However, they are not merely customs and norms; rather they are systems of governance, which were formal in precolonial times and continue to exist in a semiformal manner in some countries and in an informal manner in others. Impact of Historical Origins of African State System2. Traditional governments have the following functions; Additionally, the Guurti is charged with resolving conflicts in the country using traditional conflict resolution mechanisms.
Module Ten, Activity Two - Exploring Africa The Pre-Colonial Period: From the Ashes of Pharaohs to the Berlin Conference At the end of the prehistoric period (10 000 BC), some African nomadic bands began to 2. 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). The indigenous political system had some democratic features. 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. Africas geopolitical environment is shaped by Africans to a considerable degree.
African Political Systems - Wikipedia In addition to these measures, reconciling fragmented institutions would be more successful when governments invest more resources in transforming the traditional socioeconomic space. Based on existing evidence, the authority systems in postcolonial Africa lie in a continuum between two polar points. These features include nonprofits, non-profits and hybrid entities are now provide goods and services that were once delivered by the government. One layer represents the formal institutions (laws) of the state. There are very few similarities between democracy and dictatorship. Space opened up for African citizens and civil society movements, while incumbent regimes were no longer able to rely on assured support from erstwhile external partners. 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 Ibo village assembly in eastern Nigeria, the Eritrean village Baito (assembly), the council of elders (kiama) of the Kikuyu in Kenya, and the kaya elders of the Mijikenda in the coast of Kenya are among well-known examples where decisions are largely made in a consensual manner of one kind or another (Andemariam, 2017; Mengisteab, 2003). 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. Under the circumstances, it becomes critical that traditional leaders are directly involved in local governance so that they protect the interests of their communities. Key Takeaways. Rather, they often rely on voluntary compliance, although they also apply some soft power to discourage noncompliance by members with customary laws. That is, each society had a set of rules, laws, and traditions, sometimes called customs, that established how the people would live together peacefully as part of larger group. Introduction.
Relevance of African traditional institutions of governance | Eldis Features of Yoruba Pre colonial Administration - Bscholarly PDF The role and importance of the institution of traditional leadership in First, many of the conflicts enumerated take place within a limited number of conflict-affected countries and in clearly-defined geographic zones (the Sahel and Nigeria; Central Africa; and the Horn.) Relatively unfettered access to the internet via smart phones and laptops brings informationand hence potential powerto individuals and groups about all kinds of things: e.g., market prices, the views of relatives in the diaspora, conditions in the country next door, and the self-enrichment of corrupt officials. Throughout our over one-hundred-year history, our work has directly led to policies that have produced greater freedom, democracy, and opportunity in the United States and the world. 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). In Sierra Leone, paramount chiefs are community leaders and their tasks involve - among others - protecting community safety and resolving disputes. 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. Many of the chieftaincy systems, such as those in much of South Africa, the Asantehene of the Ashanti of Ghana, the Tswana of Botswana, and the Busoga of Uganda seem to fall within this category. By the mid-1970s, the military held power in one-third of the nations of sub-Saharan Africa.
Editorial Citizenship and Accountability: Customary Law and Traditional Although much has been lost in the shadows and fogs of a time before people created written accounts, historians . 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.
List of African Union member states by political system It also develops a theoretical framework for the . A third layer lies between the other two layers and is referred to in this article as traditional institutions. The evidence suggests that traditional institutions have continued to metamorphose under the postcolonial state, as Africas socioeconomic systems continue to evolve. Chieftaincy is further plagued with its own internal problems, including issues of relevance, succession, patriarchy, jurisdiction, corruption and intra-tribal conflict. 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. Each of these societies had a system of government. Legal norms are an integral part of the discussion about inclusivity since they affect every aspect of economic and personal life; this poses a critical question over whether individual rights or group rights take precedence in the normative hierarchy. 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. Lawmaking: government makes laws to regulate the behavior of its citizens. 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. To learn more, visit
The modern African state system has been gradually Africanized, albeit on more or less the identical territorial basis it began with at the time of decolonization in the second half of the 20 th century. 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. A second attribute is the participatory decision-making system. Invented chiefs and state-paid elders: These were chiefs imposed by the colonial state on decentralized communities without centralized authority systems. 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. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. 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). Both can be identified as forms of governance. 134-141.
15 Facts on African Religions The Interfaith Observer Legitimate authority, in turn, is based on accepted laws and norms rather than the arbitrary, unconstrained power of the rulers. Chiefs such as those of the Nuer and Dinka are examples of this category. Additionally, inequalities between parallel socioeconomic spaces, especially with respect to influence on policy, hinder a democratic system, which requires equitable representation and inclusive participation. by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University.
