(2 of 3)
THE OBA OF BENIN. Benin's history was once the brightest of all the African kingdoms': its famous bronze sculptures are collector's items across the world. Today, the 450,000 members of this Nigerian tribe are led by Oba Akenzua II, 74. Like the Oni of Ife and the Alafin, he receives a stipend of about $10,000 a year from the Nigerian government; in addition, he has extensive landholdings that produce considerable extra income—just how much, no one will say. His successor is Crown Prince Solomon Akenzua, 48, who retired from the Nigerian civil service in June to return to Benin and begin preparing himself for the responsibilities of royalty. Prince Solomon hopes that the Lagos government has abandoned for good its past habit of deposing obas almost at will. "If an oba does not do his job, he should be replaced, but it is his people that should do it. Obas are important in local government and should be protected from political caprice."
THE ASANTEHENE OF GHANA. Otumofuo [All Highest] Nana Opoku Ware II, King of Ghana's 1.8 million Ashanti, still wields considerable power as Keeper of the Golden Stool. A barrister in the Ashanti capital of Kumasi until he became a king in 1970 (succeeding his uncle), Nana Opoku, 54, is all but coddled by Ghana's leaders. In turn, he takes a lively—but noninter-fering—interest in national affairs.
"What Ghana needs today is unity," he says, "no matter what one's origin or tribe." He has instructed his subchiefs to concentrate on local affairs. In return, Ghana's President, Colonel Ignatius Acheampong, has pledged to leave tribal affairs solely in the hands of the chiefs. Thus, when local student groups started to protest in June against a $2.5 million palace that Nana Opoku is now building in Kumasi, they were quickly told by Accra to lay off.
THE KING OF DAHOMEY. Dahomey's tribal chiefs, unlike those of neighboring Nigeria, were stripped of power by French colonizers. Despite his titular position as President of Dahomey's "Customary Tribunal" (which is totally ceremonial), Togni-Ahossou Agoli-Agbo, now 61, has relatively little local authority. Spiritual head of the 1,000,000 or so Fons, the country's largest ethnic group, the King gets a small stipend from the national treasury. He gets by otherwise on gifts from loyal subjects as well as fees from camera-happy tourists who snap him in his royal robes and silver nosepiece—worn so that he will not sniff impure air.
THE LITUNGA OF BAROTSELAND.
Godwin Lewanika, 65, who succeeded to the throne in 1968, is the ceremonial leader of Zambia's 300,000 Lozis. His predecessors struggled to preserve a degree of Lozi autonomy from the encroachments of Kenneth Kaunda's central government, but Lewanika is a realist and gave up the battle. A former mine clerk and union organizer, Lewanika twice a year leads one of Africa's most impressive ceremonies—the journey of the Lozis from the 4,000-sq.-mi. flood plain (where they farm and fish from July to March) to the higher lands at the forest's edge. As the waters rise, the Lozis begin ritualistically imploring their King to move; when the new moon appears, princes and counselors paddle the royal barge carrying the King away from his summer palace. When the water falls, the pomp is repeated.