Margaret Read

Tradition and Prestige Among the Ngoni

I. The Ngoni People. Before I made my first camp in an Ngoni village, many Europeans had said to me, ‘There are practically no Ngoni left to-day. They are all hopelessly mixed with other tribes. None of them keep to the Ngoni customs any longer. Their chiefs are no good.’ From the doorway of my hut I saw people coming all day long to the Paramount Chief, behaving towards him with profound respect, bringing him presents, working for him. His children formed a special group in the village, easily recognizable by their bearing and their manners. Old indunas came to instruct me, as they had instructed chiefs in their day, on the duties of a ruler, and the code of Ngoni laws. Old warriors in war dress came and danced by the cattle kraal and sang praise songs. Courts were held with scrupulous regard for order and justice. Other chiefs came visiting from distant parts with their retinues, and were received ceremonially. It soon became apparent that here was the centre of a political state, whose head was invested with prestige and authority over a wide area, and where behaviour to the Paramount and to every one else was strictly regulated by custom, and as strictly observed. These were Ngoni, and they and their fellow Ngoni in other areas for the next ten months introduced me to the Ngoni people. The European assertion, that they no longer existed as a people, they laughed at, and proceeded to demonstrate that the contrary was true.

A Tribute to Dr. J. H. Oldham, 1874–1969

In his address at the Memorial Service for Dr. J. H. Oldham on 3 June 1969 Dr. Visser tʼHooft, Secretary General of the World Council of Churches, referred more than once to J. H. Oldhams singular gift of ‘reading the signs of the times ’. This insight into the meaning and implications of events and trends, past, present, and anticipated, is what statesmen in all walks of life desire though few achieve it. In the troubled years after the founding of the International African Institute in 1926, up to the outbreak of war in 1939, the cross currents of events, policies, ideologies rocked even long-established institutions. The steady course held by the young International African Institute, and its progressive development, was due to a remarkable quartet of men: Lord Lugard, Sir Hans Visscher, Professor Malinowski, and Dr. Oldham. Between them they represented the main sources from which the Institute drew its early strength, its supporters, and its research workers: African governments, foundations, anthropologists and linguists, and missionaries with specialized knowledge of African languages and cultures.