Zande

Politics

In the early 1700s, two noble clans began consolidating political power and expanding into new territories, resulting in about a dozen kingdoms. A kingdom consisted of a royal court, ruled by a Vungara or Bandia king, who then sent his sons or loyal commoners to serve as governors of his provinces.

The Zande-speaking Vungara clan originated near modern-day Rafai(along the Chinko river) and expanded eastward, slowly assimilating neighboring groups, who then adopted Zande language and customs. In his book Azande History and Political Institutions, Evans-Pritchard argues that the Vungara were able to take political advantage of the surplus resulting from the recent development of agriculture. The Vungara kings and princes, by using permanent battalions of young warriors and the temporary labor of adult men to work their fields, and also by receiving tribute from the surrounding area, were able to control a very large amount of food, which they then redistributed in a way that strengthened their authority. The Vungara courts assured stability, military protection, and justice for peoples that until then had [Page 2359]been small-scale, autonomous groups. Food was given generously to feed the courtiers, the battalions and their leaders, and commoners who came to the court for redress of wrongs or with requests. Perhaps most importantly, the kings gave bridewealth (in the form of marriage spears) to anyone who asked. They also gave wives to loyal governors, military leaders, and others who had shown them great service or loyalty. The Vungara thus established a political stronghold in the region by being strong but also by being generous. The rulers and subjects benefited mutually: The Vungara depended on their subjects for warriors, labor, and tribute; the subjects in turn benefited from their generosity, protection, and courts of justice. It was this system that allowed the Vungara to evolve to a ruling clan, and to bring social hierarchy to peoples who until then had been small, autonomous, egalitarian groups. Wars were fought not so much to expand territory as to gain subjects, who would then contribute to building up the kingdom. The Vungara kingdoms, which included peoples of various ethnic groups, were very unstable, and a20-year period saw a new set of kingdoms; the Vungara princes, especially in the newer, easternmost regions, were each other's worst enemy.

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