Mary Dougsls Clientship

8/11/2019 Mary Dougsls Clientship

1/29

Blood-Debts and Clientship Among the Lele

Author(s): Mary DouglasReviewed work(s):Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.90, No. 1 (Jan. - Jun., 1960), pp. 1-28Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2844216.

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2/29

Blood-debts

and

Clientship among the Lele

MARY

DOUGLAS

THE LELE ARE

A

SMALL TRIBE

inh4biting

the Kasai district of the Belgian Congo. They

hunt wild game, cultivate maize, manioc, and the raffia palm, and live in

small com-

pact villages ranging

in

size from

io

to I30 adult men. My fieldwork

among them was

sponsored by the International African Institute, and by the Institut de Recherche

Scientifique

en

Afrique Centrale.

Two things are notable

in

their political arrangements. One is that

each little

village

is

autonomous, acting

on

its own account,

in

alliance with some, and

at war with

other villages, and this

in

spite of a nominal suzerainty of a chiefly clan,

whose eldest

male has ritual status, great prestige, and traditional rights to

arbitrate between

villages. The second is that they have a system of clientship used to settle blood-debts,

which

is,

I

think, altogether peculiar

to

themselves.

The Lele hold that

for

every death someone can be made responsible. The only

case

in

which they admit that a death may be due to natural causes is when

a very old

person, after surviving his contemporaries, and passing through various

stages of

senility, finally dies

in his

bed. At

his

burial they rejoice as much as

they mourn,

because he

has

accomplished

the

full natural

span

of

man's life.

Therefore,

because

of

his triumph, they dance to drums instead of banning all dancing for a

three months'

period

of

mourning.

In

practice very

few of

the deaths which

Europeans would

reckon

to

have followed upon advanced senility are actually celebrated with drums and

dancing, because there are powerful interests pressing for each death to be classed as

one for which responsibility can be allotted and compensation claimed.

Their

system

of

blood-compensation

is

very far-reaching

in

Lele social life.

Every

family

is

concerned

in

it,

from

several angles.

It is so

highly developed that

it

has a

kind

of social

autonomy

of its

own; many subsidiary

institutions have

grown up

around

it;

everyone

has

an

interest

in

making

it

work;

and

something

of

the zest and satisfaction

of a

competitive game

is felt

in

observing

its

rules, paying its forfeits,

and

taking

its

rewards.

Compensation

is

based

on

the

principle

of

equivalence,

a

life

for

a

life,

a

person

for

a

person.

The

principle

is

interpreted

in an

institution

called

bukolomo,

hich

I

translate

as clientship. A client,

kolomo,

s a woman who has been paid over in settlement of a

blood-debt,

or

one

of

her matrilineal

descendants.

Only

limited

rights

over

her

are

transferred;

she

is

not

a

slave;

her own

clan

shares

responsibility

for

her

with

her lords.

The

rights

are transferred

in

perpetuity. When,

about

250 years ago,

the

Lele came

into

their present territory,

a

band

of

them

without canoes wanted

to

cross

a river.

A

man of

the

Lumbunji

clan

bridged

it

with

a

tree-trunk,

and

so allowed them

all

to

pass

across.

From

each clan

which

used

his

bridge

he

tried to

exact

payment

of

a

woman.

Descendants

of

these

early

clients

are

still

in

the control

of

the

Lumbunji

clan

to

this

day.

History

does not

say why

the clans were

prepared

to

acknowledge

the

equivalent

of

a

blood-debt

to

the

bridge-builder,

but the

story

illustrates

another

important

feature

I

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3/29

2

MARY

DOUGLAS

of the institution: the extension

of the

blood-compensation principle

to

other situations.

Any man whose life is saved by

another considers that he

owes

a blood-debt to his

rescuer. I mention below cases of ransoming

in

war,

and

of

restoring health, which

were treated

as

blood-debts

by

those

who

were saved.

Also

there

is

the convention

that

certain

animals

are rated symbolically

as

equivalent

to

humans

for

reckoning indebted-

ness. For instance,

a

leopard equals

a

man, since

a

leopard

kills

a

man; therefore f a

client kills

a

leopard and presents

his lord with the entire skin,

the lord is

in

honour

bound

to

release the mother

or sister of the slayer from clientship. There are times

when

it

is

a

matter

of

honour to be generous

in

admitting liability, and to pay up

spontaneously.

On

other occasions

t is as honourableto contest claims.

STATUS

OF CLIENT

Clientship

is a

semi-servile

status,

in

which the client

depends

for

protection on

his

lord

and owes

him certain services.

I

might

have followed

Rattray's

usage

and

translated

kolomo s pawn, and kumuas owner, but these terms are narrowerin their traditional

scope

than

client and

lord,

and

are

more

suited

to a

system

of

pledging

and of money

debts

than

to the Lele

institutions.

Lele vigorously distinguish client

from

slave. Slaves (ninga,

plural badinga)were

usually persons bought

from

afar,

or

captured

in war. Sometimes

they were Lele by

origin,

more

usually they

were

foreign

tribesmen.

Lele

had

no

way

of

permanently

exploiting

a

class

of male slaves. I think that their

political

institutions, particularly

the

hostility existing between

small

villages,

made it difficult

to

use male slaves as a source

of

forced

labour,

since

they

could

easily escape

to

a

rival

village.

Male

slaves were

apparently kept

for

a

short

period

to be killed at the burial

of

their

masters,

n a

manner

reminiscentof the Tumba systemof slavery,describedin 'The Nkumu of the Tumba'

by

H. D. Brown

(Africa I944). They

were

given special

slave-names which

concealed

their

clan

of

origin,

so that it was

impossible

for

them

to

be identified

by

fellow

clans-

men.

Female

slaves became

wives,

and

were

treated

in

much

the same

way

as

other

Lele

women.

The whole

institution of

slavery

was

effectively

abolished before

my

fieldwork,

and so

my knowledge

of it is based

on

information,

not observation. Client-

ship,

on the other

hand, though

it

was

in

process

of

liquidation

in

the

European-

supervised tribunals,

was still

very

much a live concern

of

Lele

of

the

day,

and

I

was

able

to observe

for

myself

and check on

reports.

A

slave

was

a man

without

a

clan, and

thereforewithout

protection.

No compensa-

tion could be claimed from the owner who killed his own slave. A client was a full

member

of his

or

her own

clan,

and

doubly protected.

For the

death

of a

client, double

compensation

was

demanded,

one woman

for

the

clan,

and

one

for

the lord. This

essential

distinction between

clientship

and

slavery

is

the source

of a

well-articulated

body

of rules

governing

the

relations

between clients and lords.

Kumu, ord,

is a

word

of

elastic

range.

It can refer to

members

of

the

hereditary clan

of

Lele

chiefs,

to the

appointed

head

of

a

village,

to

the owner

of a

dog,

to

the person

in whom

rights

of

clientship

are

vested. The lord

is

always male,

never

female. He never

acts

as

an

individual,

but

always representing

a

group,

either

a

section of

a

matrilineal

clan

or

a

village.

