This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in. Problems and Purpose. Ethiopias monarchy ended in 1974 while the other three remain, with only the king of Swaziland enjoying absolute power. 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 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.
State Systems in Pre-colonial, Colonial and Post-colonial - Jstor The optimistic replyand it is a powerful oneis that Africans will gradually build inclusive political and economic institutions.18 This, however, requires wise leadership. With the dawn of colonialism in Africa, the traditional African government was sys-tematically weakened, and the strong and influential bond between traditional lead- .
Pre-Colonial Period in Ghana | Pre-Colonial Political Systems Even so, customary law still exerts a strong . Similarities between Democratic and Authoritarian Government. 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. Pre-colonial Administration of the Yorubas. 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, Long-standing kingdoms such as those in Morocco and Swaziland are recognized national states.
TRADITIONAL AUTHORITY IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT - Modish Project 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. Others choose the traditional institutions, for example, in settling disputes because of lower transactional costs. In some societies, traditional, tribal authorities may offer informed and genuinely accepted governance, provided that they are not merely government appointees pursuing decentralized self-enrichment. media system, was concerned with the more systematized dissemination of information between the traditional administrative organ and the people (subjects). Perhaps a more realistic transitional approach would be to reconcile the parallel institutions while simultaneously pursuing policies that transform traditional economic systems.
Features of Yoruba Pre colonial Administration - Bscholarly These circumstances can generate an authoritarian reflex and the temptation to circle the wagons against all sources of potential opposition. 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. A more recent example of adaptive resilience is being demonstrated by Ethiopias Abiy Ahmed. Even the court system is designed to provide for consociational, provincial, and local organization, not as separate courts but as divisions of the key national courts; once again, a compromise between a fully federal or consociational arrangement and the realities of the South African situation that emphasize the preservation of national unity . 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. Non-official institutions and civil society may have very different ideas from the national government on this issue, leading to debates about legitimacy. 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. 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). 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.
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. The campaign by some (but not all) African states to pull out of the International Criminal Court is but one illustration of the trend. The key . Legitimate authority, in turn, is based on accepted laws and norms rather than the arbitrary, unconstrained power of the rulers. 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. 28, (1984) pp. The selection, however, is often from the children of a chief. The end of colonialism, however, did not end institutional dichotomy, despite attempts by some postcolonial African states to abolish the traditional system, especially the chieftaincy-based authority systems. The Obas and Caliphs of Nigeria and the Zulu of South Africa are other examples. This layer of institutions is the subject of inquiry of this article. 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). In other cases, however, they survived as paid civil servants of the state without displacing the traditional elder-based traditional authority systems.
Africa: Laws and Legal Systems - Geography This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in 0.093 seconds, Using these links will ensure access to this page indefinitely. It is also challenging to map them out without specifying their time frame. 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. South Africas strategy revolves around recognition of customary law when it does not conflict with the constitution and involves traditional authorities in local governance. The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (Alkire, Chatterjee, Conconi, Seth, & Vaz, 2014) estimates that the share of rural poverty to total poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is about 73.8%. The usual plethora of bour- The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. 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. 79 (3), (1995) pp. Some of these conflicts are, in reality, low-tech, sporadic skirmishes and armed attacks. To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? Located on the campus of Stanford University and in Washington, DC, the Hoover Institution is the nations preeminent research center dedicated to generating policy ideas that promote economic prosperity, national security, and democratic governance.
Features/Characteristics Of Government - 2022 - StopLearn 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. In Module Seven A: African History, you explored the histories of a wide diversity of pre-colonial African societies. 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. One scholar specializing on the Horn of Africa likens the situation a political marketplace in which politics and violence are simply options along the spectrum pursued by powerful actors.5. 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". One-sided violence against unarmed civilians has also spiked up since 2011.4, These numbers require three major points of clarification. Among them were those in Ethiopia, Morocco, Swaziland, and Lesotho. It considers the nature of the state in sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. The colonial state modified their precolonial roles. An election bound to be held in the year 2019 will unveil the new . West Africa has a long and complex history. 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 most African countries, constitutionally established authorities exercise the power of government alongside traditional authorities. Traditional governments have the following functions; The cases of Nigeria, Kenya, and South Sudan suggest that each case must be assessed on its own merits. Regional governance comes into play here, and certain precedents may get set and then ratified by regional or sub-regional organizations. Keywords: Legal Pluralism, African Customary Law, Traditional Leadership, Chieftaincy, Formal Legal System Relationship With, Human Rights, Traditional Norms, Suggested Citation:
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.
In addition, resolution needs to be acceptable to all parties. In other words, the transition from traditional modes of production to a capitalist economic system has advanced more in some countries than in others. This study points to a marked increase in state-based conflicts, owing in significant part to the inter-mixture of Islamic State factions into pre-existing conflicts. 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. Overturning regimes in Africas often fragile states could become easier to do, without necessarily leading to better governance. Oftentimes, however, they contradict each other, creating problems associated with institutional incoherence. 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. 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. Africa's tumultuous political history has resulted in extreme disparities between the wealth and stability of its countries. There is little doubt that colonial occupation and the ensuing restructuring of African political entities and socioeconomic systems altered African traditional institutions of governance. This study notes that in 2007 Africa saw 12 conflicts in 10 countries. These include macro variables such as educational access (especially for women), climate change impact and mitigation, development and income growth rates, demographic trends, internet access, urbanization rates, and conflict events.
Editorial Citizenship and Accountability: Customary Law and Traditional They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents. 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. Different property rights laws are a notable source of conflict in many African countries. 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. However, the traditional modes of production and the institutional systems associated with them also remain entrenched among large segments of the population. However, there are customs and various arrangements that restrain their power. In West Africa, a griot is a praise singer or poet who possesses a repository of oral tradition passed down from generation to generation.
