awayfrom the control of their chiefs they fell gullibly into the arms ofagitators Most British administrators and many missionaries considered that Africans who tried to form trade unions or politicalassociations an d Europeans who tried to help them were subversivecorrupting the simple an d honest tribesmen myself found that thisattitude had persisted among administrators in Northern Rhodesia aslate as 1947 remember an intelligent Labour Officer in the Department responsible for the relations between European employers andAfrican labourers telling me that things would be better if the Northern Rhodesian European Mineworkers Union went out of existenceand the problems of European mineworkers were handled by theLabour Department As say we can understand that many administrators should fail to read the lessons of the last two hundred yearsof history which show that modern industrial towns have everywhereproduced specific types of associations arising from the needs of urbanlife and hence that we must expect these associations inevitably todevelop in Africa It is important to remember that the early Britishadministrators came largely from upper-class and middle-class countrybackgrounds and hence knew little about the problems of industrial

society In Africa they lived an d ruled in vast rural domains andthe traditions of paternalistic government looking after simple tribesmen developed there Later administrators continued to be drawnfrom the same groups with in addition sons of professional people

met no administrator who was acquainted at firsthand with theproblems of industrial life All newly appointed administrators servedtheir first years on rural stations and thus were indoctrinated with theGovernment tradition that towns and mines were almost places ofiniquity in an Arcadian tribalism where the decent natives were exposed to

luxurious temptation an d seditious developmentsThese doctrines were never of course explicitly formulated butthey ran like thread through the approach of administrators to theproblems of modem life until the end of the War an d perhaps theadvent of Labour Government in Britain brought some change

It is more surprising to me that British an d other anthropologistswere to some extent influenced in similar way and am not surethat all have yet escaped from these influences Our anthropologistslike our administrators were reared on the rural tradition of the tribesFor them the tribe was the zero-point the start from which people


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TRIBALISMIN MODERNBRITISHCENTRALAFRICA 57

changed as they came under urban and other Western influenceshence the starting-point of analyses was the original tribe and theoriginal tribesman.2 Correspondingly when some anthropologists began to study Africans in the towns they saw the problems to be studiedas those arising from the adaptation of tribesman to urban conditionsand formulated these in terms of process of detribalisation whichhad to be analysed and measured as the tribesman slowly changedThis view of the problems seems to me to be implicit in the papersof some delegates who attended the conference on African urbanizationat Abijan

have said that it is surprising that anthropologists should adoptthis point of view because the whole stress of our analyses lies on thedifference between persons an d the roles they occupy in the socialstructure Furthermore our theories stress the extent to which thesocial structure exerts pressure which controls the behaviour of theoccupants of roles Hence it has always seemed to me that we mustapproach the study of African towns dominantly by regarding them astowns in short the fact that Africans now live for longer or shorterperiods in towns will influence their behaviour far more than the factthat they come from tribal homes and cultures An African townsmanis townsman an African miner is miner he is only secondarilytribesman That is would anticipate that as soon as Africans as

semble in towns an d engage in industrial work they will begin to formsocial relationships appropriate to their new situation they will try tocombine to better their conditions trade unions and so forth Ofcourse these Africans continue to be influenced by many factorsarising outside the urban situation the rapid growth of the towns andtheir own inexperience of towns the constant movement of Africanlabourers between tribe and town and between towns an d the tribalculture an d life from which they come as well as customary linkagesand hostilities between different tribes But even these tribal influences

operate now in an urban milieu an d not in rural milieu Thusstated in an early essay that in sense every African is detribalisedas soon as he leaves his tribal area even though he continues to beacted on by tribal influences He lives in different kinds of groupings

See essays in Mair editor) Methods of Study of Culture Contact inAfrica Memorandum XV of the International Institute of African Languagesand Culture 1932 here only Schapera and Fortes took the point of view

shall advocate The view am criticising emerges clearly in MalinowskiThe Dynamics of Culture Change Yale University Press 1946 cf my criticalessay An Analysis of the Sociological Theories of Bronislav MalinowskiRhodes-Livingstone Paper No 16 1948)