Two main rights are transferredwhen a woman is paid in settlement of a blood-



4/29

BLOOD-DEBTS

AND CLIENTSHIP

AMONG THE LELE

3

debt.

The first

is the

right

to

dispose

in

marriage

of her and

of all her female

matrilineal

descendants.

The

second is to use

her,

or

any

of her female matrilineal

descendants,

to

settle

a furtherblood-debt.

This latter

right

has to be exercised

with the consent

of

the

client's clan,

which should

be

given

a 'mutationfee',

called

nghei

mwatet

a

ponj,

wealth

of the arrow shaft', twenty raffia cloths and an arrow, to signify their consent to the

change

of authority.

The first right

severely

limits the initiative

and controlof the

mother's brother

of the

first

female client,

and

similarly

restricts the rights

of all her male matrilineal

descen-

dants.

Since

competition

for wives

is one of the

key

motives

inspiring

Lele

behaviour,

the

advantages

of

clientship

to the receiver

of

compensation

and the disadvantages

to

the

payer

seem

to be

very

obvious.

In

effect,

a whole future

section of the payer's

clan

is

marked off,

and

transferred,

or

these

important

purposes,to

another

clan, for ever.

At first

glance

it seems

as

if,

to the

question

'What does the

lord gain out

of

his

control

of clients?'

the answer should

be

that he

gains

wives

for

himself

and

for

his

junior clansmen, and all the prestige and authority which follow from being in a

position

to

allocate

wives.

This reply is never

given, and the Lele

do not even

seem

to

think

of

the

system

as one which

gives

extrinsic

advantages

to the

winners,

or dis-

advantages

to the

losers.

They always

speak

as

if

sufficient explanation

of the moves

they

make is contained

within

the rulesof the system

itself,

as if it were

a game played

for its

own

sake.

Ask 'Why

do

you

want

to

have

more

clients?'

and they invariably

say, 'The

advantage

of

owning

clients

is that

if

you

incur

a

blood-debt, you

can settle

it

by

paying

one

of

your

clients,

and

your

own

sisters remain

free.'

Ask 'Why do you

wish

your

own

sisters

to remain free?'

and

they reply,

'Ah

then

if

I incur

a

blood-debt,

I

can settle it by giving one of them as a client.' Ask them what is the advantageof marry-

ing

a

woman

who

is

your

own

client,

and

they

say

that if

she commits adultery,

instead

of

the

usual

damages

of

fifty

raffia

cloths, you

can ask for a

client to be paid,

and so

then

you

will

have two

clients where before

you

had

only

one.

They

never seemed

to

be able

to

stand

outside

the

system,

and

explain

it

in

terms of

social

or

economic advantages

accruing

to the

lords,

or

disadvantages alling

on

the clients.

The

truth

is that the

ramifications

of

the

system

have

became

so

complex,

that it

is

difficult

to

isolate

its

effects.

There

is no

class

of

hereditary

lords distinct

from

a

class

of

clients.

A man

who

is lord

of a

group

of clan

X,

is

likely himself

to be

a client

of a

man

of clan

Y,

and he

may

well feel

that

the

practical

responsibilities

of being

a

lord

are as

onerousas the liabilitiesof being a client.

Lele

are

far more

conscious

of the pressure

(surely

increasedby the

system itself)

to

pay

blood-debts,

than

they

are

of

other

specific

patterns

of

profit

and loss arisingout

of

clientship.

Every

man

is

always

aware

that

at any time he

may be liable

for a blood-

debt.

If

any

woman he has seduced

confesses

his

name

in

the throesof

child-birth,and

subsequently

dies,

or

if

her

child

dies,

or if

anyone he

has quarrelledwith

dies of illness

or

accident,

he

may

be

held

responsible,

and have to pay

compensation.Ideas

of liability

are

highly

developed;

even

if

a

woman

runs

away from

her husband,

and fighting

breaks

out on her

account,

the

deaths

will be

laid to her door,

and her brother

or

mother's brother

will have to

pay up.

Since only women

are

accepted as blood-com-

pensation, and since compensation is demanded for all deaths, of men as well as of



5/29

4

MA-RY DOUGLAS

women, it

is

obvious that there can never

be

enough

women

to

go

round.

Men fall into

arrears in their clientship

obligations, and girls used to be

pledged before their birth,

even

before their mothers were

of

marriageable age.

It can

be

supposed that clientship

has far-reaching effects on the

marriage-institutions

of

the Lele, making for a strong

disapprovalof divorceand even of adultery.

The

rights to dispose of female clients

in

marriage,

and to transfer these rights to

settle

blood-debts, are primary rights of the lord. They are,

of course, exercised as a

limitation

of the rights of the woman's male clansmen. They

can hardly be said to be

rights

exercised over the women themselves. The latter have

never had any freedom

(which could be said to be restricted

by

their status as

clients) to marry as they chose.

Whether

they are free or clients

their personal

marital

status is exactly the same. For

her

husband, her co-wives, her

children, there is no difference between a free woman

and a client. Clientship essentially s

an arrangementwhich

holds between men, though

it

concerns the distribution of their rights over women.

In

recognition of this fact, the

relation of the lord to the male descendantsof his client women is precisely formulated.

Unless there is

goodwill between

them,

the whole

system

breaks

down.

There

is no external machinery

of justice which can coerce clients into honouring

their

contracts. The interestsof the lord cannot

be

enforced

against the wishes of his

clients.

Consequently,

lords are

engaged

in

elaborate

manoeuvres to

keep their clients

sweet,

in

order that

the rights which, dejure,according

to the

conventions

of

the system,

they

are

entitled

to hand down to their heirs

in

perpetuity,

shall

in

fact be

respected by

the

clients.

If

goodwill is lost,

a whole

heritage may

be

lost,

for an

angry client can

summon

the armed

strength

of

a

rival

village

to

support

him

against

an

unjust lord.

This

aspect needs detailed exposition.

In

brief, any

individual

can take

his claim to a

village rival to that in which his enemy resides. If the village accepts the case, they

pay

him

full

material compensation

for

a

woman,

and

they proceed

to

capture one or

two

women from the defendant.

One of

the

women

captured'

s

installed as

'village-

wife',

that

is,

she fills the

role of wife

to

all

the men

of

one of

the

age-sets

in

the

village.

There

are local

variations

in

the

number

of

men

entitled

to

sexual

access,

but

always

the full

legal responsibility

as

her

husband and as

social father of all

her

children is

acceptedby

the

whole

village

as

a

single corporate

unit.

Any

male client

who thinks

that

his lord is

not

acting

fairly by

him

can

arrange

for

one

of his own sisters

to be

captured

and installed as

village

wife. This

explains

the

responsibilities

which the

lord undertakes on behalf of his male clients.

He has full

liability for any blood-debts which they may incur. He should also help them sub-

stantially

with raffia cloths and camwood from his

stores,

when

they

need

help

in

paying

their

entrance

fees

and

fines.

