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). As noted, African countries have experienced the rise of the modern (capitalist) economic system along with its corresponding institutional systems. 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. Why the traditional systems endure, how the institutional dichotomy impacts the process of building democratic governance, and how the problems of institutional incoherence might be mitigated are issues that have not yet received adequate attention in African studies. However, at the lower level of the hierarchy of the centralized system, the difference between the centralized and decentralized systems tends to narrow notably. Based on existing evidence, the authority systems in postcolonial Africa lie in a continuum between two polar points. 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). Large states and those with complex ethnic and geographic featurese.g., the DRC, Nigeria, Uganda, the Sudans, Ethiopiamay be especially prone to such multi-sourced violence. The leaders in this system have significant powers, as they often are custodians of their communitys land and they dispense justice in their courts. African Politics: A Very Short Introduction explores how politics is practised on the African continent, providing an overview of the different states and their systems. The introduction of alien economic and political systems by the colonial state relegated Africas precolonial formal institutions to the sphere of informality, although they continued to operate in modified forms, in part due to the indirect rule system of colonialism and other forms of reliance by colonial states on African institutions of governance to govern their colonies. In some cases, community elders select future Sultanes at a young age and groom them for the position. Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. States would be more effective in reforming the traditional judicial system if they recognized them rather than neglecting them, as often is the case. 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. In any case, as . Judicial marginalization: Another challenge posed by institutional fragmentation relates to marginalization of the traditional system within the formal legal system. 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. Our data indicate that traditional leaders, chiefs and elders clearly still play an important role in the lives Land privatization is, thus, unworkable in pastoral communities, as communal land ownership would be unworkable in a capitalist economy. 20-27, at p. 21; Carey N. Vicenti 'The re-emergence of tribal society and traditional justice systems' Judicature, Vol. 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. Keywords: Legal Pluralism, African Customary Law, Traditional Leadership, Chieftaincy, Formal Legal System Relationship With, Human Rights, Traditional Norms, Suggested Citation: The challenge facing Africas leadersperhaps above all othersis how to govern under conditions of ethnic diversity. Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. 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. The purpose is to stress that such efforts and the attendant will The key . A second argument is that traditional institutions are hindrances to the development of democratic governance (Mamdani, 1996; Ntsebeza, 2005). Council of elders: These systems essentially operate on consensual decision-making arrangements that vary from one place to another. Under the circumstances, it becomes critical that traditional leaders are directly involved in local governance so that they protect the interests of their communities. Legitimate authority, in turn, is based on accepted laws and norms rather than the arbitrary, unconstrained power of the rulers. The selection, however, is often from the children of a chief. Democratic and dictatorial regimes both vest their authority in one person or a few individuals. The roles assigned to them by the colonial state came to an end, and the new state imposed its own modifications of their roles. A more recent example of adaptive resilience is being demonstrated by Ethiopias Abiy Ahmed. Botswanas strategy has largely revolved around integrating parallel judicial systems. for a democratic system of government. On the one side, there are the centralized systems where leaders command near absolute power. 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. MyHoover delivers a personalized experience atHoover.org. Why can't democracy with African characteristics maintain the values, culture and traditional system of handling indiscipline, injustice and information management in society to take firm roots. These circumstances can generate an authoritarian reflex and the temptation to circle the wagons against all sources of potential opposition. 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. Fitzpatrick 'Traditionalism and Traditional Law' Journal of African Law, Vol. Another basic question is, whom to include? Before delving into the inquiry, clarification of some issues would be helpful in avoiding confusion. For Acemoglu and Robinson, such turning points occur in specific, unique historical circumstances that arise in a societys development. Most African countries have yet to develop carefully considered strategies of how to reconcile their fragmented institutional systems. One is that the leaders of the postcolonial state saw traditional institutions and their leadership as archaic vestiges of the past that no longer had a place in Africas modern system of governance. 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. Tribe Versus Ethnic Group. Customary law also manages land tenure and land allocation patterns. 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. 17-19 1.6. Chiefs with limited power: Another category of chiefs is those that are hereditary, like the paramount chiefs, but have limited powers. Allocation of resources, such as land, is also much more egalitarian under the traditional system than it is under the private ownership system in the formal state system. 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. The third section deals with the post-colonial period and discusses some problems associated with African administration. Even so, customary law still exerts a strong . The origins of this institutional duality, the implications of which are discussed in Relevance and Paradox of Traditional Institutions, are largely traceable to the colonial state, as it introduced new economic and political systems and superimposed corresponding institutional systems upon the colonies without eradicating the existed traditional economic, political, and institutional systems. . These consisted of monarchy, aristocracy and polity. Government: A Multifarious Concept 1.2. Customary law, for example, does not protect communities from violations of their customary land rights through land-taking by the state. The development of inclusive institutions may involve struggles that enable political and societal actors to check the domination of entrenched rulers and to broaden rule-based participation in governance. 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. The African Charter embodies some of the human . 