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58 MAX GLUCKMAN

earns his livelihood in different way comes under different authorities He walks on different ground for roads and pavements maybe paved he draws his water from taps and his food from storesetc etc He is ruled now not by District Commissioner and chief butby District Commissioner and municipal authority an d location superintendent and European manager In my own view therefore itseemed essential to start analyses of town life by saying that themoment an African crossed his tribal boundary he was detribalisedoutside the tribe though not outside the influence of tribe Correspondingly when man returns from the towns into the political areaof his tribe he is tribalised de-urbanised though not outsidethe influence of the town

The first study of British Central African town was by the lateDr Godfrey Wilson first Director of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institutein the mining town of Broken Hill.4 Wilson formulated some of hismain problems in terms of the changes in behaviour of African town-dwellers according to the length of time they had resided in the townHis study is penetrating and important but consider it was stilldominated by the tribal outlook have been describing My colleagueswho followed Wilson in making studies of Rhodesian towns haveapproached these from the opposite point of view That is they havestarted their analyses on the assumption that they are dealing with

town-dwellers many of whom come from tribes and retain ties withthese tribes Here perhaps the most important books are ProfessorMitchel The Kalela Dance6 and Dr recent

book on Politics in an Urban African Community.6One main theme of study is an analysis of how during the

growth of copper-mining town typical urban associations and industrial groupings ousted European attempts to work with authoritiesbased on tribal affiliation summarise this history fairly briefly andwill then draw out some of the sociological implications which havebeen analysed by Mitchell and Epstein When the copper-mine atLuanshya was established in the early Europeans provided themanagerial and skilled working force the heavy labour was performed

Gluckman Seven-Year Research Plan of the Rhodes-LivingstoneInstitute Human Problems in British Central Africa The Rhodes-LivingstoneJournal No December 1945

An Essay on the Economics of Detribalisation Northern Rhodesia inparts Rhodes-Livingstone Papers Nos and 1941 and 1942)

Rhodes-Livingstone Paper No 27 1956)Manchester University Press for the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute 1958

See also his publications on the work of African Urban Courts cited in hisbibliography


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him that there would be no disturbances there The Superintendentasked the Elders to go among the miners and calm them but one ofthe Elders senior man was driven away from meeting andaccused of being in league with the Europeans mob stormed theCompound Office and the Elders had to seek sanctuary within itClearly they had neither influence nor power within the strike situationYet after the disturbances the Elders resumed their previous role By1937 there was some forty accredited Elders on the mine and Epsteinsays that the system of Tribal Elders operated satisfactorily in themain and was appreciated by the mass of the people 36)

have time only to touch on analysis of the backgroundto this development He stresses the tribal background of the Elderstheir frequent affiliation with the families of chiefs their acquaintancewith tribal customs and values their skill in adjudicating in disputesand so forth Yet in way paradoxically they came simultaneouslyto be associated with the European mine management During thestrike they were driven away as in league with the Europeans Twoimportant elements in their positions have therefore to be stressedFirst as tribal representatives whose authority was based in the political system of the tribe they had no connection with the situations inwhich African miners worked in the mine itself Here the workers wereorganised in departments and gangs within which tribal affiliation was

irrelevant and it was in this situation that common interests hadbrought the miners to joint action in the strike This was industrialaction and here tribal divisions and allegiances did not operate Sothe Elders lacked all influence over the workers in this situation Butsecondly in the administrative system the Elders had become representatives of the mine itself in dealing with its workers and hencewhen those workers came into conflict with the mine they regardedthe Elders as enemies When the strike had ended the Elders couldresume their former role

This position changed slowly until second series of strikes brokeout on the Copper Belt in 1940 There were disturbances withshooting of miners at Nkana mine but none at Luanshya At Mufuliramine strike committee of seventeen men was set up to negotiatewith the management At all mines the authority of the Elders wasrejected an d the strike committee at Mufulira was the beginnings of

new regime which was to oust tribal affiliation as basis fo r handlingindustrial matters among African miners For eventually after theWar the British Government now Labour Government sent outtrained unionists to help Africans form trade unions The development


