features of traditional african system of government

Furthermore, for generations, Africans were taught the Western notion of the tribe as . The book contains eight separate papers produced by scholars working in the field of anthropology, each of which focuses in on a different society in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since institutional fragmentation is a major obstacle to nation-building and democratization, it is imperative that African countries address it and forge institutional harmony. Based on existing evidence, the authority systems in postcolonial Africa lie in a continuum between two polar points. 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 rise of non-Western centers of power and the return of global polarization among major powers reduce the presence and weight of western influence. During the colonial period, "tribe" was used to identify specific cultural and political groups in much the same way as "nation" is defined above. Africa's tumultuous political history has resulted in extreme disparities between the wealth and stability of its countries. 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. Their "rediscovery" in modern times has led to an important decolonization of local and community management in order to pursue genuine self-determination. Seeming preference for Democracy in Africa over other governance systems in Africa before and after independence 15-17 1.5. the system even after independence. 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. One common feature is recognition of customary property rights laws, especially that of land. Most of the regions states were defined geographically by European cartographers at the start of the colonial period. The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. 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. 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). However, at the lower level of the hierarchy of the centralized system, the difference between the centralized and decentralized systems tends to narrow notably. To complicate matters further, the role of traditional institutions is likely to be critical in addressing the problem of institutional fragmentation. In the postcolonial era, their roles changed again. In most African countries, constitutionally established authorities exercise the power of government alongside traditional authorities. Such adjustments, however, may require contextualization of the institutions of democracy by adjusting these institutions to reflect African realities. Land privatization is, thus, unworkable in pastoral communities, as communal land ownership would be unworkable in a capitalist economy. 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 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. 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). Since then, many more have been formulated, but the main themes and ideas have remained. The leaders, their families and allies are exempt. The link between conflict and governance is a two-way street. for a democratic system of government. 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. Africa contains more sovereign nations than any other continent, with 54 countries compared to Asia's 47. It then analyzes the implications of the dual allegiance of the citizenry to chiefs and the government. The traditional and informal justice systems, it is argued offers greater access to justice. Tribes had relatively little power outside their own group during the colonial period. These communities select the Aba Gada, who serves a nonrenewable term of 8 years as leader. 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. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. 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. Abstract. This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in 0.093 seconds, Using these links will ensure access to this page indefinitely. 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. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. A Sociology of Education for Africa . Impact of Historical Origins of African State System2. Challenges confronting the institution of chieftaincy have continued from the colonial era into recent times. Traditional leaders would also be able to use local governance as a platform for exerting some influence on national policymaking. By Sulayman Sanneh Date: September 10th, 2021. fIntroduction Africa is a vast and . However, their participation in the electoral process has not enabled them to influence policy, protect their customary land rights, and secure access to public services that would help them overcome their deprivation. Figure 1 captures this turn to authoritarianism in postindependence Africa. A second objective is to draw a tentative typology of the different authority systems of Africas traditional institutions. He served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1981 to 1989. One can identify five bases of regime legitimacy in the African context today. 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. However, they do not have custodianship of land and they generally do not dispense justice on their own. The guiding principle behind these two attributes is that conflict is a societal problem and that resolving conflict requires societal engagement. The structures of leadership of African traditional institutions are diverse and they have yet to be mapped out comprehensively. They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents. The opinions expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University. Each of these societies had a system of government. Three layers of institutions characterize most African countries. Yet, the traditional judicial system in most cases operates outside of the states institutional framework. Hindrance to democratization: Perhaps among the most important challenges institutional fragmentation poses is to the process of democratization. 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. Additionally, the Guurti is charged with resolving conflicts in the country using traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. The Aqils (elders) of Somalia and the chiefs in Kenya are good examples. What sets Hoover apart from all other policy organizations is its status as a center of scholarly excellence, its locus as a forum of scholarly discussion of public policy, and its ability to bring the conclusions of this scholarship to a public audience. A look at the economic systems of the adherents of the two institutional systems also gives a good indication of the relations between economic and institutional systems. There is little doubt that colonial occupation and the ensuing restructuring of African political entities and socioeconomic systems altered African traditional institutions of governance. As a result, customary law, which often is not recognized by the state or is recognized only when it does not contradict the constitution, does not protect communities from possible transgressions by the state. Such chiefs also have rather limited powers. No doubt rural communities participate in elections, although they are hardly represented in national assemblies by people from their own socioeconomic space. Additionally, inequalities between parallel socioeconomic spaces, especially with respect to influence on policy, hinder a democratic system, which requires equitable representation and inclusive participation. But established and recognized forms of inherited rule cannot be lightly dismissed as un-modern, especially when linked to the identity of an ethnic or tribal group, and could be construed as a building block of legitimacy. There was a lot of consultation between the elders before any major decision was made. Note that Maine and . Prominent among these Sudanic states was the Soninke Kingdom of Ancient Ghana. In some cases, they are also denied child custody rights. With the dawn of colonialism in Africa, the traditional African government was sys-tematically weakened, and the strong and influential bond between traditional lead- . Its marginalization, in turn, impedes the transformation of the traditional sector, thus extending the fragmentation of institutions. For example, the electoral college forces a republic type of voting system. FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 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. Another reason is that African leaders of the postcolonial state, who wanted to consolidate their power, did not want other points of power that would compromise their control. 