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. 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. 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. by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University. The term covers the expressed commands of Following decolonization, several African countries attempted to abolish aspects of the traditional institutional systems. As institutional scholars state, institutional incompatibility leads to societal conflicts by projecting different laws governing societal interactions (Eisenstadt, 1968; Helmke & Levitsky, 2004; March & Olsen, 1984; North, 1990; Olsen, 2007). Institutional systems emanate from the broader economic and political systems, although they also affect the performance of the economic and political systems. If African political elite opinion converges with that of major external voices in favoring stabilization over liberal peacebuilding agendas, the implications for governance are fairly clear.17. This brief essay began by identifying the state-society gap as the central challenge for African governance. Others choose the traditional institutions, for example, in settling disputes because of lower transactional costs. This kind of offences that attract capital punishment is usually . "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 is imperative that customary land rights are recognized and respected so that communities in the traditional economic system exercise control of land and other resources under their customary ownership, at least until alternative sources of employment are developed to absorb those who might be displaced. 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 . 28, (1984) pp. We know a good deal about what Africans want and demand from their governments from public opinion surveys by Afrobarometer. Key Takeaways. 2. Additionally, the Guurti is charged with resolving conflicts in the country using traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. Government acknowledges the critical role of traditional leadership institutions in South Africa's constitutional democracy and in communities, particularly in relation to the Rural . Although much has been lost in the shadows and fogs of a time before people created written accounts, historians . 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. Why traditional institutional systems endure, how large the adherents to them is, and why populations, especially in rural areas, continue to rely on traditional institutions, even when an alternative system is provided by the state, and what the implications of institutional dichotomy is are questions that have not yet received adequate attention in the literature. Within this spectrum, some eight types of leadership structures can be identified. Most African countries are characterized by parallel institutions, one representing the formal laws of the state and the other representing the traditional institutions that are adhered to more commonly in rural areas. For these and other reasons, the state-society gap lies at the heart of the problems faced by many states. The laws and legal systems of Africa have developed from three distinct legal traditions: traditional or customary African law, Islamic law, and the legal systems of Western Europe. 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. 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. The quality and durability of such leader-defined adaptive resilience cannot be assured and can be reversed unless the associated norms become institutionalized. President Muhammadu Buhari is currently the federal head of state and government. 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 features associated with this new form of governmental administration deal with smaller government responsibility for providing goods and services. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. 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. African traditional institutions continue to exist in most African countries, albeit at different levels of adherence by the populations of the continent. A command economy, also known as a planned economy, is one in which the central government plans, organizes, and controls all economic activities to maximize social welfare. Traditional affairs. Your gift helps advance ideas that promote a free society. While this seems obvious, it is less clear what vectors and drivers will have the most weight in shaping that outcome. Invented chiefs and state-paid elders: These were chiefs imposed by the colonial state on decentralized communities without centralized authority systems. Introduction: The Meaning of the Concept Government 1.1. 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. 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. The earliest known recorded history arose in Ancient Egypt . This section attempts to explain these seemingly contradictory implications of traditional institutions. The guiding principle behind these two attributes is that conflict is a societal problem and that resolving conflict requires societal engagement. 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. The arguments against traditional institutions are countered by arguments that consider traditional institutions to be indispensable and that they should be the foundations of African institutions of governance (Davidson, 1992). In new countries such as most of those in Africa,7 where the rule of law is in competition with the rule of men, leaders play a strikingly critical role, for good or ill. Its ability to influence policy is limited in large part because of its institutional detachment from the state and because of its poverty and lack of capacity to participate in the political process. In these relatively new nations, the critical task for leadership is to build a social contract that is sufficiently inclusive to permit the management of diversity. The role of traditional leaders in modern Africa, especially in modern African democracies, is complex and multifaceted. Paramount chiefs with rather weak system of accountability: The Buganda of Uganda and the Nupe in Nigeria are good examples. In this view, nations fail because of extractive economic and political institutions that do not provide incentives for growth and stability. They dispense justice, resolve conflicts, and enforce contracts, even though such services are conducted in different ways in different authority systems. On the opposite side are the decentralized systems, led by a council of elders, that command little formal power. The formal institutions of checks and balances and accountability of leaders to the population are rather weak in this system. These partners, for their part, sometimes disengaged from close political ties and often brought new governance conditions into their assistance programs. Such adjustments, however, may require contextualization of the institutions of democracy by adjusting these institutions to reflect African realities. 