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of trade unionism was present among the Africans themselves but itwas now encouraged by Government policy Eventually the AfricanMineworkers Union emerged as powerful organised industrial union

throughout the mining towns of Northern Rhodesia negotiating withthe management As its last step on the way to power the Unioninsisted that the Tribal Elders system be abolished for the trade unionleaders saw the Elders as threat to their own authority and asmeans which the mine might use to oppose them referendumwas held among the miners 85 of the 35000 miners voted and ofthese 97 voted for abolition of the Tribal Elder system The tradeunion had finally ousted the formal organised power of tribal representatives from the industrial field though later will describe howtribal affiliation continued to influence trade union politics

The story of developments which Epstein gives for the municipalcompound is similar but not so clear-cut He suggests that the monolithic structure of the mine with its centralised power over the workingresidential etc lives of the workers provoked the response ofmonolithic African trade union also catering for many aspects of theminers life and unable to tolerate any rivals On the other hand themunicipal compound is inhabited by the employees of many differentemployers in various trades by domestic servants by independenttradesmen and so forth Hence there has been less pressure to com

bined action by Africans in trade unions and less possibility of theirorganising thus Nevertheless in the municipal compound also developments have been similar to those on the mine The authority ofTribal Elders outside of the settlement of small disputes has beensteadily ousted by bodies including better educated and more profitablyemployed Africans who have less connection with families of chiefsand who are more permanently settled in the town Secondly whereverthe Government has set up administrative councils or even courts tohelp it deal with the heterogenous African population spontaneous

opposition has developed in the urban population itself The twoprocesses have worked together for the policy has beenbased on the use of tribal affiliations while the educated Africanshave been insisting that leaders in the towns must be acquainted withurban ways of life and need not be guardians of tribal custom Buthere the position is far more Huid than on the mine

Epstein goes on to point out that the dominance of the trade uniondid not eliminate tribal allegiances within the industrial field To someextent they have ceased to be so significant in industrial matters wherethe Africans are opposed in their interests to the European mine offi-


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ciais and management But in matters between Africans tribal affiliation is important Thus elections within the union for official poststhe union have to some extent been fought on tribal lines other tribescomplained that the leadership was dominated by the Bemba tribeAnd at the other end of the scale Nyakyusa tribesmen from South-West Tanganyika talked of forming separate Nyakyusa trade unionthough in practice they joined in general strike Epstein explainsthat the Nyakyusa are so far from home that during strike they donot get support as Northern Rhodesian tribes do of food from theirrural homes In addition they are mostly without their wives so donot have women to cultivate gardens fo r them as additional supportBut it is in the struggle for power in the leadership that tribal allegianceshave most significance

Nevertheless even here it is not straight tribal hostility and loyaltythat are operating During the early years of the mine the posts openfor educated Africans were largely taken by Nyassalanders for theeducational system in Nyasaland was earlier established and betterthan in Northern Rhodesia and by Barotse who were similarly advanced The Nyasalanders had also early gained mining skill by goingto work in Southern Rhodesian mines Finally Bemba who are thenearest powerful tribe had filled many of the minor authoritativeposts on the mine Hence while many Africans see the struggle for

leadership on the mine in tribal terms this covers struggle betweengroups of different skill After the firm consolidation of the trade

power dispute began with the mines and the European tradeunions not only for better pay for Africans but also for the openingof better paid posts demanding higher skill Hence the issue emergedwhether the union was to press for few highly paid openings forfew well-educated Africans or for much better all-round opportunitiesfor the mass of relatively unskilled labourers Out of this strugglenew and militant leadership more representative of the labourers wonmany

union elections Thestruggle

reachedits

climax whenthe

minemanagement opened new skills to Africans an d put them on monthlysalary instead of payment by ticket of work done It also insistedthat they join new and separate union formed by salaried Africansand led by Barotse The old union came out on strike against thismove an d eventually the Government holding that this was politicalstrike arrested sixty-two trade unions leaders and deported them totheir tribal areas

