Some Notes on the Political Organization of the Venda-speaking Tribes

Africa ◽  
1930 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. P. Lestrade
Keyword(s):  
Political Organization ◽  
Large Region ◽  
The Political ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThe following notes are based mainly on information collected by the writer at Mbilwi (‘Sibasa’) from members of Mphaphuli's tribe, and at Tshakhuma (‘Tshakoma’) from members of Madzivhandila's tribe, and supplemented elsewhere in the Venda area. Obviously, over such a large region, a number of variations from the norm here indicated may be expected to exist; but it is thought that what is here given represents in substance, if not in all details, Venda law and custom in respect of this sphere of this people's life

Chiefship and Politics in the Mlanje District of Southern Nyasaland

Africa ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-45
Author(s):  
R. L. Wishlade
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
East Africa ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Administrative District ◽  
Southern Province ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphMlanje is an Administrative District in the Southern Province of Nyasaland. It is densely populated compared with other parts of Central Africa, having a population of 209,522 in 1945, which represented a density of 138 per square mile. The population is tribally heterogeneous, and was composed, in 1945, of 71 per cent. Nguru, 21 per cent. Nyanja, and 5 per cent. Yao people. The Nguru are the most recent arrivals, having immigrated into Nyasaland mainly during the present century. The term Nguru is used to refer to the representatives in Nyasaland of a number of tribes inhabiting that part of Portuguese East Africa which Lies to the east of Nyasaland; these immigrants call themselves Lomwe and in Mlanje are mainly Mihavani and Kokola. The Nyanja are the indigenous inhabitants of the area, who were living there before the invasion of the Mangoche Yao during the nineteenth century. Although they are linguistically distinct, the social organization of these three groups is markedly similar, and there has been a great deal of intermarriage between them, particularly between the Nyanja and the Nguru. No one of them is in sole occupation of a continuous stretch of territory, even the smallest residential groups are often tribally heterogeneous, the similarity of the social organization enabling Nyanja to be absorbed into Nguru hamlets and vice versa. For this reason it is impossible to use a tribal unit as a unit of reference in a discussion of the political organization of this area.

Segmentation and Fission in Cape Nguni Political Units

Africa ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. D. Hammond-Tooke
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Large Degree ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Indigenous Populations ◽  
External Control ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Political Units ◽  
Traditional Structures ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThe aim of this paper is to discuss certain aspects of the political organization of the Cape Nguni, with special reference to the formation of political units. Its preparation forms part of a larger study undertaken by the writer on the nature and direction of political development in the Transkeian Territories of the Republic of South Africa, which has culminated in the establishment of a system of what approximates to indirect rule based on indigenous structures, known as Bantu Authorities. It is one of the basic tenets of the study that in a situation in which indigenous populations are subjected to external control, and even more when traditional structures are themselves used as instruments of government, traditional premisses (to use a term of Maquet) must be taken into account. The acceptance, or otherwise, of authority must obviously depend to a large degree on traditional concepts of where authority resides, its sanctions, extent, and limitations. Some attempt at a reconstruction of the pattern of tribal governments as they were immediately before the imposition of White control was therefore necessary: this paper discusses a limited aspect of the problem—the formation of the political units themselves.

Sisters, wives, wards and daughters: a transformational analysis of the political organization of the Tiv and their neighbours. Part II: The transformations

Africa ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Fardon
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Local Competition ◽  
Fragmented Populations ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Supernatural Power ◽  
Unique Manner ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphIn the first part of this article I set myself two objectives, each of which took its cue from a generalization made about the political and social organization of the Tiv by their principal ethnographers, Laura and Paul Bohannan. I proposed to challenge the related views (1) that the political organization of the Tiv could adequately be described as a segmentary lineage organization and (2) that their organization was atypical of the area of middle-belt West Africa in which the Tiv live. Confining my attention to Tiv ethnogaphy, I argued in Part I that a persuasive case could be made for a more complex account of Tiv political processes which recognized the salience not only of descent but also of marriage, kinship and local competition for the achievement of personal prestige through manipulation of marriage strategies, mastery of the major akombo or cults and claims to the possession of legitimate tsav or supernatural power. Tiv society still retains remarkable features on this view of its political processes, but they are not those of complete atypicality. Instead, it becomes apparent that, while sharing many of its core institutions with neighbouring societies, Tiv culture combines them in a unique manner. The uniqueness of the combination becomes visible through the effects of Tiv social organization, the more important of which I would itemise as:1. The persistence of Tiv culture and identity in a region of generally fragmented populations.2. The capacity for expansion of Tiv society.3. The capacity of Tiv society to absorb so many circumstances conducive to the development of hierarchy yet to remain, by and large, acephelous.

