essay
The establishment of the administration in Tongaland
Historians in Tropical Africa; proceedings • Salisbury • Published In 1962 • Pages: 177-195
By: Van Velsen, J..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a history of the development of British administration in Nyasaland from indirect rule to a district administrative system. Van Velsen shows how this was a two-way process. Indirect rule failed because the Tonga were never a chiefdom that the British could influence from the top down. Rather Tonga chiefs or leaders were ‘primus inter pares,’ with limited powers. Tonga chiefs challenged the original system of paramount chiefs and the British acquiesced by forming a chief council. The council grew in size and power, gaining control of the courts. The Tonga believed the new system very effective, however, the British thought otherwise and disbanded it in 1948, replacing it with a district administration system of appointed chiefs.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Ethos
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Form and rules of government
- External relations
- Pressure politics
- Political movements
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Lakeshore Tonga
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2001
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Southern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnographer
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard; 1999
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1951-1956
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1881-1955
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Nkhata Bay district, Northern Province, Malawi
- NotesAdditional notes
- by J. van Velsen
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 195)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 73156884
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Ethnology--Malawi