The significance for us of this strike is that it brought into the openthe emergence within the African urban population of affiliations based


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on what we can call class principles In the most recent strugglefor leadership of the union and in the formation of the new unionwe see that there has emerged among the Africans division of inter

ests in the industrial field As soon as the trade union had consolidatedits power against the potential rivalry of old tribal leaders its memberslike allies in other situations split apart in pursuing independentinterests This perhaps we might also expect from the history ofEurope

The division on class lines has what Dr Epstein calls pervasiveeffect It spreads into many institutions For the ideal of European-ised and civilised way of life is the ideal which the Africans nowfollow Professor Mitchell has examined the effect of this situation onthe Kalela dance His analysis is based on the interpretation of howthe general social situation influences the structure and actions ofsingle dance team The Kalela dance is very popular dance on theCopper Belt It is danced by teams of Africans who come from singletribes During their dances they mock other tribes by alleging amongmany unpleasant habits that they have loose and even pervertedsexual lives Thus on the surface the dance proclaims proudly thevirtues of the own tribe and derides other tribes Yet themembers of the derided tribes attend the performance and laugh asloudly as any at the salacious wit against themselves Mitchell was

struck by the fact that despite this surface of tribal competetivenessthe dancers had named their hierarchy of officials after the hierarchiesof British military or civil dignity Moreover the dancers did notwear tribal dress instead they were dressed in smart and clearEuropean clothes and they had to maintain their tidiness and smartnessthroughout the dancing This was insisted on although the dancersthemselves were mostly unskilled and poorly educated labourersFrom this point of view he interprets the dance as reflecting theaspirations of all Africans after European way-of-life or civilisation

and he shows from other data how the values implicit here formprestige scale fo r all Africans But he argues these unskilled labourersare not striving through the dance to participate in the European partof Central African society this is cut of f from them by the colour-barThey are striving in the dance to associate themselves with the newAfrican elite Mitchell shows that in political activity such as theAfrican opposition to the establishment of the Central African Federation Africans of all classes and tribes except the Barotse who areprotected by special treaty united against the Europeans Internallythey are differentiated on class scale which people are striving to


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ascend This is one marked trend in the towns and it seems clearlydistinct from tribalism

Yet the dancing-team is tribal team deriding other tribes Itsactions have therefore also to be related to persisting significance oftribal allegiances in the towns Here Mitchell works out that tribalismin the town operates as primary mode of classifying the heterogeneousmasses of people whom man meets into manageable categoriesWith his fellow-tribesmen he can converse an d he shares their customsan d way-of-live In practice Mitchell discovered that there was farless tribal inter-marriage in the towns than is usually assumed so that

man marries the sisters and daughters of his fellow-tribesmen Morethan this by the use of social distance scales Mitchell found that allthe many tribes in the towns were grouped into several limited categories by other Africans and that specific institutionalised modes ofbehaviour had developed between various tribal categories Thus hediscovered that joking relationships between tribes this region haddeveloped in modem times and were not as previously thoughttraditional Mitchell thus stresses that tribes in towns form categoriesby which people group one another and this categorisation determined

lot of action in casual as well as intimate relationships Both he andEpstein stress that in domestic situations where as we have seen mostmarriages occur within tribes tribal custom an d practice are effective

though much modified by the demands of the urban situationIn short to understand the persistence of tribal links in the townswe have to assess their significance in relation to dominant forms ofassociation which are produced by the demands of the urban andindustrial situation The people live in towns as workers and theyassociate here in terms of common interests which override tribaldivisions But tribal loyalties may influence the internal politics ofthese urban associations and political struggles in these associationsmay from historical accident be cast in tribal terms In leisureactivities an d in casual intercourse tribalism in various categoriesforms basis for classifying people Tribal allegiance and customdominate in the sphere of domestic life so far as the situation allowsAnd in many towns though not in the Copper Belt associations ofmutual help funeral societies etc are based on common tribal affiliation But class relationships are becoming increasingly importantand in words pervade every situation It is worth addingthat Epstein found in later study in commercial town that formerpupils of certain schools felt themselves to be linked together.7

