A paramount chief is the English-language designation for the highest-level political leader in a regional or local polity or country administered politically with a chief-based system. This term is used occasionally in anthropological and archaeological theory to refer to the rulers of multiple chiefdoms or the rulers of exceptionally powerful chiefdoms that have subordinated others. Paramount chiefs were identified by English-speakers as existing in Native American confederacies and regional chiefdoms, such as the Powhatan Confederacy and Piscataway Native Americans encountered by European colonists in the Chesapeake Bay region of North America. During the Victoria era, paramount chief was a formal title created by British colonial administrators in the British Empire and applied in Britain's colonies in Asia and Africa. They used it as a substitute for the word "king" to ensure that only the British monarch held that title. Since the title "chief" was already used in terms of district and town administrators, the addition of "paramount" was made so as to distinguish between the ruling monarch and the local aristocracy. Africa Eastern African paramount chieftainships and titles Kenya: Title since 1904 of the former laibon of all the Maasai in Kenya (not in Tanzania) Kenya: Title held by supreme ruler Lago Ogom, after the advent of British colonial rule in Northern Kenya. Sudan: In South Sudan, the title of the chief responsible for a payam (district) elected by the chiefs of each buma (village). The Paramount Chief works with the government-appointed Payam Director, both of whom report to a county Commissioner. West African paramount chieftains and their countries Cameroon: Charles Atangana Nigeria: Ladapo Ademola Sierra Leone: Bai Bureh Ghana: Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II Ghana: Gariba II Ghana: Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu II Ghana: Notse Nii Nortey Owuo IV Southern African paramount chieftainships and titles Kgôsi of each of the eight major tribes of the Tswana, all in Botswana (former Bechuanaland) In present Lesotho since it emerged as a polity in 1822, a British protectorate as Basutoland since 12 March 1868 (11 August 1871 – 18 March 1884 Annexed to Cape Colony as Basutoland territory, then as a separate colony, as one of the High Commission Territories). The title changed to king on 4 October 1966, which was the date of the country's independence from the British Empire. In Namibia over the Awa-Khoi or "Red Nation" (more prominent then six other 'nations') of the Nama (Khoi) people, a Chiefdom