In ancient times, all African countries had a complete chieftain system, and the whole of Africa was a tribal society.
These large and small chieftain kingdoms have long existed in South Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Côte d'Ivoire.
The grand chieftain was the supreme ruler of various tribal associations and had absolute power in all things, such as making laws, presiding over the administration, directing wars, performing sacrificial rites, adjudicating arguable cases, collecting taxes and so on.
In some countries, chieftain societies were classified by government decree as grades one, two, and three, according to the size of their territory, their population, and their economic importance.
Zulu people still had many traditional customs. To the present day, the chiefs were still the speakers of the tribe. In addition, the main tribe was divided into many small tribes, each of those having its own chief.