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. Aristotle was the first to define three principal types of government systems in the fourth century B.C. As a United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) study (2007) notes, traditional leaders often operate as custodians of customary law and communal assets, especially land. Both types of government can be effective or infective depending on . This situation supported an external orientation in African politics in which Cold War reference points and former colonial relationships assured that African governments often developed only a limited sense of connection to their own societies. 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. 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. 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. 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. A strict democracy would enforce the "popular vote" total over the entire United States. This we might call transformative resilience.21. 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. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Consequently, national and regional governance factors interact continuously. Three layers of institutions characterize most African countries. Paramount chiefs: Another category of leadership structure is that of hereditary paramount chieftaincy with various traditional titles and various levels of accountability. Tribes had relatively little power outside their own group during the colonial period. Against this backdrop, where is African governance headed? media system, was concerned with the more systematized dissemination of information between the traditional administrative organ and the people (subjects). Uneven access to public services, such as educational, health, and communication services, and the disproportionately high poverty rates in the traditional sector are manifestations of the sectors marginalization. Certain offences were regarded as serious offences. Additionally, inequalities between parallel socioeconomic spaces, especially with respect to influence on policy, hinder a democratic system, which requires equitable representation and inclusive participation. 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. African political elites are more determined than ever to shape their own destiny, and they are doing so. 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". 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 . However, their endurance, along with that of traditional economic systems, have fostered institutional fragmentation, which has serious adverse effects on Africas governance and economic development. 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. for in tradi-tional African communities, politics and religion were closely associated. This short article does not attempt to provide answers to all these questions, which require extensive empirical study. However, they do not have custodianship of land and they generally do not dispense justice on their own. Act,12 the African system of governance was changed and transformed, and new structures were put in place of old ones.13 Under the Union of South Africa, the Gov- 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 essay concludes with a sobering reflection on the challenge of achieving resilient governance. 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 Government and the Political System 2.1. The leader is accountable to various levels of elders, who serve as legislators and as judges (Legesse, 1973; Taa, 2017). The jury is still out on the merits of this practice. 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%. 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. The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. However, three countries, Botswana, Somaliland, and South Africa, have undertaken differing measures with varying levels of success. Ndlela (2007: 34) confirms that traditional leaders continue to enjoy their role and recognition in the new dispensation, just like in other African states; and Good (2002: 3) argues that the system of traditional leadership in Botswana exists parallel to the democratic system of government and the challenge is of forging unity. The scope of the article is limited to an attempt to explain how the endurance of African traditional institutions is related to the continents economic systems and to shed light on the implications of fragmented institutional systems. This can happen in several ways. 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. Similarities between Democratic and Authoritarian Government. 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. Different property rights laws are a notable source of conflict in many African countries. On the other hand, their endurance creates institutional fragmentation that has adverse impacts on Africas governance and socioeconomic transformation. 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. 20 A brief account of that history will help to highlight key continuities spanning the colonial, apartheid and the post-apartheid eras in relation to the place of customary law and the role of traditional leaders. The colonial state, for example, invented chiefs where there were no centralized authority systems and imposed them on the decentralized traditional systems, as among the Ibo of Eastern Nigeria, the Tonga in Zambia, various communities in Kenya, and the communities in Somalia. 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. At times, these traditional security system elements are sufficient enough for some uses, but there's certainly no denying . 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. Strictly speaking, Ghana was the title of the King, but the Arabs, who left records . 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. In Igbo land for example the system of government was quite unique and transcends the democracy of America and Europe. African traditional administrative system with bureaucratization in the emerged new states of Africa. Today, the five most common government systems include democracy, republic, monarchy, communism and . Challenges confronting the institution of chieftaincy have continued from the colonial era into recent times. 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. This is done through the enforcement agencies such as the police force. Chester A. Crocker is the James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies at Georgetown University. This article contends that postcolonial African traditional institutions lie in a continuum between the highly decentralized to the centralized systems and they all have resource allocation practices, conflict resolution and judicial systems, and decision-making practices, which are distinct from those of the state. 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. To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? While this attribute of the traditional system may not be practical at the national level, it can be viable at local levels and help promote democratic values. In addition to these measures, reconciling fragmented institutions would be more successful when governments invest more resources in transforming the traditional socioeconomic space. Under conditions where nation-building is in a formative stage, the retribution-seeking judicial system and the winner-take-all multiparty election systems often lead to combustible conditions, which undermine the democratization process.
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