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. 2. PDF The role and importance of the institution of traditional leadership in 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. The post-colonial State, on the other hand . 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). 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. West Africa has a long and complex history. Yet, the traditional judicial system in most cases operates outside of the states institutional framework. 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 problems that face African governments are universal. THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN CUSTOMARY LAW, Fenrich, Galizzi, Higgins, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2011, Available at SSRN: If you need immediate assistance, call 877-SSRNHelp (877 777 6435) in the United States, or +1 212 448 2500 outside of the United States, 8:30AM to 6:00PM U.S. Eastern, Monday - Friday. Countries such as Burkina Faso, Guinea, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, for example, attempted to strip chiefs of most of their authority or even abolish chieftaincy altogether. This we might call transformative resilience.21. While empirical data are rather scanty, indications are that the traditional judicial system serves the overwhelming majority of rural communities (Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). In this paper, I look first at the emergence of the African state system historically, including colonial legacies and the Cold Wars impact on governance dynamics. African Politics: A Very Short Introduction | Oxford Academic Traditional leaders would also be able to use local governance as a platform for exerting some influence on national policymaking. Most African countries have yet to develop carefully considered strategies of how to reconcile their fragmented institutional systems. Suggested Citation, 33 West 60th StreetNew York, NY 10023United States, Public International Law: Sources eJournal, Subscribe to this fee journal for more curated articles on this topic, Political Institutions: Parties, Interest Groups & Other Political Organizations eJournal, Political Institutions: Legislatures eJournal, We use cookies to help provide and enhance our service and tailor content. Transforming the traditional economic system is also likely to require embracing and utilizing the traditional institutional systems as vehicles for the provision of public services. Features Of Traditional Government Administration. History. Institutional dichotomy also seems to be a characteristic of transitional societies, which are between modes of production. 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. African conflict trends point to a complex picture, made more so by the differing methodologies used by different research groups. They dispense justice, resolve conflicts, and enforce contracts, even though such services are conducted in different ways in different authority systems. 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. Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. Other governance systems in the post-independence era and their unique features, if any. In general, 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. This proposal will be subject to a referendum on the constitutional changes required.16.2e 2.4 Traditional leadership Traditional leaders are accorded 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. Some African nations are prosperous while others struggle. Hoover scholars offer analysis of current policy challenges and provide solutions on how America can advance freedom, peace, and prosperity. 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. The guiding principle behind these two attributes is that conflict is a societal problem and that resolving conflict requires societal engagement. The most promising pattern is adaptive resilience in which leaders facing such pressures create safety valves or outlets for managing social unrest. 3. A third layer lies between the other two layers and is referred to in this article as traditional institutions. Less than 20% of Africa's states achieved statehood following rebellion or armed insurgency; in the others, independence flowed from . 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. Traditional African Religions - The Spiritual Life As a United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) study (2007) notes, traditional leaders often operate as custodians of customary law and communal assets, especially land. 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. Invented chiefs and state-paid elders: These were chiefs imposed by the colonial state on decentralized communities without centralized authority systems. 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. 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, 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. 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. 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. The population in the traditional system thus faces a vicious cycle of deprivation. To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? 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. 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). Following decolonization, several African countries attempted to abolish aspects of the traditional institutional systems. The earliest known recorded history arose in Ancient Egypt . 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. While this seems obvious, it is less clear what vectors and drivers will have the most weight in shaping that outcome. The challenge facing Africas leadersperhaps above all othersis how to govern under conditions of ethnic diversity. 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. The implementation of these systems often . Regardless, fragmentation of institutional systems poses a number of serious challenges to Africas governance 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. It is too soon to tell whether such institutions can evolve in modern Africa as a result of gradual tinkering with reformist agendas, as the legacy of wise leaders; or whether they will only happen as a result of fundamental tests of strength between social and political groups. Precolonial Political Systems - African Studies - Oxford Bibliographies What Is a Command Economy? - The Balance The colonial state modified their precolonial roles. Differences and Similarities between Democracy and Authoritarian However, the winner takes all system in the individual states is a democracy type of voting system, as the minority gets none of the electoral college votes. In many tribes, the chief was the representative of the ancestors. In some cases, community elders select future Sultanes at a young age and groom them for the position. 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. PDF The Political Ideology of Indigenous African Political Systems and 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. 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. This point links the reader to the other Africa chapters that have been prepared for this project. Cookie Settings. Editorial Citizenship and Accountability: Customary Law and Traditional Unlike the laws of the state, traditional institutions rarely have the coercive powers to enforce their customary laws. The movement towards a formal state system is characterized by its emphasis on retribution and punishment. The swing against western norms was captured in an interview with Ugandas repeatedly re-elected president Yoweri Museveni who remarked How can you have structural adjustment without electricity? The abolishment of chieftaincy does not eradicate the systems broader underlying features, such as customary law, decision-making systems, and conflict resolution practices. Yet, governments are expected to govern and make decisions after consulting relevant stakeholders. African traditional administrative system with bureaucratization in the emerged new states of Africa. 