In addition, resolution needs to be acceptable to all parties. Chiefs such as those of the Nuer and Dinka are examples of this category. The third section looks at the critical role of political and economic inclusion in shaping peace and stability and points to some of the primary challenges leaders face in deciding how to manage inclusion: whom to include and how to pay for it. Leaders may not be the only ones who support this definition of legitimacy. Evidence from case studies, however, suggests that the size of adherents varies from country to country. This brief overview of conflict in Africa signals the severity of the security challenges to African governance, especially in those sub-regions that feature persistent and recurrent outbreaks of violence. The traditional African religions (or traditional beliefs and practices of African people) are a set of highly diverse beliefs that include various ethnic religions . In traditional African communities, it was not possible to distinguish between religious and non-religious areas of life. There are very few similarities between democracy and dictatorship. Both can be identified as forms of governance. He served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1981 to 1989. However, they do not have custodianship of land and they generally do not dispense justice on their own. Africas rural communities, which largely operate under subsistent economic systems, overwhelmingly adhere to the traditional institutional systems while urban communities essentially follow the formal institutional systems, although there are people who negotiate the two institutional systems in their daily lives. The question then becomes, how to be inclusive?19 A number of African states have decentralized their political decision-making systems and moved to share or delegate authority from the center to provincial or local levels. In new countries such as most of those in Africa,7 where the rule of law is in competition with the rule of men, leaders play a strikingly critical role, for good or ill. This can happen in several ways. Three layers of institutions characterize most African countries. Challenges confronting the institution of chieftaincy have continued from the colonial era into recent times. This category of chiefs serves their communities in various and sometimes complex roles, which includes spiritual service. Long-standing kingdoms such as those in Morocco and Swaziland are recognized national states. The participatory and consensus-based system of conflict resolution can also govern inter-party politics and curtail the frequent post-election conflicts that erupt in many African countries. Violating customary property rights, especially land takings, without adequate compensation impedes institutional reconciliation by impoverishing rather than transforming communities operating in the traditional economic system. The initial constitutions and legal systems were derived from the terminal colonial era. Among the attributes of the traditional system with such potential is the systems transparent and participatory process of resolving conflicts, which takes place in open public meetings. The US system has survived four years of a norm-busting president by the skin of its teeth - which areas need most urgent attention? The book contains eight separate papers produced by scholars working in the field of anthropology, each of which focuses in on a different society in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hoover scholars offer analysis of current policy challenges and provide solutions on how America can advance freedom, peace, and prosperity. There is also the question of inclusion of specific demographic cohorts: women, youth, and migrants from rural to urban areas (including migrant women) all face issues of exclusion that can have an impact on conflict and governance. The institution of traditional leadership in Africa pre-existed both the colonial and apartheid systems and was the only known system of governance among indigenous people. Africas economic systems range from a modestly advanced capitalist system, symbolized by modern banking and stock markets, to traditional economic systems, represented by subsistent peasant and pastoral systems. A command economy, also known as a planned economy, is one in which the central government plans, organizes, and controls all economic activities to maximize social welfare. A related reason for their relevance is that traditional institutions, unlike the state, provide rural communities the platform to participate directly in their own governance. The opinions expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University. This outline leads us to examine more closely the sources of legitimacy in African governance systems. By 2016, 35 AU members had joined it, but less than half actually subjected themselves to being assessed. Chiefs administer land and people, contribute to the creation of rules that regulate the lives of those under their jurisdiction, and are called on to solve disputes among their subjects. In sum, the digitization of African politics raises real challenges for political leaders and has the potential to increase their determination to digitize their own tools of political control. Indigenous education is a process of passing the inherited knowledge, skills, cultural traditions norms and values of the tribe, among the tribal member from one generation to another Mushi (2009). This is in part because the role of traditional leaders has changed over time. Ndlela (2007: 34) confirms that traditional leaders continue to enjoy their role and recognition in the new dispensation, just like in other African states; and Good (2002: 3) argues that the system of traditional