PDF NNSO OKAF, Ph.D. (a.k.a. OKEREAFEZEKE) By the mid-1970s, the politics of Africa had turned authoritarian. The colonial state modified their precolonial roles. Keywords: Legal Pluralism, African Customary Law, Traditional Leadership, Chieftaincy, Formal Legal System Relationship With, Human Rights, Traditional Norms, Suggested Citation:
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 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. 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. Safeguarding womens rights thus becomes hard without transforming the economic system under which they operate. Government and Political Systems. Despite undergoing changes, present-day African traditional institutions, namely the customary laws, the judicial systems and conflict resolution mechanisms, and the property rights and resource allocation practices, largely originate from formal institutions of governance that existed under precolonial African political systems. Others choose the traditional institutions, for example, in settling disputes because of lower transactional costs. Building an inclusive political system also raises the question of what levels of the society to include and how to assure that local communities as well as groups operating at the national level can get their voices heard. Paramount chiefs with rather weak system of accountability: The Buganda of Uganda and the Nupe in Nigeria are good examples. . The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. A third objective is to examine the relevance of traditional institutions. The colonial state, for example, invented chiefs where there were no centralized authority systems and imposed them on the decentralized traditional systems, as among the Ibo of Eastern Nigeria, the Tonga in Zambia, various communities in Kenya, and the communities in Somalia. Ousted royals such as Haile Selassie (Ethiopia) and King Idriss (Libya) may be replaced by self-anointed secular rulers who behave as if they were kings until they, in turn, get overthrown. Click here to get an answer to your question Discuss any similarities between the key features of the fourth republican democracy and the traditional afri 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. When conflicts evolve along ethnic lines, they are readily labelled ethnic conflict as if caused by ancient hatreds; in reality, it is more often caused by bad governance and by political entrepreneurs. This principle is particularly relevant for diversity management, nation-building, and democratization in contemporary Africa. Poor leadership can result in acts of commission or omission that alienate or disenfranchise geographically distinct communities. 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). Cookie Settings. 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. 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. Additionally, the transaction costs for services provided by the traditional institutions are much lower than the services provided by the state. African traditional institutions continue to exist in most African countries, albeit at different levels of adherence by the populations of the continent. Act,12 the African system of governance was changed and transformed, and new structures were put in place of old ones.13 Under the Union of South Africa, the Gov- Rather, they are conveners of assemblies of elders or lower level chiefs who deliberate on settlement of disputes. The essay concludes with a sobering reflection on the challenge of achieving resilient governance. On the one hand, they recognize the need for strong, responsive state institutions; weak, fragile states do not lead to good governance. As a result, it becomes highly complex to analyze their roles and structures without specifying the time frame. Consequently, national and regional governance factors interact continuously. The three countries have pursued rather different strategies of reconciling their institutional systems and it remains to be seen if any of their strategies will deliver the expected results, although all three countries have already registered some progress in reducing conflicts and in advancing the democratization process relative to countries around them. This study notes that in 2007 Africa saw 12 conflicts in 10 countries. 1. Among the key challenges associated with institutional fragmentation are the following: Policy incoherence: Fragmented economies and institutions represent dichotomous socioeconomic spaces, which makes it highly challenging for policy to address equitably the interests of the populations in these separate socioeconomic spaces.
The Political History of Africa: The Pre-Colonial Era - African Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures.
PDF The Local Government System in Ghana - Clgf Its ability to influence policy is limited in large part because of its institutional detachment from the state and because of its poverty and lack of capacity to participate in the political process.
What Are the Weaknesses of Traditional Security Systems? Contents 1. Paramount chiefs: Another category of leadership structure is that of hereditary paramount chieftaincy with various traditional titles and various levels of accountability. 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. . These include - murder, burglary, landcase, witchcraft, profaning the deities and homicide. 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. 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. 7. In many tribes, the chief was the representative of the ancestors. As noted, African countries have experienced the rise of the modern (capitalist) economic system along with its corresponding institutional systems. However, the traditional modes of production and the institutional systems associated with them also remain entrenched among large segments of the population. Ehret 2002 emphasizes the diversity and long history of precolonial social and political formations, whereas Curtin, et al. for in tradi-tional African communities, politics and religion were closely associated. The traditional Africa system of government is open and inclusive, where strangers, foreigners and even slaves could participate in the decision-making process. The formal institutions of checks and balances and accountability of leaders to the population are rather weak in this system. African Political Systems is an academic anthology edited by the anthropologists Meyer Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard which was published by Oxford University Press on the behalf of the International African Institute in 1940.
(PDF) The role and significance of traditional leadership in the 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. One layer represents the formal institutions (laws) of the state.
Pre-Colonial Period in Ghana | Pre-Colonial Political Systems Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Politics. The Obas and Caliphs of Nigeria and the Zulu of South Africa are other examples.
PDF Structure of Government - EOLSS We know a good deal about what Africans want and demand from their governments from public opinion surveys by Afrobarometer. The rise of non-Western centers of power and the return of global polarization among major powers reduce the presence and weight of western influence. Such chiefs also have rather limited powers. Second, the levels of direct battle deaths from these events is relatively low when compared with far higher levels in the wars of the Middle East. References: Blakemore and Cooksey (1980). While this attribute of the traditional system may not be practical at the national level, it can be viable at local levels and help promote democratic values. According to the African Development Bank, good governance should be built on a foundation of (I) effective states, (ii) mobilized civil societies, and (iii) an efficient private sector. The Alafin as the political head of the empire was . Poor statesociety relations and weak state legitimacy: Another critical outcome of institutional fragmentation and institutional detachment of the state from the overwhelming majority of the population is weak legitimacy of the state (Englebert, 2000). Using a second conflict lens, the number of non-state conflicts has increased dramatically in recent years, peaking in 2017 with 50 non-state conflicts, compared to 24 in 2011. 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. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. The Constitution states that the institution, status and roles of traditional leadership, according to customary law, are recognised. 14 L.A. Ayinla 'African Philosophy of Law: A Critique' 151, available at In this respect, they complement official courts that are often unable to provide court services to all their rural communities. South Africa has a mixed economy in which there is a variety of private freedom, combined with centralized economic .