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. This chapter examines traditional leadership within the context of the emerging constitutional democracy in Ghana. 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. Lawmaking: government makes laws to regulate the behavior of its citizens. This short article does not attempt to provide answers to all these questions, which require extensive empirical study. 14 L.A. Ayinla 'African Philosophy of Law: A Critique' 151, available at With respect to their relevance, traditional institutions remain indispensable for several reasons. Discuss any similarities between the key features of the fourth A Functional Approach to define Government 2. Since institutional fragmentation is a major obstacle to nation-building and democratization, it is imperative that African countries address it and forge institutional harmony. With its eminent scholars and world-renowned library and archives, the Hoover Institution seeks to improve the human condition by advancing ideas that promote economic opportunity and prosperity, while securing and safeguarding peace for America and all mankind. However, they do not have custodianship of land and they generally do not dispense justice on their own. In Sierra Leone, paramount chiefs are community leaders and their tasks involve - among others - protecting community safety and resolving disputes. 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). 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. It may be good to note, as a preliminary, that African political systems of the past dis played considerable variety. States would be more effective in reforming the traditional judicial system if they recognized them rather than neglecting them, as often is the case. Paramount chieftaincy as a system of local government Yet political stability cannot be based on state power alone, except in the short run. 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. Access to Justice In Sub-Saharan Africa: Role of Traditional and 7 Main Features of a Traditional Society - Sociology Discussion They are the key players in providing judicial service and in conflict management in much of rural Africa. This fragmentation is also unlikely to go away anytime soon on its own. Against this broad picture, what is striking is the more recent downward trend in democratic governance in Africa and the relative position of African governance when viewed on a global basis. 20 A brief account of that history will help to highlight key continuities spanning the colonial, apartheid and the post-apartheid eras in relation to the place of customary law and the role of traditional leaders. In this respect, they complement official courts that are often unable to provide court services to all their rural communities. Somalilands strategy has brought traditional leaders into an active role in the countrys formal governance by creating an upper house in parliament, the Guurti, where traditional leaders exercise the power of approving all bills drafted by the lower house of parliament. 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. Others contend that African countries need to follow a mixed institutional system incorporating the traditional and formal systems (Sklar, 2003). Despite apparent differences, the strategies of the three countries have some common features as well that may inform other counties about the measures institutional reconciliation may entail. They are already governing much of rural Africa. The role of chieftaincy within post-colonial African countries continues to incite lively debates, as the case of Ghana exemplifies. This situation supported an external orientation in African politics in which Cold War reference points and former colonial relationships assured that African governments often developed only a limited sense of connection to their own societies. The customary structures of governance of traditional leadership were put aside or transformed. Poor leadership can result in acts of commission or omission that alienate or disenfranchise geographically distinct communities. This layer of institutions is the subject of inquiry of this article. The link was not copied. Paramount chiefs: Another category of leadership structure is that of hereditary paramount chieftaincy with various traditional titles and various levels of accountability. Finally, the chapter considers the future of the institution against the background of the many issues and challenges considered. 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. Virtually every group was involved in the . According to this analysis, Africas traditional institutional systems are likely to endure as long as the traditional subsistent economic systems continue to exist. Impact of Historical Origins of African State System2. Hoover Education Success Initiative | The Papers. It assigned them new roles while stripping away some of their traditional roles. Some regimes seem resilient because of their apparent staying power but actually have a narrow base of (typically ethnic or regional) support. On the other hand, weak or destructive governance is sometimes the source of conflicts in the first place. 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. f Basic Features cont. 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. 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. 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. Prominent among these Sudanic states was the Soninke Kingdom of Ancient Ghana. General Overviews. To sum up, traditional institutions provide vital governance services to communities that operate under traditional socioeconomic spaces. PDF African Traditional Justice Systems Francis Kariuki* 1.1 Introduction Integration of traditional and modern governance systems in 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 jury is still out on the merits of this practice. The endurance of traditional institutions entails complex and paradoxical implications for contemporary Africas governance. Under conditions where nation-building is in a formative stage, the retribution-seeking judicial system and the winner-take-all multiparty election systems often lead to combustible conditions, which undermine the democratization process. The means by which the traditional government reached out to her subjects varied from sounds, signs to symbol, and the central disseminator was the "town crier". On the one side, there are the centralized systems where leaders command near absolute power. With the introduction of the Black Administration Act the African system of governance and administration was changed and the white government took control of the African population. With the dawn of colonialism in Africa, the traditional African government was sys-tematically weakened, and the strong and influential bond between traditional lead- . It considers the nature of the state in sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. Uneven access to public services, such as educational, health, and communication services, and the disproportionately high poverty rates in the traditional sector are manifestations of the sectors marginalization. Traditional Political Ideas, Values, and Practices: Their Status in the 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. If inclusion is the central ingredient, it will be necessary to explore in greater depth the resources leaders have available to pay for including various social groups and demographic cohorts. Good and inclusive governance is imperative for Africa's future not because of, the unique features of US democracy .

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