Word: tribe
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...since Edward VIII gave up his throne for Wally Simpson had society anywhere suffered a comparable constitutional crisis. All week long, under giant camelthorn trees at Serowe, thatched-hut capital of the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland in South Africa, the tar-black chieftains of the Bamangwato tribe pondered and palavered...
...Accusation. Some 9,000 tribesmen of the 100,000 Bamangwatos traveled hundreds of miles along the dusty trails of their Texaslike land, bringing their own chairs for the kgotla (parliament) at Serowe. They listened intently to Seretse's most formidable accuser, his uncle and the tribe's Regent Tshekedi. For 23 years, during his nephew's minority and absence abroad, mission-educated Tshekedi had been the black boss of Bechuanaland and one of Africa's outstanding native rulers...
...against Seretse. "Chiefs pass and are forgotten, but the country goes on," he said. "Custom has been broken. It was a great wrong marrying this white woman. My nephew has killed us. He has made a precedent that the chief can marry without regard to or consent of the tribe." He insisted on a divorce: "The white woman is not suitable for Seretse and the tribe...
...chief's wife sets me a task, I would do it. But if a white woman says, 'Chop wood!', I would answer, 'How much?' " Another said: "Nobody can cast fire among the people he loves. If you bring this woman, the tribe will scatter and [pointing to a cattle stockade] you will be chief of these poles...
Perhaps because the co-authors collaborated by mail (Frank Jr. lives in Charleston, S.C., sister Ernestine in Manhasset, N.Y.), their product lacks unity and presents the reader with only the haziest notion about the chronology of the Gilbreth tribe's doings. Though father Gilbreth often sounds (and sounds off) like father Day, Cheaper by the Dozen lacks the literary merits of its wise, well-honed predecessor. Mother Gilbreth's firm character is made clear (she still lives in Montclair, runs her husband's business and was 1948's "Woman of the Year"). But the personalities...