missionary observed that its objective was "to incorpora.te them into the
nation, to attach them to the young chief who is part of the band."65 The
boys who were initiated together formed a distinct group under the lead-
ership of the chief's son for whom the leballo had been convened. A chief
had a group of devoted followers in his initiation-mates.
The political system was the product of the process of fission and expan-
sion that had been going on ever since mixed farmers began to move into
Southern Africa in the third or fourth century A.D. The effective political
units were autonomous
chiefdoms-territorial
units under hereditary
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