This research project for Organizing for Development, an International Institute, was conducted to compare two case studies in women's organizing abilities in two distinctly different African societies. The purpose of this comparative study is to examine how two separate societies express women's roles in decision-making.

With the ethnographic research, parallels may be drawn between the two case studies, with implications for development programming.

The choice for the two case studies involve one matrilineal, agriculturalist society, the Chewa of the central region of Malawi; and one patrilineal, pastoralist society, the Waso Boorana of Garba Tulla in northeast Kenya. Both case studies indicate how an actual community decision is made, with emphasis on the gendered roles

in the decision-making process. In Malawi, the case study is of the selection of a new village Chief, and in Kenya, the case study is of the selection of a new community elder.

Research for this project is part of the research conducted for PhD theses currently being written by the authors for the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

This Report is organized as follows: the Case Study I of Kenya, Case Study II of Malawi, Comparative Review of the Two Case Studies, and References.

Ethnically speaking, the Boorana people of Kenya are part of the wider Oromo nation. Oromo speaking peoples according to Baxter 1990b:235 constitute half of the population of Ethiopia and according to Braukamper 1989:127 as an Eastern African ethnic group they include 20 million people. The Oromo occupy a large territory stretching from the Ethiopian province of Tigre to the Tana river in Central Kenya.

In the republic of Kenya, the Boorana represent a small segment of the total population. They are part of the Cushitic speaking peoples who in the 1979 census represented 3.4% of the total population. They concentrate themselves in the North and North Eastern provinces, over a large portion of the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya.

The Waso Boorana themselves live around the Euaso Nyiro River in the North Eastern Province of Kenya and they represent several thousand people. Their way of life reflects a high level of sedentarization around small towns and business centres, and they are physically concentrated in settlements called manyatta. While the settlement as such is a manyatta, each individual hut is also called manyatta.

Their way of life has been represented by Dahl 1979 and Hogg 1981. They look after animals, which represent their way of life and livelihood. Therefore each manyatta has some few members who as shepherds move with the animals in areas outside the towns and the manyatta.

The term Waso Boorana refers to the Boorana living in the Waso area. In any study it must be clarified what is the extension of that area. Isiolo stands nearby and therefore possess a problem for a representation of the Boorana. Hogg 1981:1 connects his study with 'the Boran of the Isiolo District'. Dahl 1979 refers to the Waso area as the purpose of her study, but nevertheless makes allusions to Isiolo. I follow Dahl 1979:25, where she writes,

Therefore when I use the term Waso area I exclude Isiolo Town from the Waso area and I refer particularly to the geographical areas near the Euaso Nyiro river, particularly Garba Tulla and Merti Divisions.

The Boorana of the Euaso Nyiro river area, the Waso Boorana, came originally from Ethiopia and northern Kenya probably in large numbers already at the end of last century. The Amharic conquest of southern Ethiopia triggered migrations towards the south of Ethiopia. Furthermore, draught and famine forced Boorana migrations into the Northern Frontier District (N.F.D). The Boorana occupied parts of the area and they settled at the wells in Wajir. Many fights occurred between Boorana and Somali, till in 1932 the British moved a group of Boorana into the Isiolo District. A group of Boorana from Wajir, were escorted into the Waso area by the British and settled there. Shortly after that, in 1934, the Samburu were moved north of the Boorana and the Boorana/Somali line in the map was moved westwards. The Boorana took possession of the area near the Euaso Nyiro river and remained close to the Somali.

With their arrival in the Waso area, the Boorana lost their connections with their religious spaces in Ethiopia. The boundaries imposed by the British were strict and therefore the Waso Boorana became geographically isolated. Isolated from Ethiopia and the celebration of festivals of initiation and life with the rest of the Boorana, the Waso Boorana adopted muslim practices. While the process of religious change took sometime, there were already converts to Islam, among the Boorana, during their period at Wajir. According to Baxter 1966:249 there was a process of 'somalization' rather than 'islamization'. The Waso Boorana adopted Somali ways of dressing and Somali customs.

All those geographical and ideological movements become important as to understand the current Waso Boorana community as part of the wider Boorana community, but at the same time as a community that claims allegiance to Islam and to a wider Muslim community. In this Waso Boorana community, men have to be Muslims, while women are the people responsible for the traditional Boorana ritual practices, which at the end constitute the community identity of a manyatta.

This particular case study relates to the current practices of the Waso Boorana in the town of Garba Tulla. Therefore it is necessary to see this particular localized study of two manyatta, Matagari and Dhemo, in the context of a larger reality, the town itself. While the manyatta are located in what is called the town of Garba Tulla, they represent two particular and distinct Waso Boorana communities.

The town is located 120 kilometres east of Isiolo. It stands as a trading centre in the middle of the semi-desert of Eastern Kenya. It has a population of a few thousand people and since colonial times it has been an administrative post in which a district officer resides. It was established as a proper administrative post in 1917-8.

