example of a traditional African political system. 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. 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. These migrations resulted in part from the formation and disintegration of a series of large states in the western Sudan (the region north of modern Ghana drained by the Niger River). The geography of South Africa is vast scrubland in the interior, the Namib Desert in the northwest, and tropics in the southeast. This enhanced his authority. A long-term route to political and economic success has been comprehensively documented by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson in their global study of why nations fail or succeed. 1995 focuses on social, economic, and intellectual trends up to the end of the colonial era. However, their participation in the electoral process has not enabled them to influence policy, protect their customary land rights, and secure access to public services that would help them overcome their deprivation. 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 There are several types of government systems in African politics: in an absolute monarchy, the head of state and head of government is a monarch with unlimited legal authority,; in a constitutional monarchy, the monarch is a ceremonial figurehead who has few political competences,; in a presidential system, the president is the head of state and head of government, 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. Analysis here is thus limited to traditional authority systems under the postcolonial experience. 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. This is done through the enforcement agencies such as the police force. 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. These communities select the Aba Gada, who serves a nonrenewable term of 8 years as leader. The colonial state modified their precolonial roles. Hindrance to democratization: Perhaps among the most important challenges institutional fragmentation poses is to the process of democratization. Judicial Administration. With the introduction of the Black Administration Act the African system of governance and administration was changed and the white government took control of the African population. 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. Of the latter, 10 achieved the top rating of free, a conclusion close to ratings by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).9 A more bullish reading drawn again from multiple sources is that over 60% of people in sub-Saharan Africa live in free or partly free countries, a situation that enabled a Brookings Institution study to conclude that the region [is] moving in fits and starts towards greater democratic consolidation.10 Countries absent from the apparent democratic wave missed its beginnings in the early and mid-1990s, became caught up in protracted or recurrent civil conflicts, or degenerated as a result of electoral violence or big men patrimonialism. Oftentimes, however, they contradict each other, creating problems associated with institutional incoherence. In direct contrast is the second model: statist, performance-based legitimacy, measured typically in terms of economic growth and domestic stability as well as government-provided servicesthe legitimacy claimed by leaders in Uganda and Rwanda, among others. Such chiefs also have rather limited powers. 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. African countries are characterized by fragmentation of various aspects of their political economy, including their institutions of governance. In the past decade, traditional security systems utilized in commercial or government facilities have consisted of a few basic elements: a well-trained personnel, a CCTV system, and some kind of access control system. 17-19 1.6. Space opened up for African citizens and civil society movements, while incumbent regimes were no longer able to rely on assured support from erstwhile external partners. Misguided policies at the national level combined with cultural constraints facing these social groups may increase exclusion and create seeds of future trouble. Understanding the Gadaa System. Political leaders everywhere face competing demands in this regard. The purpose is to stress that such efforts and the attendant will However, the traditional modes of production and the institutional systems associated with them also remain entrenched among large segments of the population. This section grapples with the questions of whether traditional institutions are relevant in the governance of contemporary Africa and what implications their endurance has on Africas socioeconomic development. 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. The same technology vectors can also empower criminal, trafficking, and terrorist networks, all of which pose threats to state sovereignty. 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 some countries, such as Botswana, customary courts are estimated to handle approximately 80% of criminal cases and 90% of civil cases (Sharma, 2004). The campaign by some (but not all) African states to pull out of the International Criminal Court is but one illustration of the trend. Beyond the traditional sector, traditional institutions also have important attributes that can benefit formal institutions. Impact of Historical Origins of African State System2. 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. Finally, the chapter considers the future of the institution against the background of the many issues and challenges considered. 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. This proposal will be subject to a referendum on the constitutional changes required.16.2e 2.4 Traditional leadership Traditional leaders are accorded 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. 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. 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. Admittedly, the problem is by no means uniquely African, but it is very commonly experienced in Africa. The formal institutions of checks and balances and accountability of leaders to the population are rather weak in this system. This is in part because the role of traditional leaders has changed over time. 