He should

help

them to obtain

wives.

He

usually

tries

to

allot one of his female clients in

marriage

to one of his male

clients, hoping

that

they

will continue

to live near him. For the death of a

client,

the lord claims

compensa-

tion,

and this is

regarded

as an added

security.

Someone

threatened,

or

bullied,

will

cry out,

'Wayibu

Ndi mot

akana,

Take care I am someone else's man.' In

short,

the lord

is

expected

to

play

a

role,

both

protective

and

authoritarian,

which is

very

like that of

father

or mother's brother.

The latter do not

give up

their

responsibilities

towards

a

client,

who

looks on his lord as an

additional,

not an alternative source of

help.

In recognitionof his obligations,and his right to protectionfrom his lord, the male



6/29

BLOOD-DEBTS

AND CLIENTSHIP

AMONG

THE LELE

5

client

should

give

one

hind,leg

and- he

back-

of

any large antelope

or

any pig

that

he

kills; one

foreleg,

one

hindleg,

the

back

and-skinof any leopard,

and the whole

of

any

eagle,

payments.

explicitly

ahalagous

to tribute-to a-chief.

But

a

man

does not often

kill

one of these

beasts

on

his own;

most

big kills

are

made

in the

communal

hunt, when

such

privateobligation' arewaived in favourof the hunting team. When he is on good terms

with

his lord,

a man

looks

forward

to killing

one of

the

tribute

animals, organizing

his

younger

brothers

to

help

him to

carry the

meat,

and

then

laying it ceremoniously

at

his

lord'sfeet.

He

will

go away

happily

conscious

that

if he were later

to need help

in

any

form, the

lord

would

be

under strong

moral

obligation

to

give

it. Men make

these

calculations

quite

explicitly,

working

it out

that if they

want

initiation

to a cult

group,

they will

need

help with

the

entrance

fees,

and that, therefore,

the

first

step

is

to

kill

a

big beast,

so as

to lay its

back

and

hind leg

at the feet

of their

lord.

A further

sanction

upholds

the

lord's

rights.

If a female

client

marriesagainst

his

express

wishes,

he

can curse

her fertility,

and she is expected

never

to

bear

children

again, unless he lifts the curse. This would be a blow against the girl's clansmen, as

much

as against

herself,

and they

are thus

likely

to

bring

pressure

on

her to

conform

to their

lord's

wishes.

I give here

an

example

of

a lord

paying

blood-compensation

for

one of his

clients,

and another

case

in which

the

lord

was

punished

for his refusal

to do so, by

unilateral

action

on the

part

of the

claimants.

Case

L.

Mabonje,

the

head

of the

village

of

South

Homb,

and leader

of

the

local

section

of the

Bwenga

clan,

was the son

of

Piciamaha,

herself the client

of the

Lum-

bunji clan,

living

in

Middle Homb,

where

Ikum

was head

of that local

clan

section.

Ikum

had

betrothed

Mabonje's

sister's

daughter,

also

Piciamaha,

to his own

sister's

son, Lukotera.Mabonje was accused of killing a man who was a client of the village of

Bushongo.

He refused

to

pay

the blood-debt,

saying

that

he

was a client of the

Lum-

bunji clan,

and

had

no

free

sisters.

Bushongo

village promptly

captured

his

wife,

and

held

her

hostage

until Mabonje prevailed

on

his

lord,

Ikum,

to release the

child

Piciamaha

and

pay

her over

to Bushongo

village.

Then

his wife was

returned

to

him.

VILLAGE

F

VILLAGE

F

VILLAGE

F BUSHONGO

MIDDLE

HOMB

SOUTH

HOMB

IKUM

PICIAMAHA

CAPTURED

RETURNED

LUKOTERA

MAWE

MABONJE

BAHEK

U

III

(2)

MARRIED

CLIENTOF

S.

