e - CIFAS

,. GOVERNMENT IN ZAZZAU GOVERNMENT IN NINETEENTH_CENTURY AHUJA 53
society, and in their hierarchies and relations they mirror the
composition and values of the wider unit.
(c) Social Status and the Official Sysum
In view ofthis, it is necessary to consider the nature ofthe basic
status differences and conditions current in Habe society. Apart
from the king, his family, and other members ofthe royal lineage,
there were hereditary vassal chiefs, and freemen who were divisible
into officials, aristocrats not holding office, mallams or religious
leaders, manumitted slaves, and freeborn commoners. The society
also containedslaves and eunuchs, together with subordinate pagan
populations which were culturally and linguistically distinct. Of
the major status-groups, the category of free persons showed the
highest degree of internal differentiation. Thus, to consider only
office-holders, among free persons, the Sarkin Gayen, a former
Habe village chief, was noble by descent as well as office, while
all others. although holding important titles such as Madawaki
or Sarkin Fada, might have risen from the commoner class
(talakawa). The religious order ofmallams,. who were all freemen,
embodied another principle of differentiation within the statusgroup
of free persons. Moreover, as M. Hassan's ethnography of
Abuja indicates, occupational differences had Significant status
implications for the free commoners. Butchers, for example, were
accorded very low status.
These statuses differ significantly according to their social implications,
mutability, and modes of differentiation. Thus slavery
was a legal status, terminable for both sexes by manumission,
purchase of freedom, or death, and also, for females, by bearing a
child for their master as his concubine. Freedom was also a mutable
legal status, since capture normally led to death or enslavement
in another society. In contrast, the status ofeunuch was immutable,
wherever the individual might be, and irrespective of
captivity. The eunuch's condition rendered the question of his
freedom or slavery meaningless, since he was unable to marry or
beget issue, and so had no family to succeed or inherit from him.
The eunuch's dependence on his master was thus variable, according
to the facilities which he enjoyed.
Among free officials also, it seems clear that very few titles were
held on a life-tenure basis, while none were hereditary, except for
the royal offices, the vassal chieftainships and the title of Sarkin
Gayen. Officials were in theory subject to dismissal as well as
promotion after their appointments. There were also occasions on
whi.ch persons ?f. a particular status exercised rights and powers
typIcally the prlVllege of other statuses. Thus the religious order
of mallama, which enjoyed high prestige as a non-political group,
was charged with the political function of selecting the successor
to the throne.
Within the royal lineage, and even within the king's family
individual status remained alterable through death and succession:
and varied according to the specific relation holding between the
king and different persons. Significantly, the Dan Galadima orheir
apparent rarely succeeded to the throne; and the administrative
n:spons~ilities or authority of the various royal officials further
differentiated between them; thus neither theheir presumptive nor
the Magajin Dangi (head of the----royal?-lineage) are reported to
have controlled fiefs, although the king's eldest daughter. the
Sarauniya, is said to have done so. Whether this reflects an
omissionin the aCCOunt or corresponds to the original allocation of
duties cannot be said.
. The precise definitions of rank-orders, their peculiar compositIO~,
interrelations, hierarchic structure and arrangement in a
,:anety o~ closed promotional series gain new significance by relation
to this background ofsocial differentiation. Only by some such
system of precise and predictable relations was it possible to
_ organize the participation of persons of such varied statuses
_ smoothly and continuously within the system of government; and
only through the participation of persons ofthese different Status­
, groups could the personnel of government sufficiently reflect the
differentiation of the society, to evoke popular consensus and support,
The differentiation of official roles within the government,.
and the p~lar allocatioJLS of office to different status-groups
,were functIonally related, and between them ensured that the
; social composition and structure of government corresponded to
that of the society.
Allocation of three out of the four rukuni offices to eunuchs is
noteworthy in two respects. Firstly eunuchs were the only group
, \Vhose status was immutable. Secondly such allocations served to
. protect the system of government against change. These two fea­
"ttues are closely related. As eunuchs, such high officials could not
"entertain personal ambitions ofa type inconsistent with the current
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