5 Major centralized societies in Zambia: main features

Earlier in our post we talked about the decentralised societies. Let us now explore the Major centralized societies in Zambia: main features

•Societies led by a king or a chief are called centralized societies.
•Examples of centralized include : the Bemba, luyi and lunda, the chewa and the Ngoni.

Characteristics of the centralized societies in Zambia

•They had one supreme hereditary ruler at a time and under him were several sub-chiefs and headmen
•They had well-established social institutions such as clans and lineages.
•They had a well established cultural institutions
•The supreme ruler acted as the father to the people and made decisions on behalf of all the people.
•Each society had special royal objects used in coronations and other cultural ceremonies.
•The supreme leader also served as the chief priest during major tribal religious ceremonies
•The sub chiefs had to be installed only after the approval of the supreme ruler.