features of traditional african system of government

Less than 20% of Africa's states achieved statehood following rebellion or armed insurgency; in the others, independence flowed from . There is little doubt that colonial occupation and the ensuing restructuring of African political entities and socioeconomic systems altered African traditional institutions of governance. They succeed when there are political conditions that permit a broad coalition to impose pluralist political institutions and limits and restraints on ruling elites.20 Thus, resilience of both state and society may hinge in the end on the rule of law replacing the rule of men. 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. African indigenous education was. The essay concludes with a sobering reflection on the challenge of achieving resilient governance. He served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 1981 to 1989. Issues of corruption and transparency are likely to become driving themes in African politics. The abolishment of chieftaincy does not eradicate the systems broader underlying features, such as customary law, decision-making systems, and conflict resolution practices. We know a good deal about what Africans want and demand from their governments from public opinion surveys by Afrobarometer. There is also the question of inclusion of specific demographic cohorts: women, youth, and migrants from rural to urban areas (including migrant women) all face issues of exclusion that can have an impact on conflict and governance. This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in. The earliest known recorded history arose in Ancient Egypt . Perhaps a more realistic transitional approach would be to reconcile the parallel institutions while simultaneously pursuing policies that transform traditional economic systems. Chester A. Crocker is the James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies at Georgetown University. 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. Highlight 5 features of government. Abstract. Poor leadership can result in acts of commission or omission that alienate or disenfranchise geographically distinct communities. 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. 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. 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. Against this backdrop, where is African governance headed? The third section deals with the post-colonial period and discusses some problems associated with African administration. Ehret 2002 emphasizes the diversity and long history of precolonial social and political formations, whereas Curtin, et al. Seeming preference for Democracy in Africa over other governance systems in Africa before and after independence 15-17 1.5. 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. One common feature is recognition of customary property rights laws, especially that of land. THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN CUSTOMARY LAW, Fenrich, Galizzi, Higgins, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2011, 27 Pages Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. Indications are, however, that the more centralized the system is, the lower the accountability and popular participation in decision making. Aristotle was the first to define three principal types of government systems in the fourth century B.C. Another driver of governance trends will be the access enjoyed by youthful and rapidly urbanizing populations to the technologies that are changing the global communications space. 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. . 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. The imperative for inclusion raises many questions: should the priority be to achieve inclusion of diverse elites, of ethnic and confessional constituencies, of a sample of grass roots opinion leaders? Finally, the chapter considers the future of the institution against the background of the many issues and challenges considered. 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? Others choose the traditional institutions, for example, in settling disputes because of lower transactional costs. In light of this discussion of types of inclusion, the implications for dealing with state fragility and building greater resilience can now be spelled out. Tribes had relatively little power outside their own group during the colonial period. This category of chiefs serves their communities in various and sometimes complex roles, which includes spiritual service. By Sulayman Sanneh Date: September 10th, 2021. fIntroduction Africa is a vast and . Additionally, the transaction costs for services provided by the traditional institutions are much lower than the services provided by the state. . 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. example of a traditional African political system. Traditional affairs. Most of the regions states were defined geographically by European cartographers at the start of the colonial period. Keywords: Legal Pluralism, African Customary Law, Traditional Leadership, Chieftaincy, Formal Legal System Relationship With, Human Rights, Traditional Norms, Suggested Citation: 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. With respect to their relevance, traditional institutions remain indispensable for several reasons. Large countries such as the DRC, Ethiopia, and Mozambique are likely to experience pressures against centralized, authoritarian, or one-party governance (whether accompanied by real elections or not). A third objective is to examine the relevance of traditional institutions. In other words, the transition from traditional modes of production to a capitalist economic system has advanced more in some countries than in others. African states are by no means homogeneous in terms of governance standards: as the Mo Ibrahim index based on 14 governance categories reported in 2015, some 70 points on a scale of 100 separated the best and worst performers.16. The population in the traditional system thus faces a vicious cycle of deprivation. Tribe Versus Ethnic Group. On the one hand, traditional institutions are highly relevant and indispensable, although there are arguments to the contrary (see Mengisteab & Hagg [2017] for a summary of such arguments). To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? This we might call transformative resilience.21. Such a transformation would render traditional institutions dispensable. Yet, governments are expected to govern and make decisions after consulting relevant stakeholders. 