ABSTRACT
B. A. Pauw, writing of the Tswana on the Taung Reserve in South Africa, has stated: 'The opportunities for leadership in the churches now make up for the loss of such opportunities in the political and administrative sphere.' Many local ministers in African sects have previously been elders or deacons in another sect or in the Church of Scotland. The churches and sects, however, now provide new opportunities for the achievement of status. The office of chief was hereditary in a matrilineal line. The significance of the Ethiopian Church hierarchy in relation to the traditional political hierarchy appears rather different from that of the simple secessionist sects. The structure of the Roman Catholic Church is pyramidal with the Pope at the apex. Every other official in the Catholic hierarchy is subordinate to a higher official. African Catholic priests are some of the most highly educated and Westernized inhabitants of Southern Nyasaland.
