communicate, he would convene a meeting of his male subjects. This
custom was particularly firmly entrenched among the Basotho and Bats-
wana. At a pitso, the men had considerable freedom of speech-they
could, and often did, make pointed criticisms of the chief or a councillor. In
the last resort, alienated subjects would vote with their feet-leaving
their
chiefdom and joining another, where they were nearly always welcome,
because people were the most important gauge ofthe power and prestige of
a chiefdom; or an aggrieved kinsman might build up a following and split
the polity. In practice, there were great variations in the relationships be-
tween chiefs and their male subjects, and in the expansion or contraction of
chiefdoms, depending on the context and the interplay of personalities.
The Basotho had two sayings that summed up the underlying tension:
"Morena ha a fose" (The chief can do no wrong) and "Morena ke batho"
(No people, no chief).69
American historian Robert Harms has emphasized the powers of male
commoners in African societies, pointing out that
Africa has been unique in the degree to which peasants have remained uncap-
tured by elites. This situation owed much to the existence of vacant land
which made emigration an ever-present option to peasants who felt them-