features of traditional african system of government

African traditional administrative system with bureaucratization in the emerged new states of Africa. Posted: 12 May 2011. For example, the electoral college forces a republic type of voting system. The customary structures of governance of traditional leadership were put aside or transformed. Indigenous education is a process of passing the inherited knowledge, skills, cultural traditions norms and values of the tribe, among the tribal member from one generation to another Mushi (2009). 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. Should inclusion be an ongoing process or a single event? 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. Africas geopolitical environment is shaped by Africans to a considerable degree. This kind of offences that attract capital punishment is usually . But it also reflects the impact of Arab, Russian, Chinese, Indian, European and U.S. vectors of influence which project their differences into African societies. In some countries, such as Botswana, customary courts are estimated to handle approximately 80% of criminal cases and 90% of civil cases (Sharma, 2004). 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 20th century. The leader is accountable to various levels of elders, who serve as legislators and as judges (Legesse, 1973; Taa, 2017). African traditional institutions continue to exist in most African countries, albeit at different levels of adherence by the populations of the continent. A second objective is to draw a tentative typology of the different authority systems of Africas traditional institutions. Note: The term rural population is used as a proxy for the population operating under traditional economic systems. The Obas and Caliphs of Nigeria and the Zulu of South Africa are other examples. The selection, however, is often from the children of a chief. The Sultanes of Somalia are examples of this category and the community has specific criteria as to who is qualified to be a chief (Ahmed, 2017). 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. In this regard, the president is both the head of state and government, and there are three arms and tiers of rules by which the country is ruled. Somalilands strategy has brought traditional leaders into an active role in the countrys formal governance by creating an upper house in parliament, the Guurti, where traditional leaders exercise the power of approving all bills drafted by the lower house of parliament. In some cases, they are also denied child custody rights. 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). In any case, as . These circumstances can generate an authoritarian reflex and the temptation to circle the wagons against all sources of potential opposition. This outline leads us to examine more closely the sources of legitimacy in African governance systems. 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". Consequently, national and regional governance factors interact continuously. Government as a Structural Element of Society 2.2. Another category of chiefs is those who theoretically are subject to selection by the community. Africa's tumultuous political history has resulted in extreme disparities between the wealth and stability of its countries. Interestingly, small and mid-size state leaders have won the award so far.) Decision making is generally participatory and often consensus-based. This study points to a marked increase in state-based conflicts, owing in significant part to the inter-mixture of Islamic State factions into pre-existing conflicts. media system, was concerned with the more systematized dissemination of information between the traditional administrative organ and the people (subjects). By the mid-1970s, the military held power in one-third of the nations of sub-Saharan Africa. 1. The evidence suggests that traditional institutions have continued to metamorphose under the postcolonial state, as Africas socioeconomic systems continue to evolve. The key . Their "rediscovery" in modern times has led to an important decolonization of local and community management in order to pursue genuine self-determination. In many tribes, the chief was the representative of the ancestors. 14 L.A. Ayinla 'African Philosophy of Law: A Critique' 151, available at The most promising pattern is adaptive resilience in which leaders facing such pressures create safety valves or outlets for managing social unrest. The traditional and informal justice systems, it is argued offers greater access to justice. In a few easy steps create an account and receive the most recent analysis from Hoover fellows tailored to your specific policy interests. 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. One of these will be the role and weight of various powerful external actors. 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 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. 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 . In other cases, however, they survived as paid civil servants of the state without displacing the traditional elder-based traditional authority systems. Additionally, inequalities between parallel socioeconomic spaces, especially with respect to influence on policy, hinder a democratic system, which requires equitable representation and inclusive participation. The guiding principle behind these two attributes is that conflict is a societal problem and that resolving conflict requires societal engagement. 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. There were several reasons for such measures. Virtually every group was involved in the . On the opposite side are the decentralized systems, led by a council of elders, that command little formal power. Enlightened leaders face a more complex version of the same challenge: how to find and mobilize the resources for broad-based inclusiveness? The campaign by some (but not all) African states to pull out of the International Criminal Court is but one illustration of the trend. Maintenance of law and order: the primary and most important function of the government is to maintain law and order in a state. The formal institutions of checks and balances and accountability of leaders to the population are rather weak in this system. The problems that face African governments are universal. 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. The third section deals with the post-colonial period and discusses some problems associated with African administration. Music is a form of communication and it plays a functional role in African society . Presently, Nigeria practices the federal system. Following decolonization, several African countries attempted to abolish aspects of the traditional institutional systems. Traditional leaders would also be able to use local governance as a platform for exerting some influence on national policymaking. They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents. 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. A third layer lies between the other two layers and is referred to in this article as traditional institutions. 