Introduction : reawakenings. The dawning of the dawn ; A new world ; Past nightmares ; Theoretical challenges ; An approach to the study ; Outline of the study -- The patchwork democracy : boundary politics after 1994. The legacy ; Imagining the future : constitutional negotiations ; Towards a traditional authorities act ; 'Two bulls in a kraal?' : the local government discussion ; Keeping control over land ; The customary law debates -- The power of definition : struggling for the soul of custom. Who did the defining? The actors ; Why could they? Signs of the times ; The assumptions -- Sekhukhune : the institutional landscape. From Bopedi to Lebowa ; Traditional leadership and its spheres ; The institutional landscape ; Asserting control -- 'Walking in the middle of the road' : people's perspectives on the legitimacy of traditional leadership. Chieftaincy and legitimacy ; How do people support chiefs? ; Support at the community level ; Support dependent on chiefly characteristics ; Support at the individual level ; Why do people support traditional leaders? -- Negotiated laws, relational rights : power, authority & the creation of local law. Living law and legal culture in Sekhukhune ; Stories of succession ; The commission on the tribal constitution -- Categories have consequences : the constitutive effects of cultural rights legislation. Definitions and struggles ; The constitutive effects of cultural rights legislation ; Law, power and culture ; Alternatives.