I must clarify that the word 'town' is probably not the most appropriate for our purposes of representing the Waso Boorana and their inter-action in Garba Tulla. The word 'town' tends to convey the idea of a very organized community, a settled and stable population with a clear pattern of social interaction. This is definitely not the case. I use the word town, mainly because it is used by the Kenya administration to denote a trading centre where people come to trade goods and animals, a place with accommodation for travellers, schools, medical centre and civil servants. In reality the population of Garba Tulla town and Garba Tulla division moves around during the different seasons of the year.

Garba Tulla town has a centre, the main road which links Malkadaka and Kinna, where shops and plots are located.

Outside this established centre of town, manyattas are located. They correspond to settlements of Waso Boorana, who need a place to reside, to keep their few possessions, their women, children and young animals. In those liminal settlements life has a different character than in the town itself.

During the dry season people are fewer, during the rainy season there is a constant flow of visitors and people staying for a few months. Each one of the manyatta is appointed a particular chief and a council of elders who are trusted by others because of their ability to relate to the 'outside world'.

The two manyatta that concern us, Matagari and Dhemo, are located in the east side of town. They are separated from the actual centre of town by the old market, the place where the Waso Boorana used to buy and sell animals in colonial times.

The change of leadership and social organizational patterns in Boorana society has traditionally depended on the idea of age-groups and age-grades. In the case of the Boorana, traditionally speaking, leadership and organization depended on the gada system, and the successive and organized taking over of leadership and responsibility every eight years by a particular generation.

The gada system differs from a true age-grading system in that all sons follow their fathers moving up one grade at a fixed interval, with no concern for their actual age. The system applies to men only and in the past gave a full social and political organization to the Boorana. That was due to the fact that each grade in the system gives the person particular rights and duties attached to his title. An age-set in the Boorana system is made of all males born within a specified eight year period and there are five age-set systems in existence at a particular moment within the gada system. Even when age-set membership is biological, gada membership is generational.

In the case of the Waso Boorana, those who had membership of gada were the people moving into the area during the first part of this century. While the gada system as such is not in operation in the area, the generational patterns in-built in gada permeate the preparation and actual election of elders in a manyatta. In that generational pattern, the people in leadership are not the older men, but younger men who are still marrying and having children.

The leadership of a manyatta in the Waso area, has changed considerably since the times of gada. The introduction of chiefs by the British created a new category which was non existent in gada. As a chief was perceived by the Waso Boorana as a foreign category, he became an appointee of the 'outside world', rather than a leader in the community itself. The chief was appointed by the British in colonial times and is currently appointed by the Government of Kenya, in this post-independence period.

Therefore when using the word elder, one refers to the internal organization of a particular manyatta, rather than the external organization symbolized by the political chief. Every manyatta has two main elders with their proper councils and advisers. Those elders resemble the old gada organization through the fact that they belong to a group considered old enough to be part of the manyatta leadership, but they are not old people in the biological sense of the word. An elder in the Waso Boorana tradition is not an old man, but a married man with enough experience in the affairs of the community, as to be of assistance to the community.

Two roles are performed by the elders of the community. One of them is in charge of all legal disputes and social arrangements in the manyatta, e.g. marriages, funerals, etc. The other one is considered legally the leader of the manyatta and deals with community contributions and the world of the outside, e.g. to keep a constant flow of communication between the manyatta and the 'outside world'.

As it would not be possible for any of those elders to know everything about legal matters and family life, they have their own advisers. Nevertheless, as in-built in the gada system, leaders are not elected on their own, but they bring into the leadership a whole generation of peers. Therefore those two elders are never alone in the exercise of leadership, but they have several peers who help them lead the community with wisdom. Part of that group of advisers is constituted by women, who bring into the picture their own ritual specialization and their control over the 'domestic' sphere of a particular manyatta.

4. Women's role in the community's search for leadership.

As I asserted before, it seems that women are absent of any deliberation in a patrilineal society. That was true in the gada system, where women were out of the system, as several men were as well. In the case of Garba Tulla, women have the status and the power to organize themselves when it comes to community gatherings and the proper election of wise elders in order to lead the community.

Meetings in order to elect leadership are called whenever needed. The elders of the manyatta would make sure that everybody is there. The elders (3 or 4), plus those who are going to address the gathering of Waso Boorana on a particular issue sit in front, on stools. The whole meeting looks like a circle, whereby at the head one can see the elders, and following the circle all the heads of households. On a second row in the circle (or a second circle), one can see all those who are not heads of households. Finally children and outcasts sit at a distance from the meeting.

One could assume that the two circles would correspond to men and women, but that is not so. The inner circle corresponds to heads of households, who speak on behalf of their households. Those heads of households can be men or women. While the Waso Boorana society is a patrilineal one, and therefore inheritance and descent follow through the male line, there have been changes in the traditional structures through drought, famine and war.

Data on manyatta Dhemo and Matagari speak of a substantial number of female headed households. In 1992 manyatta Dhemo had 33 female headed households, out of 76 households all together. Manyatta Matagari had 40 female headed households out of 107 households all together. Many of those women have seen their husbands killed in the ever present conflict between Somali bandits and the Kenyan security forces. The fact that the Waso Boorana are semi-nomadic means also that several men have to go and look after animals and may never come back. The drought situation of the last few years has meant that men have gone to other places looking for food and have taken wives somewhere else.

