By the mid-1970s, the politics of Africa had turned authoritarian. Such a transformation would render traditional institutions dispensable. The size and intensity of adherence to the traditional economic and institutional systems, however, vary from country to country. Safeguarding womens rights thus becomes hard without transforming the economic system under which they operate. The third section deals with the post-colonial period and discusses some problems associated with African administration. This chapter examines traditional leadership within the context of the emerging constitutional democracy in Ghana. Such chiefs also have rather limited powers. Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. African political systems are described in a number of textbooks and general books on African history. There are very few similarities between democracy and dictatorship. Communities in the traditional socioeconomic space are hardly represented in any of the organizations of the state, such as the parliament, where they can influence policy and the legal system to reflect their 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. Large countries such as the DRC, Ethiopia, and Mozambique are likely to experience pressures against centralized, authoritarian, or one-party governance (whether accompanied by real elections or not). With the dawn of colonialism in Africa, the traditional African government was sys-tematically weakened, and the strong and influential bond between traditional lead- . In some cases, they are also denied child custody rights. 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. These circumstances can generate an authoritarian reflex and the temptation to circle the wagons against all sources of potential opposition. 17-19 1.6. Government: A Multifarious Concept 1.2. 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. Learn more about joining the community of supporters and scholars working together to advance Hoovers mission and values. The same source concluded that 7 out of the 12 worst scores for political rights and civil liberties are African.11 As noted, the reasons vary: patrimonialism gone wrong (the big man problem), extreme state fragility and endemic conflict risks, the perverse mobilization of ethnicity by weak or threatened leaders. Not surprisingly, incumbent leaders facing these challenges look to short-term military remedies and extend a welcome to military partnerswith France, the United States, and the United Nations the leading candidates. They include: Monarchs (absolute or constitutional): While the colonial state reduced most African kings to chiefs, a few survived as monarchs. The leaders, their families and allies are exempt. The colonial state modified their precolonial roles. With respect to their relevance, traditional institutions remain indispensable for several reasons. By 2016, 35 AU members had joined it, but less than half actually subjected themselves to being assessed. All the characteristic features of a traditional society are, for obvious reasons, reflected in the education system. by the Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford Junior University. 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. Your gift helps advance ideas that promote a free society. Judicial Administration. These partners, for their part, sometimes disengaged from close political ties and often brought new governance conditions into their assistance programs. 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. Key Takeaways. A more recent example of adaptive resilience is being demonstrated by Ethiopias Abiy Ahmed. However, the traditional modes of production and the institutional systems associated with them also remain entrenched among large segments of the population. Misguided policies at the national level combined with cultural constraints facing these social groups may increase exclusion and create seeds of future trouble. While this seems obvious, it is less clear what vectors and drivers will have the most weight in shaping that outcome. 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). MyHoover delivers a personalized experience atHoover.org. 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. Aristotle was the first to define three principal types of government systems in the fourth century B.C. 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. Botswanas strategy has largely revolved around integrating parallel judicial systems. While comprehensive empirical studies on the magnitude of adherence to traditional institutions are lacking, some studies point out that most people in rural areas prefer the judicial service provided by traditional institutions to those of the state, for a variety of reasons (Logan, 2011; Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). 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. In many cases, the invented chieftaincies were unsuccessful in displacing the consensus-based governance structures (Gartrell, 1983; Uwazie, 1994). Issues of corruption and transparency are likely to become driving themes in African politics. The traditional African religions (or traditional beliefs and practices of African people) are a set of highly diverse beliefs that include various ethnic religions . The Chinese understand the basics. 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. Both types of government can be effective or infective depending on . However, there are customs and various arrangements that restrain their power. Three layers of institutions characterize most African countries. Located on the campus of Stanford University and in Washington, DC, the Hoover Institution is the nations preeminent research center dedicated to generating policy ideas that promote economic prosperity, national security, and democratic governance. This brief overview of conflict in Africa signals the severity of the security challenges to African governance, especially in those sub-regions that feature persistent and recurrent outbreaks of violence. A second conflict pattern can develop along the lines of ethnic cleavages which can be readily politicized and then militarized into outright ethnic violence. Fitzpatrick 'Traditionalism and Traditional Law' Journal of African Law, Vol. Seeming preference for Democracy in Africa over other governance systems in Africa before and after independence 15-17 1.5. 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- 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. 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 formal institutions of checks and balances and accountability of leaders to the population are rather weak in this system. Less than 20% of Africa's states achieved statehood following rebellion or armed insurgency; in the others, independence flowed from . On the other hand, their endurance creates institutional fragmentation that has adverse impacts on Africas governance and socioeconomic transformation. Unfortunately, transforming the traditional sector is not an easy undertaking and cannot be achieved in a reasonably short time. 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 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. As a result, it becomes highly complex to analyze their roles and structures without specifying the time frame. Legitimate authority, in turn, is based on accepted laws and norms rather than the arbitrary, unconstrained power of the rulers. 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. Note that Maine and . (No award was made in 50% of the years since the program was launched in 2007; former Liberian president Ellen John Sirleaf won the award in 2017. Traditional and informal justice systems aim at restoring social cohesion within the community by promoting reconciliation between disputing parties. 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. 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. It may be good to note, as a preliminary, that African political systems of the past dis played considerable variety. 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. 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 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 usual plethora of bour- The government system is a republic; the chief of state and head of government is the president. These consisted of monarchy, aristocracy and polity. 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 this context the chapter further touches on the compatibility of the institution of chieftaincy with constitutional principles such as equality, accountability, natural justice, good governance, and respect for fundamental human rights. 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 One influential research group, SIPRI in Sweden, counted a total of 9 active armed conflicts in 2017 (in all of Africa) plus another 7 post-conflict and potential conflict situations.3, More revealing is the granular comparison of conflict types over time. The African state system has gradually developed a stronger indigenous quality only in the last twenty-five years or so. 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. In other cases, however, they survived as paid civil servants of the state without displacing the traditional elder-based traditional authority systems. Before delving into the inquiry, clarification of some issues would be helpful in avoiding confusion. Most of the states that had attempted to abolish chieftaincy have retracted the abolitionist decrees and reinstated chiefs. 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. 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. Traditional institutions already adjudicate undisclosed but large proportions of rural disputes. The first three parts deal with the principal objectives of the article. 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. The jury is still out on the merits of this practice. 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. 2. 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. Overturning regimes in Africas often fragile states could become easier to do, without necessarily leading to better governance. This fragmentation is also unlikely to go away anytime soon on its own. Institutions represent an enduring collection of formal laws and informal rules, customs, codes of conduct, and organized practices that shape human behavior and interaction. Some regimes seem resilient because of their apparent staying power but actually have a narrow base of (typically ethnic or regional) support. 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. The same technology vectors can also empower criminal, trafficking, and terrorist networks, all of which pose threats to state sovereignty. Africas states are the worlds newest, and it can hardly be surprising that Africans define themselves in terms of multiple identities including regional, tribal, clan-based, and religious onesin addition to being citizens of a relatively new state. Customary law, for example, does not protect communities from violations of their customary land rights through land-taking by the state. 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. Finally, the chapter considers the future of the institution against the background of the many issues and challenges considered. Against this broad picture, what is striking is the more recent downward trend in democratic governance in Africa and the relative position of African governance when viewed on a global basis. 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.