ABSTRACT
One of the first actions of the German administration, established at Ossidinge in 1901, was to acknowledge the status of village leaders and to bring them under the formal protection of their own ‘Imperial Government’. In fact, although formally unregulated, the process was far from arbitrary: certain village sections took this opportunity of obtaining separate recognition of their leaders, and no doubt some individuals sought a personal aggrandizement of status, but it would seem that in the main those men who were recognized as chiefs were the accredited leaders of established communities. Their importance in these early years of Colonial administration is attested by their listing in an appendix of Mansfeld's book: under the heading 'Banyang', thirty-seven 'places' are listed, each with its named chief. As the successive Colonial administrations were a primary agent in creation of new villages and the realignment of established groups, so also the administration became the focus of attempts by individuals to achieve political status.
