Tradition and Travesty: Chiefs and the Administration in Makoni District, Zimbabwe

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Periodical article

Title:	Tradition and Travesty: Chiefs and the Administration in Makoni District, Zimbabwe
Author:	Ranger, Terence O.
Year:	1982
Periodical:	Africa: Journal of the International African Institute
Volume:	52
Issue:	3
Pages:	20-41
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zimbabwe
Subjects:	colonial administration national liberation struggles traditional rulers colonialism Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) History and Exploration
External links:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/1160523 https://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pao:&rft_dat=xri:pao:article:4011-1982-052-00-000018
Abstract:	This study is based on the files of the District Commissioner of Makoni District on his chiefs and headmen and on interviews. It reveals two distinct and crucial ambiguities. The first was the ambivalence between the way in which administrators perceived and used tradition and the way in which the chiefs did so; the second was between the kind of appeal which the administration made to the past and that which nationalists and guerrillas made to it. The first ambiguity is illustrated by case studies of chief Zambe and chief Muzanenamo Makoni and by an account of the extraordinary saga of the search for a new chief Chiduku; the second ambiguity is discussed within the context of an account of what happened to chiefs and to spirit mediums in Makoni during the guerrilla war. Map, notes, French sum.