HOMS

VILLAGE

I

~~~~~~PICIAMAHA

_

BETROTHED

(I) MARRIED

CLIENT

OF

BUSHONGO

VILLAGE

FIGURE,

I



7/29

6 MARY DOUGLAS

Piciamaha was now client of the village

of

Bushongo

anc

the

Lumbunji

clan had

given

up

all

rights over her. Later the village

of Bushongo incurred a blood-debt

with the

village of South Homb, which they

at first refused to admit. South

Homb

simply

captured

Piciamaha when she was visiting her brother

Mabonje, and kept her as

their

client and village-wife.Bushongo village is near South Homb and has a long history of

alliance with them.

Consequently they had reasons for

acquiescing in the

transfer

of

rights.

Case

I.

The village of North Homb

accused a man of the Lumanya clan

of killing

their client village-wife, by having

illicit sexual intercourse

with her when she

was

pregnant. The

defendant was himselfa client of the Lumbunji

clan in Middle

Homb.

In

this case the

latter refused to accept liability for their

client's debt. The village of

North

Homb retaliated by capturing

a Lubelo woman, Mbembe, who was

herself a

client

of

the

Lumbunji clan. She had

been married to a Bwenga man (who was

client of

the

Lumbunji)

for three years without conceiving, and was

ready to try being

a village-

wife. Nothing was done to compensateher husband for his loss. In eight years as village-

wife in

North Homb,

she bore four sons who died in infancy.

A great deal of ill-will

developed between

her and her village-husbands, whom

she accused of killing her

children because

they were male, and therefore useless

for continuing the clientship

relation. When the fourth child died

she left North Homb, and returned to her

original

owners, the Lumbunji clan in Middle

Homb, who agreed with her that North

Homb

had

had no clear right to capture her

in the first place.

This happened in the nineteen-

forties, when Belgian Administration

was well established, but even in the

old days

fighting would

not have been likely

to have broken out when she ran away,

since

North

Homb and

Middle Homb acknowledgeda common

origin and were allies.

These two casesshow how the lord is expected to pay the blood-debts of his clients,

and

the kind of reprisals o which he is exposed if he denies

the responsibility.

If

the arrangements

do not work to the profit of both

parties, lord and client, then

goodwill is lost, and there follows a trial

of strength, in which client

is

likely

to emerge

as a

free

man.

The usual way in which a client becomes

free is by demanding

the

release

of his

mother or sister, when his lord

is responsible or a death among

his

clients.

In

the

case

above,

of

Mbembe running away from North Homb,

if

they

had tried

to

follow

her,

her

protectors

would certainly have riposted with

an accusation that

the

village

had

killed

one,

or all of her children, in which case the village

of North

Homb

would

have

owed

a

blood-debt to her clan.

In

such

cases, when there is already

a

basis

of

goodwill

between the parties, it is always honourable to accept the liability and let the woman

go free,

another reason why North Homb let

the matter drop.

The

following

shows what

happens when

the essentialgoodwill is lacking.

Case

II.

Case

of

Ket

clan.

A

Ket

woman, Mbwengol,

died.

She was

the client

and

wife

of

a

man

of Bienge clan,

in

Mbombe

village.

Her brother, Pung,

in

Bushongo,

con-

sulting oracles,

found her husband guilty

of

killing

her

by sorcery.

His

demand

for

compensation

was refused.

If

it

had

been admitted,

one of

his dead

sister's

daughters

should

have

been released

from

clientship.

He

declared

that he

would take one

of them

away,

so

that none

of

her

former lords

of

the

Bienge

clan

should choose her

husband.

He carried

off the little

girl, Ngalakamba,

his

sister's

daughter,

to the

village

of

Bush-

ongo, to be marriedthere. The Biengeclan arrangedwith the village of Middle Homb



8/29

BLOOD-DEABTS

AND CLIENTSHIP

AMONG THE LELE

7

that she should be}captuted

and made village-wife there, they receiving

compensation

from

Middle Holibb Then h'er-mother's rother-complained o the chief of the

Western

Lele, Ngwamakadi, one

of

the few cases

I

recorded of appeal to chiefly arbitration. He

declared both

sides to have been

in

the wrong, the

Bienge clan

for not compensating

for the death they had caused, and the Ket clan for taking the girl away from her

fathers by force.

He proposed

that she should

now be allowed to remain the wife of

Middle Homb,

and

that

the Bienge should

pay over a client to

her mother'sbrother,

Pung. The Bienge,

stronger

and more numerous

than the Ket clan, and backed by their

own

village,

agreed

with the first

part of the settlement, but omitted to carry out the

second part. When

Pung himself

finally died, no compensation

had been paid, and

his younger

clansmen, the

sons of

the girl in question,

felt that they were

too isolated

and too few to reopen the

case.

KET

CLAN

~~4

MBWENGOL PUNG

NGALAKAMBA

NGONDU CLAN

[CLIENTS

OF

4

LUBELO

ILUNGU

MBOYU

MWENDELA

CLEMENT

LELE

FIGURE

2

This part of the case

illustrates

the disadvantages

of belonging to a small

local clan

section (see below). The

second part

of the case illustrates

the ways in which

lords use

their

rights over

clientwomen.

While

Ngalakamba's

children were young,

Middle Homb village

incurred a blood-

debt to the clan

of Hanja

in

their own

village, which they

settled by transferring

rights

over her

daughter,

Mwendela. Hanja settled

an outstanding

debt they

owed to the

Bulong clan, and the latter transferredrightsover the girl to a man of the Lubelo clan

in

South Homb,

who had long ago

accused one of them

of having killed

his mother.

The girl

herself,

in

the

meanwhile, had been

baptized at the

mission, and therefore

the

Lubelo,

on acquiring

rights over her, had

to find her a Christian

husband. Their

own

young Lubelo

men

were mostly married

or betrothed. They

thereforegave her

to

Clement, younger

brother

of Lele of the Ngondu

clan, both clients

of the Lubelo.

Her

two brothers

left Middle Homb,

and came

to settle near their

sister in South Homb.

They acknowledged

their status of

clients to the village

of Middle

Homb, but they

nourished

a

sense

of grievance, saying

that but for the

weaknessof their

local clan

section, they

would

have

been free men, and

their sister and

her children free

to

be

disposedof in marriage accordingto their own interests.



9/29

8

MARY DOUGLAS

When

the client

and

lord live

in rival villages it is even

more neces

-ry for the lord

to

be

punctilious

in his

dealings,

as

the

following

casq

demolistrates.

Case V.

Lubelo nd

Lungclans.

A man of theLubelo clan

in South Homb was accused,

and convicted

by poison

ordeal,

of

killing by

sorcery a man of the Hanja

clan in Middle

Homb village. Lubelo gave their own sister, Idiamaha, in compensation.The Hanja,

instead of marrying

her themselves, transferred

their rights as lords to

the Lung clan

in Hanga village,

the hereditaryrival of South

Homb village. There she

was married

to

the official

diviner of the village,

and bore three children,

clients of the Lung clan.

When

her husband died, Idiamaha was inherited

by another

man, but properpurifica-

tory

ritual

which

protects

the

widows

of

official diviners

from death, was

omitted.

Idiamaha died,

and

her

brother, Ngomambulu,

demanded compensation

from

the

Lung

clan. The

Lung refused,

and the

Lubelo

forthwith

declared their

clientship

to be

at an end.

Idiamaha's

daughters

and her only

son became, to all intents

and purposes

as

free

as

if

Lung

had

formally

released them.

Koku and Ngomadiku

went to live in

South Homb, and Kinda was married asvillage-wifein Bushongo.

Later, Ngomambulu fell ill,

and

nearly died. Many diviners

tried to

cure him, with-

out success. The man who restored

him to health was Mihaha,

a diviner of the Lung

clan,

from

Hanga,

who

went to endless

trouble to

get powerfulremedies

for him.

LUBELO

CLAN

NGOMAMBULU IDIAMAHA

~~~4

KINDA

KOKU NGOMADIKU

(CLIENT

OF

BUSHONGO)

MAHAMIMBENDI

FIGURE

3

When

he felt his health

return,

Ngomambulu

sent

for Mihaha and

declared

that as

he owed

him

his

life,

he would

give

to him

Mahamimbendi,

the

girl

whom Mihaha

would have married originally if the Lubelo had not ceased to be clients of the Lung

clan.

As

it

happened,

Mahamimbendi

had

already

been married

to another

man,

and borne

him

a son. He refused

to

give

her

up,

and in

the old

days

the

Lubelo

would

have

resorted

to force.

However,

this

happened

quite recently,

in

the last ten years,

when

the

Belgian

Administration

effectively

prevented fighting. Ngomambulu

and

Mihaha went

together

to the

tribunal

and

obtained

an

order for

Mahamimbendi to

leave

her

husband

and

go

to

be married

to

Mihaha,

as

they solemnly declared that

he

was her first

betrothed,

and that she

had

been

taken from

him

by

force. She now

has

three

small children

by

Mihaha.

In this

case

the lord, representedby Mihaha,

finally

recoveredhis clients,by showing

extreme solicitude when their leader was ill. Ngomambulu's act of restoringthe girl to



10/29

BLOOD-DEBTS

AND CLIENTSHIP

AMONG

THE

LELE

9

clientship

as

a ge ture of

gratitude

illustrates

the grand style

in which these

transactions

were made.

The fact that the

girl

was unhesitatingly taken away

from her

first husband

shows that

the husband

who is not

his wife's lord is at

some

disadvantage

in his

dealings

with

his

in-laws.

In

this

sense

it

is

true

that

it is an advantage to

be married to

a client-

wife.

THE CLAN

AS LORD

When

a

village

owns

a

group

of

clients,

there

is no difficulty

in

recognizing

who

is their

lord, for the village

has

a corporate

enduring

personality,

regardless of the

fluctuations

in its population.

This

I must describe

separately.

The clan,

on

the other

hand, has

little

br

no corporate

personality.

It is an amorphous

collection

of

individuals, claiming

common matrilineal

descent,

practising

exogamy,

and observing

a few

religious pro-

hibitions, but

too dispersed

to be capable

of

any common

action.

