Perhaps one of the most serious shared weakness relates to gender relations. Our data indicate that traditional leaders, chiefs and elders clearly still play an important role in the lives These events point to extreme state fragility and a loss of sovereign control over violence in the 11 affected countries, led by Nigeria, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic (CAR). 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. Presently, Nigeria practices the federal system. States would be more effective in reforming the traditional judicial system if they recognized them rather than neglecting them, as often is the case. They are already governing much of rural Africa. In Igbo land for example the system of government was quite unique and transcends the democracy of America and Europe. The geography of South Africa is vast scrubland in the interior, the Namib Desert in the northwest, and tropics in the southeast. On the one hand, they recognize the need for strong, responsive state institutions; weak, fragile states do not lead to good governance. Pastoral economic systems, for example, foster communal land tenure systems that allow unhindered mobility of livestock, while a capitalist economic system requires a private land ownership system that excludes access to others and allows long-term investments on land. Challenges confronting the institution of chieftaincy have continued from the colonial era into recent times. Political and economic inclusion is the companion requirement for effective and legitimate governance. 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. Obstruction of nation-building: Nation-building entails a process of integrating different segments of the citizenry to form a community of citizens under shared institutions. The endurance of traditional institutions entails complex and paradoxical implications for contemporary Africas governance. 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. This point links the reader to the other Africa chapters that have been prepared for this project. African Governance: Challenges and Their Implications. African conflict trends point to a complex picture, made more so by the differing methodologies used by different research groups. In West Africa, a griot is a praise singer or poet who possesses a repository of oral tradition passed down from generation to generation. 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. Africa's tumultuous political history has resulted in extreme disparities between the wealth and stability of its countries. Non-official institutions and civil society may have very different ideas from the national government on this issue, leading to debates about legitimacy. 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. Among the key challenges associated with institutional fragmentation are the following: Policy incoherence: Fragmented economies and institutions represent dichotomous socioeconomic spaces, which makes it highly challenging for policy to address equitably the interests of the populations in these separate socioeconomic spaces. Fitzpatrick 'Traditionalism and Traditional Law' Journal of African Law, Vol. Note: The term rural population is used as a proxy for the population operating under traditional economic systems. 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? 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). Judicial Administration. Changes in economic and political systems trigger the need for new institutional systems to manage the new economic and political systems, while endurance of economic and political systems foster durability of existing institutional systems. example of a traditional African political system. We do not yet know whether such institutions will consistently emerge, starting with relatively well-governed states, such as Ghana or Senegal, as a result of repeated, successful alternations of power; or whether they will only occur when Africas political systems burst apart and are reconfigured. Another layer represents the societal norms and customs that differ along various cultural traits. In traditional African communities, it was not possible to distinguish between religious and non-religious areas of life. Most of the regions states were defined geographically by European cartographers at the start of the colonial period. 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. The Constitution states that the institution, status and roles of traditional leadership, according to customary law, are recognised. Reconciling the parallel institutional systems is also unlikely to deliver the intended results in a short time; however, there may not be any better alternatives. 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. Often women are excluded from participation in decision making, especially in patrilineal social systems. West Africa has a long and complex history. 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. 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. The result is transitory resilience of the regime, but shaky political stability, declining cohesion, and eventual conflict or violent change. Hoover scholars form the Institutions core and create breakthrough ideas aligned with our mission and ideals. If a critical mass of the leaderse.g., South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cote dIvoire, Algeria, Egyptare heading in a positive direction, they will pull some others along in their wake; of course, the reverse is also true. Since institutional fragmentation is a major obstacle to nation-building and democratization, it is imperative that African countries address it and forge institutional harmony. African political elites are more determined than ever to shape their own destiny, and they are doing so. 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 . Such post-electoral pacts reflect the conclusion that stability is more important than democracy. During the colonial period, "tribe" was used to identify specific cultural and political groups in much the same way as "nation" is defined above. by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University. Oftentimes, however, they contradict each other, creating problems associated with institutional incoherence. There were several reasons for such measures. 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. 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. Africas rural communities, which largely operate under subsistent economic systems, overwhelmingly adhere to the traditional institutional systems while urban communities essentially follow the formal institutional systems, although there are people who negotiate the two institutional systems in their daily lives. One layer represents the formal institutions (laws) of the state. 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. Both can be identified as forms of governance. Due to the influence of previous South African and Nigerian leaders, the African Union established the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) to review and report on a range of governance criteria. Subsequent to the colonial experience, traditional institutions may be considered to be informal institutions in the sense that they are often not sanctioned by the state. The participatory and consensus-based system of conflict resolution can also govern inter-party politics and curtail the frequent post-election conflicts that erupt in many African countries. Nonhereditary selected leaders with constitutional power: A good example of this is the Gada system of the Oromo in Ethiopia and Kenya. 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.1. Interestingly, small and mid-size state leaders have won the award so far.) The jury is still out on the merits of this practice. 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. Many others choose the customary laws and conflict resolution mechanisms because they correspond better to their way of life. This page was processed by aws-apollo-l2 in 0.093 seconds, Using these links will ensure access to this page indefinitely. Should inclusion be an ongoing process or a single event? Traditional leaders would also be able to use local governance as a platform for exerting some influence on national policymaking. Legitimate authority, in turn, is based on accepted laws and norms rather than the arbitrary, unconstrained power of the rulers. President Muhammadu Buhari is currently the federal head of state and government. A more recent example of adaptive resilience is being demonstrated by Ethiopias Abiy Ahmed. 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. Before then, traditional authorities essentially provided leadership for the various communities and kingdoms. 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). Government acknowledges the critical role of traditional leadership institutions in South Africa's constitutional democracy and in communities, particularly in relation to the Rural . 2. A long-term route to political and economic success has been comprehensively documented by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson in their global study of why nations fail or succeed. David and Joan Traitel Building & Rental Information, National Security, Technology & Law Working Group, Middle East and the Islamic World Working Group, Military History/Contemporary Conflict Working Group, Technology, Economics, and Governance Working Group, Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies, Understanding the Effects of Technology on Economics and Governance, Support the Mission of the Hoover Institution. For these and other reasons, the state-society gap lies at the heart of the problems faced by many states. It should not be surprising that there is a weak social compact between state and society in many African states. The relationship between traditional leadership and inherited western-style governance institutions often generates tensions. The key . This process becomes difficult when citizens are divided into parallel socioeconomic spaces with different judicial systems, property rights laws, and resource allocation mechanisms, which often may conflict with each other. Freedom House calculated that 17 out of 50 countries it covered were free or partly free in 1988, compared to 31 out of 54 countries in these categories by 2015. 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. Contents 1. There is one constitution and one set of laws and rules for ordinary people, and quite other for the ruling family and the politically connected elite. 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. Some African leaders such as Ghanas Jerry Rawlings, Zambias Kenneth Kaunda, or Mozambiques Joachim Chissano accept and respect term limits and stand down. 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. The role of traditional leaders in modern Africa, especially in modern African democracies, is complex and multifaceted. 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. By Sulayman Sanneh Date: September 10th, 2021. fIntroduction Africa is a vast and . The reasons why rural communities adhere to the traditional institutions are many (Logan, 2011; Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). "Law" in traditional Africa includes enforceable traditions, customs, and laws. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. In African-style democracy the rule of law is only applicable to ordinary people unconnected to the governing party leadership or leader. 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. 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.