Hoover Education Success Initiative | The Papers. In many cases, the invented chieftaincies were unsuccessful in displacing the consensus-based governance structures (Gartrell, 1983; Uwazie, 1994). On the eve of the departure of the colonial power, the Nigerian power elite in collusion with the departing colonial authority, drew up an elaborate constitution for a liberal bourgeois state - complete with provisions for parties in government and those in opposition. Learn more about joining the community of supporters and scholars working together to advance Hoovers mission and values. Botswanas strategy has largely revolved around integrating parallel judicial systems. A key factor in the size of adherents of rural institutions, however, seems to depend on the ratio of the population in the traditional economic systems to the total population. 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. In Igbo land for example the system of government was quite unique and transcends the democracy of America and Europe. The quality and durability of such leader-defined adaptive resilience cannot be assured and can be reversed unless the associated norms become institutionalized. These circumstances can generate an authoritarian reflex and the temptation to circle the wagons against all sources of potential opposition. To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? media system, was concerned with the more systematized dissemination of information between the traditional administrative organ and the people (subjects). 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. Perhaps a more realistic transitional approach would be to reconcile the parallel institutions while simultaneously pursuing policies that transform traditional economic systems. Traditional leadership in South Africa pre-existed both the colonial and apartheid systems of governance and was the main known system of governance amongst indigenous people. Poor gender relations: Traditional institutions share some common weaknesses. Invented chiefs and state-paid elders: These were chiefs imposed by the colonial state on decentralized communities without centralized authority systems. The end of colonialism, however, did not end institutional dichotomy, despite attempts by some postcolonial African states to abolish the traditional system, especially the chieftaincy-based authority systems. The result is transitory resilience of the regime, but shaky political stability, declining cohesion, and eventual conflict or violent change.
The parallel institutional systems often complement each other in the continents contemporary governance. Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. Similarities between Democratic and Authoritarian Government. While this seems obvious, it is less clear what vectors and drivers will have the most weight in shaping that outcome. The imperative for inclusion raises many questions: should the priority be to achieve inclusion of diverse elites, of ethnic and confessional constituencies, of a sample of grass roots opinion leaders? On the other hand, weak or destructive governance is sometimes the source of conflicts in the first place. THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN CUSTOMARY LAW, Fenrich, Galizzi, Higgins, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2011, 27 Pages
Even old-fashioned tyrants learn that inclusion or co-option are expensive. Stated another way, if the abolition of term limits, neo-patrimonialism, and official kleptocracy become a regionally accepted norm, this will make it harder for the better governed states to resist the authoritarian trend. The most promising pattern is adaptive resilience in which leaders facing such pressures create safety valves or outlets for managing social unrest. Paramount chieftaincy is a traditional system of local government and an integral element of governance in some African countries such as Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia and Ivory Coast. One snapshot by the influential Mo Ibrahim index of African Governance noted in 2015 that overall governance progress in Africa is stalling, and decided not to award a leadership award that year. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. 134-141. A third pattern flows from the authoritarian reflex where big men operate arbitrary political machines, often behind a thin democratic veneer. Enlightened leaders face a more complex version of the same challenge: how to find and mobilize the resources for broad-based inclusiveness? The origins of this institutional duality, the implications of which are discussed in Relevance and Paradox of Traditional Institutions, are largely traceable to the colonial state, as it introduced new economic and political systems and superimposed corresponding institutional systems upon the colonies without eradicating the existed traditional economic, political, and institutional systems. The link between conflict and governance is a two-way street. African states, along with Asian, Middle Eastern, and even European governments, have all been affected. While comprehensive empirical studies on the magnitude of adherence to traditional institutions are lacking, some studies point out that most people in rural areas prefer the judicial service provided by traditional institutions to those of the state, for a variety of reasons (Logan, 2011; Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). Institutional dichotomy also seems to be a characteristic of transitional societies, which are between modes of production. Chieftaincy is further plagued with its own internal problems, including issues of relevance, succession, patriarchy, jurisdiction, corruption and intra-tribal conflict. A second argument is that traditional institutions are hindrances to the development of democratic governance (Mamdani, 1996; Ntsebeza, 2005). They dispense justice, resolve conflicts, and enforce contracts, even though such services are conducted in different ways in different authority systems. 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. This we might call transformative resilience.21. 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. In many cases European or Islamic legal traditions have replaced or significantly modified traditional African ones. Rules of procedure were established through customs and traditions some with oral, some with written constitutions Women played active roles in the political system including holding leadership and military positions. However, institutions are rarely static and they undergo changes induced by internal transformations of broader socioeconomic systems or by external influences or imposition, and in some cases by a combination of the two forces. (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. For these and other reasons, the state-society gap lies at the heart of the problems faced by many states. Keywords: Legal Pluralism, African Customary Law, Traditional Leadership, Chieftaincy, Formal Legal System Relationship With, Human Rights, Traditional Norms, Suggested Citation:
It should not be surprising that there is a weak social compact between state and society in many African states. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. This adds to the challenge of building national identities; this identity vacuum increases the risk that political elites and social groups will capture the state for narrower, self-interested purposes that weaken, rather than strengthen, social cohesion. 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. 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. Issues of corruption and transparency are likely to become driving themes in African politics. African traditional institutions continue to exist in most African countries, albeit at different levels of adherence by the populations of the continent. These include - murder, burglary, landcase, witchcraft, profaning the deities and homicide. 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. Freedom Houses ratings see a pattern of decline since 2005 and note that 10 out of 25 countries (worldwide) with declining ratings are in Africa. African political systems are described in a number of textbooks and general books on African history. However, the traditional judicial system has some weaknesses, especially with respect to gender equality. In West Africa, a griot is a praise singer or poet who possesses a repository of oral tradition passed down from generation to generation. 79 (3), (1995) pp. If African political elite opinion converges with that of major external voices in favoring stabilization over liberal peacebuilding agendas, the implications for governance are fairly clear.17. For example, the election day itself goes more or less peacefully, the vote tabulation process is opaque or obscure, and the entire process is shaped by a pre-election playing field skewed decisively in favor of the incumbents. 17-19 1.6. An analytical study and impact of colonialism on pre-colonial centralized and decentralized African Traditional and Political Systems. Traditional leaders would also be able to use local governance as a platform for exerting some influence on national policymaking. This principle is particularly relevant for diversity management, nation-building, and democratization in contemporary Africa. The differences are in terms of how leaders come to assume their positions, how much power they command, and how accountable they are to their communities. By the mid-1970s, the military held power in one-third of the nations of sub-Saharan Africa. In Africa, as in every region, it is the quality and characteristics of governance that shape the level of peace and stability and the prospects for economic development. The reasons why rural communities adhere to the traditional institutions are many (Logan, 2011; Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). Such chiefs also have rather limited powers. A second objective is to draw a tentative typology of the different authority systems of Africas traditional institutions.
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