Political Structure and its Ritual Expression. The Symbolism of Initiation Rites in Two Chiefdoms

The political structure of a society is expressed in rituals, the most impressive being the investiture and installation of the political structure's prominent actors. One has only to think of the coronation ceremonies in our contemporary kingdoms, be they European, African or from else-where. Installation ceremonies had the same importance in early states and they perdure in modern states with the installation into office of the highest officers. I have elsewhere (Muller 1981) argued that chiefdoms and early states are based upon a single ideological model. They both have chiefs ruling small communities in chiefdoms and bigger ones in early states. But more often than not, in early states as well as in modern states, installation ceremonies have no continuity with the rites de passage that are imposed on ordinary people. They are a thing per se, with no im-plication and continuity with the initiatory path followed by an ordinary citizen. A situation which might be different in many chiefdoms but not in all, the question remaining open for further research. In this contribution I shall look at the symbolism of initiation in the two chiefdoms I have stud-ied, the Dìì of Northern Cameroon and the Rukuba of the Nigerian High Plateau. This symbolism is organized in order to show in the first place that the village chief is a man like any other who initially undergoes a normal initiation, along with all the boys of his age grade. But the political ideologies of these two ethnic groups are not only explained, but also shown and, more importantly, acted out in the rites which are made upon the chief on his investiture to this status. These rites make him the unique complete and full initiate of his chiefdom and they tell why it must be so. THE DÌÌ1 The Dìì are a patrivirilocal people of around 50 000 persons. Each of the numerous Dìì chiefdoms of Adamawa (Cameroon) – which I also call villages since their inhabitants are each grouped in one single village