14 L.A. Ayinla 'African Philosophy of Law: A Critique' 151, available at This chapter examines traditional leadership within the context of the emerging constitutional democracy in Ghana. The selection, however, is often from the children of a chief. A third layer lies between the other two layers and is referred to in this article as traditional institutions. The initial constitutions and legal systems were derived from the terminal colonial era. 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. You cant impose middle class values on a pre-industrial society.13. Customary law, for example, does not protect communities from violations of their customary land rights through land-taking by the state. 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. In many cases, the invented chieftaincies were unsuccessful in displacing the consensus-based governance structures (Gartrell, 1983; Uwazie, 1994). 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. 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 most African countries, constitutionally established authorities exercise the power of government alongside traditional authorities. Unfortunately, little attention by African governments has been given to this paradoxical aspect of traditional institutions. 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. However, the system of traditional government varied from place to place. 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. Yet, the traditional judicial system in most cases operates outside of the states institutional framework. 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. 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. South Africa has a mixed economy in which there is a variety of private freedom, combined with centralized economic . Both can be identified as forms of governance. The role of chieftaincy within post-colonial African countries continues to incite lively debates, as the case of Ghana exemplifies. The Dutch dispatched an embassy to the Asantehene's . Institutional dichotomy also seems to be a characteristic of transitional societies, which are between modes of production. This is in part because the role of traditional leaders has changed over time. 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. The same factors that hinder nation-building hinder democratization. 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 long-term, global pushback by the leading authoritarian powers against liberal governance norms has consequences in Africa and other regions as governments directly act to close the space for civil society to operate. Africa contains more sovereign nations than any other continent, with 54 countries compared to Asia's 47. Oromos are one of the largest ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa belonging to the Cushitic-speaking peoples in Northeastern Africa in general and in modern Ethiopia and Kenya in particular. 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). Using a second conflict lens, the number of non-state conflicts has increased dramatically in recent years, peaking in 2017 with 50 non-state conflicts, compared to 24 in 2011. Less than 20% of Africas states achieved statehood following rebellion or armed insurgency; in the others, independence flowed from peaceful transfers of authority from colonial officials to African political elites. 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. 7. Regardless, fragmentation of institutional systems poses a number of serious challenges to Africas governance and economic development. 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. Traditional and informal justice systems aim at restoring social cohesion within the community by promoting reconciliation between disputing parties. The leaders, their families and allies are exempt. for a democratic system of government. 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. Such a consensus-building mechanism can help resolve many of the conflicts related to diversity management and nation-building. 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. The colonial system constitutes the second section. 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. 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. 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. 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. Some trust traditional leaders more than they trust state authorities. 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. 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. An alternative strategy of bringing about institutional harmony would be to transform the traditional economic systems into an exchange-based economy that would be compatible with the formal institutions of the state. For these and other reasons, the state-society gap lies at the heart of the problems faced by many states. 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. 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. the system even after independence. Table 1 shows the proportion of the population that operates under traditional economic systems in selected African countries. 134-141. 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. 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. Similarities between Democratic and Authoritarian Government. 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. Under the circumstances, it becomes critical that traditional leaders are directly involved in local governance so that they protect the interests of their communities. 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. In African-style democracy the rule of law is only applicable to ordinary people unconnected to the governing party leadership or leader. 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. Yet political stability cannot be based on state power alone, except in the short run. In any case, as . The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. Ten years later, in 2017, the number of conflicts was 18, taking place in 13 different countries. Such post-electoral pacts reflect the conclusion that stability is more important than democracy. 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. 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). 