African political systems are described in a number of textbooks and general books on African history. Both can be identified as forms of governance. Government: A Multifarious Concept 1.2. Paramount chiefs with rather weak system of accountability: The Buganda of Uganda and the Nupe in Nigeria are good examples. 1.4. They include: Monarchs (absolute or constitutional): While the colonial state reduced most African kings to chiefs, a few survived as monarchs. The long-term, global pushback by the leading authoritarian powers against liberal governance norms has consequences in Africa and other regions as governments directly act to close the space for civil society to operate. These circumstances can generate an authoritarian reflex and the temptation to circle the wagons against all sources of potential opposition. They are the key players in providing judicial service and in conflict management in much of rural Africa. "Law" in traditional Africa includes enforceable traditions, customs, and laws. Integration of traditional and modern governance systems in Africa. Governance also has an important regional dimension relating to the institutional structures and norms that guide a regions approach to challenges and that help shape its political culture.1 This is especially relevant in looking at Africas place in the emerging world since this large region consists of 54 statesclose to 25% of the U.N.s membershipand includes the largest number of landlocked states of any region, factors that dramatically affect the political environment in which leaders make choices. These include - murder, burglary, landcase, witchcraft, profaning the deities and homicide. On the one hand, traditional institutions are highly relevant and indispensable, although there are arguments to the contrary (see Mengisteab & Hagg [2017] for a summary of such arguments). History. African governance trends were transformed by the geopolitical changes that came with the end of the Cold War. Such a consensus-building mechanism can help resolve many of the conflicts related to diversity management and nation-building. This we might call transformative resilience.21. 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. My intention in this chapter is to explore the traditional African ideas and values of politics with a view to pointing up what may be described as the democratic features of the indigenous system of government and to examine whether, and in what ways, such features can be said to be harmonious with the ethos of contemporary political culture and hence can be said to be relevant to . Decision making is generally participatory and often consensus-based. 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. A Functional Approach to define Government 2. 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. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. 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. FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. The article has three principal objectives and is organized into four parts. 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. The system of government in the traditional Yoruba society was partially centralised and highly democratic. Keywords: Legal Pluralism, African Customary Law, Traditional Leadership, Chieftaincy, Formal Legal System Relationship With, Human Rights, Traditional Norms, Suggested Citation:
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. 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. A third objective is to examine the relevance of traditional institutions. 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. Another layer represents the societal norms and customs that differ along various cultural traits. Authority in this system was shared or distributed to more people within the community. 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. The term covers the expressed commands of 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, 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. 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. 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. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. 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. The endurance of traditional institutions entails complex and paradoxical implications for contemporary Africas governance. Misguided policies at the national level combined with cultural constraints facing these social groups may increase exclusion and create seeds of future trouble. Roughly 80% of rural populations in selected research sites in Ethiopia, for example, say that they rely on traditional institutions to settle disputes, while the figure is around 65% in research sites in Kenya (Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). This can happen in several ways. Additionally, the Guurti is charged with resolving conflicts in the country using traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. There are also various arguments in the literature against traditional institutions.2 One argument is that chieftaincy impedes the pace of development as it reduces the relevance of the state in the area of social services (Tom Mboya in Osaghae, 1989). Botswanas strategy has largely revolved around integrating parallel judicial systems. Key Takeaways. A third, less often recognized base of legitimacy can be called conventional African diplomatic legitimacy wherein a governmenthowever imperfectly establishedis no more imperfect than the standard established by its regional neighbors. (No award was made in 50% of the years since the program was launched in 2007; former Liberian president Ellen John Sirleaf won the award in 2017. 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. The terms Afrocentrism, Afrocology, and Afrocentricity were coined in the 1980s by the African American scholar and activist Molefi Asante. To learn more, visit
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). Africas geopolitical environment is shaped by Africans to a considerable degree. Even so, customary law still exerts a strong . By the mid-1970s, the politics of Africa had turned authoritarian. f Basic Features cont. 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. The population in the traditional system thus faces a vicious cycle of deprivation. It considers the nature of the state in sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. 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. Government and the Political System 2.1. Following decolonization, several African countries attempted to abolish aspects of the traditional institutional systems. President Muhammadu Buhari is currently the federal head of state and government. Indications are, however, that the more centralized the system is, the lower the accountability and popular participation in decision making. Extensive survey research is required to estimate the size of adherents to traditional institutions. 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. By the mid-1970s, the military held power in one-third of the nations of sub-Saharan Africa. The regime in this case captures the state, co-opts the security organs, and dissolves civil society. A Sociology of Education for Africa . Perhaps one of the most serious shared weakness relates to gender relations. In some countries, such as Botswana, customary courts are estimated to handle approximately 80% of criminal cases and 90% of civil cases (Sharma, 2004). The chapter further examines the dabbling of traditional leaders in the political process in spite of the proscription of the institution from mainstream politics and, in this context, analyzes the policy rationale for attempting to detach chieftaincy from partisan politics. Government, Public Policy Performance, Types of Government. African indigenous education was. The scope of the article is limited to an attempt to explain how the endurance of African traditional institutions is related to the continents economic systems and to shed light on the implications of fragmented institutional systems. In Igbo land for example the system of government was quite unique and transcends the democracy of America and Europe. Womens access to property rights is also limited, as they are often denied the right of access to inheritance as well as equal division of property in cases of divorce. In West Africa, a griot is a praise singer or poet who possesses a repository of oral tradition passed down from generation to generation. It is also highly unlikely that such broader aspects of traditional institutions can be eliminated without transforming the traditional modes of production that foster them. 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). Government as a Structural Element of Society 2.2. Prominent among these Sudanic states was the Soninke Kingdom of Ancient Ghana. These features include nonprofits, non-profits and hybrid entities are now provide goods and services that were once delivered by the government. Why traditional institutional systems endure, how large the adherents to them is, and why populations, especially in rural areas, continue to rely on traditional institutions, even when an alternative system is provided by the state, and what the implications of institutional dichotomy is are questions that have not yet received adequate attention in the literature. 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). They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents. Similarly, the process of conflict resolution is undertaken in an open assembly and is intended to reconcile parties in conflict rather than to merely punish offenders. Fitzpatrick 'Traditionalism and Traditional Law' Journal of African Law, Vol. Against this backdrop, where is African governance headed? One layer represents the formal institutions (laws) of the state. Tribes had relatively little power outside their own group during the colonial period. 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- Our data indicate that traditional leaders, chiefs and elders clearly still play an important role in the lives 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. "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. Cold War geopolitics reinforced in some ways the state-society gap as the global rivalry tended to favor African incumbents and frequently assured they would receive significant assistance from external powers seeking to build diplomatic ties with the new states. The leaders in this system have significant powers, as they often are custodians of their communitys land and they dispense justice in their courts. Most African countries are characterized by parallel institutions, one representing the formal laws of the state and the other representing the traditional institutions that are adhered to more commonly in rural areas. 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. 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. This proposal will be subject to a referendum on the constitutional changes required.16.2e 2.4 Traditional leadership Traditional leaders are accorded 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. It is also challenging to map them out without specifying their time frame. Another driver of governance trends will be the access enjoyed by youthful and rapidly urbanizing populations to the technologies that are changing the global communications space. Chester A. Crocker is the James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies at Georgetown University.