Notes on the political organization of the Madi of Uganda

SYNOPSIS The Madi of northen Uganda and the southern Sudan are a Sudanic‐speaking people and number 67,000. The settlement pattern is one of small joint family homesteads, grouped into sections and tribes, the latter being the largest indigenous political unit. Each tribe is associated with a dominant clan, which possesses a chief, opi. The chief ship is validated by mythically sanctioned rainmaking powers, which may, however, be “sold” to other groups. Chiefs are political and ritual functionaries. They do not act alone but in association with subordinate opi: rainmakers, “chiefs of the fingernails” and chiefs concerned with property. The relationship between these chiefs is ideally and often in fact that of half‐brothers, although this is not always the case and there may be lineages of “pretenders” as well as the recognized chiefly lineage. The ideal relationship of half‐brothers means that there may be uterine kinship links between chiefs of different tribes.