One-sided violence against unarmed civilians has also spiked up since 2011.4, These numbers require three major points of clarification. Lawmaking: government makes laws to regulate the behavior of its citizens. Another category of chiefs is those who theoretically are subject to selection by the community. 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. On the one hand, they recognize the need for strong, responsive state institutions; weak, fragile states do not lead to good governance. 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. In most African countries, constitutionally established authorities exercise the power of government alongside traditional authorities. One layer represents the formal institutions (laws) of the state. The Dutch dispatched an embassy to the Asantehene's . The place and role of African Youth in Pre-independence African Governance Systems 19-20 1.7. Political and economic inclusion is the companion requirement for effective and legitimate governance. Galizzi, Paolo and Abotsi, Ernest K., Traditional Institutions and Governance in Modern African Democracies (May 9, 2011). Learn more about joining the community of supporters and scholars working together to advance Hoovers mission and values. 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. 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. 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. African political elites are more determined than ever to shape their own destiny, and they are doing so. Perhaps a more realistic transitional approach would be to reconcile the parallel institutions while simultaneously pursuing policies that transform traditional economic systems. 20-27, at p. 21; Carey N. Vicenti 'The re-emergence of tribal society and traditional justice systems' Judicature, Vol. The political systems of most African nations are based on forms of government put in place by colonial authorities during the era of European rule. As a result, they are not dispensable as long as the traditional economic systems endure. An election bound to be held in the year 2019 will unveil the new . In Igbo land for example the system of government was quite unique and transcends the democracy of America and Europe. Against this backdrop, where is African governance headed? 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%. 1.4. Following decolonization, several African countries attempted to abolish aspects of the traditional institutional systems. Typically, such leaders scheme to rig elections or to change constitutional term limitsactions seen in recent years in such countries as Rwanda and Uganda. Enlightened leaders face a more complex version of the same challenge: how to find and mobilize the resources for broad-based inclusiveness? Oromos are one of the largest ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa belonging to the Cushitic-speaking peoples in Northeastern Africa in general and in modern Ethiopia and Kenya in particular. 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). 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. Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. For these and other reasons, the state-society gap lies at the heart of the problems faced by many states. 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). The most promising pattern is adaptive resilience in which leaders facing such pressures create safety valves or outlets for managing social unrest. The role of traditional leaders in modern Africa, especially in modern African democracies, is complex and multifaceted. The balance of power between official and non-official actors will likely shift, as networked activists assert their ability to organize and take to the streets on behalf of diverse causes. Some African nations are prosperous while others struggle. An alternative strategy of bringing about institutional harmony would be to transform the traditional economic systems into an exchange-based economy that would be compatible with the formal institutions of the state. 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. At times, devolution has had major fiscal and governance consequences, including serving as a vehicle for co-option and corruption. 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. In addition to these measures, reconciling fragmented institutions would be more successful when governments invest more resources in transforming the traditional socioeconomic space. 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. The first objective of the article is to shed light on the socioeconomic foundations for the resilience of Africas traditional institutions. 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. 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. 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. 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. Leaders may not be the only ones who support this definition of legitimacy. 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. The traditional African religions (or traditional beliefs and practices of African people) are a set of highly diverse beliefs that include various ethnic religions . But established and recognized forms of inherited rule cannot be lightly dismissed as un-modern, especially when linked to the identity of an ethnic or tribal group, and could be construed as a building block of legitimacy. The traditional Africa system of government is open and inclusive, where strangers, foreigners and even slaves could participate in the decision-making process. . Your gift helps advance ideas that promote a free society. The development of inclusive institutions may involve struggles that enable political and societal actors to check the domination of entrenched rulers and to broaden rule-based participation in governance. It is unlikely, however, that such harmony can be brought about by measures that aim to abolish the traditional system, as was attempted by some countries in the aftermath of decolonization. Third, Africas conflict burden reflects different forms and sources of violence that sometimes become linked to each other: political movements may gain financing and coercive support from criminal networks and traffickers, while religious militants with connections to terrorist groups are often adept at making common cause with local grievance activists. 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. Interestingly, small and mid-size state leaders have won the award so far.) Finally, the chapter considers the future of the institution against the background of the many issues and challenges considered. This section attempts to explain these seemingly contradictory implications of traditional institutions. 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). Most of the regions states were defined geographically by European cartographers at the start of the colonial period. 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. However, there are customs and various arrangements that restrain their power. Legitimacy based on successful predation and state capture was well known to the Plantagenets and Tudors as well as the Hapsburgs, Medicis, and Romanovs, to say nothing of the Mughal descendants of Genghis Khan.14 In this fifth model of imagined legitimacy, some African leaders operate essentially on patrimonial principles that Vladimir Putin can easily recognize (the Dos Santos era in Angola, the DRC under Mobutu and Kabila, the Eyadema, Bongo, Biya, and Obiang regimes in Togo, Gabon, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea, respectively).15 Such regimes may seek to perpetuate themselves by positioning wives or sons to inherit power. Tribes had relatively little power outside their own group during the colonial period. Hoover scholars form the Institutions core and create breakthrough ideas aligned with our mission and ideals. 