Perhaps one of the most serious shared weakness relates to gender relations. Rules of procedure were established through customs and traditions some with oral, some with written constitutions Women played active roles in the political system including holding leadership and military positions. Paramount chiefs: Another category of leadership structure is that of hereditary paramount chieftaincy with various traditional titles and various levels of accountability. This concept paper focuses on the traditional system of governance in Africa including their consensual decision-making models, as part of a broader effort to better define and advocate their role in achieving good governance. More frequently, this form of rule operates at the sub-state level as in the case of the emir of Kano or the Sultan of Sokoto in Nigeria or the former royal establishments of the Baganda (Uganda) or the Ashanti (Ghana). Government: A Multifarious Concept 1.2. 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. Posted: 12 May 2011. Virtually every group was involved in the . 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). The features associated with this new form of governmental administration deal with smaller government responsibility for providing goods and services. Introduction. 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. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). 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. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals . 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 . African Traditional Political System and Institution: University of The Gambia, Faculty of humanities and social sciences.
African Solutions for African Problems - The Real Meaning Most of the regions states were defined geographically by European cartographers at the start of the colonial period. The leaders, their families and allies are exempt. In addition to these measures, reconciling fragmented institutions would be more successful when governments invest more resources in transforming the traditional socioeconomic space. In this view, nations fail because of extractive economic and political institutions that do not provide incentives for growth and stability. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. In the past decade, traditional security systems utilized in commercial or government facilities have consisted of a few basic elements: a well-trained personnel, a CCTV system, and some kind of access control system.
America's flawed democracy: the five key areas where it - The Guardian PDF The Political Ideology of Indigenous African Political Systems and 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. The link was not copied. The traditional African religions (or traditional beliefs and practices of African people) are a set of highly diverse beliefs that include various ethnic religions . 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. African indigenous education was. Our data indicate that traditional leaders, chiefs and elders clearly still play an important role in the lives One common feature is recognition of customary property rights laws, especially that of land. The terms Afrocentrism, Afrocology, and Afrocentricity were coined in the 1980s by the African American scholar and activist Molefi Asante. The Sultanes of Somalia are examples of this category and the community has specific criteria as to who is qualified to be a chief (Ahmed, 2017). They are well known, among others, for their advancement of an indigenous democratic process known as Gadaa. 134-141. To learn more, visit
Both types of government can be effective or infective depending on . 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. Legal norms are an integral part of the discussion about inclusivity since they affect every aspect of economic and personal life; this poses a critical question over whether individual rights or group rights take precedence in the normative hierarchy. They dispense justice, resolve conflicts, and enforce contracts, even though such services are conducted in different ways in different authority systems. African political systems are described in a number of textbooks and general books on African history. Societal conflicts: Institutional dichotomy often entails incompatibility between the systems. The most promising pattern is adaptive resilience in which leaders facing such pressures create safety valves or outlets for managing social unrest. 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. 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. In many tribes, the chief was the representative of the ancestors.
Traditional Institutions and Governance in Modern African - SSRN African conflict trends point to a complex picture, made more so by the differing methodologies used by different research groups. Impact of Historical Origins of African State System2. 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. the system even after independence. for a democratic system of government. 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 chapter examines traditional leadership within the context of the emerging constitutional democracy in Ghana. Learn more about joining the community of supporters and scholars working together to advance Hoovers mission and values. 17-19 1.6. Your gift helps advance ideas that promote a free society. This short article does not attempt to provide answers to all these questions, which require extensive empirical study.
(PDF) The role and significance of traditional leadership in the Click here to get an answer to your question Discuss any similarities between the key features of the fourth republican democracy and the traditional afri Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. 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. 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. This principle is particularly relevant for diversity management, nation-building, and democratization in contemporary Africa. 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). The role of chieftaincy within post-colonial African countries continues to incite lively debates, as the case of Ghana exemplifies. On the one hand, they recognize the need for strong, responsive state institutions; weak, fragile states do not lead to good governance. 2. Before delving into the inquiry, clarification of some issues would be helpful in avoiding confusion. 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. However, almost invariably the same functions, whether or not formally defined and characterized in the same terms or exercised in the same manner, are also performed by traditional institutions and their leaders. Although much has been lost in the shadows and fogs of a time before people created written accounts, historians . There is a basic distinction between those systems with a centralized authority exercised through the machinery of government and those without any such authority in which . With respect to their relevance, traditional institutions remain indispensable for several reasons. 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. 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? Certain offences were regarded as serious offences. The colonial system constitutes the second section.
The Role of Traditional Leaders in Post Independence Countries Botswana Broadly speaking, indigenous systems of governance are those that were practiced by local populations in pre-colonial times. Customary law, for example, does not protect communities from violations of their customary land rights through land-taking by the state. 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. 1995 focuses on social, economic, and intellectual trends up to the end of the colonial era. Command economies, as opposed to free-market economies, do not allow market forces like supply and demand to determine production or prices. The evidence suggests that traditional institutions have continued to metamorphose under the postcolonial state, as Africas socioeconomic systems continue to evolve. The guiding principle behind these two attributes is that conflict is a societal problem and that resolving conflict requires societal engagement. not because of, the unique features of US democracy . This approach to governance was prominent in the Oyo empire. 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. Communities like the Abagusii, Ameru, Akamba, Mijikenda, and Agikuyu in Kenya had this system of government. Such post-electoral pacts reflect the conclusion that stability is more important than democracy. The Chinese understand the basics. 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. 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.