The fieldwork upon which this account of political organization in Unyamwezi is based was carried out between October 1957 and February 1960. During this time I was employed as a Junior Research Fellow of the East African Institute of Social Research at Makerere, Kampala, Uganda. The present work is a revised version of the Ph.D. dissertation which I submitted to the University of Cambridge in September 1962.

From October 1957 until July 1958 I worked mainly in the village of Butumwa in the Busangi chiefdom of Kahama District, Western Province, Tanganyika (now Tanzania). This work was followed by a short period of study centred upon Kahama Town. At the beginning of November 1958 I moved south to the chiefdom of Uyui in Tabora District, first living at chiefdom headquarters and then moving to the village of Kagela some six miles away. In April 1959 I moved to the related chiefdom of Ibili, also in Tabora District, where I spent about a month. During this time I was able to attend the installation of the chief of the neighbouring chiefdom of Busagari. In June 1959, after a journey to the coast which was partly spent in studying the Nyamwezi living there, I returned once more to Butumwa village in Busangi chiefdom. During my stay there I was able to study at first hand the political unrest which led to the downfall of the neighbouring chief of Ngaya. I left Butumwa in February 1960 to return to England.