Our data indicate that traditional leaders, chiefs and elders clearly still play an important role in the lives 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 20th century. 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.) Most African countries have yet to develop carefully considered strategies of how to reconcile their fragmented institutional systems. Decision making is generally participatory and often consensus-based. 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. Based on existing evidence, the authority systems in postcolonial Africa lie in a continuum between two polar points. Some live in remote areas beyond the reach of some of the institutions of the state, such as courts. 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. This fragmentation is also unlikely to go away anytime soon on its own. Indications are, however, that the more centralized the system is, the lower the accountability and popular participation in decision making. In most African countries, constitutionally established authorities exercise the power of government alongside traditional authorities. 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). A third pattern flows from the authoritarian reflex where big men operate arbitrary political machines, often behind a thin democratic veneer. Most of the states that had attempted to abolish chieftaincy have retracted the abolitionist decrees and reinstated chiefs. 1. As institutional scholars state, institutional incompatibility leads to societal conflicts by projecting different laws governing societal interactions (Eisenstadt, 1968; Helmke & Levitsky, 2004; March & Olsen, 1984; North, 1990; Olsen, 2007). Why can't democracy with African characteristics maintain the values, culture and traditional system of handling indiscipline, injustice and information management in society to take firm roots. Africa's tumultuous political history has resulted in extreme disparities between the wealth and stability of its countries. 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. 17-19 1.6. Stagnant economy, absence of diversification in occupational patterns and allegiance to traditionall these have a bearing on the system of education prevailing in these societies. It considers the nature of the state in sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. 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. One is the controversy over what constitutes traditional institutions and if the African institutions referred to as traditional in this inquiry are truly indigenous traditions, since colonialism as well as the postcolonial state have altered them notably, as Zack-Williams (2002) and Kilson (1966) observe. Democratic and dictatorial regimes both vest their authority in one person or a few individuals. Leaders may not be the only ones who support this definition of legitimacy. 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. 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. Hoover scholars form the Institutions core and create breakthrough ideas aligned with our mission and ideals. The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. Even old-fashioned tyrants learn that inclusion or co-option are expensive. They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents. 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. Womens inequality in the traditional system is related, at least in part, to age- and gender-based divisions of labor characterizing traditional economic systems. 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 relationship between traditional leadership and inherited western-style governance institutions often generates tensions. 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. Enlightened leaders face a more complex version of the same challenge: how to find and mobilize the resources for broad-based inclusiveness? One influential research group, SIPRI in Sweden, counted a total of 9 active armed conflicts in 2017 (in all of Africa) plus another 7 post-conflict and potential conflict situations.3, More revealing is the granular comparison of conflict types over time. The role of chieftaincy within post-colonial African countries continues to incite lively debates, as the case of Ghana exemplifies. The features associated with this new form of governmental administration deal with smaller government responsibility for providing goods and services. By the mid-1970s, the military held power in one-third of the nations of sub-Saharan Africa. Government and the Political System 2.1. Yet, governments are expected to govern and make decisions after consulting relevant stakeholders. The essay concludes with a sobering reflection on the challenge of achieving resilient governance. The African Charter embodies some of the human . The first three parts deal with the principal objectives of the article. At the same time, traditional institutions represent institutional fragmentation, which has detrimental effects on Africas governance and economic transformation. Three layers of institutions characterize most African countries. Given its institutional disconnect with the state, the traditional sector and the communities that operate under it invariably face marginalization in influencing policy as well as in access to economic resources throughout the continent. THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN CUSTOMARY LAW, Fenrich, Galizzi, Higgins, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2011, 27 Pages Prominent among these Sudanic states was the Soninke Kingdom of Ancient Ghana. Its marginalization, in turn, impedes the transformation of the traditional sector, thus extending the fragmentation of institutions. The guiding principle behind these two attributes is that conflict is a societal problem and that resolving conflict requires societal engagement. Hoover Education Success Initiative | The Papers. "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. 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. Legitimate authority, in turn, is based on accepted laws and norms rather than the arbitrary, unconstrained power of the rulers. The key lies in identifying the variables that will shape its context. Additionally, the Guurti is charged with resolving conflicts in the country using traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. 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). However, they do not have custodianship of land and they generally do not dispense justice on their own. If a critical mass of the leaderse.g., South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cote dIvoire, Algeria, Egyptare heading in a positive direction, they will pull some others along in their wake; of course, the reverse is also true. 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. Governments that rely on foreign counterparts and foreign investment in natural resources for a major portion of their budgetsrather than on domestic taxationare likely to have weaker connections to citizens and domestic social groups. 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. 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). 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). Examine the definitions, strengths, and weaknesses of several common governments: monarchy, theocracy . The link was not copied. The place and role of African Youth in Pre-independence African Governance Systems 19-20 1.7. 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. By Sulayman Sanneh Date: September 10th, 2021. fIntroduction Africa is a vast and . Institutional dichotomy also seems to be a characteristic of transitional societies, which are between modes of production. Perhaps a more realistic transitional approach would be to reconcile the parallel institutions while simultaneously pursuing policies that transform traditional economic systems. Some trust traditional leaders more than they trust state authorities. 