The level of polygamy among the Waso Boorana has certainly increased since the gradual process of conversion to Islam began. While very few Waso Boorana men would be able to support several wives in the same manyatta, they would be able to take and leave wives in different locations of the Waso region.

With those changes in mind, the actual election of elders at community meetings provide the Waso Boorana women with two areas of power sharing. The first one is the possibility of having female heads of households attending the meeting, the second one concerns their own ritual role in the community.

As pointed out by Aguilar 1994:19,women exercise their control at the homestead through their prayers. While the men go to the mosque, hopefully five times a day, the women burn incense and carry out the Buna qalla ceremony.

Waso Boorana consider themselves Muslims, nevertheless the epistemological principle of their society is the Nagaa Boorana -the Peace of the Boorana. The Nagaa Boorana is much more than the absence of war, it means a constant state of unity and cooperation among the people. One of the main tasks of the elders is to implement the keeping of the Nagaa Boorana, because it symbolizes the constant blessing from God. In daily life that 'peace' is kept through prayers, blessings and greetings.

The Buna qalla is the offering of coffee-beans, by which the Peace of the Boorana is actualized, restored and kept as people sit together to offer coffee-beans and to pray together.

The ritual specialists, those who prepare the 'sacrifice of coffee beans' and at the same time invite somebody else to offer prayers are the women. Without the agency of the women, and therefore without the offering of coffee-beans, the election of any leader would have no value at all.

Meetings in any Waso Boorana community are open to everybody. One could say that everybody is expected to attend. Somebody who does not take part in a community meeting is clearly showing the community that he has something against somebody else.

For example, during the famine of 1992, different relief agencies helped the Waso Boorana with maize and beans in order to prevent starvation. Nevertheless, the principle of 'food for work' was supposed to be implemented as not to create dependency. At one of those meetings, while the Waso Boorana were discussing with the volunteers from the donor agencies the program of 'food for work', Buke appeared at a distance. He was a man who for years had not agreed with the practice of burying Waso Boorana in the Islamic way. He wanted people to be buried in their traditional Boorana way. Therefore for years he had not attended either funerals or meetings. He had been fined by the elders, but he had never paid the fine required.

At that particular meeting, as he approached the meeting, there was complete silence. Then he shouted 'Nagaat, Nagaat'. The community response was immediate: 'Nagaat, Nagaat'. As he sat in the meeting, prayers were said, and of course the meeting did not continue, it ended there. For some of us the meeting was a disaster. No decisions had been reached on the relief programme. For the local participants the meeting had been one of the most successful of the year. The Waso Boorana remembered for days the fact that due to Buke's appearance peace had been restored and therefore there was a better chance to expect the end of the draught and therefore the end of the famine.

Community meetings are not about electing people, but about keeping the Nagaa Boorana. Therefore the power of the Waso Boorana women lies on the fact that they should be heard because they exercise the ritual office of keepers of the Nagaa Boorana.

The election of elders is not a political campaign, in the Western sense of the term. It is a communal event, whereby the need to replace somebody in leadership arises from the fact that a particular person is moving somewhere else, or has to look after animals far from the manyatta. Whenever the need to elect somebody else is felt at community level, and therefore at community meetings, the chairman of the meeting asks for names to be proposed to the meeting.

In that particular meeting, some of the senior women speak up, and they propose somebody they feel would be a worthy person to be appointed. The final decision in the meeting is reached by consensus, and the person selected has to accept his job as elder in leadership.

While in a patrilineal society men exercise the leadership, women as part of the meeting can also propose certain names. Those women have talked about the coming meeting and the possibility of suggesting names before hand. They have not called a meeting of women, but as women they have talked, gossiped and exchanged ideas about the matter. By the time the meeting takes place, women seem to be silent and even passive, nevertheless they have forwarded their ideas through a senior woman, sitting in the inner circle of the meeting.

Women organize themselves before the meeting, not to riot, but to look for the right person in order to keep the Peace of the Boorana. They propose names through a senior person, most of the time a widow, who has been a first wife of a senior man and who at the same time has a son serving as elder in the community. That woman becomes powerful, not only because she represents the voice of the other women, but because she has already a senior role in the social organization of the Waso Boorana. That senior woman also has power because she has talked to her own sons before the meeting. As those sons sit at the community meeting as heads of households, they will remember the conversation they had with their mother as well.

At the end of the meeting, prayers for Peace are offered once again. By the evening, every household has offered coffee-beans prepared by the women. The community has selected the elder who is going to exercise leadership in that particular community. and rituals at every homestead are conducted in order to keep the Nagaa Boorana. The women at every household, ritualize that community approval and their own as well, through the sacrifice of coffee-beans, offered for Peace. During that celebration of Buna Qalla, special prayers will be offered for that particular elder just elected to leadership.

Peace has been kept through a communal exercise, open to everybody. In that exercise women have taken an active role as ritual leaders, heads of households and wives of senior members of the community.

