ABSTRACT
The political organization of the Nupe village differs in certain respects in different parts of Nupe-land, but the general outline of the system remains, with one or two exceptions, the same. Titles and composition of the council of elders vary, but the same rule is valid in every Nupe village: so many 'houses' or family groups, so many elders. Autocratically inclined chiefs find means to evade the check on their power which an efficient council of elders implies. The normal routine work of village government is carried on by the chief and his 'inner council' of two or three elders of highest rank. Chieftainship in Nupe is, like the system of nusa ranks, characterized by the coexistence of two systems of succession: promotion and hereditary succession. In Jebba and Mokwa the chief's rank is merely the highest in the order of village ranks, and one of the senior elders of the village is promoted to the position of the chief.
