Many other countries have non-centralized elder-based traditional institutions. The government system is a republic; the chief of state and head of government is the president. For these and other reasons, the state-society gap lies at the heart of the problems faced by many states. Thus, despite abolition efforts by postcolonial states and the arguments against the traditional institutions in the literature, the systems endure and remain rather indispensable for the communities in traditional economic systems. Three layers of institutions characterize most African countries. 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. Traditional leaders would also be able to use local governance as a platform for exerting some influence on national policymaking. In some cases, community elders select future Sultanes at a young age and groom them for the position. PDF Traditional Systems of Communication in Nigeria 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. South Africas strategy revolves around recognition of customary law when it does not conflict with the constitution and involves traditional authorities in local governance. Poor gender relations: Traditional institutions share some common weaknesses. Some live in remote areas beyond the reach of some of the institutions of the state, such as courts. Even so, customary law still exerts a strong . This section attempts to explain these seemingly contradictory implications of traditional institutions. f Basic Features cont. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. 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. This discussion leads to an analysis of African conflict trends to help identify the most conflict-burdened sub-regions and to highlight the intimate link between governance and conflict patterns. Highlight 5 features of government. There were several reasons for such measures. Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. 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. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals . Posted: 12 May 2011. (PDF) The role and significance of traditional leadership in the African governance trends were transformed by the geopolitical changes that came with the end of the Cold War. 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. The indigenous political system had some democratic features. 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. One layer represents the formal institutions (laws) of the state. The most promising pattern is adaptive resilience in which leaders facing such pressures create safety valves or outlets for managing social unrest. 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. Large segments of the rural populations, the overwhelming majority in most African countries, continue to adhere principally to traditional institutions. We know a good deal about what Africans want and demand from their governments from public opinion surveys by Afrobarometer. Ideally, African nations will benefit when civil society respects the states role (as well as the other way around); rather than one-sided advocacy, both sides should strive to create a space for debate in order to legitimize tolerance of multiple views in society. As Mamdani has argued, understanding the role of traditional leadership and customary law in contemporary African societies requires us to understand its history. 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. 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. Government: A Multifarious Concept 1.2. 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). 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. However, they do not have custodianship of land and they generally do not dispense justice on their own. 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. 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. For Acemoglu and Robinson, such turning points occur in specific, unique historical circumstances that arise in a societys development. 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). Democracy and Consensus in African Traditional Politics: a Plea - Jstor Decision making is generally participatory and often consensus-based. Security challenges can impose tough choices on governments that may act in ways that compound the problem, opening the door to heightened risks of corruption and the slippery slope of working with criminal entities. The express prohibition in the African Charter against discrimination according to ethnic group constitutes a major step for the continent as a whole because the realization of this right will lead to greater economic opportunity for those people not of the same kinship as the head of government. It may be good to note, as a preliminary, that African political systems of the past dis played considerable variety. In Igbo land for example the system of government was quite unique and transcends the democracy of America and Europe. This enhanced his authority. 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. 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. Additionally, the Guurti is charged with resolving conflicts in the country using traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. The regime in this case captures the state, co-opts the security organs, and dissolves civil society. African Politics: A Very Short Introduction | Oxford Academic Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural, include belief in a supreme creator, belief in spirits, veneration of the dead, use of magic and traditional African . Africas geopolitical environment is shaped by Africans to a considerable degree. The jury is still out on the merits of this practice. 1. Chiefs with limited power: Another category of chiefs is those that are hereditary, like the paramount chiefs, but have limited powers. 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. These communities select the Aba Gada, who serves a nonrenewable term of 8 years as leader. (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 other cases, however, they survived as paid civil servants of the state without displacing the traditional elder-based traditional authority systems. However, the traditional judicial system has some weaknesses, especially with respect to gender equality. FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. In sum, the digitization of African politics raises real challenges for political leaders and has the potential to increase their determination to digitize their own tools of political control. As noted, there are notable differences in the authority systems of African traditional institutions. The key lies in identifying the variables that will shape its context. 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. Ten years later, in 2017, the number of conflicts was 18, taking place in 13 different countries. Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Politics. TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT - Modish Project 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. Challenges confronting the institution of chieftaincy have continued from the colonial era into recent times. The traditional and informal justice systems, it is argued offers greater access to justice. 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. 134-141. They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents. 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. 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 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. In West Africa, a griot is a praise singer or poet who possesses a repository of oral tradition passed down from generation to generation. 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. The fourth part draws a conclusion with a tentative proposal on how the traditional institutions might be reconciled with the formal institutions to address the problem of institutional incoherence. This study notes that in 2007 Africa saw 12 conflicts in 10 countries. The Role and Significance of Traditional Leadership in South African Should inclusion be an ongoing process or a single event? The term covers the expressed commands of Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. In some cases, they are also denied child custody rights. Legitimate authority, in turn, is based on accepted laws and norms rather than the arbitrary, unconstrained power of the rulers. To learn more, visit They are the key players in providing judicial service and in conflict management in much of rural Africa. These different economic systems have corresponding institutional systems with divergent property rights laws and resource allocation mechanisms, disparate decision-making systems, and distinct judicial systems and conflict resolution mechanisms. 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). Yet political stability cannot be based on state power alone, except in the short run. 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 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. Relevance of African traditional institutions of Governance In the thankfully rare cases where national governance breaks down completelySouth Sudan, Somalia, CARits absence is an invitation to every ethnic or geographic community to fend for itselfa classic security dilemma. In this respect, they complement official courts that are often unable to provide court services to all their rural communities. for a democratic system of government. Issues of corruption and transparency are likely to become driving themes in African politics. Hoover Education Success Initiative | The Papers. Most of the states that had attempted to abolish chieftaincy have retracted the abolitionist decrees and reinstated chiefs. Non-official institutions and civil society may have very different ideas from the national government on this issue, leading to debates about legitimacy. For example, the electoral college forces a republic type of voting system. 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. Many others choose the customary laws and conflict resolution mechanisms because they correspond better to their way of life. "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. 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. Features of Yoruba Pre colonial Administration - Bscholarly Ethiopias monarchy ended in 1974 while the other three remain, with only the king of Swaziland enjoying absolute power. Judicial Administration. 7. Traditional affairs | South African Government In Module Seven A: African History, you explored the histories of a wide diversity of pre-colonial African societies. A third layer lies between the other two layers and is referred to in this article as traditional institutions. 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. Afrocentrism, also called Africentrism, cultural and political movement whose mainly African American adherents regard themselves and all other Blacks as syncretic Africans and believe that their worldview should positively reflect traditional African values. The geography of South Africa is vast scrubland in the interior, the Namib Desert in the northwest, and tropics in the southeast. 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. 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. Greater access to public services and to productivity-enhancing technology would also help in enhancing the transformation of the subsistence sector. Such chiefs also have rather limited powers. Rather, they often rely on voluntary compliance, although they also apply some soft power to discourage noncompliance by members with customary laws. The features associated with this new form of governmental administration deal with smaller government responsibility for providing goods and services. African states, along with Asian, Middle Eastern, and even European governments, have all been affected. 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. 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,

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