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. Traditional governments have the following functions; 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). 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. Societal conflicts: Institutional dichotomy often entails incompatibility between the systems. Impact of Historical Origins of African State System2. The arguments against traditional institutions are countered by arguments that consider traditional institutions to be indispensable and that they should be the foundations of African institutions of governance (Davidson, 1992). At times, these traditional security system elements are sufficient enough for some uses, but there's certainly no denying . 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. Council of elders: These systems essentially operate on consensual decision-making arrangements that vary from one place to another. Others choose the traditional institutions, for example, in settling disputes because of lower transactional costs. Both can be identified as forms of governance. The initial constitutions and legal systems were derived from the terminal colonial era. 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. Against this backdrop, where is African governance headed? This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in. This brief essay began by identifying the state-society gap as the central challenge for African governance. 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. 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. The point here is that peer pressure, examples, and precedents are especially important in a region of 54 states, many of them dependent on satisfactory relations with their neighbors. It should not be surprising that there is a weak social compact between state and society in many African states. FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. f Basic Features cont. 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. 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. One of these will be the role and weight of various powerful external actors. Evidence from case studies, however, suggests that the size of adherents varies from country to country. African political systems are described in a number of textbooks and general books on African history. Ten years later, in 2017, the number of conflicts was 18, taking place in 13 different countries. Sometimes, another precedent flows from thesenamely, pressure from outside the country but with some support internally as well for creating a transitional government of national unity. . 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. These features include nonprofits, non-profits and hybrid entities are now provide goods and services that were once delivered by the government. Still another form of legitimacy in Africa sometimes derives from traditional political systems based on some form of kingship. 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. 79 (3), (1995) pp. A third layer lies between the other two layers and is referred to in this article as traditional institutions. A more recent example of adaptive resilience is being demonstrated by Ethiopias Abiy Ahmed. Subsequent to the colonial experience, traditional institutions may be considered to be informal institutions in the sense that they are often not sanctioned by the state. The most promising pattern is adaptive resilience in which leaders facing such pressures create safety valves or outlets for managing social unrest. In other cases, however, they survived as paid civil servants of the state without displacing the traditional elder-based traditional authority systems. 1995 focuses on social, economic, and intellectual trends up to the end of the colonial era. African traditional institutions continue to exist in most African countries, albeit at different levels of adherence by the populations of the continent. Large segments of the rural populations, the overwhelming majority in most African countries, continue to adhere principally to traditional institutions. Strictly speaking, Ghana was the title of the King, but the Arabs, who left records . Such a consensus-building mechanism can help resolve many of the conflicts related to diversity management and nation-building. As noted, African countries have experienced the rise of the modern (capitalist) economic system along with its corresponding institutional systems. 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. Problems and Purpose. However, the traditional modes of production and the institutional systems associated with them also remain entrenched among large segments of the population. In direct contrast is the second model: statist, performance-based legitimacy, measured typically in terms of economic growth and domestic stability as well as government-provided servicesthe legitimacy claimed by leaders in Uganda and Rwanda, among others. 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. Nonhereditary selected leaders with constitutional power: A good example of this is the Gada system of the Oromo in Ethiopia and Kenya. A Functional Approach to define Government 2. In Botswana, for example, the consensual decision-making process in the kgotla (public meeting) regulates the power of the chiefs. 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. Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. The first objective of the article is to shed light on the socioeconomic foundations for the resilience of Africas traditional institutions. These partners, for their part, sometimes disengaged from close political ties and often brought new governance conditions into their assistance programs. 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. For these and other reasons, the state-society gap lies at the heart of the problems faced by many states. 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, They are the key players in providing judicial service and in conflict management in much of rural Africa. not because of, the unique features of US democracy . 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. What policies and laws will determine relations between farmers and urban dwellers, between farmers and herders, between diverse identity groups living in close proximity or encroaching on each others farm land, and between public officials, criminal networks and ordinary citizens? The traditional Africa system of government is open and inclusive, where strangers, foreigners and even slaves could participate in the decision-making process. Table 1 shows the proportion of the population that operates under traditional economic systems in selected African countries. The same technology vectors can also empower criminal, trafficking, and terrorist networks, all of which pose threats to state sovereignty. 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. These circumstances can generate an authoritarian reflex and the temptation to circle the wagons against all sources of potential opposition. In Sierra Leone, paramount chiefs are community leaders and their tasks involve - among others - protecting community safety and resolving disputes. Should inclusion be an ongoing process or a single event? Fitzpatrick 'Traditionalism and Traditional Law' Journal of African Law, Vol. The Dutch dispatched an embassy to the Asantehene's . The Constitution states that the institution, status and roles of traditional leadership, according to customary law, are recognised. A more recent argument is that traditional institutions are incompatible with economic, social, and civil rights (Chirayath, Sage, & Woolcock, 2005). 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.
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