While they seem to be passive recipients of cultural supremacies of men, women in Waso Boorana society organize themselves to preserve the most sacred foundation of their society, Peace. While their husbands and sons claim allegiance to Islam, women through their ritual and social patterns of organization preserve Boorana tradition, their own traditions, and one could say, preserve their power.

Ritual power is the most effective one in any society, because the whole existence of society rests on it. Therefore Waso Boorana women show a tremendous organizing ability in order to preserve their society and also to restore daily the foundational principle of their existence, the Peace of the Boorana.

From the way in which the election of elders is carried out in the manyatta of Garba Tulla town, one could conclude that the way of doing so, is static and mechanic. The fact that the process is dynamic, and that the diachronic process of laying the foundation of any society is really a process, can be grasped through the three ways of organizing present in this ethnographic example. Those three ways are namely, appreciation, influence and control.

Appreciation is present at different levels in the manyatta, whenever people talk freely among themselves about the possibilities of electing particular elders for the manyatta. In the case of the women, they show a high level of appreciation, through their own communal tasks, which provide the place and the time for consultation, gossip and the contestation of opinion, status and ultimately power of decision.

Influence is exercised by people with enough ritual power as to be able to bend other people's opinions and their own sense of looking for the common good rather than the self-motivated opinion. That influence is exercised by women with status, who are able to persuade other people and especially those with influence about a better outcome of the deliberations and communal consensus. After a period of gossip in the manyatta, those women with status are able to influence other women, their husbands, their sons, and their neighbours.

Control becomes the last step of the process of organizing themselves among Waso Boorana women. From their point of view power is exercised at the end of the deliberations, when after the communal deliberations in the meeting, the leader invokes the general consensus and asks the people for prayers in order to keep the Nagaa Boorana.

While women are not the only ones who can exercise their influence and finally exercise power, their role is a complementary one when it comes to the Nagaa Boorana. Their approval brings and keeps Peace, while their disapproval does not bring peace.

It is necessary to assert that while this process of consultation prevents people in power with the first and last say in any matter, it is only through the consensus of the whole community that a matter is accepted. Without that consensus, there is no Peace, and therefore the matter has to be reviewed once and again. If finally there is no consensus, the final decision is taken by the older men, those who know the traditions, but are not leaders of the manyatta. Those older men can exercise that power because they are, according to the Waso Boorana, nearer to God.

Therefore while one could assert that a process of organization requires appreciation, influence and control, its foundation comes in the case of the Waso Boorana from an epistemological and foundational principle, the Nagaa Boorana. Authority comes from God and eventually returns to God.

This case study is an inside look at gendered roles in the important task of selecting a new village Chief. This selection process was chosen for the study because it so clearly reflects different kinds of organizing separated by gender.

In this study, gender is defined as roles which are socially determined according to the sex of the person. African societies as a whole sharply define these roles, while western societies have broken down traditional gender roles. In looking at African society, and particularly this case study, it is important to note that men and women engage in separate activities in every realm of community life.

Men and women gather together separately to collect maize from donors during drought. In community events, women and men are spatially separate, standing in groups according to age, seniority and gender. Even in the tragedy of the funeral, there are two separate fires outside the house of the deceased that first night; one for men and one for women. Christian churches in Malawi practice separation of men and women, divided by the center aisle of the church. Boys and girls in villages adhering to traditional practices, have separate initiations, and separate knowledge which they are encouraged to keep secret from the opposite sex and the uninitiated.

To outline the domestic roles of men and women is to lose the more important concept of complementarity present among the Chewa. Women are essential to the life of the community, and men are needed for the survival of the community. Gender is mutual, and respected, and considered, rather than one gender assuming authority over another. Some of the reasons for this view may become apparent in the selection of the Chief to follow.

The study is divided into sections: background of the Chewa, the village structure, the selection process, and revealing the new Chief.

The Chewa people in the central region of Malawi are originally migrants coming from the Luba country of Zaire, according to oral tradition. The migration of Bantu peoples into Malawi occurred over several centuries, starting a thousand years ago. The people today are the descendants of the Maravi Empire, which reached its zenith in the 16th century. In the time of the Maravi Empire until the "times of war" in the mid-1800s, there was trade with neighbors, and an established trade route through Mozambique with the Portuguese and Arabs. In the 1800s, the slave trade had taken hold in Malawi. At the same time, the Ngoni peoples escaping the expanding Zulu empire, migrated north into Malawi attacking and raiding the people. Some of these people were subjected by the Ngoni. Others, including the most important sources of field research for this study, remained free by tending their gardens by day and retreating into the mountains for safety by night.

In this time of war, David Livingstone first came to Malawi in 1859. His writings of the "open sore" of slavery and his own religious convictions led to the coming of British missionaries. As in other parts of Africa, the missionaries were followed by businessmen and by the colonial administration. The times of war ended in the early 1900s, and the years of foreign influence in Christianity and colonialism began.

In 1964, Malawi was declared an independent nation. Before independence, and the thirty years since, the small nation has maintained its rural composition, with more than 80 percent of the people living in traditional villages. Since the times of war, the rural Chewa people have lived in relative peace continuing their traditions and community life.