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. The customary structures of governance of traditional leadership were put aside or transformed. The Aqils (elders) of Somalia and the chiefs in Kenya are good examples. The initial constitutions and legal systems were derived from the terminal colonial era. There is strong demand for jobs, better economic management, reduced inequality and corruption and such outcome deliverables as health, education and infrastructure.22 Those outcomes require effective governance institutions. A more recent example of adaptive resilience is being demonstrated by Ethiopias Abiy Ahmed. The usual plethora of bour- These include - murder, burglary, landcase, witchcraft, profaning the deities and homicide. This chapter examines traditional leadership within the context of the emerging constitutional democracy in Ghana. Legitimate authority, in turn, is based on accepted laws and norms rather than the arbitrary, unconstrained power of the rulers. Yet, the traditional judicial system in most cases operates outside of the states institutional framework. 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. In West Africa, a griot is a praise singer or poet who possesses a repository of oral tradition passed down from generation to generation. Table 1 shows the proportion of the population that operates under traditional economic systems in selected African countries. Customary law, for example, does not protect communities from violations of their customary land rights through land-taking by the state. Cookie Settings. The council system of the Berbers in Northern Africa also falls within this category (UNECA, 2007). Paramount chiefs: Another category of leadership structure is that of hereditary paramount chieftaincy with various traditional titles and various levels of accountability. Unlike the laws of the state, traditional institutions rarely have the coercive powers to enforce their customary laws. At the same time, traditional institutions represent institutional fragmentation, which has detrimental effects on Africas governance and economic transformation. 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. . Traditional and informal justice systems aim at restoring social cohesion within the community by promoting reconciliation between disputing parties. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. This article contends that postcolonial African traditional institutions lie in a continuum between the highly decentralized to the centralized systems and they all have resource allocation practices, conflict resolution and judicial systems, and decision-making practices, which are distinct from those of the state. The analysis presented here suggests that traditional institutions are relevant in a number of areas while they are indispensable for the governance of Africas traditional economic sector, which lies on the fringes of formal state institutions. 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. Rather, they often rely on voluntary compliance, although they also apply some soft power to discourage noncompliance by members with customary laws. This is done through the enforcement agencies such as the police force. In this context the chapter further touches on the compatibility of the institution of chieftaincy with constitutional principles such as equality, accountability, natural justice, good governance, and respect for fundamental human rights. 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. Highlight 5 features of government. Although much has been lost in the shadows and fogs of a time before people created written accounts, historians . There is a basic distinction between those systems with a centralized authority exercised through the machinery of government and those without any such authority in which . On the opposite side are the decentralized systems, led by a council of elders, that command little formal power. 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. These dynamics often lead to increased state fragility or the re-authoritarianization of once more participatory governance systems.12 The trend is sometimes, ironically, promoted by western firms and governments more interested in commercial access and getting along with existing governments than with durable political and economic development. It may be useful to recall that historical kingships or dynasties were the common form of rule in Europe, India, China until modern times, and still is the predominant form of rule on the Arabian Peninsula. The indigenous political system had some democratic features. The formal institutions of checks and balances and accountability of leaders to the population are rather weak in this system. Chieftaincy is further plagued with its own internal problems, including issues of relevance, succession, patriarchy, jurisdiction, corruption and intra-tribal conflict. South Africa has a mixed economy in which there is a variety of private freedom, combined with centralized economic . Democratic and dictatorial regimes both vest their authority in one person or a few individuals. Admittedly, the problem is by no means uniquely African, but it is very commonly experienced in Africa. Womens inequality in the traditional system is related, at least in part, to age- and gender-based divisions of labor characterizing traditional economic systems. However, the traditional modes of production and the institutional systems associated with them also remain entrenched among large segments of the population. In Sierra Leone, for example, approximately 85% of the population falls under the jurisdiction of customary law, defined under the constitution as the rules of law which, by custom, are applicable to particular communities in Sierra Leone. Despite such changes, these institutions are referred to as traditional not because they continue to exist in an unadulterated form as they did in Africas precolonial past but because they are largely born of the precolonial political systems and are adhered to principally, although not exclusively, by the population in the traditional (subsistent) sectors of the economy. Institutional dichotomy also seems to be a characteristic of transitional societies, which are between modes of production. 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. These migrations resulted in part from the formation and disintegration of a series of large states in the western Sudan (the region north of modern Ghana drained by the Niger River). This approach to governance was prominent in the Oyo empire. The guiding principle behind these two attributes is that conflict is a societal problem and that resolving conflict requires societal engagement. This theme, which is further developed below, is especially critical bearing in mind that Africa is the worlds most ethnically complex region, home to 20 of the worlds most diverse countries in terms of ethnic composition.8. Due to the influence of previous South African and Nigerian leaders, the African Union established the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to review and report on a range of governance criteria. Keywords: Legal Pluralism, African Customary Law, Traditional Leadership, Chieftaincy, Formal Legal System Relationship With, Human Rights, Traditional Norms, Suggested Citation: for in tradi-tional African communities, politics and religion were closely associated. But African societies are exposed to especially severe pressures, and governments must operate in an environment of high social demands and limited resources and capacity with which to meet them. Pastoral economic systems, for example, foster communal land tenure systems that allow unhindered mobility of livestock, while a capitalist economic system requires a private land ownership system that excludes access to others and allows long-term investments on land. Allocation of resources, such as land, is also much more egalitarian under the traditional system than it is under the private ownership system in the formal state system. Communities in the traditional socioeconomic space are hardly represented in any of the organizations of the state, such as the parliament, where they can influence policy and the legal system to reflect their interests. This we might call transformative resilience.21. It then analyzes the implications of the dual allegiance of the citizenry to chiefs and the government. 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. Africas states are the worlds newest, and it can hardly be surprising that Africans define themselves in terms of multiple identities including regional, tribal, clan-based, and religious onesin addition to being citizens of a relatively new state.