leadership in Botswana exists parallel to the democratic system of government and the challenge is of forging unity. This approach to governance was prominent in the Oyo empire. The Alafin as the political head of the empire was . We do not yet know whether such institutions will consistently emerge, starting with relatively well-governed states, such as Ghana or Senegal, as a result of repeated, successful alternations of power; or whether they will only occur when Africas political systems burst apart and are reconfigured. A second objective is to draw a tentative typology of the different authority systems of Africas traditional institutions. In addition, they have traditional institutions of governance of various national entities, including those surrounding the Asantehene of the Ashanti in Ghana and the Kabaka of the Buganda in Uganda. Integration of traditional and modern governance systems in Africa. However, almost invariably the same functions, whether or not formally defined and characterized in the same terms or exercised in the same manner, are also performed by traditional institutions and their leaders. The terms Afrocentrism, Afrocology, and Afrocentricity were coined in the 1980s by the African American scholar and activist Molefi Asante. In African-style democracy the rule of law is only applicable to ordinary people unconnected to the governing party leadership or leader. This provides wide opportunity for governments to experiment, to chart a course independent of Western preferences, but it can also encourage them to move toward authoritarian, state capitalist policies when that is the necessary or the expedient thing to do. One of these is the potential influence exerted by the regions leading states, measured in terms of size, population, economic weight, and overall political clout and leadership prestige. Ehret 2002 emphasizes the diversity and long history of precolonial social and political formations, whereas Curtin, et al. The link was not copied. More frequently, this form of rule operates at the sub-state level as in the case of the emir of Kano or the Sultan of Sokoto in Nigeria or the former royal establishments of the Baganda (Uganda) or the Ashanti (Ghana). Land privatization is, thus, unworkable in pastoral communities, as communal land ownership would be unworkable in a capitalist economy. All life was religious . Almost at a stroke, the relationships between African governments and the major powers and major sources of concessional finance were upended, while political liberalization in the former Soviet bloc helped to trigger global political shock waves. Another measure is recognition of customary law and traditional judicial systems by the state. Botswanas strategy has largely revolved around integrating parallel judicial systems. These circumstances can generate an authoritarian reflex and the temptation to circle the wagons against all sources of potential opposition. The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. Ethiopias monarchy ended in 1974 while the other three remain, with only the king of Swaziland enjoying absolute power. Hoover Education Success Initiative | The Papers. But the context in which their choices are made is directly influenced by global political trends and the room for maneuver that these give to individual governments and their leaders. While traditional institutions remain indispensable for the communities operating under traditional economic systems, they also represent institutional fragmentation, although the underlying factor for fragmentation is the prevailing dichotomy of economic systems. In Botswana, for example, the consensual decision-making process in the kgotla (public meeting) regulates the power of the chiefs. for in tradi-tional African communities, politics and religion were closely associated. In Ghana, for example, local governance is an area where traditional leadership and the constitutional government sometimes lock horns. Traditional leaders often feel left out when the government takes decisions affecting their people and land without their consent or involvement. In light of this discussion of types of inclusion, the implications for dealing with state fragility and building greater resilience can now be spelled out. 1.4. Poor leadership can result in acts of commission or omission that alienate or disenfranchise geographically distinct communities. Rather, they are conveners of assemblies of elders or lower level chiefs who deliberate on settlement of disputes. Others contend that African countries need to follow a mixed institutional system incorporating the traditional and formal systems (Sklar, 2003). In Sierra Leone, paramount chiefs are community leaders and their tasks involve - among others - protecting community safety and resolving disputes. Tribes had relatively little power outside their own group during the colonial period. As institutional scholars state, institutional incompatibility leads to societal conflicts by projecting different laws governing societal interactions (Eisenstadt, 1968; Helmke & Levitsky, 2004; March & Olsen, 1984; North, 1990; Olsen, 2007). African Governance: Challenges and Their Implications. The political history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans andat least 200,000 years agoanatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states. Large states and those with complex ethnic and geographic featurese.g., the DRC, Nigeria, Uganda, the Sudans, Ethiopiamay be especially prone to such multi-sourced violence. for a democratic system of government. In the centralized systems also, traditional leaders of various titles were reduced to chiefs and the colonial state modified notably the relations between the chiefs and their communities