The Chewa people are farmers, depending on the growth of maize, cassava, beans and various vegetables for their sustenance. Boiled maize flour called nsima is the primary food, prepared by women over cooking fires. They raise chickens and goats, and the wealthier people keep cattle.

The savannah highlands of central Malawi are temperate, with three seasons. There is a season of rains from November to April, a season of cold dryness from May to September followed by a short season of high temperatures and dryness until the first rains begin again in mid-November.

2. Village structure.

Chewa chieftaincies are organized by federations of small villages, numbering from fifty to 300 people, into group Chiefs over a few related villages, to regional Chiefs over a geographic area, to a few paramount chiefs, splitting the central region into several separate districts. In the choosing of a new Chief, the village requests their own Chief through the group Chief, and the Traditional Authority. The Traditional Authority is a body organized since Independence in 1964 to coordinate with the Malawi government, particularly the local District Commissioner's Office. The District Commissioner then authorizes the Traditional Authority to begin selection of a new Chief.

In Chewa society, the Chief is the leader of the people in his village. He represents power in his role as Chief, lineage in the matrilineal succession of the chieftancy, and unity in keeping the village together as a whole, as a unit, as one group of related peoples living together.

Chewa villages are generally structured around relations to a senior woman, the ancestress, or actually the grandmother or great grandmother of the female relatives, the liwele of the village. The pattern of marriage of people who are roughly in their thirties or older, has been that the man follows the woman to her village; a matrilocal system, with common exceptions as well.

The choice of Chief is not always simple, since married men are generally deemed to belong to another village, and most mature men are married. The choice then falls to a man who has married close to the village of his mother. Sometimes, out of duty, the man is asked to return to his former home and serve as Chief of his family, and sometimes, his wife or one of his wives, will follow.

At any time, a group of relatives may decide to break away from a village. In doing this, a man and his mbumba, his sisters, other female descendants and their husbands and unmarried uterine brothers, form their own village with their mother or grandmother. This breaking from a larger community may be accepted by the larger village and Chief, or it may be by force. In one peaceful example, a lineage, or mbumba wanted to have their own relative as chief, and the group village headman agreed with them. A sub-group was established, with the group village headman, followed by his village headmen, but numbered, one, two and now the new one, three. In another example, the mbumba left the community altogether, and moved into new territory to the west in the 1930s. Here, they established their own village, with permission of the paramount chief of that region, and soon established themselves as the regional chieftaincy, allocating all adjoining lands to newcomers. Thus, the man who attracts the support of his sisters and female descendants becomes the village headman, also referred to as village Chief.

The role of husbands in this system remains tenuous, since divorce by either party is relatively simple, and is not uncommon. The man can also be dismissed from the wife's village by her relatives, and at times, the wife who has chosen to live with her husband in his village may be dismissed by his relatives.

Ambiguity in future leadership in the village and political continuity are inherent in this system, since the Chief cannot be succeeded by his own son, but must be succeeded by one of his sister's sons, his nephews. The Chief stands on his own, without a clear successor, and with potentially more than one rival for his position.

The Chewa Chief, then, is powerful, but does not carry the same authority as the Chief in the patrilineal Ngoni society The role of the Chief reflects the ambiguity of his position in other ways, which will follow.

3. Selection process.

The traditional authority chooses ten or so village Chiefs from the area nearby the village; Chiefs who have knowledge of and contact with the village. These Chiefs are deemed to know the people in the village in question. They meet to select nine or more senior, elder women from within that village. The number of women selected is flexible, allowing the Chiefs a greater chance of reaching consensus in the appointment of the women.

From this selection process, the senior women are chosen to decide the issue of who will be the next Chief. While these women are chosen by the local Chiefs in the area, the choices made are largely expected. The women must be considered well matured, serious and wise, in short, capable of making the very best possible decision. Since age and seniority are important values, the grandmother or ancestress is the first choice, followed by the other senior women, who are well known in the village.

All the women in the village are related, so there seems to be a clear understanding and consensus about who these women should be. Since the possible choices of Chief are also prescribed by tradition, the selection of women by the local Chiefs is not solely a political choice to influence the outcome of the meeting, as might be expected in western political forums. The community is already well-formed, and the people in question are all known to everyone in the community. Women are deemed to know the behavior of the men from the time they were young boys growing up in the village. Ultimately, the Chief serves the women of the village, thus it is the women who decide who will be Chief.

Once the women have been selected, they choose a date to meet among themselves. The women meet in the house of the grandmother, and remain until a decision is reached. In the selection of a Chief, the senior grandmother and two or three other women in the meeting discuss possible names. They begin by suggesting two or three names. These names are selected in the order of tradition. Only the nephews of the Chief, not the sons, may be selected. If there is no suitable nephew, a niece may be chosen instead.

In one village, the Chief had three sisters. When he died, his nephew, the son of the eldest sister, became Chief in his place. Now this man had died. The choices, then, included the chief's sister's sons, but they were still quite young. The former Chief's sisters had other sons. The families of the Chief should change, so they chose not to select the brothers of the deceased Chief. Instead, they looked at the cousins of the deceased Chief, sons of the former Chief's second and third sisters.

