e - CIFAS

56 GOVERNMENT IN ZAZZAU
staff, and in consequence of this they lacked internal or external
segmentary relations.
Our data indicate the existence of two other specialized ad~
ministrative ordersj firstly, the king's slaves, among whom were
groups distinguished in terms of military, civil, and police duties;
and secondly, the religious order of mallams, who officiated at
rituals andwho advised technically onthe contentandapplication of
Mubammadan law. Significantly also, both these orders. the mallams
and the slaves. lacked any internal eegmentation or external
contraposition with other groups, and were distinguished by
particular lines of communication with the king. Thus the king
communicated with each mallam individually through his chamber
eunuchs, while the supervision of military and civil groups of
slaves was carried out for the Madawaki by the Sata, himself a
promoted slave, and for the Sarkin Fada, by the Hauni, with
consequent political neutralization of this order, while the police
and town-guard were separately controlled by the Gaiadima.
Positively, in the specification of their duties and in the allocation
of means and authority for their execution, and negatively, by
their exclusion from the processes of policy formation, these two
orders, the slaves and the mallams, and the various offices which
separately constitute them, exhibit a purely administrative
character. Their exclusion from the system of political action is
evident in two ways: firsdy, by the incompatibility of their roles
with political office, from which the slaves and the mallams were
by definition excluded 80long as theyremainedslaves andmallarns;
secondly, by their insulation from political influence and appoint~
ments due to the status requisites applying in either case. Further~
more, as pointed out above, these orders exhibit no internal or
external segmentary relations. Thus. although the order of slave~
officials was internally divided into functional groups, none of these
divisions had a head or hierarchic internal organization.
The order of mallams is of special interest, as it furnished the
majority ofthe electoral council entrusted with the selection ofthe
king's successor. This function might suggest that this order had a
political character; but on this point, fortunately, the data are very
clear. Together with the Madawaki and the senior eunu~
Galadima, three malLams were authorized and required to select
the new king; but, unlike the two public ofiiciaIs with whom they
were associated, after deciding the succession, the authority and
GOVERNMENT IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY ABUJA 57
responsibility of theee malLatn8 was exhausted, and they retired
from the political scene, back to their religious duties. It is thus
quite clear that the electoral malJams, though authorized to select
the ruler, were otherwise excluded from the policy-making process,
and that in selecting the ruler they were held to be carrying
out an authorized, that is, an administrative task. This indeed explains
their presence as the majority group on the electoral council.
Mallams were given numerical dominance on this council in order
to out-vote its purely political elementj to minimize the threat
which succession presented to the continuity of the system; by
their religious prestige, to legitimize the new ruler's appointment;
to frustrate the nomination of persons whose incapacity for the
throne would give their political nominators opportunities for the
improper exercise and appropriation of power; and to select the
most suitable candidate with the minimum of political bargaining.
(i') TIw Nature of Office
An analysis of the segmentary aspects of the Ahuja government
directs attention to the nature of the units of the system. These
units are offices, which were defined as perpetual and exclusive
statuses in a system consisting of such statuses and their inter~
relations. In the definition of any particular office, or of office
generally, the relations between each unit and other members of
the system forms a very important part. The position of an office
within the system really consists in its relations to other parts of
the system. But this does not fully describe the office, nor exhaust
its meaning. Offices were differentiated politically and administratively,
as we have just seenj and those different types of office had
different types of relation with the society at large. Although the
functions of office were governmental, these functions were not
entirely confined to the system ofoffices. itself, and their execution
brought offices of this system into contact with the society at
large.
The offices of a governmental system and their interrelations together
fonn its structure, while the activities of these units
constitute its function. We can therefore distinguish between the
structure of the syStem of government on the one hand, and the
functions of the system or its constituent offices on the other. We
must also distinguish between administrative relations by which
government controls the society and conducts its affairs, and