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, 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. An analytical study and impact of colonialism on pre-colonial centralized and decentralized African Traditional and Political Systems. Challenges confronting the institution of chieftaincy have continued from the colonial era into recent times. It then analyzes the implications of the dual allegiance of the citizenry to chiefs and the government. The result is transitory resilience of the regime, but shaky political stability, declining cohesion, and eventual conflict or violent change. The government system is a republic; the chief of state and head of government is the president. The first type is rights-based legitimacy deriving from rule of law, periodic elections, and alternation of political power, the kind generally supported by western and some African governments such as Ghana and Senegal. Examine the definitions, strengths, and weaknesses of several common governments: monarchy, theocracy . In addition to these measures, reconciling fragmented institutions would be more successful when governments invest more resources in transforming the traditional socioeconomic space. 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. Governance also has an important regional dimension relating to the institutional structures and norms that guide a regions approach to challenges and that help shape its political culture.1 This is especially relevant in looking at Africas place in the emerging world since this large region consists of 54 statesclose to 25% of the U.N.s membershipand includes the largest number of landlocked states of any region, factors that dramatically affect the political environment in which leaders make choices. Impact of Historical Origins of African State System2. 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 formal institutions of checks and balances and accountability of leaders to the population are rather weak in this system. African countries are characterized by fragmentation of various aspects of their political economy, including their institutions of governance. States would be more effective in reforming the traditional judicial system if they recognized them rather than neglecting them, as often is the case. On the one side, there are the centralized systems where leaders command near absolute power. Another common feature is the involvement of traditional authorities in the governance process, at least at the local level. 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. Careful analysis suggests that African traditional institutions lie in a continuum between the highly decentralized to the centralized systems and they all have resource allocation practices, conflict resolution, judicial systems, and decision-making practices, which are distinct from those of the state. One layer represents the formal institutions (laws) of the state. The optimistic replyand it is a powerful oneis that Africans will gradually build inclusive political and economic institutions.18 This, however, requires wise leadership. 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. Invented chiefs and state-paid elders: These were chiefs imposed by the colonial state on decentralized communities without centralized authority systems. Interestingly, small and mid-size state leaders have won the award so far.) This brief essay began by identifying the state-society gap as the central challenge for African governance. 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. A second conflict pattern can develop along the lines of ethnic cleavages which can be readily politicized and then militarized into outright ethnic violence. Still another form of legitimacy in Africa sometimes derives from traditional political systems based on some form of kingship. The regime in this case captures the state, co-opts the security organs, and dissolves civil society. Evidence from case studies, however, suggests that the size of adherents varies from country to country. Their endurance and coexistence with the institutions of the state has created an institutional dichotomy in much of Africa. 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. 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. In some cases, community elders select future Sultanes at a young age and groom them for the position. 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. His dramatic tenure since April of 2018 appears to be shaking up the states creaky authoritarian services and creating the space for important adaptations such as ending a long-standing state of emergency, freeing political prisoners, reaching out to a wide range of foreign partners, and extending the olive branch to Eritrea with whom Ethiopia had fought a costly war. According to this analysis, Africas traditional institutional systems are likely to endure as long as the traditional subsistent economic systems continue to exist. The Constitution states that the institution, status and roles of traditional leadership, according to customary law, are recognised. A Sociology of Education for Africa . f Basic Features cont. Broadly speaking, indigenous systems of governance are those that were practiced by local populations in pre-colonial times. The council of elders, religious leaders, and administrative staff of the chiefs exercise checks on the power of the leaders and keep them accountable (Beattie, 1967; Busia, 1968; Coplan & Quinlan, 1997; Jones, 1983; Osaghae, 1989). Galizzi, Paolo and Abotsi, Ernest K., Traditional Institutions and Governance in Modern African Democracies (May 9, 2011). However, three countries, Botswana, Somaliland, and South Africa, have undertaken differing measures with varying levels of success. 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. A related reason for their relevance is that traditional institutions, unlike the state, provide rural communities the platform to participate directly in their own governance. In addition, according to Chirayath et al. No doubt rural communities participate in elections, although they are hardly represented in national assemblies by people from their own socioeconomic space. The institution of traditional leadership in Africa pre-existed both the colonial and apartheid systems and was the only known system of governance among indigenous people. It considers the nature of the state in sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. Among the attributes of the traditional system with such potential is the systems transparent and participatory process of resolving conflicts, which takes place in open public meetings. 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. 1995 focuses on social, economic, and intellectual trends up to the end of the colonial era.

Francesca Morocco Net Worth, R46 Subway Car Retirement, Garage Frank Luxembourg, Qantas Group Cyber Security Policy, Kristen Ziman Family, Articles F