With these guidelines from the grandmother and two or three senior women, the possible candidates were discussed in turn by all the women present in the meeting. They are free to discuss candidates openly and critically, (He is a drunkard, he does not behave well, and so on). The women take the meeting with gravity, and do not leave the house until everyone agrees on the selection of the new Chief. They may begin one evening, and not leave until the next morning, reaching unanimous consensus before going home. After this meeting, the women make arrangements to kugwira Mfumu, to catch the Chief. The identity of the new Chief is kept secret until that day.

Following the selection of the Chief, there is the selection of the female Namkungwi, the teacher, protector and supporter of the Chief. The new Chief brings the village together, and asks the same women who selected him to be Chief to choose a namkungwi from their number. Kinship relations are again important in making this choice. If the Chief is the son of the former Chief's second sister, the Namkungwi is likely to be the daughter of the third or fourth sister. The Chief and the Namkungwi should not be from the same nuclear family.

The same women who chose the Chief then sit again and discuss the proper Namkungwi among them. They alone know who spoke out in favor and against the new Chief. They discuss who is best for this responsibility, taking into consideration the Chief's best supporters, the kinship relation to the Chief and the qualities of the woman to accept the responsibility of Namkungwi. Then, with the consensus of the group, the Chief is given his Namkungwi.

A group of women, including a Namkungwi and a Chief's wife who had been in the selection house, described the characteristics of a proper Namkungwi. She is an elder woman, meaning mature and preferably having had her family already. She is a woman on very good terms with the new Chief, since she will be responsible for supporting him in his new position. The specific qualities include: someone who does not cheat, will never commit adultery, who keeps secrets and confidentialities very well, who is slow to anger and is quiet.

The Namkungwi becomes the close confidante of the Chief. She must be able to keep stories about other people to herself, and not repeat what the Chief has said about people. She must be secretive herself, and not say things too freely. If she reveals a secret, she is not considered worthy to be a Namkungwi.

In traditional society, it is believed that if the Chief has intercourse with his wife or worse, commits adultery, during the initiation of girls, he may cause one of the young girls to die. If the Namkungwi knows the Chief has had intercourse, and one of the girls dies, she must keep it concealed.

She should not be seen going about meeting men, since that is the same as 'killing the Chief's power'. She is undermining the authority of the Chief in her actions.

According to the women, the power of the Chief and the power of the Namkungwi are the same. The Chief remains powerful only with the support and medicinal aid of the Namkungwi. Her responsibility to the Chief is as strong as the responsibility of the Chief to the village. His downfall is her own.

Trust is the tie which must bind the Chief and his Namkungwi. She is entrusted with keeping certain sacred relics for the Chief, and he can confide in her openly. The Namkungwi informs the Chief about the initiation of girls and all that the women may be saying about him. She advises him, telling him if his behavior is not correct. She is given the secrets of the men and of the Chief, and freely moves across genders in initiation and community events.

In short, it is believed the Chief depends on the Namkungwi for his life. To become Chief is a risky venture, since there will be jealousy when he is chosen, and there will be opposition to his decisions. He has to fear the work of jealous people, and needs his female relatives behind him to remain in his position.

4. Ceremony to reveal the new Chief.

There are two celebrations to reveal the secret of the identity of the new Chief. The first to be described is for the selection of a Christian Chief, and the second is for a traditional Chief.

Food and beer are served to attract people from over the village region to reveal the secret of the new Chief, but also to attract whoever the new Chief will be. The role of Chief is a difficult one which is likely to lead to enemies, and the possibility of revenge. The position is fraught with potential danger, so not every person selected is eager to serve.

The ceremony for both Christians and traditional believers begins in the bwalo, the ritual community space. The whole village is present, as well as visitors. Prayers are said, and the brother-in-law of the new Chief slips behind the man. When they say Amen! the brother-in-law catches the Chief with a chitenji and shouts the name of the village, which becomes the name of the Chief.

Chief Chief

Catch the character/disposition of a Chief

Do not listen to children, Chief

In this song he is admonished not to listen to childish things, but to act now like a Chief. He is given an ivory bracelet as a sign of his chieftancy. Unlike the traditional 'catching', this Chief is not subjected to the shouting, singing and gesticulations of the crowd, as will be shown below. He and his wife are taken directly to the house where they are given the same kinds of instruction presented in the example below.

The kugwira Mfumu, catching of a Chief in a traditional setting, is an event for the village and the whole village area. People gather from over the region to herald the new Chief in the area. A masked dance event is organized, attracting people from several village areas. Maize flour is boiled into nsima and beer from maize sprouts is brewed to serve the expected guests attending the event. During the excitement of the masked dance, the selected man is 'caught' from behind by two or three men who were carefully chosen by the women for their relation to the man and for their secrecy. A blanket or chitenji is thrown over the head of the new Chief, and the secret is revealed.

The dance is ended, and the people sing out, dancing and playing. The Chief is hailed on all sides, and may be lifted up on the shoulders of men for the crowd to see. Children run circles around the new Chief, and sing songs to him. Anyone can come up to the man with the blanket over his head, singing and dancing, shouting out their feeling about his selection.