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. Similarly, the process of conflict resolution is undertaken in an open assembly and is intended to reconcile parties in conflict rather than to merely punish offenders. Admittedly, the problem is by no means uniquely African, but it is very commonly experienced in Africa. 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. 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. You cant impose middle class values on a pre-industrial society.13. They include: Monarchs (absolute or constitutional): While the colonial state reduced most African kings to chiefs, a few survived as monarchs. Long-standing kingdoms such as those in Morocco and Swaziland are recognized national states. 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. This approach to governance was prominent in the Oyo empire. 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. Additionally, the transaction costs for services provided by the traditional institutions are much lower than the services provided by the state. Some African leaders such as Ghanas Jerry Rawlings, Zambias Kenneth Kaunda, or Mozambiques Joachim Chissano accept and respect term limits and stand down. Political leaders everywhere face competing demands in this regard. On the other hand, their endurance creates institutional fragmentation that has adverse impacts on Africas governance and socioeconomic transformation. There is strong demand for jobs, better economic management, reduced inequality and corruption and such outcome deliverables as health, education and infrastructure.22 Those outcomes require effective governance institutions. Your gift helps advance ideas that promote a free society. Even old-fashioned tyrants learn that inclusion or co-option are expensive. Only four states in AfricaBotswana, Gambia, Mauritius, and Senegalretained multiparty systems. Regardless, fragmentation of institutional systems poses a number of serious challenges to Africas governance and economic development. The three countries have pursued rather different strategies of reconciling their institutional systems and it remains to be seen if any of their strategies will deliver the expected results, although all three countries have already registered some progress in reducing conflicts and in advancing the democratization process relative to countries around them. The earliest known recorded history arose in Ancient Egypt . Some trust traditional leaders more than they trust state authorities. 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. At times, devolution has had major fiscal and governance consequences, including serving as a vehicle for co-option and corruption. Examine the definitions, strengths, and weaknesses of several common governments: monarchy, theocracy . Unfortunately, transforming the traditional sector is not an easy undertaking and cannot be achieved in a reasonably short time. At times, these traditional security system elements are sufficient enough for some uses, but there's certainly no denying . To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? Tribes had relatively little power outside their own group during the colonial period. Large segments of the rural populations, the overwhelming majority in most African countries, continue to adhere principally to traditional institutions. The implementation of these systems often . The geography of South Africa is vast scrubland in the interior, the Namib Desert in the northwest, and tropics in the southeast. Given its institutional disconnect with the state, the traditional sector and the communities that operate under it invariably face marginalization in influencing policy as well as in access to economic resources throughout the continent. The balance of power between official and non-official actors will likely shift, as networked activists assert their ability to organize and take to the streets on behalf of diverse causes. 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 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. One of these is the potential influence exerted by the regions leading states, measured in terms of size, population, economic weight, and overall political clout and leadership prestige. According to this analysis, Africas traditional institutional systems are likely to endure as long as the traditional subsistent economic systems continue to exist. The debate is defined by "traditionalists" and "modernists." . The term covers the expressed commands of The structures of leadership of African traditional institutions are diverse and they have yet to be mapped out comprehensively. 20-27, at p. 21; Carey N. Vicenti 'The re-emergence of tribal society and traditional justice systems' Judicature, Vol. 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. What policies and laws will determine relations between farmers and urban dwellers, between farmers and herders, between diverse identity groups living in close proximity or encroaching on each others farm land, and between public officials, criminal networks and ordinary citizens? Thus, despite abolition efforts by postcolonial states and the arguments against the traditional institutions in the literature, the systems endure and remain rather indispensable for the communities in traditional economic systems. In Botswana, for example, the consensual decision-making process in the kgotla (public meeting) regulates the power of the chiefs. In Module Seven A: African History, you explored the histories of a wide diversity of pre-colonial African societies. In general, 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. This provides wide opportunity for governments to experiment, to chart a course independent of Western preferences, but it can also encourage them to move toward authoritarian, state capitalist policies when that is the necessary or the expedient thing to do. Wise leadership respects ethnic diversity and works toward inclusive policies. On the one hand, they recognize the need for strong, responsive state institutions; weak, fragile states do not lead to good governance. Against this backdrop, where is African governance headed? There are also various arguments in the literature against traditional institutions.2 One argument is that chieftaincy impedes the pace of development as it reduces the relevance of the state in the area of social services (Tom Mboya in Osaghae, 1989). History. Constitutions of postcolonial states have further limited the power of chiefs. THE FUTURE OF AFRICAN CUSTOMARY LAW, Fenrich, Galizzi, Higgins, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2011, 27 Pages References: Blakemore and Cooksey (1980). African states, along with Asian, Middle Eastern, and even European governments, have all been affected. A Functional Approach to define Government 2. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Within this spectrum, some eight types of leadership structures can be identified. 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. Such a consensus-building mechanism can help resolve many of the conflicts related to diversity management and nation-building. The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. 