by making the chiefs accountable to the colonial state rather than to their communities (Coplan & Quinlan, 1997). A third layer lies between the other two layers and is referred to in this article as traditional institutions. A partial explanation as to why the traditional systems endure was given in the section Why African Traditional Institutions Endure. The argument in that section was that they endure primarily because they are compatible with traditional economic systems, under which large segments of the African population still operate. The geography of South Africa is vast scrubland in the interior, the Namib Desert in the northwest, and tropics in the southeast. Governments that rely on foreign counterparts and foreign investment in natural resources for a major portion of their budgetsrather than on domestic taxationare likely to have weaker connections to citizens and domestic social groups. It may be good to note, as a preliminary, that African political systems of the past dis played considerable variety. Ten years later, in 2017, the number of conflicts was 18, taking place in 13 different countries. In the past decade, traditional security systems utilized in commercial or government facilities have consisted of a few basic elements: a well-trained personnel, a CCTV system, and some kind of access control system. A third argument claims that chieftaincy heightens primordial loyalties, as chiefs constitute the foci of ethnic identities (Simwinga quoted in van Binsberger, 1987, p. 156). A third objective is to examine the relevance of traditional institutions. 134-141. Democratic and dictatorial regimes both vest their authority in one person or a few individuals. The Obas and Caliphs of Nigeria and the Zulu of South Africa are other examples. A long-term route to political and economic success has been comprehensively documented by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson in their global study of why nations fail or succeed. Thus, another report by PRIO and the University of Uppsala (two Norwegian and Swedish centers) breaks conflict down into state-based (where at least one party is a government), non-state-based (neither party is an official state actor), and one-sided conflicts (an armed faction against unarmed civilians). Located on the campus of Stanford University and in Washington, DC, the Hoover Institution is the nations preeminent research center dedicated to generating policy ideas that promote economic prosperity, national security, and democratic governance. Constitutions of postcolonial states have further limited the power of chiefs. It then analyzes the implications of the dual allegiance of the citizenry to chiefs and the government. A Sociology of Education for Africa . After examining the history, challenges, and opportunities for the institution of traditional leadership within a modern democracy, the chapter considers the effect of the current constitutional guarantee for chieftaincy and evaluates its practical workability and structural efficiency under the current governance system. 3. There was a lot of consultation between the elders before any major decision was made. Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. The settlement of conflicts and disputes in such consensus-based systems involves narrowing of differences through negotiations rather than through adversarial procedures that produce winners and losers. The result is transitory resilience of the regime, but shaky political stability, declining cohesion, and eventual conflict or violent change. Maintenance of law and order: the primary and most important function of the government is to maintain law and order in a state. 1. The council of elders, religious leaders, and administrative staff of the chiefs exercise checks on the power of the leaders and keep them accountable (Beattie, 1967; Busia, 1968; Coplan & Quinlan, 1997; Jones, 1983; Osaghae, 1989). Even old-fashioned tyrants learn that inclusion or co-option are expensive. There are several types of government systems in African politics: in an absolute monarchy, the head of state and head of government is a monarch with unlimited legal authority,; in a constitutional monarchy, the monarch is a ceremonial figurehead who has few political competences,; in a presidential system, the president is the head of state and head of government, For these and other reasons, the state-society gap lies at the heart of the problems faced by many states. Only four states in AfricaBotswana, Gambia, Mauritius, and Senegalretained multiparty systems. Council of elders: These systems essentially operate on consensual decision-making arrangements that vary from one place to another. Authority in this system was shared or distributed to more people within the community. With respect to their relevance, traditional institutions remain indispensable for several reasons. This section grapples with the questions of whether traditional institutions are relevant in the governance of contemporary Africa and what implications their endurance has on Africas socioeconomic development. Understanding the Gadaa System. Regional governance comes into play here, and certain precedents may get set and then ratified by regional or sub-regional organizations. Prominent among these Sudanic states was the Soninke Kingdom of Ancient Ghana. It is imperative that customary land rights are recognized and respected so that communities in the traditional economic system exercise control of land and other resources under their customary ownership, at least until alternative sources of employment are developed to absorb those who might be displaced. MyHoover delivers a personalized experience atHoover.org. Judicial marginalization: Another challenge posed by