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The rise of the north-western Tswana kingdoms: on the dynamics of interaction between internal relations and external forces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Ørnulf Gulbrandsen
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Résumé

Tandis que la politique en Afrique du Sud est souvent considérée comme étant essentiellement fissionnée par nature, cet article met l'accent sur les processus de fusion qui sont également importants. En examinant la grandeur des royaumes du Nord-Ouest, l'accumulation de matériaux et capitaux symboliques dans les centres royaux est aussi soulignée. Une attention toute particulière est prêtée à la manière dont les souverains ont exploité ces capitaux dans un effort pour amalgamer les structures du pouvoir environnant leurs fonctions. L'accumulation du capital royal se rapporte à l'interaction des royaumes avec le monde extérieur, et il est soutenu ici que la grandeur des royaumes du Nord-Ouest de Tswana, situés au bord du Kalahari, pourrait être profitablement percue en tant que ‘points culminants localisés de precédés régionaux’, propulsés par des forces régionales et globales. L'approche historique ici-présente contribue ainsi à démontrer comment ces royaumes ont gagné des forces en trans-formant des types de constrainte extérieure toujours nouveaux en des reprises en sous-oeuvre constructives par une autorité centrale: la conquëte et l'incorporation initiate des groupes locaux ont donné à ces systèmes politiques une force démographique.

En vertue des pâturages vierges, la production de cuivre et les ressources naturelles au centre du Kalahari se sont accrues en richesses et en forces, attirant des groupes étrangers et les incorporant politiquement à travers une ‘clientisation’. Ces processus économiques et écologiques ont étayé l'accroissement de la richesse pastorale royale et ont diversifié la composition de la population, permettant au roi d'utiliser certaines institutions culturelles pour renforcer son contrôle intérieur et sa capacité militaire. En particulier, à travers plusiers décennies de succés militaire à partir de la fin du dix-huitième siécle, l'autorité du roi a été institutionalisée à travers un systeme de tutelle politico-administratif.

II est débattu que la force progressive de ces systèmes a évoluée en deux sortes de transformation dialectique: premièrement, une dialectique socio-politique à l'oeuvre dans l'intéraction entre les relations intèrieures et les forces extérieures, à travers lesquelles le roi a transféré une autorité politique au bétail et au peuple, et deuxiémement, la reproduction et le renforcement du capital symbolique appartenant au lignage royal, sur lequel la légitimité du roi a été fondée, a été affectée par la transformation de n'importe quel souverain victorieux de son état d'être roi en celui d'ancêtre royal. Bien que les opérations transformatives des souverains sont ainsi soulignées, leurs entremises ayant réussi à transférer les forces extérieures au capital royal ne sont pas en premier lieu attribuées à leurs abilités personnelles, mais aux conditions structurales avantageuses sous lesquelles elles ont opérées tandis que le context historique évoluait.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , October 1993 , pp. 550 - 582
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1993

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