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. The same technology vectors can also empower criminal, trafficking, and terrorist networks, all of which pose threats to state sovereignty. Based on existing evidence, the authority systems in postcolonial Africa lie in a continuum between two polar points. Since then, many more have been formulated, but the main themes and ideas have remained. The population in the traditional system thus faces a vicious cycle of deprivation. 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. For Acemoglu and Robinson, such turning points occur in specific, unique historical circumstances that arise in a societys development. 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). 7. A Long Journey: The Bantu Migrations. 17-19 1.6. As noted, there are notable differences in the authority systems of African traditional institutions. The challenge facing Africas leadersperhaps above all othersis how to govern under conditions of ethnic diversity. This layer of institutions is the subject of inquiry of this article. The colonial state modified their precolonial roles. 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- Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Politics. Transforming the traditional economic system is also likely to require embracing and utilizing the traditional institutional systems as vehicles for the provision of public services. One common feature is recognition of customary property rights laws, especially that of land. The optimistic replyand it is a powerful oneis that Africans will gradually build inclusive political and economic institutions.18 This, however, requires wise leadership. By the mid-1970s, the politics of Africa had turned authoritarian. This theme, which is further developed below, is especially critical bearing in mind that Africa is the worlds most ethnically complex region, home to 20 of the worlds most diverse countries in terms of ethnic composition.8. Botswanas strategy has largely revolved around integrating parallel judicial systems. Societal conflicts: Institutional dichotomy often entails incompatibility between the systems. Traditional African religions are less of faith traditions and more of lived traditions. Traditional African religions are not stagnant but highly dynamic and constantly reacting to various shifting influences such as old age, modernity, and technological advances. This we might call transformative resilience.21. Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. Paramount chiefs with rather weak system of accountability: The Buganda of Uganda and the Nupe in Nigeria are good examples. In other words, the transition from traditional modes of production to a capitalist economic system has advanced more in some countries than in others. This short article does not attempt to provide answers to all these questions, which require extensive empirical study. The link between conflict and governance is a two-way street. 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. All the characteristic features of a traditional society are, for obvious reasons, reflected in the education system. "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. 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. Although considerable differences exist among the various systems, opportunities for women to participate in decision making in most traditional systems are generally limited. Extensive survey research is required to estimate the size of adherents to traditional institutions. It should not be surprising that there is a weak social compact between state and society in many African states. Africa contains more sovereign nations than any other continent, with 54 countries compared to Asia's 47. These include - murder, burglary, landcase, witchcraft, profaning the deities and homicide. Hoover Education Success Initiative | The Papers. 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. Today, the five most common government systems include democracy, republic, monarchy, communism and . Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. Strictly speaking, Ghana was the title of the King, but the Arabs, who left records . African indigenous education was. by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University. In traditional African communities, it was not possible to distinguish between religious and non-religious areas of life. 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. 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 Political Systems is an academic anthology edited by the anthropologists Meyer Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard which was published by Oxford University Press on the behalf of the International African Institute in 1940. With respect to their relevance, traditional institutions remain indispensable for several reasons. This enhanced his authority. One layer represents the formal institutions (laws) of the state. It assigned them new roles while stripping away some of their traditional roles. Command economies, as opposed to free-market economies, do not allow market forces like supply and demand to determine production or prices. Both types of government can be effective or infective depending on . The leaders in this system have significant powers, as they often are custodians of their communitys land and they dispense justice in their courts. Highlight 5 features of government. Rather, they are conveners of assemblies of elders or lower level chiefs who deliberate on settlement of disputes. These different economic systems have corresponding institutional systems with divergent property rights laws and resource allocation mechanisms, disparate decision-making systems, and distinct judicial systems and conflict resolution mechanisms. In this view, nations fail because of extractive economic and political institutions that do not provide incentives for growth and stability. 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. Democratic and dictatorial regimes both vest their authority in one person or a few individuals. General Overviews. 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). Government acknowledges the critical role of traditional leadership institutions in South Africa's constitutional democracy and in communities, particularly in relation to the Rural . Before delving into the inquiry, clarification of some issues would be helpful in avoiding confusion. 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. By 2016, 35 AU members had joined it, but less than half actually subjected themselves to being assessed. The government system is a republic; the chief of state and head of government is the president. According to the African Development Bank, good governance should be built on a foundation of (I) effective states, (ii) mobilized civil societies, and (iii) an efficient private sector. However, at the lower level of the hierarchy of the centralized system, the difference between the centralized and decentralized systems tends to narrow notably. The traditional Africa system of government is open and inclusive, where strangers, foreigners and even slaves could participate in the decision-making process. Lawmaking: government makes laws to regulate the behavior of its citizens.