institutional fragmentation relates to marginalization of the traditional system within the formal legal system. The same source concluded that 7 out of the 12 worst scores for political rights and civil liberties are African.11 As noted, the reasons vary: patrimonialism gone wrong (the big man problem), extreme state fragility and endemic conflict risks, the perverse mobilization of ethnicity by weak or threatened leaders. Despite the adoption of constitutional term limits in many African countries during the 1990s, such restrictions have been reversed or defied in at least 15 countries since 2000, according to a recent report.6, The conflict-governance link takes various forms, and it points to the centrality of the variable of leadership. African indigenous education was. Beyond the traditional sector, traditional institutions also have important attributes that can benefit formal institutions. Why can't democracy with African characteristics maintain the values, culture and traditional system of handling indiscipline, injustice and information management in society to take firm roots. How these differences in leadership structures impinge on the broader institutions of resources allocation patterns, judicial systems, and decision-making and conflict resolution mechanisms is still understudied. In most African countries, constitutionally established authorities exercise the power of government alongside traditional authorities. Department of Political Science, Pennsylvania State University, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Contentious Politics and Political Violence, Political Values, Beliefs, and Ideologies, Why African Traditional Institutions Endure, Authority Systems of Africas Traditional Institutions, Relevance and Paradox of Traditional Institutions, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1347, United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa, Global Actors: Networks, Elites, and Institutions, Traditional Leaders and Development in Africa. The evidence suggests that traditional institutions have continued to metamorphose under the postcolonial state, as Africas socioeconomic systems continue to evolve. With the exceptions of a few works, such as Legesse (1973), the institutions of the decentralized political systems, which are often elder-based with group leadership, have received little attention, even though these systems are widespread and have the institutions of judicial systems and mechanisms of conflict resolution and allocation of resources, like the institutions of the centralized systems. Features Of Traditional Government Administration. In most African countries, constitutionally established authorities exercise the power of government alongside traditional authorities. David and Joan Traitel Building & Rental Information, National Security, Technology & Law Working Group, Middle East and the Islamic World Working Group, Military History/Contemporary Conflict Working Group, Technology, Economics, and Governance Working Group, Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies, Understanding the Effects of Technology on Economics and Governance, Support the Mission of the Hoover Institution. Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. What sets Hoover apart from all other policy organizations is its status as a center of scholarly excellence, its locus as a forum of scholarly discussion of public policy, and its ability to bring the conclusions of this scholarship to a public audience. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). Others choose the traditional institutions, for example, in settling disputes because of lower transactional costs. Table 1 shows the proportion of the population that operates under traditional economic systems in selected African countries. They are already governing much of rural Africa. Unlike the laws of the state, traditional institutions rarely have the coercive powers to enforce their customary laws. Given its institutional disconnect with the state, the traditional sector and the communities that operate under it invariably face marginalization in influencing policy as well as in access to economic resources throughout the continent. Against this backdrop, where is African governance headed? (2005), customary systems operating outside of the state regime are often the dominant form of regulation and dispute resolution, covering up to 90% of the population in parts of Africa. 2. During the colonial period, "tribe" was used to identify specific cultural and political groups in much the same way as "nation" is defined above. Chief among them is that they remain key players in governing and providing various types of service in the traditional sector of the economy because of their compatibility with that economic system. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (Alkire, Chatterjee, Conconi, Seth, & Vaz, 2014) estimates that the share of rural poverty to total poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is about 73.8%. The government is undertaking a review of local government, which includes a commitment to introduce direct election of metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs). African Traditional Political System and Institution: University of The Gambia, Faculty of humanities and social sciences. They are well known, among others, for their advancement of an indigenous democratic process known as Gadaa. "Law" in traditional Igbo and other African societies assumes a wide dimension and should be understood, interpreted, and applied as such, even if such a definition conflicts with the Western idea. This short article does not attempt to provide answers to all these questions, which require extensive empirical study. African states, along