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. This proposal will be subject to a referendum on the constitutional changes required.16.2e 2.4 Traditional leadership Traditional leaders are accorded It seems clear that Africas conflict burden declined steadily after the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s owing to successful peace processes outstripping the outbreak of new conflicts; but the burden has been spiking up again since then. 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. African conflict trends point to a complex picture, made more so by the differing methodologies used by different research groups. Features Of Traditional Government Administration. The pre-colonial system in Yoruba can be described to be democratic because of the inclusion of the principle of checks and balances that had been introduced in the system of administration. "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. It should not be surprising that there is a weak social compact between state and society in many African states. One-sided violence against unarmed civilians has also spiked up since 2011.4, These numbers require three major points of clarification. President Muhammadu Buhari is currently the federal head of state and government. 1. Command economies, as opposed to free-market economies, do not allow market forces like supply and demand to determine production or prices. Our data indicate that traditional leaders, chiefs and elders clearly still play an important role in the lives A Long Journey: The Bantu Migrations. Following decolonization, several African countries attempted to abolish aspects of the traditional institutional systems. 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. Womens inequality in the traditional system is related, at least in part, to age- and gender-based divisions of labor characterizing traditional economic systems. 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. 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. 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 This layer of institutions is the subject of inquiry of this article. The indigenous political system had some democratic features. Because these governmental institutions reject the indigenous political systems on which African society was built, they have generally failed to bring political . To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? Some of these conflicts are, in reality, low-tech, sporadic skirmishes and armed attacks. Traditional institutions already adjudicate undisclosed but large proportions of rural disputes. Oftentimes, however, they contradict each other, creating problems associated with institutional incoherence. The Obas and Caliphs of Nigeria and the Zulu of South Africa are other examples. In addition, according to Chirayath et al. Chester A. Crocker is the James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies at Georgetown University. Customary law, for example, does not protect communities from violations of their customary land rights through land-taking by the state. 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. The implementation of these systems often . The same technology vectors can also empower criminal, trafficking, and terrorist networks, all of which pose threats to state sovereignty. The traditional justice system, thus, does not have the power to grant any rights beyond the local level. Finally, the chapter considers the future of the institution against the background of the many issues and challenges considered. 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, Traditional governments have the following functions; However, the system of traditional government varied from place to place. Another measure is recognition of customary law and traditional judicial systems by the state. The result is transitory resilience of the regime, but shaky political stability, declining cohesion, and eventual conflict or violent change. The regime in this case captures the state, co-opts the security organs, and dissolves civil society. In African-style democracy the rule of law is only applicable to ordinary people unconnected to the governing party leadership or leader. 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. By 2016, 35 AU members had joined it, but less than half actually subjected themselves to being assessed. West Africa has a long and complex history. Some live in remote areas beyond the reach of some of the institutions of the state, such as courts. On the one side, there are the centralized systems where leaders command near absolute power. As a result, it becomes highly complex to analyze their roles and structures without specifying the time frame. Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. On the other hand, their endurance creates institutional fragmentation that has adverse impacts on Africas governance and socioeconomic transformation. Both can be identified as forms of governance. Before then, traditional authorities essentially provided leadership for the various communities and kingdoms. 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. With the exceptions of a few works, such as Legesse (1973), the institutions of the 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. African Traditional Political System and Institution: University of The Gambia, Faculty of humanities and social sciences. Table 1 shows the proportion of the population that operates under traditional economic systems in selected African countries. 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. 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. The roles that traditional authorities can play in the process of good governance can broadly be separated into three categories: first, their advisory role to government, as well as their participatory role in the administration of regions and districts; second, their developmental role, complementing government?s efforts in mobilizing the . Government as a Structural Element of Society 2.2. Customary law also manages land tenure and land allocation patterns. Within this spectrum, some eight types of leadership structures can be identified. The link was not copied. 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. Many others choose the customary laws and conflict resolution mechanisms because they correspond better to their way of life. Pre-colonial Administration of the Yorubas. It considers the nature of the state in sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. 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. Key Takeaways. The abolishment of chieftaincy does not eradicate the systems broader underlying features, such as customary law, decision-making systems, and conflict resolution practices. 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. Only four states in AfricaBotswana, Gambia, Mauritius, and Senegalretained multiparty systems. Basing key political decisions on broad societal and inter-party consensus may help to de-escalate cutthroat competition that often leads to violent conflicts. Any insurrection by a segment of the population has the potential to bring about not only the downfall of governments but also the collapse of the entire apparatus of the state because the popular foundation of the African state is weak.

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