features of traditional african system of government

Constitutions of postcolonial states have further limited the power of chiefs. However, there are customs and various arrangements that restrain their power. The key . 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. 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. In West Africa, a griot is a praise singer or poet who possesses a repository of oral tradition passed down from generation to generation. One snapshot by the influential Mo Ibrahim index of African Governance noted in 2015 that overall governance progress in Africa is stalling, and decided not to award a leadership award that year. 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. The earliest known recorded history arose in Ancient Egypt . 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. f Basic Features cont. The leaders in this system have significant powers, as they often are custodians of their communitys land and they dispense justice in their courts. One-sided violence against unarmed civilians has also spiked up since 2011.4, These numbers require three major points of clarification. All life was religious . While this seems obvious, it is less clear what vectors and drivers will have the most weight in shaping that outcome. Long-standing kingdoms such as those in Morocco and Swaziland are recognized national states. In African-style democracy the rule of law is only applicable to ordinary people unconnected to the governing party leadership or leader. 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. These partners, for their part, sometimes disengaged from close political ties and often brought new governance conditions into their assistance programs. 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. Government and the Political System 2.1. Safeguarding womens rights thus becomes hard without transforming the economic system under which they operate. With respect to their relevance, traditional institutions remain indispensable for several reasons. Examine the definitions, strengths, and weaknesses of several common governments: monarchy, theocracy . By Sulayman Sanneh Date: September 10th, 2021. fIntroduction Africa is a vast and . Poor gender relations: Traditional institutions share some common weaknesses. Beyond such macro factors, several less obvious variables seem important to the political and economic governance future of the region. The geography of South Africa is vast scrubland in the interior, the Namib Desert in the northwest, and tropics in the southeast. 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. 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. Among them were those in Ethiopia, Morocco, Swaziland, and Lesotho. Rather, they are conveners of assemblies of elders or lower level chiefs who deliberate on settlement of disputes. 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 some cases, community elders select future Sultanes at a young age and groom them for the position. 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 result is transitory resilience of the regime, but shaky political stability, declining cohesion, and eventual conflict or violent change. 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. A Sociology of Education for Africa . Maintenance of law and order: the primary and most important function of the government is to maintain law and order in a state. In Igbo land for example the system of government was quite unique and transcends the democracy of America and Europe. 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 . All the characteristic features of a traditional society are, for obvious reasons, reflected in the education system. 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 second objective is to draw a tentative typology of the different authority systems of Africas traditional institutions. Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. This study notes that in 2007 Africa saw 12 conflicts in 10 countries. This brief essay began by identifying the state-society gap as the central challenge for African governance. 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. 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. 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. This fragmentation is also unlikely to go away anytime soon on its own. 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. This point links the reader to the other Africa chapters that have been prepared for this project. By the mid-1970s, the politics of Africa had turned authoritarian. Another layer represents the societal norms and customs that differ along various cultural traits. The leaders, their families and allies are exempt. Some regimes seem resilient because of their apparent staying power but actually have a narrow base of (typically ethnic or regional) support. Typically, such leaders scheme to rig elections or to change constitutional term limitsactions seen in recent years in such countries as Rwanda and Uganda. Less than 20% of Africa's states achieved statehood following rebellion or armed insurgency; in the others, independence flowed from . One layer represents the formal institutions (laws) of the state. Comparing Ethiopia and Kenya, for example, shows that adherents to the traditional institutional system is greater in Ethiopia than in Kenya, where the ratio of the population operating in the traditional economic system is smaller and the penetration of the capitalist economic system in rural areas is deeper. 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. To sum up, traditional institutions provide vital governance services to communities that operate under traditional socioeconomic spaces. 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. . In addition, resolution needs to be acceptable to all parties. These communities select the Aba Gada, who serves a nonrenewable term of 8 years as leader. The customary structures of governance of traditional leadership were put aside or transformed. Poor leadership can result in acts of commission or omission that alienate or disenfranchise geographically distinct communities. Fitzpatrick 'Traditionalism and Traditional Law' Journal of African Law, Vol. 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. This layer of institutions is the subject of inquiry of this article. Table 1 shows the proportion of the population that operates under traditional economic systems in selected African countries. In addition, according to Chirayath et al. 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. African traditional institutions continue to exist in most African countries, albeit at different levels of adherence by the populations of the continent. Both types of government can be effective or infective depending on . 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. Integration of traditional and modern governance systems in Africa. 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. Regional governance comes into play here, and certain precedents may get set and then ratified by regional or sub-regional organizations. 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. Finally, the chapter considers the future of the institution against the background of the many issues and challenges considered. 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 link was not copied. The campaign by some (but not all) African states to pull out of the International Criminal Court is but one illustration of the trend. 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. If more leaders practice inclusive politics or find themselves chastened by the power of civil society to do so, this could point the way to better political outcomes in the region. Customary law, for example, does not protect communities from violations of their customary land rights through land-taking by the state. Additionally, the Guurti is charged with resolving conflicts in the country using traditional conflict resolution mechanisms. The abolishment of chieftaincy does not eradicate the systems broader underlying features, such as customary law, decision-making systems, and conflict resolution practices. "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. They are already governing much of rural Africa. African Traditional Political System and Institution: University of The Gambia, Faculty of humanities and social sciences. 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). Many African countries, Ghana and Uganda, for example, have, like all other states, formal institutions of the state and informal institutions (societal norms, customs, and practices). The size and intensity of adherence to the traditional economic and institutional systems, however, vary from country to country. 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. Judicial Administration. Another common feature is the involvement of traditional authorities in the governance process, at least at the local level. African political systems are described in a number of textbooks and general books on African history. Government as a Structural Element of Society 2.2. Societal conflicts: Institutional dichotomy often entails incompatibility between the systems. My intention in this chapter is to explore the traditional African ideas and values of politics with a view to pointing up what may be described as the democratic features of the indigenous system of government and to examine whether, and in what ways, such features can be said to be harmonious with the ethos of contemporary political culture and hence can be said to be relevant to . 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. The colonial system constitutes the second section. 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. The Ibo village assembly in eastern Nigeria, the Eritrean village Baito (assembly), the council of elders (kiama) of the Kikuyu in Kenya, and the kaya elders of the Mijikenda in the coast of Kenya are among well-known examples where decisions are largely made in a consensual manner of one kind or another (Andemariam, 2017; Mengisteab, 2003). 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. In other cases, however, they survived as paid civil servants of the state without displacing the traditional elder-based traditional authority systems. Government: A Multifarious Concept 1.2. Since then, many more have been formulated, but the main themes and ideas have remained. Both can be identified as forms of governance. Unlike the laws of the state, traditional institutions rarely have the coercive powers to enforce their customary laws. 1.4. While traditional institutions remain indispensable for the communities operating under traditional economic systems, they also represent institutional fragmentation, although the underlying factor for fragmentation is the prevailing dichotomy of economic systems. The movement towards a formal state system is characterized by its emphasis on retribution and punishment. Recent developments add further complications to the region: (a) the collapse of Libya after 2011, spreading large quantities of arms and trained fighters across the broader Sahel region; (b) the gradual toll of desertification placing severe pressure on traditional herder/farmer relationships in places like Sudan and Nigeria; and, (c) the proliferation of local IS or Al Qaeda franchises in remote, under-governed spaces. Keywords: Legal Pluralism, African Customary Law, Traditional Leadership, Chieftaincy, Formal Legal System Relationship With, Human Rights, Traditional Norms, Suggested Citation: Hindrance to democratization: Perhaps among the most important challenges institutional fragmentation poses is to the process of democratization. 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