The clan never

assembles,

has no single

leader

or set of

leaders, never

attempts

to take

united action.

Clansmen

are scattered,

not only

through

the four

Lele chiefdoms,

but also

through

the neighbouring tribes. Fellow clansmen from different parts of Lele country do not

know

each

other, even

know of each

other, or

of how

many they

number. They

have no

corporate unity.

For

the Lele man,

clanship is

scarcely more

than

a completely

general

claim

for

assistance based

on matrilineal

descent. The

content of

the claim, the

persons

against

whom it may

be made, the

kind and

amount

of assistance

that may

be hoped

for in

any

particular

case depends

entirely

on the circumstances.

In spite of

this vagueness

and

lack of organization

in

the clan,

claims for

blood-

compensation

are made in

the name of

the clan of

the victim,

against the

clan of

the

slayer.

This is largely

a manner

of speaking.

When

a claim is

refused, the claimants

never capture

a distant clanswoman

of

the slayer,

as a

means of enforcing

collective

clan

responsibility;

they

usually capture

a client

of the man who refuses to pay up.

There

are two limited

senses

in which it is

true

that the whole

clan appears

as

a

collectivity. First,

no claim

for blood-compensation

can be

made between

sections

of a

single clan.

If a man kills a

fellow

clansman,

this is a shameful

act, which

will

create

enmity,

but which cannot

be compensated

by the transfer

of a client

from one

section

to

another. Second,

the

fiction of

clan unity is

validated in

so far

as its effective

sub-

units are

constituted

so that any

clansman, born

or

reared anywhere,

related

or not

related, may become

a fully participating

member.

The single

qualification

of

matri-

lineal

descent

gives

a man an

option, which

he

can take out

with whichever

local group

of

his

clan he likes best, an option

to acquire

the status

of a fully

active member.

EFFECTIVE

SUB-UNITS

OF THE

CLAN

The

various

sub-units,

which

act, each,

in the name

of the whole

clan,

are not clearly

definable, either by the

observer,

or by Lele

themselves.

They

are constituted

on the

two

principles

of residence

and descent.

A man's

close

matrilineal

descendants,

whether

or

not they are actually

living in

his village,

can claim

to inherit

his widows,

and to

have some

say on the

disposal

of his clients.

In some

contexts I

find it convenient

to

refer

to these

scattered

matrilineal

relatives

as the inheritance

group.

Further,

any

man

who

is

actually

resident in the

same

village as

a fellow clansman,

may be

regarded

as a

member of his local clan section, and this too gives a claim to inherit.



11/29

IO

M-ARY DOUGLAS

Each

principle limits the

application

of the other. Residence limits

the descent

principle.

Close lineal relatives, if they have

moved

fiaar

way, and

especially if their

move seems

definitive,

will not

normally

count

as

memrbers?of

he

inheritancegroup.

Correspondingly, he man

who has recer-flymoved into a

village, and hopes to be

accepted as a full member

of his local clan section there,

may have to live

there for

some time, before he can

compete successfully

with close lineal relatives for

the benefits

of

co-residence.

Since each

local clan section believes it

has advantages in numerical

strength, each

tries to

attract recruits

fromothers, so

acceptance is not so difficult for a

youngish man

as might be

assumed.

It

is more difficult for

an old man,

because his senioritywould

put

him

high

in

the scale of

authority. Since the local section is

regarded as a

single unit,

recognizingno internal

distinctionsexcept of age or sex, its

oldest male leads it

on formal

occasions,

and

expects some deference to his

opinions. The

arrival of a young man does

little

to

disturb the

existing

pattern of power and authority;

the arrival of an old man

is likely to threaten some established interests.The young are also welcome because of

their

physicalstrength.

In

short,

there is

a

practical

age-limit

for

easy

transfer rom

one

village

to

another,

and there comes a time

in a man's life when he has to decide

to

settle

down

finally.

Other factors

beside

his

age tend

to

make a man's welcome

more or

less

uncertain:

his

cult

status,

his

relations as

a

client

and

as

a

lord,

his

reputation

for

quarrelsomeness

nd

adultery,

or for

easy

social

relations

with

other men.

The distinction

between

a

long visit,

and a

permanent change

of

residence

is not

always easy

to

clarify.

Some men

are

accepted

at

once,;

others never. One

man

may

make

a

visit

for

six

months,

be lent

a

house,

then be

given

a

wife,

and

then

finally

settle

down and

build

his own

house. Another man

may arrive,

immediately

start

building a house, in the hopes of being given a wife in due course,but his hopes may be

disappointed,

and

after some

years

he

may go

away

to

try

his

luck

elsewhere.

The

only

sure

test of

membership

s whether

or

not

the new

arrival

eventually

receives

a

portion

of

the

inheritance which the local clan

section

controls,

.e.

a

wife.

In every

village,

round

the settled

core of

each

local

clan section,

there

is

a

fringe

of

men, working

to make

good

their

membership,

men who have come

in from else-

where.

At the

same time there are

the

young men,

born

in

the

village,

still

regarding

it as their

home,

and

yet

who are

preparing

to

leave

for the sake

of

joining

some other

group

of their clansmen.

There are situations

when

the

Lele

prefer

an

ambiguous

status to

a

well-defined

one,

since definitioninvolvesseparationand a cutting-offof claims. Membershipof the local

clan section

is one case.

A man

knows

that

if

he

does

not

reside

and

co-operate

with

one

group

of

his

fellow

clansmen,

he cannot make claims on them for wives

or

help.

But he

foresees

a

time when

he

may quarrel

or

be

driven

out,

and

he

would like to

keep

similar

claims

warm in

other

villages. (Mwana

mala

mapende,

ahawu

bo,

the child of

two

villages

won't

die.)

Since the

Lele themselves

avoid

it,

let us

put

aside

the

attempt

to define

closely

the

local

clan

section,

and turn to the

problem

of how this

group

acts

as lord

in

relation

to clients.

The role

of lord needs

decision, generosity,

and

other

qualities

which

are

best

displayed

in one

man,

not in

a

leaderless

group.

Lele themselves

say

that the senior

member of a local clan section acts for the section as a whole. This would imply a



12/29

BLOOD-DEBTS AND

CLIENTSHIP AMONG THE

LELE

II

degree of authority,

which,

apagt

from being

generally uncharacteristic

of Lele

social

organization,

is not

warranted

by,the

facts

observed.

The local

clan

section

appears

as a

single group

at

village

meetings.

It acts

as

a

single unit,

under the

formal

leadership of

its

elder,

in

support

of

any

of

its

members'

claims for compensation.It also appears as a single unit when it has allocated any of

its widows or client

women in

marriage,

or when

it decides

that the claims of

a

close

matrilineal

kinsmanwho

has

gone

to

live elsewhere should

be considered or not.

There

are meetings

and

discussions

which make

a

real

thing

of

the nominal

unity.

