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Power
A European traveling along the coast of Guinea, saw people chasing a runaway. It turned out to be not a petty thief, but a candidate for the village chieftaincy. A chief’s life with this ethnic group was full of numerous prohibitions – he couldn’t touch the earth with his feet, he couldn’t eat in public… So, after the old chief is dead, the probable candidates run away. The first one to get caught is the one who ascends the throne.
Of course, this doesn’t happen everywhere, but the sacred chief’s position is always a heavy burden. That’s why oftentimes he has very little real power and he is responsible for relations with the gods, the spirits and the ancestors, while earthly decisions are made by others. It’s often the secret societies, like Poro and Sande in Liberia and Sierra Leone, Kore and Komo in Mali and Guinea, or Ogboni with the Yoruba of Nigeria.
Where peaceful life turned into a turmoil of war, bands of young men and their chiefs partook the upper hand. Quite often, military commanders displaced the sacred chiefs of peaceful times and began ruling in new ways: their authority was based on the fear of their power, and not on the fear of the ancestors’ spirits. Sometimes, such leaders’ power spread over large territories, and powerful “empires” arose. However, as time passed, the descendants of the founders of the empires looked more and more like the former sacred chiefs.
Ethnic groups that never had rulers are quite frequent in Africa. When the colonial authorities named leaders for them, everybody was confused, and the leaders didn’t enjoy any authority.
In contemporary African countries, authorities resemble those in Europe on the outside: constitutions, parliaments, presidents and cabinets of ministers… However, being unfamiliar with other bodies of authority, mostly invisible for an alien eye – secret societies, hunters’ unions, religious fraternities and traditional transnational commercial networks, based on family ties, religion and descent – it’s not easy to understand the logic of contemporary African politics.
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Village chief and his sons.
Mali. The Kagoro. V. F. Vydrin. 1998. |
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Chief of the village at the festivity.
Balaninkoro,
The Maninka
Erman A., 1999
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Morning meeting of the village notables.
Kla-Santa,
Vydrin V., 2002
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The old man is the custodian of the sacred drum. The sound of the drum informs surrounding villages about the most important events. The drum is being offered sacrifices.
Kla-Santa,
Vydrin V., 2002
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