with Asian, Middle Eastern, and even European governments, have all been affected. In the postcolonial era, their roles changed again. There is no more critical variable than governance, for it is governance that determines whether there are durable links between the state and the society it purports to govern. The most promising pattern is adaptive resilience in which leaders facing such pressures create safety valves or outlets for managing social unrest. Traditional and informal justice systems aim at restoring social cohesion within the community by promoting reconciliation between disputing parties. Womens inequality in the traditional system is related, at least in part, to age- and gender-based divisions of labor characterizing traditional economic systems. Yet, governments are expected to govern and make decisions after consulting relevant stakeholders. The government system is a republic; the chief of state and head of government is the president. When a seemingly brittle regime reaches the end of its life, it becomes clear that the state-society gap is really a regime-society gap; the state withers and its institutions become hollow shells that serve mainly to extract rents. The fourth part draws a conclusion with a tentative proposal on how the traditional institutions might be reconciled with the formal institutions to address the problem of institutional incoherence. Government and the Political System 2.1. Since institutional fragmentation is a major obstacle to nation-building and democratization, it is imperative that African countries address it and forge institutional harmony. However, the traditional modes of production and the institutional systems associated with them also remain entrenched among large segments of the population. Although much has been lost in the shadows and fogs of a time before people created written accounts, historians . If a critical mass of the leaderse.g., South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cote dIvoire, Algeria, Egyptare heading in a positive direction, they will pull some others along in their wake; of course, the reverse is also true. The African state system has gradually developed a stronger indigenous quality only in the last twenty-five years or so. Indeed, it should be added that a high percentage of todays conflicts are recurrences of previous ones, often in slightly modified form with parties that may organize under more than one flag. Learn more about joining the community of supporters and scholars working together to advance Hoovers mission and values. While this seems obvious, it is less clear what vectors and drivers will have the most weight in shaping that outcome. Less than 20% of Africas states achieved statehood following rebellion or armed insurgency; in the others, independence flowed from peaceful transfers of authority from colonial officials to African political elites. Most African countries have yet to develop carefully considered strategies of how to reconcile their fragmented institutional systems. Other governance systems in the post-independence era and their unique features, if any. This chapter examines traditional leadership within the context of the emerging constitutional democracy in Ghana. Comparing Ethiopia and Kenya, for example, shows that adherents to the traditional institutional system is greater in Ethiopia than in Kenya, where the ratio of the population operating in the traditional economic system is smaller and the penetration of the capitalist economic system in rural areas is deeper. If more leaders practice inclusive politics or find themselves chastened by the power of civil society to do so, this could point the way to better political outcomes in the region. Presently, Nigeria practices the federal system. However, their participation in the electoral process has not enabled them to influence policy, protect their customary land rights, and secure access to public services that would help them overcome their deprivation. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals . Careful analysis suggests that African traditional institutions lie in a continuum between the highly decentralized to the centralized systems and they all have resource allocation practices, conflict resolution, judicial systems, and decision-making practices, which are distinct from those of the state. media system, was concerned with the more systematized dissemination of information between the traditional administrative organ and the people (subjects). A third pattern flows from the authoritarian reflex where big men operate arbitrary political machines, often behind a thin democratic veneer. This principle is particularly relevant for diversity management, nation-building, and democratization in contemporary Africa. There is one constitution and one set of laws and rules for ordinary people, and quite other for the ruling family and the politically connected elite. Even so, customary law still exerts a strong . Galizzi, Paolo and Abotsi, Ernest K., Traditional Institutions and Governance in Modern African Democracies (May 9, 2011). However, the traditional judicial system has some weaknesses, especially with respect to gender equality. The traditional and informal justice systems, it is argued offers greater access to justice. African Politics: A Very Short Introduction explores how politics is practised on the African continent, providing an overview of the different states and their systems. "Law" in traditional Africa includes enforceable traditions, customs, and laws. In these relatively new nations, the critical task for leadership is to build a social contract that is sufficiently inclusive to permit the management of diversity.

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