The new Chief wears the blanket over his head as the sign of a novice, a new initiate. As initiates look down in their public ceremony, his eyes are downcast. He assumes a subservient demeanor, serious and unassuming. He is surrounded by people...all people....children dancing and singing at him, people gesticulating...but throughout he must remain silent and somber.

After the people have had time to celebrate, he is led to a house where he will be subjected to the reprimands, reminders, and admonishments of his people, all the while keeping his eyes downcast and remaining silent. His wife is caught soon after him, covered in a chitenji, and taken to the house with her husband. She, too, assumes the downcast eyes and silence of her husband.

After the celebration outside, the elder women and the village chiefs in the selection process, go into the house to tell the couple what they expect from the Chief and Chief's wife. They are spoken to for hours, without having any chance to respond.

Among the instructions received, there are admonishments to love all of his people, and particularly to care for the women and the very young ones. He must work together in peace with his fellow Chiefs, and be willing to go to another village when he has received a message. Even at night, he cannot refuse to go. When his people are hungry, he must share his food with them. He is reminded of his responsibility toward the young initiates, and his responsibility for funerals in his own village and in his neighbors'. His wife is told to respect her husband and to kneel when guests come to visit him. As Chief he is told to be fair in deciding disputes, and not to be cruel.

Only after this period of instruction may he remove the blanket, and the wife may remove the chitenji, signifying they have now assumed their new status as Chief and Chief's wife. Then he assumes his new role as Chief, and asks to be given his Namkungwi.

What does all of this have to do with ODII and women's organizing for development?

There are several points which are important for development which are present in the ethnographic material. They are:

a. Women's organizing role as distinct from men' organizing.

b. Complementarity of gender relations in power.

c. Theory of A-I-C and development programs in practice.

First, the organizing role of women in Chewa society is distinctly different from that of men. It is the women who meet together, sitting in a circle, speaking freely and seeking consensus. The role is a quiet one, without political presence, without public speeches, and without notoriety. No one inside the house reveals what was said by whom, and all have a stake in the success of the new Chief, since all concurred with the decision in the end.

Being a matrilineal, matrilocal society, women are acknowledged as having a role in society, even though this may be an indirect role. It is often the woman's son or husband who becomes Chief, the known public figure. However, the woman lives among her own sisters, cousins, mother, aunts and grandmother. Her husband lives with her and their children, and is in the tenuous position of obeying his mother-in-law for the first few years of marriage.

In contrast, the men's selection process is more hierarchical, beginning with the government authority to act, followed by the appointment of people by the authority above them to the one below. The men's organizing is controlled, without election or unanimous consensus. Even the appointment of women by the Chiefs is more open-ended, not requiring unanimous consent on each woman selected. In one sense the meeting of the Chiefs and the women are alike: The selections made are known publicly, while the discussion remains private.

Second, even though the gender roles are different, they are complementary. Each has a power in society, and each is considered equally important in society. Without the Chief, the community lacks a leader. Without the Namkungwi, the Chief is destined to fail. One is the head of the community, the other is the right arm which tempers the arbitrary control of a Chief. Trust between genders to fulfill their different yet complementary roles is essential to keep the village together as a community.

In Chewa society, the underlying principle of a community is unity; unity of members, of man and woman, of families, and ultimately unity between man and God, and man and nature. The unity of gender so important in Chewa traditional religion is reflected in the organization of selection of the Chief. Men select the women. The women are unified as one in their choice.

Third, Organizing for Development promotes development based on three levels of organizing, and the inclusion of gender in development programs. While I will leave the explanation of A-I-C theory to ODII, the theory can be applied to Chewa organization exemplified in the selection of the Chief.

The proces of selecting a Chief can be interpreted as the reverse of the A-I-C process, Appreciation, Influence, and Control. The first organizing process is one of control, passing through hierarchical channels to the District Commissioner, who then gives permission to choose a new Chief. The process is the male model of hierarchy and control, as described in ODII theory. However, it is hierarchical and controlling with the intention of choosing another body to make the final decision, rather than making the decision themselves from a position of control.

The inclusion of the nearby village Chiefs in the process is part of the consensual structure of Chewa society as a whole. In any event or decision, people are consulted before a decision is reached. Chiefs consult with other Chiefs and with elders, and with the senior women before a final decision is made. The appointment of women by the Chiefs is the acknowledgement of their position in society. This is an example of influence.

The appointing of senior women is, in reality, another form of influence, since the appropriate candidates for appointment are already well known.

By tradition, the choice of Chief is also limited to certain candidates which are known by the community to be likely possibilities. The imposition of the hierarchical appointments from the Traditional Authority in the matrilineal society may very well be a recent development, but with the outcome remaining very much the same as in tradition. This system insitutionalizes selection in the larger governmental structure of the nation, increasing the role of men and government in the decision-making. The organizing of the women in making the critical decision without the presence of men follows the traditional separation of gender found in other realms of organizing in the village. The women's consensus is again guided by tradition in the choices they make. All the possible candidates are well known by the community and by the women. The candidates may well be the sons, brothers, and nephews of the women, although the women are free to choose another woman, if they wish. According to tradition, they may choose a woman if there are no suitable men in line.

