ABSTRACT
Chapter 2, introducing a long-term historical perspective, focuses on political conflict that preceded and led to the split of Moremi village. We follow a continuous course of political and legal action through tribal courts, administrative tribunals, and other meetings with civil servants and elected officials from the district councillor to the Minister of Local Government and Lands. We distinguish different types of events – blind probes, confrontations, and encounters – in order to illuminate the power struggles advanced by a policy for the centralisation of small villages, during the 1970s. Blind probes recur repeatedly under conditions of uncertainty, without necessarily leading to any decisive conclusion in an encounter. Our analysis brings to the study of factional and transactional politics in small villages a better view of villagers’ mobilisation for judicial review against top-down policy decisions. This view appreciates how the power of citizens qua citizens enters into the political equation, and it illuminates the intersection of law and politics by disclosing the claims citizens make for their rights and for accountability under the rule of law.