Kinship Organization of the Banyankole

Africa ◽  
1938 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalervo Oberg
Keyword(s):  
School Teacher ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Common Language ◽  
Realistic Approach ◽  
The Family ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The Government ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphAn outstanding feature of the kinship organization of the Baniyankole is its lack of uniformity. Here we have an African tribe composed of pastoralists and agriculturalists, whose respective kinship organizations reveal marked differences, despite the fact that they have for a long time inhabited a common territory, spoken a common language, and practised many similar customs. Besides these two, so to speak, original forms there are the more recent variations due to European influences. If we are to study the family, for instance, we shall have to consider several types. There is the family of the Muhima herdsman, the family of the agricultural Mwiru of the old type, the family of the peasant who owns cattle and grows coffee, and the family of the government clerk or school teacher. Similarly, if we were to study the political organization, we should have to consider the old form of Banyankole kingship as it existed when the British took over the administration of Ankole, the outlines of which we are able to construct not only from the present form of government but also from official documents and the memories of missionaries and natives who lived at the time, and the series of changes that have taken place in this form of government. It at once becomes apparent that we are here dealing with variations and change. Differences in time and space are as much facts of the case as are the peculiarities and general features of a given item of culture. Any realistic approach to the variations and changes in the kinship organization of the Banyankole, therefore, calls not only for description but for comparison and interpretation.

Our universities away from partisan Altsarat

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
أ.د.عبد الجبار احمد عبد الله
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Moral Duty ◽  
The Political ◽  
Public Office ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The University

In order to codify the political and partisan activity in Iraq, after a difficult labor, the Political Parties Law No. (36) for the year 2015 started and this is positive because it is not normal for the political parties and forces in Iraq to continue without a legal framework. Article (24) / paragraph (5) of the law requires that the party and its members commit themselves to the following: (To preserve the neutrality of the public office and public institutions and not to exploit it for the gains of a party or political organization). This is considered because it is illegal to exploit State institutions for partisan purposes . It is a moral duty before the politician not to exploit the political parties or some of its members or those who try to speak on their behalf directly or indirectly to achieve partisan gains. Or personality against other personalities and parties at the expense of the university entity.

Taken For A Ride

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo Rizzo
Keyword(s):  
Public Transport ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Dar Es Salaam ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Bus Rapid Transit ◽  
The Political ◽  
Urban Experience ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Informal Economies

The growth of cities and informal economies are two central manifestations of globalization in the developing world. Taken for a Ride addresses both, drawing on long-term fieldwork in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and charting its public transport system’s journey from public to private provision. The book investigates this shift alongside the increasing deregulation of the sector and the resulting chaotic modality of public transport. It reviews state attempts to regain control over public transport, the political motivations behind these, and their inability to address its problems. The analysis documents how informal wage relations prevailed in the sector, and how their salience explains many of the inefficiencies of public transport. The changing political attitude of workers towards employers and the state is investigated: from an initial incapacity to respond to exploitation, to political organization and unionization, which won workers concessions on labour rights. A longitudinal study of workers throws light on patterns of occupational mobility in the sector. The book ends with an analysis of the political and economic interests that shaped the introduction of Bus Rapid Transit in Dar es Salaam and local resistance to it. Taken for a Ride is an interdisciplinary political economy of public transport, exposing the limitations of market fundamentalist and postcolonial scholarship on economic informality and the urban experience in developing countries, and its failure to locate the agency of the urban poor within their economic and political structures. It is both a contribution to and a call for the contextualized study of ‘actually existing neoliberalism’.

The Role of Politics in the Historical Transport Networks of the Iberian Peninsula and the Pyrenees from Roman Times to the Nineteenth Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-260
Author(s):  
Pau de Soto ◽  
Cèsar Carreras
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Transport Network ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Transport Networks ◽  
Political Economic

AbstractTransport routes are basic elements that are inextricably linked to diverse political, economic, and social factors. Transport networks may be the cause or result of complex historical conjunctions that reflect to some extent a structural conception of the political systems that govern each territory. It is for this reason that analyzing the evolution of the transport routes layout in a wide territory allows us to recognize the role of the political organization and its economic influence in territorial design. In this article, the evolution of the transport network in the Iberian Peninsula has been studied in a broad chronological framework to observe how the different political systems of each period understood and modified the transport systems. Subsequently, a second analysis of the evolution of transport networks in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula is included in this article. This more detailed and geographically restricted study allows us to visualize in a different way the evolution and impact of changes in transport networks. This article focuses on the calculation of the connectivity to analyze the intermodal transport systems. The use of network science analyses to study historical roads has resulted in a great tool to visualize and understand the connectivity of the territories of each studied period and compare the evolution, changes, and continuities of the transport network.

Poner el cuerpo para cuidar el territorio. Mujeres mapuche frente al extractivismo y la conservación, en Neuquén, Argentina

2021 ◽  
pp. 80-84
Author(s):  
Florencia Trentini ◽  
Alejandra Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Environmental Conflicts ◽  
Leading Role

We reflect on the political organization processes of Mapuche women in territories demarcated as “protected areas” and “sacrifice areas” in Neuquén, Argentina. Beyond the differences, both conservation and protection as well as sacrifice and risk, question the rights of Mapuche communities over the territories, rising socio-environmental conflicts in which women and their practices, knowledge and bodies take a leading role. From an ethnographic and ecofeminist perspective, we investigate the practices and meanings of care, proposing a reflection on what we define as “the political”, seeking to study how care, “poner el cuerpo” and the reproduction of life become forms of politics that allow dispute rights over territories that are redefined based on their protection or sacrifice.

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