A

young

boy

will

say artlessly

'We

gave

so-and-so

his

wife'.

But

the fine

simplicity

of the

first

person plural

applies

only

after there has

been

considerable

shuffling,

bargaining and

pushing

from

various

points

of

vantage.

It is

important to

try

and discover

what

these

points

of

initiative

are.

Observation shows

that for all

practical

purposes

each

elementary

family

of

clients

may recognize

a

different

member of

the lord's

clan

as

their own

particular

and

im-

mediate representative,whom they refer to as their kumu,ord. If a case of clientship

originates

with

the

action of

one

man, then he is

the lord,

nominallyacting

in the

name

of his

clan,

who

has

most

control

over the

woman who is

transferred, and

over

her

children.

Nyama,

below

(Case

V), is an

instance.

He had provided,

single-handed,

the

wealth

in

camwood

which

his village

required for

two of its wives.

In recompense

he was

given,

as

his

clients, the

daughters

of these

village-wives. He

married them

himself,

and

controlled

the marriages

of his

own daughters

himself as if, in

this case,

he alone

represented the

clan,

though he was

by no means the

eldest

man of his local

clan-section.

Again, the

man in

the lord'sclan

who marries a clan

client and begets

daughterswho

are in turn clients, acts as a nearly independent agent in their affairs,for their client-

ship

has

begun

with

his

begetting. Every

time a

lord-husband dies,

his successor

as

husband,

if

he

is

a

fellow-clansman,takes

over his role in

regard to

the children. It

follows

that,

in

practice, a

descent line of

clients is attached

to the local

section of its

lord's clan

through

a

number of

particular

allegiances to

each of the

clansmen

who

intermarried with

the client

females. No

wonder

men are keen to be

allotted client

wives

in

the

gift

of

their

local

clan

section. Whatever

the other

purposes of the act

of

bestowing

a

client

wife on a

junior clansman,

the

effect on his status is

like promotion

from

an

ordinary

shareholderto the

board of directors,

for he

can now hope to

become

one

of

the founts

of

authority through

which the clan

section

controls its

heritage of

clients. In short, any originator of clientship rights for his clan, whether by begetting

or

by

buying, becomes

one of the points

of focus

in client-lord

relations.

Case

V.

Nyama'sdebt.A

Lubelo man was

captured in a

raid, and

would have been

killed

if

a

Bwenga man

from

Mbombe had not

intervened

and ransomed his

life by

giving

a

client

to his

captor.

The Lubelo

thereforeowed a

blood-debt to the

Bwenga

man,

and

they paid

over Njangom.

Her children

were born

in clientship,

but they

went

in

due

course

to

live

with

their clansmen

in South Homb.

Subsequently

Njangom

died

in

the

poison

ordeal,

convicted of having

killed a Bwenga

woman by

sorcery. The

Lubelo owed

therefore

another

blood-debt to

the Bwenga.

The debt

was never

regarded as one

concerning

the whole of the

Lubelo clan, nor

even the whole of the sectionof it living in South Homb, but merelyNyama himself, the



13/29

12

MARY DOUGLAS

LUBELC

CLAN

IDIAMAHA

NJANGOM

4~ b

PFRO

NYAMA

MAPICI

MAHAMALUBELO

HIMBU

MAWEMIMBWANGA

MAHAMALUBELO

FIGURE 4

eldest

male

descended

from the dead woman who

had

incurred

the

debt. Nyama's

own sister,

Mahamalubelo,

had been

paid

over

by

the

Bwenga,

his

lords, to the Bulo-

mani clan

in South

Homb,

so that he could not

give

his

sister's

daughter

or

daughter's

daughters.

He

proposed

to settle the debt

by giving

one of his

own

daughters.

Both

wives, Mapici

and

Ihowa,

were

his

clients,

and he was

evidently

considered to

have

the

sole

right

to

dispose

of their children

in

marriage,

since he had

not

only begotten them,

but himselfhad been the agent by which his clan could claim them as clients.But both

girls,

Mawe

and

Himbu,

he

had

betrothed from

infancy

to

men

in

the

village.

One

of

them, Himbu,

had been betrothed

to

Ngwe Malop,

a client of

the

Bulomani

clan,

the

lords

of his sister'schildren.

Nyama

now

proposed

to break off

the

bethrothal,

and send

her

to

Mbombe,

as

client of

the

Bwenga clan,

to make

good

his

mother's

debt. However,

Himbu's

mother

did

not want her

daughter

to

go away,

and

her

case

was

put by

her

half-brother,Lele,

of the

Ngondu

clan, who,

we

shall

see,

was

a

man

of

influence.

Himbu

and her mother

were

of

the Pata

clan, hailing

from

Bushongo.Speaking

as a man

of

Bushongo,

Lele warned

Nyama

that Pata

girls

never

did well

in

Mbombe,

and

rarely

succeeded

in

rearing

their children

there.

If

he wanted to

see

his

daughter's

daughtersmarriedin their turn, Nyama would have to find some other way of settling

his debt.

In the end

the solution

came

from the Bulomani

clan,

the lords of

Nyama's sisters,

and also

of Himbu's

original

betrothed.

Nyama

made

a

deal with

them, transferring

rights

over

Himbu

to the

Bulomani,

in

return

for

clientship rights

over his own

sister's

daughter's daughter, Mahamalubelo,

whom he

then

gave

to the

Bwenga

in

Mbombe.

Himbu

was thus

able to

stay

in

the

village,

and

to

marry

her

original betrothed, Ngwei.

The interest

of

Nyama's

case here is the

degree

of

autonomy

with

which

he

exercised

his

rights

as lord

of clients

of his

own

begetting,

and the absence

of

co-operation

from

the

rest

of his own clan section.

When

I

knew

him,

his

other

daughter

Mawe had died

in

childbirth, and so he had no clients left under his own control, except his two wives.



14/29

BLOOD-DEBTS

AND CLIENTSHIP AMONG

THE

LELE

I3

By that time his own

sister'ssons, the

thildren of

-Mawe-Mimbwang,

were

all

Christians,

so

it

was

altogether

too

specuiiative

o

ty

to d

wscoxer

ho,

in the event of his

death,

would have taken

over.

his rights

as lord,

-inth

eevent

of

any

clients

surviving

him.

For

Christians,

since

they

could

-only marry

once,

could

hardly

work

the

clientship

systemand enjoyits benefits n the old

waNr.

The

proof

of

whether

a

man's

rights

as

a

lord are

vested

in

him as an

individual,

or

whether the

generally

accepted

theory

is

valid,

that

they

are distributed

evenly through

the

corporate

personality

of the local clan

section,

is

tested

by

what

happens

when

he

dies

or

leaves

the

village.

Does

he

carry

his individual

rights

as lord

away

with him

when

he

goes?

The

answer depends much on the

strength

of

personal loyalties.

The exercise

of

rights over clients is

always

so

much

a

matter

of

delicacy

and

compromise,

that

in

practice the lord is

not likely to have effective

authority

if

he goes

very

far from

the

normal

scene

of

his client's lives.