The meeting itself is one of control at first and influence, but also of appreciation, since every woman is given time to state her own thoughts and position freely. The shape of most of the houses in the village is round, and the women sit in a circle facing one another. Each speaks freely, and each listens to others.

The control begins when the grandmother, charged with responsibility to set the meeting in motion, and present two or three names to consider. She has consulted with another senior woman or two of her choice, but has the first say in the matter. She also is charged with reminding the group about the process of tradition, in choosing a Chief from the proper kinship pattern.

After this, the meeting opens into an appreciative phase, in which every woman is given time to express her own thoughts about the candidates and anyone else she may suggest. In this process, another name may be adopted, and one candidate may be discarded.

In the final phase, once everyone has stated her position, the influence phase begins. By the end of the meeting each woman must be influenced by the others that the single candidate chosen is the one she will support.

Once consensus is made, the village will receive the decision

all at once, at the same time as the new Chief. What follows is the appreciation of the entire village who may say whatever they wish at the time of knowing. Once the public celebration is dying down, the new Chief and wife are placed in the control of the village chiefs and senior women, and cannot respond to their admonishments.

Gender roles among the Chewa of the central region of Malawi are distinct and definable. Men and women are clearly separated in ritual and community events, and in the daily life of the village. While the roles are distinctly different, they are complementary, each contributing to the tasks and decisions of community life.

This complementarity is well-defined in the case study of the selection of the new Chief of the village. The overwhelming majority of Chiefs are men, and these men appoint the committee to choose the Chief. The committee is made up only of women, who seek unanimous consensus in the committee in the selection of the new Chief.

This duality of gendered roles create the important unity needed for the community to survive as a unit of related people's living together. Gendered roles also have implications for development on the village level, since the integration of women into a project is critical. The inclusion of the complementary roles of both men and women is crucial for the acceptance and implementation of a village-wide project. This creates unity for the project, and for the village, and without this unity, the project is destined to lack support.

In both the Chewa matrilineal society and the Waso Boorana patrilineal society, men's and women's organizing roles are complementary, create unity, and involve the three processes of

A-I-C.

Among the Chewa the women make the final decision of the Chief. In contrast, the women of the Waso Boorana are not given the final choice in decisions affecting the community as a whole. However, the roles of organizing are still comparable in the larger issues of complementarity and unity. Without unity, there is no Nagaat among the Waso Boorana, and therefore, there is no community. Without the complementary roles of men and women in the selection of a Chief, there is no unity among the Chewa, and therefore no community.

In both case studies, the unity of gender in spite of the societal differences in expressing gender roles, is a key to understanding the community. In both case studies, women may appear more passive, yet are fully integrated into the society fulfilling critical roles in the life of the community. Without the support of the women, the unity of the community will cease, and community is the organization of life, work, marriage, and worship.

Through the principles of complementarity and unity, the two case studies provide insights into development on the local village level.

Each study has aspects of A-I-C evident in the ways of organizing. The Waso Boorana case study exemplified the A-I-C process in the selection of an elder. First, there was an appreciative process of informally discussing a need, raised to the consciousness of the entire community. In the community meeting, the process of influence began, with the woman's voice channeled through the most senior woman present in the inner circle of the meeting, and the various age-sets of men represented by men in the inner circle. Names are suggested and discussed. Finally, there is consensus, and a new elder is chosen. If there is no consensus, the final control lies with the older men, in their nearness to God.

The case study of the Chewa is more mixed, involving a more formal process from the government level to the revelation of the new Chief. In simplified terms, the Chewa case study is the inverse of the Waso Boorana one, beginning with the appointment of people from a hierarchical government system. Much of the decision is structured by tradition, but the women who make the final decision undergo initial control, followed by appreciation, and ending with influence to the point of consensus. Religion is a significant factor in both Chewa and Waso Boorana societies. In Christian villages, the ceremony revealing the Chief does not have the appreciative aspect of the villages which practice traditional religion. In the latter, the people gather for the masked dance, an event which unites the community and its neighbors. The 'catching' of the Chief is an expression of the appreciative process for all the people, united together for the occassion.

The role of ODII in development is certainly not limited to the A-I-C process. Other approaches to development inherent in the ODII process are particularly useful in light of the two case studies.

The approach of ODII in empowering people to suggest their own needs, and organize in their own way is critical for success in a Chewa village and Waso Boorana manyatta. Giving time in the workshop setting for the informal consultations is also critical. Both Chewa and Waso Boorana people speak with one another informally, forming consensus, before making decisions in a public meeting setting. As is evident in both the Chewa and Waso Boorana case studies, inclusion of women takes place informally as well as in formal meeting structures.

Another issue is that identification of stakeholders and inclusion of these peple is a crucial concept for success in the development process. As in the case studies, the stakeholders in any given society is not always clear-cut. The guidance of anthropologists and the people themselves is recommended to find the 'hidden' authorities to be consulted.

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