Unpublished lectures on Ndola


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Epstein concludes his study by stressing that in our studies of thenew African towns we can find plenty of systematic regularities Theseare obvious in that people live and go about their business within thetowns in relative peace and absence of fear Hence clearly there issome kind of working integrated social system in these towns Butthe social system must not be thought of as rigid tight or self-consistent The social field of the towns consists of many semi-independentareas of life in which people associate for specific purposes to run

home and raise children to be entertained with friends to workand improve status to achieve political objectives etc Differentprinciples of social organisation may be effective in the various areasof relations Hence trade union can oust Tribal Elders and withthem tribal authority from the town without affecting tribalism ascategory or even loyalty to tribal chief in other situations Let mestress too that this situation is not confined to Africans Tribalismacts though not as strongly in British towns for in these Scots andWelsh an d Irish French Jews Lebanese Africans have their ow nassociations and their domestic life is ruled by their ow n nationalcustoms But all may unite in political parties and in trade unions oremployers federations Tribalism in the Central African towns is insharper form the tribalism of all towns

These urban studies all emphasize that tribal associations in these

towns do not dominate political life Tribalism is not an organized setof political relations Here modern urban tribalism differs radicallyfrom tribalism in the rural areas In the rural areas under British ruleeach tribe is an organized political unit with complex internalstructure At its head in Central Africa at least there is usuallytraditional chief with traditional council of elders an d system ofvillages an d other political units For here it has been Governmentpolicy to rule through the tribal organization Government has thuslent its powerful support to the continued working of the African

tribal political systems as systems W e may also say that continuingand in the sociological sense conservative loyalty to chiefs has beenimportant here Moreover since the new industrial an d urban politicalassociations develop in the towns they only affect tribal allegiancesindirectly But we also consider that the tribal system in the ruralareas serves new needs of tremendous importance to the modemAfrican

All Africans now want to earn money They must have money topay taxes and they want it to pay for clothes and other Europeangoods an d for schooling and other welfare services few of the


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Central African tribes have been able to earn this money by sellingcrops and fish most of them migrate for longer or shorter periods towork in European enterprises mainly in the towns But they considerthat they have little security in their industrial life Housing as wellas sentiment makes it difficult for them to rear children there tillrecently they could not ow n houses which were tied to jobs an d thissituation is only slightly changed there is no provision for unemployment sickness and accident compensation is very low there is noprovision for work by or care of the old an d there are few pensionsand those there are are small The insecurity of town employment isconstantly brought home to them All tribal areas have tales like theincident recorded by one of my colleagues who when working on theZambezi River one morning saw men appear on the other bank thebank of another Territory One of the men shouted for canoe andthey were brought across It was policeman repatriating an oldblind man He had left the tribal home thirty years before and nevercommunicated with his kin now old and disabled he was broughtback to it to be supported by whosoever would accept responsibilityor feel pity for him And finally all Africans remember the greatdepression when the mines closed and thousands of them returned totheir tribal homes as millions of Americans were absorbed back intoeking living on the land in the same crisis Industrial and urban lifeoffers little security to the vast majority of African labourers an d forthis security they cling to their land in their tribal homes They mostlywant to return home and look forward to it but in addition thissecurity of land is an ever-present need in the total field where theymake their living.8

W e must think here of these tribesmen who get their money bygoing out to work as earning their total living in two widely separatedareas Basically they depend for security on the land and many ofthem leave their wives an d children to get their subsistence from the

land Here the old must live Hence Watson says of the Mambwe onthe border of Tanganyika an d Northern Rhodesia that they raid thetowns for money If the tribesmen are to exploit their land and toraid the towns they have to spread their economic activities verywidely and if they are to do this successfully they need to co-operatewith others In short there needs to be group of kin some of whom

The tw o works which stress this problem most for the region areWatson Tribal Cohesion in Money Economy Manchester University Pressfor the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute due shortly)) and Gluckman Essays

on Lo Land and Royal Property Rhodes-Livingstone Paper No 10 1943)