Nothing

is

easier,

in

such

a

fluid

system,

for the

clients

left behind to transfer their individual allegiance to one of his remaining fellow-

clansmen.

He is sure

to be

withstood

by

the

women,

since

they regularly try

to

resist

proposed

changes ofresidencefor

themselves

and

their daughters.

The followingis a case in which a

new arrival

brought

with

him

the

right

to

act

as

lord

in

several

clientship

cases. One

man, Lele,

was welcomed because he came

to

where

his own clients, and his

lords, were

living. By contrast, the young

man who

joined

him

later, Yembu, gave up

any rights

he

may

have

hoped

to claim

in his

old clan

section

in

the

far

north. The case is worth

studying

in

detail,

for it shows

the

kind

of

factors

which

enable

a man to

be

immediately accepted

in

another

village,

his

own

age,

client-

ship rights

and

obligations,

and also

the

structure

and

composition

(age, sex,

numbers)

of the clan section he isjoining.

Case

VI. Jgonduclan.

When Lele was

released

from

a

long

term

of

imprisonment

in

Luebo,

he felt he could

no

longer

live

in

his own

village,

Bushongo,

because

his

brother

had taken his

wife

from

him.

He joined

his

sisters

n

South Homb.

At

the time

that

Lele

arrived

there, the

local

section of the

Ngondu

clan

in

South

Homb

comprisedonly

two

men.

One, Ibonje,

was

very old, nearly senile,

and

well

past

active direction

of

affairs.

He

had

been

born

and

brought up

in

South

Homb,

and now

depended

on his

wife,

and

NGONDU CLAN

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

a

IBONJE

< 4

NJILU

(LIVING N

NIAMAHA

LELE

CLEMENT

(VILLAGE-WIFE

BUSHONGO)

GABRIEL

YEMBU

IN

S.

HOMB)

FIGURE

5



15/29

I4

MARY

DOUGLAS

his daughters

and

their husbands. The other was Gabriel,

a

young leper. There were

three women, Gabriel's mother, and Lele's two classificatorysisters. With Lele came

his brother Clement,

a

Christian.

Lele brought with him some clientship rights, which had been vested in the section

of the Ngondu clan residing formerly n

a

little village, Bushongo bwabwani, which had

grown too small to be able to exist independently, and which had now been merged

with its brother

village, Bushongo bwankapa.

Most of

these clients were

now

living

in South Homb, and on his arrival there, they transferredtheir allegiance at once to

Lele, instead of to one of his maternal uncles in the other Bushongo village. Lele also

carried

with him

the right

to

control clients

who had

belonged to the vanished village,

and not to the Ngondu clan. He said that if the village were ever again restored to

separate

existence he would

hand

over the heritage of clientship rights

which he

had

been administering

n

its

name.

It is understandable that Lele was a man of some importance, and was doubly

acceptable as a newcomer to the village of South Homb; one of his sisters there was a

client

of the

village, he

and

his brother

were clients

of

the

main

clan there,

the

Lubelo,

and several

of his own clients and

those

of

Bushongo

bwabwani

were

also resident there.

To make

him

welcome, the village immediately allotted to him two of its clients

as

wives.

By marrying

them

he

became son-in-law to the

village,

twice over.

Later

he

was

inducted

as

junior official diviner of the village. The combination of honours accepted

implied that his life was now finally committed to being spent in South Homb.

In

the meanwhile, another Ngondu man, Yembu, felt dissatisfiedwith his treatment

at the

hands of

his own clan section

in

the village of his birth, Njembe,

in the north

of

the

territory.

He

had

served as

a

policeman, and

had

met Lele

when the

latter did

a

long-term prison sentence, and on hearing of his warm reception in South Homb,

decided

to

throw

in

his

lot

with him.

At

the time that

Yembu

arrived in South

Homb, Lele

had three

wives,

two

given

by

the

village.

The

third, Mawe,

a

client girl,

had run

away

from her first

husband,

and

offered herself to Lele as her lord.

The fact

that

Lele was

now

living

in

the

same

village

as her mother

and

her mother's mother

no

doubt influenced her

decision.

Lele said that he felt ashamed to have

three wives,

when

his

younger brother,

Yembu had none. He took the new

wife, Mawe,

and said to

Yembu, 'Here, put

her

in

your

house. You can

keep

her

as

your wife.' Just

as the

gift

of

girls

in

marriage proved

that

Lele

was

acceptable

as

a

member of

the village, so

also Yembu knew that he

was

accepted as a full member of the local section of the Ngondu clan. Later the Lubelo

clan,

Lele's

lords,

allowed Yembu to

marry

one

of

their

women

as a

second

wife.

Yembu and

Lele

acted as brothers who had

been

cradled

together. They

treated old

Ibonje as

their father, bringing

him

meat and wine. When

Niamaha's son was to be

married, all three contributed to his marriage payments. When Gabriel

went

to the

mission

clinic

for

long treatment, they sent

him

provisions.

In

the

dry season,

Lele and

Yembu

cleared their fields, shoulder to shoulder,

in

turn.

When Lele's wife was

ill,

Yembu

went

regularly

to find her

herbal

remedies.

When

Yembu had to

pay

a

fine

at

the

tribunal,

Lele

helped

to find

him

money.

The

solidarity

of

the local clan

section

was

beyond doubt,

and

whether Lele

or

Yembu died

first,

the other would

have

a

prime voice in the disposal of his widows, as much as Clement, Lele's full brother, who



16/29

BLOOD-DEBTS ANn

CLIENTSHIP

AMONG THE

LELE

I5

had, in the meantime, gone-

to Bushongo. Since this was a neighbouring and friendly

village, his departurewas not looked,upon as enrding is rights as

Lele's brother.

This example gives

a

clear

illustration of how the local clan

section, constituted

from disparate elements, comes

to act

as

a single unit, and formsan inheritance group

which

pools

wives

and

property tt

would

be

a mistake

to think of

a

man deliberately

calculating that a move to village A will give him a better start on the social ladder than,

say, village B. When they move, it is generally under great personal

stress, and at any

given time the choice of villages where they will be welcome

may be very small,

Whether

the move turns out to

have been

advantageous depends

on the

numbers, sex,

and age of fellow-clansmen and

the number of the ties of clientship, but their personal

qualities as good friends

will

probably

weigh more for a man deciding to join them

than

a

cool reckoning

of his own

chances

of

leadership.

The Ngondu

case

concerns

only a very small local section

of a clan, four men,

three women. Matters

are

different

when

the local clan section

is

larger. First, the

complete solidarity

and

pooling

of

interests

s

absent, although

clan

unity

is still invoked

on occasion.

A

large

clan section has

been settled

for

some time

and

factions

have

emerged.

I do

not call them

descent groups, since they are not based strictly

on

prin-

ciples

of descent.

Newcomers to

the

village

attach themselves

to

one or

other

of these

sub-groups,

as

personal

tastes

and

interests

dictate.

