Childhood Days Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #10)

confidence of the community. Whether we call him premier in the capitalist epoch or chief counsellor in communities living under primitive classless society is more a question of form than of fundamental difference. Substantially, both perform the same function. My father was also member of the Bunga (Transkeian Territories United General Council) which advised the government on the administration of the Transkei. But I have no independent knowledge of this fact. The regent and C.K. Sakwe, themselves members of the Bunga for many years, and Tennyson Makiwane (senior), an employee of the Bunga, frequently reminded me of this fact. A distinction should however, be made between the Transkeian Territorial United General Council whose jurisdiction covered the twenty six districts of the Transkei and the District Council whose authority was confined to the district concerned. In Xhosa they are both called the Bunga. I have been unable to ascertain whether he was a member of the one or the other or both. My father became a chief of Mvezo not by virtue of the fact that he was a grandson of Ngubengcuka, but because the government of the had appointed him as a headman to this position. He had to account for his stewardship to his king and to the magistrate. During the course of his chieftaincy one of his subjects lodged a complaint against him and the magistrate ordered him to appear for the purpose of investigating the matter administratively. Instead of obeying the order my father took up a defiant attitude, arguing that in matters of this kind he was guided by Thembu law and custom, that according to such law and custom the action complained of was perfectly valid and that there was consequently nothing to investigate. His defiance was not just an outburst of temper. It was based on principle he was asserting what he believed to be his traditional perogative and challenging the right of the magistrate to interfere in such affairs. When the official insisted that he should appear,