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who stay at home hold the land as security for support in money fromthose who go out to work And those who go out to work pass moneyto those who remain in payment for this security So that they getsecurity by their continued allegiance to the tribe for they hold landfrom the chief in return for loyalty and support Hence they adhereto their chiefs an d as they adhere to the chiefs they accept with thechiefs for the rural areas the organized system of tribal politicalrelations Very few tribesmen wish to overturn the tribal politicalsystem as such though new interest groups and new elites in thetribes may struggle for power in tribal councils With acceptance ofthe tribal political system goes acceptance of many customs an d observances built into that system

In tribes where land is worked in co-operating groups of kindredor where kin organise their departures to town as have describedbefore security in holding of land also involves acceptance of kinshipobligations and with these of many other parts of the tribal culture

cannot enter further into this part of our analysis for my time isrunning out nor have time to deal with developments in tribes whichearn money by fishing or selling crops

We see in short that tribalism persists in the rural areas becauseof Government support an d because the tie to tribal land of theutmost importance to man With this tie goes acceptance of the

tribal political system with its culture and of its smaller constituentgroups with their culture In short tribalism in the rural areas consists of participation in highly organized system of social relationsbased strongly on the rights as trustee for his people over thetribal land Dependence on land and the social relations arising fromthis dependence give modern Africans many satisfactions they cannotfind in urban life and also security against the vicissitudes of industrialemployment Tribalism in the towns is not such an organized systemof political and other social relations In the towns specific urban-

type groupings and industrial associations develop and have oustedthe attempts of Europeans to transplant African tribal authoritysystems to deal with urban-industrial problems But tribal linkagesan d hostilities affect the struggles within these new forms of assocationthough sometimes they cloak struggles based on other principlesTribal ties and attachments still dominate domestic life And tribalismis most important basis for grouping people into categories whichdetermine how man treats those whom he meets casually Someassociations emerge in which fellow-tribesmen band together to helpone another But class linkages are also beginning to pervade the life


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an d the culture of the new towns In all these respects African townsdiffer only in degree from any town anywhere in the world probablyIn crisis common interests arising from industrial and urban associ

ation seem steadily to overcome tribal ties and divisionsTo some extent though developments in urban and in rural areasaffect one another as have shown the specific associations of eachmay exist independently Tribal Elders were ousted from the minesby the trade union yet the leaders in this move treated visiting chiefwith respect until he tried to intervene in an industrial disputeThe Africans lives are partly dichotomised an d they live separatecompartments like other men But there is mutual influencewhich have not time to examine

What then becomes of detribalisation the problem raised atthe beginning of my lecture Perhaps my intellectual opponents areright as well as myself The African is always tribalised both intowns an d in rural areas but he is tribalised in two quite differentways As we see it in the rural area he lives an d is controlled inevery activity in an organized system of tribal relations in the urbanareas tribal attachments work within setting of urban associationsHence the African in rural area an d in town is two different men forthe social situation of tribal home and of urban employment determinehis actions and associations within the major politico-economic systemcovering both areas

Postscript

make three points which were raised in the discussion after mylecture

Though speak of the separation of the activities intown and tribal area do not consider that this is achieved withoutboth social and mental conflict Nevertheless there is considerableresolution of this conflict through the separation of the spheres of

activitiesThe analysis made here is for Northern Rhodesia and Nyasa-land and developments elsewhere may well be different Industrialand other urban associations have developed less successfully e.g. inthe Union of South Africa where legislation obstructing these associations are severe In British Central Africa until recently Parliamentin Britain had considerable influence on policy In the Union ofSouth Africa it appears that tribal affiliations in towns are more significant than in Rhodesia

The whole situation of the chiefs is affected by the presence


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of both superior Colonial Government and European settlers Hencein the recent political crisis chiefs aligned themselves with urbanleaders The development of local self-government not dominatedby settlers might here produce radical difference as in Ghana fo ran indigenous Government may require to reduce the autonomy oftribes and hence the power of chiefs

MAX GLUCKMAN

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