Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. Problems and Purpose. Although considerable differences exist among the various systems, opportunities for women to participate in decision making in most traditional systems are generally limited. 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. The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. Poor gender relations: Traditional institutions share some common weaknesses. The first objective of the article is to shed light on the socioeconomic foundations for the resilience of Africas traditional institutions. 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. 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. 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). If inclusion is the central ingredient, it will be necessary to explore in greater depth the resources leaders have available to pay for including various social groups and demographic cohorts. African Political Systems - Wikipedia 15 Facts on African Religions The Interfaith Observer Different property rights laws are a notable source of conflict in many African countries. The pre-colonial system in Yoruba can be described to be democratic because of the inclusion of the principle of checks and balances that had been introduced in the system of administration. An election bound to be held in the year 2019 will unveil the new . 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. 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. African Traditions - Centuries of African heritage - Victoria Falls Guide African indigenous education was. To illustrate, when there are 2.2 billion Africans, 50% of whom live in cities, how will those cities (and surrounding countryside) be governed? By the mid-1970s, the politics of Africa had turned authoritarian. America's flawed democracy: the five key areas where it - The Guardian "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. In many cases European or Islamic legal traditions have replaced or significantly modified traditional African ones. 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. After examining the history, challenges, and opportunities for the institution of traditional leadership within a modern democracy, the chapter considers the effect of the current constitutional guarantee for chieftaincy and evaluates its practical workability and structural efficiency under the current governance system. 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. But established and recognized forms of inherited rule cannot be lightly dismissed as un-modern, especially when linked to the identity of an ethnic or tribal group, and could be construed as a building block of legitimacy. 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 light of this discussion of types of inclusion, the implications for dealing with state fragility and building greater resilience can now be spelled out. 2. The first type is rights-based legitimacy deriving from rule of law, periodic elections, and alternation of political power, the kind generally supported by western and some African governments such as Ghana and Senegal. The place and role of African Youth in Pre-independence African Governance Systems 19-20 1.7. 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. The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. Legitimacy based on successful predation and state capture was well known to the Plantagenets and Tudors as well as the Hapsburgs, Medicis, and Romanovs, to say nothing of the Mughal descendants of Genghis Khan.14 In this fifth model of imagined legitimacy, some African leaders operate essentially on patrimonial principles that Vladimir Putin can easily recognize (the Dos Santos era in Angola, the DRC under Mobutu and Kabila, the Eyadema, Bongo, Biya, and Obiang regimes in Togo, Gabon, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea, respectively).15 Such regimes may seek to perpetuate themselves by positioning wives or sons to inherit power. 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. As a result, they are not dispensable as long as the traditional economic systems endure. The initial constitutions and legal systems were derived from the terminal colonial era. Ideally, African nations will benefit when civil society respects the states role (as well as the other way around); rather than one-sided advocacy, both sides should strive to create a space for debate in order to legitimize tolerance of multiple views in society. Political leaders everywhere face competing demands in this regard. African states, along with Asian, Middle Eastern, and even European governments, have all been affected. Traditional affairs. The geography of South Africa is vast scrubland in the interior, the Namib Desert in the northwest, and tropics in the southeast. Ethiopias monarchy ended in 1974 while the other three remain, with only the king of Swaziland enjoying absolute power. Traditional Governance Systems - Participedia 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. Before then, traditional authorities essentially provided leadership for the various communities and kingdoms. 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. 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. Strictly speaking, Ghana was the title of the King, but the Arabs, who left records . These communities select the Aba Gada, who serves a nonrenewable term of 8 years as leader. African traditional administrative system with bureaucratization in the emerged new states of Africa. 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. Three layers of institutions characterize most African countries. 2007 Relevance of African Traditional Institutions of Governance Competing land rights laws, for instance, often lead to appropriations by the state of land customarily held by communities, triggering various land-related conflicts in much of Africa, especially in areas where population growth and environmental degradation have led to land scarcity. By the mid-1970s, the military held power in one-third of the nations of sub-Saharan Africa. 79 (3), (1995) pp. Often women are excluded from participation in decision making, especially in patrilineal social systems. 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. This point links the reader to the other Africa chapters that have been prepared for this project. A look at the economic systems of the adherents of the two institutional systems also gives a good indication of the relations between economic and institutional systems. Roughly 80% of rural populations in selected research sites in Ethiopia, for example, say that they rely on traditional institutions to settle disputes, while the figure is around 65% in research sites in Kenya (Mengisteab & Hagg, 2017). This enhanced his authority. Note that Maine and . 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. 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. However, the system of traditional government varied from place to place. They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents. 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 some cases, they are also denied child custody rights. On the other hand, their endurance creates institutional fragmentation that has adverse impacts on Africas governance and socioeconomic transformation. The challenge facing Africas leadersperhaps above all othersis how to govern under conditions of ethnic diversity. Its lack of influence on policy also leads to its marginalization in accessing resources and public services, resulting in poverty, poor knowledge, and a poor information base, which, in turn, limits its ability to exert influence on policy. Decision making is generally participatory and often consensus-based. States would be more effective in reforming the traditional judicial system if they recognized them rather than neglecting them, as often is the case. They are less concerned with doctrines and much more so with rituals . In this view, nations fail because of extractive economic and political institutions that do not provide incentives for growth and stability. 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). A Functional Approach to define Government 2. Still another form of legitimacy in Africa sometimes derives from traditional political systems based on some form of kingship. The customary structures of governance of traditional leadership were put aside or transformed. Only four states in AfricaBotswana, Gambia, Mauritius, and Senegalretained multiparty systems. The same technology vectors can also empower criminal, trafficking, and terrorist networks, all of which pose threats to state sovereignty. As noted, there are notable differences in the authority systems of African traditional institutions. In addition to these measures, reconciling fragmented institutions would be more successful when governments invest more resources in transforming the traditional socioeconomic space. The population in the traditional system thus faces a vicious cycle of deprivation. One scholar specializing on the Horn of Africa likens the situation a political marketplace in which politics and violence are simply options along the spectrum pursued by powerful actors.5. 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. The Alafin as the political head of the empire was . 14 L.A. Ayinla 'African Philosophy of Law: A Critique' 151, available at Unfortunately, transforming the traditional sector is not an easy undertaking and cannot be achieved in a reasonably short time. The Dutch dispatched an embassy to the Asantehene's . Among the key challenges associated with institutional fragmentation are the following: Policy incoherence: Fragmented economies and institutions represent dichotomous socioeconomic spaces, which makes it highly challenging for policy to address equitably the interests of the populations in these separate socioeconomic spaces. Evidence from case studies, however, suggests that the size of adherents varies from country to country. They are already governing much of rural Africa. Customary law, for example, does not protect communities from violations of their customary land rights through land-taking by the state. Council of elders: These systems essentially operate on consensual decision-making arrangements that vary from one place to another. As a result, customary law, which often is not recognized by the state or is recognized only when it does not contradict the constitution, does not protect communities from possible transgressions by the state.
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