They

remain as

vague

as

ever

about

the

genealogical

relations

nvolved.

There

are two words

for

segments

within

a

clan.

Ikundu

means womb,

or line

of

descent.

Lele

like

to

emphasize

that the

whole

clan

is

derived from

a

single womb,

and

they disapprove strongly any

mention of

different

descent

lines within the

clan.

Kongu

means

co-operating group

of

clansmen,

but it is a

word also

disapproved

n so

far

as

it

is

used to makeinternal distinctionswithin the clan, and so is very rarely heard. However,

in spite

of

the etiquette

which requiresthat distinctionsof descentand of grouping

with-

in

the

clan

be

overlooked,

it remains

true

that in

a

large

local clan

section,

there

are

separate segments

which deal

independently

with

their own clients.

Nyama's

case

above

is

an

example.

So

much for the

question

of

who,

in

the local

clan

section,

takes

the

initiative in

dealing

with clients. We

now

should

ask how

the lords exercise theirrights.

HOW THE

LORDS'

RIGHTS

ARE

EXERCISED

Lele's

case shows that clients like to have one of their lords

living among

them.

The fact

is that the lord has no possibilityof exercising any tyrannouscontrol over his clients;

on the

contrary,

his role is

benignly protective.

For this there are

at

least

four reasons.

The

first,

we

have

seen,

is

that, unless the male clients

are satisfied that their lord

is good

to

them, they

will seek

an

opportunity

for

ending

the whole relationship,

and

this

is not

difficult,

since there is no

machinery

of coercion other

than force of arms.

The second is that female clients who are unhappy can easily

run away. Women

like

to live near their mothers

and

grandmothers.

This

limits the

geographical

range

within

which their

marriages

can

be

arranged

to

settle

blood-debts.

The

normal

course of

action

for a woman who

was

unhappily

married

was for

her

to offer herself

to

be

village-

wife

in

a

village rivalling

that of her

husband.

Immediately

she

had a

whole

village

to

support her and to confront her husband's little clan section. No village would ever

B

R.A.I.J.



17/29

i6 MARY

DOUGLAS

refuse the opportunity to take a new

village-wife..

This aspect must be discussed

in

detail separately.

Thirdly the rules of incest and exogamy complicate Xthe llocation of client

women

to husbands. It is impossible for a whole line of clients to be married to the clan of their

lords. Fourthly, there are certain preferred marriages which the lord is expected to

allow his client women to make.

In

other words, the degree to which the lords can derive any personal benefit from

theirrights over clients is severely imited.

According to the rules of incest and exogamy, no one may marry into their own

clan,

or

into the clan of their own father. A man may not marry again into his wife's clan, if

she is

alive. If he is the son of a village-wife, he should not marry a girl whose

mother

was a

village-wife of his village, nor should two women, whose mothers were village-

wives in the same village, and who therefore call each other sisters, be married to the

same man.

It follows from the first of these regulations that the daughters of client-wives, as

they may not marry into their father's clan, have to be married to men who are not of

the

lord's clan. If a woman of clan B is client of her husband in clan A, then her

daughters, though they are clients of clan A, may not marry any

man of

that clan.

Clan A

will try to arrange their marriages so that they

will

live near

the

village

of

their

lords; when their children are in turn of marriageable age, clan

A

will

again

be

able to allocate the girls amongst themselves, if they have not in the meanwhile trans-

ferred their rights over them. In short, a lord's clan can intermarrywith

a

client

in

the

first generation, and subsequently with her daughters' daughters, and similarly with

their

daughters' daughters. In each alternate generation the

lords

get

the

full

benefit

of their rights to dispose of their female clients in marriage,and in every intervening

generation they get the secondary advantage of being able to give away

wives to their

friends. On how wisely they use their rights in the intervening generation, when the

female

clients are debarred from intermarriagewith them, depends

their

prospect

of

following up their full claims when these girls' daughters are again marriageable

for

their

clan.

Long-term planning is required, and some men

do

not

have the

energy

or

ability

to

succeed. The baptizing of the younger generation

as Christians

has created

a

further

complication, since Christiansare monogamous

and

intermarryonly

with

one

another.

It is interesting to see how many of the marriagesbetween young Christians

at

the mis-

sions, which seem to be spontaneously arranged,are in fact a follow-upof old clientship

rights.

Case

VII.

In the following case, Ngomadiku

had

some difficulty

in

finding

suitable

husbands for clients in his own clan section. When his sister

Kinda

died,

her

husbands,

the village of Bushongo, admitted their responsibility,and paid over

to her

clan one of

their

clients. Whether the girl refused to leave home,

or whether

he

found the incest

regulations debarred his own clan section, in any case, Ngomadiku

allowed

a

fellow-

clansman

living in Bushongo to marry her.

Earlier, before Kinda had died, he

had

paid

her

daughter, Idiamaha,

as

client

to

the

chiefly clan at Tundu, because

a

Lubelo

man had seduced

a

chief's wife.

Instead

of

marrying her himself,the chief gave Idiamaha to the village of Malembi, and in return



18/29

BLOOD-DEBTS

AND CLIENTSHIP AMONG

THE LELE

17

Malembi gave

him

another

woman. The girl's mother,

Kinda, in

Bushongo, protested

that Malembi was too

far'

andp he asked--that-Idiamaha

be married

in Bushongo.

So

the

Lumanya

clan in

Buishongo

ollected camwood,

and

bought

the clientshiprights

over

her from

Malembi

village, and she married a Lumanya

man in Bushongo.

Later she died in childbirth, nfaminga man of the Bulomani clan in her confessionof

LUBELO

CLAN

NDONG

CLAN

KOKU KINDA

NGOMADIKU

MWEN

NDENG

NGONDU

MAHAMIMBENDI ELIAS MAHOPU

IDIAMAHA

MANJUANJ

MAYENGA

MEN

I

FIGURE

6

adultery.

Both the Lubelo

and the Lumanya clans

claimed compensation from

the

Bulomani

for her death. The Bulomani

paid over one of their clients

of the Ndong

clan

to the

Lubelo,

a

girl

called Mayenga.

Ngomadiku could not marry

her himself, as her

mother's

sister was already his wife.

The dead woman's full brothers

were too young for

her. By going among other men of his own clan section, or by going beyond it, he could

presumablyhave found

her a husband,but he let the

matter slide, saying

that she could

marry

whom she

pleased,

so

long

as the Lubelo could claim her daughters. She went to

the

far

south to be married,

and

bore

three daughters,who, by rights,

should

have all

been clients of the Lubelo. The distance

was too

far

for easy contact to be maintained,

so

Elias was

lucky

to

get

one

of

them:

Mwen was

betrothed to

him

from

birth,

and

at

the

time

of

my

visit he

was

waiting

for

her to finish her instruction for baptism at the

mission.

PREFERRED

MARRIAGES

From the rules ofexogamy one would expect that the client's line would be intermarried

Documents

Mary Dougsls Clientship