A Tribal Survey of Mongalla Province by L. F. Nalder

Author:L. F. Nalder [Nalder, L. F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780598054289
Google: u6bStAEACAAJ
Publisher: Negro Universities Press
Published: 1970-01-15T04:46:17+00:00

Chiefship.

The Bari draw a sharp distinction between those who have rain powers (kör, sing, köntio) and commoners who have no such powers (bömön, sing, bömöntio), and in the original Bari conception possession of rain power was essential to the chief. In one sense the great Rain Chief of Shindiru—and to a lesser degree their collaterals at Belinian and Mögiri—might be considered as paramount chiefs, not only of the Bari but of the adjacent tribes, the Mandari, Fajulu, Kakwa, by whom they are greatly reverenced. But they were not paramount in our sense; they owed their influence to, and functioned in, the spiritual sphere of magic and religion; and though they influenced temporal affairs they did so from afar. To quote Mr. Beaton: ‘The idea of an administrative chief is foreign to the Bari; to him the Chief is not one who bustles about collecting taxes, inciting men to more strenuous cultivation or awarding punishment for crime but a remote being approached only by the wealthy as spokesmen of the village, whose mere existence emanates fertility, who has in times of stress the rare power of combating dearth; and who might be seen at council but rarely speaking; whose rare speech is greatly to be feared; who in time of great crisis might intervene with his Iron Rod.’

In purely secular matters the clan heads had no doubt considerable local influence, and even before the coming of foreigners there appears, from the local histories, to have been a tendency for the growth of territorial groups—aided perhaps by clan dispersal—whose rulers’ ancestors, though usually possessing rain powers, might have owed their influence to mere wealth or force of character. The ancestors of the Gondokoro chiefs seem to have been only commoners; while Soka of Tokiman, though he wielded an iron rod, owed his power solely to wealth of cattle. The coming of the foreigners accentuated this tendency, and with the appointment of the secular, executive chief, the Foreigners’ Chief (matat lo geld), a new idea began to overlay the original Bari conception.

Bari chiefship was never autocratic; the ordinary affairs of life were dealt with by the council (putet) of old men whose experience qualified them to direct the affairs of the group or deal with individual complaints, and whose decisions were taken to the chief for corroboration. The Bari court procedure, where the litigants address the headmen, reflects this custom. A feature of the council is the ‘talking stick’, a special rod whose holder ‘has the floor’ and lays it down to be picked up by another, when he has finished his discourse. The Kakwa have the same practice.

Various oaths and ordeals are in vogue if the truth cannot otherwise be ascertained. These include swearing by the door-posts of the cattle kraal, by the roof of the house, or the head of a daughter; by jumping over a spear (the idea of only licking it is very modern); by drinking powdered ivory, scraped from a bracelet, mixed with water; to rebut a charge of murder, by drinking some of the grave dust mixed with water.

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