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. Political and economic inclusion is the companion requirement for effective and legitimate governance. According to this analysis, Africas traditional institutional systems are likely to endure as long as the traditional subsistent economic systems continue to exist. 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. the system even after independence. 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. Others contend that African countries need to follow a mixed institutional system incorporating the traditional and formal systems (Sklar, 2003). Governance also has an important regional dimension relating to the institutional structures and norms that guide a regions approach to challenges and that help shape its political culture.1 This is especially relevant in looking at Africas place in the emerging world since this large region consists of 54 statesclose to 25% of the U.N.s membershipand includes the largest number of landlocked states of any region, factors that dramatically affect the political environment in which leaders make choices. However, three countries, Botswana, Somaliland, and South Africa, have undertaken differing measures with varying levels of success. They are the key players in providing judicial service and in conflict management in much of rural Africa. This can happen in several ways. Before delving into the inquiry, clarification of some issues would be helpful in avoiding confusion. Three layers of institutions characterize most African countries. 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. Despite the adoption of constitutional term limits in many African countries during the 1990s, such restrictions have been reversed or defied in at least 15 countries since 2000, according to a recent report.6, The conflict-governance link takes various forms, and it points to the centrality of the variable of leadership. 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. Executive, legislative, and judicial functions are generally attributed by most modern African constitutions to presidents and prime ministers, parliaments, and modern judiciaries. However, they are not merely customs and norms; rather they are systems of governance, which were formal in precolonial times and continue to exist in a semiformal manner in some countries and in an informal manner in others.1. 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). This study notes that in 2007 Africa saw 12 conflicts in 10 countries. As Legesse (1973, 2000) notes, the fundamental principles that guide the consensus-based (decentralized) authority systems include curbing the concentration of power in an institution or a person and averting the emergence of a rigid hierarchy. Yet political stability cannot be based on state power alone, except in the short run. At times, devolution has had major fiscal and governance consequences, including serving as a vehicle for co-option and corruption. Another category of chiefs is those who theoretically are subject to selection by the community. They are already governing much of rural Africa. 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. This category of chiefs serves their communities in various and sometimes complex roles, which includes spiritual service. This brief essay began by identifying the state-society gap as the central challenge for African governance. Still another form of legitimacy in Africa sometimes derives from traditional political systems based on some form of kingship. Paramount chiefs with rather weak system of accountability: The Buganda of Uganda and the Nupe in Nigeria are good examples. As noted, there are notable differences in the authority systems of African traditional institutions. Examine the definitions, strengths, and weaknesses of several common governments: monarchy, theocracy . Another issue that needs some clarification is the neglect by the literature of the traditional institutions of the political systems without centralized authority structures. Some regimes seem resilient because of their apparent staying power but actually have a narrow base of (typically ethnic or regional) support. There are several types of government that are traditionally instituted around the world. 3. This adds to the challenge of building national identities; this identity vacuum increases the risk that political elites and social groups will capture the state for narrower, self-interested purposes that weaken, rather than strengthen, social cohesion. Towards a Definition of Government 1.3. The terms Afrocentrism, Afrocology, and Afrocentricity were coined in the 1980s by the African American scholar and activist Molefi Asante. The government system is a republic; the chief of state and head of government is the president. A second attribute is the participatory decision-making system. 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. In Botswana, for example, the consensual decision-making process in the kgotla (public meeting) regulates the power of the chiefs. 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. While this seems obvious, it is less clear what vectors and drivers will have the most weight in shaping that outcome. 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. More frequently, this form of rule operates at the sub-state level as in the case of the emir of Kano or the Sultan of Sokoto in Nigeria or the former royal establishments of the Baganda (Uganda) or the Ashanti (Ghana). How these differences in leadership structures impinge on the broader institutions of resources allocation patterns, judicial systems, and decision-making and conflict resolution mechanisms is still understudied. At the same time, traditional institutions represent institutional fragmentation, which has detrimental effects on Africas governance and economic transformation. Today, the five most common government systems include democracy, republic, monarchy, communism and . As Mamdani has argued, understanding the role of traditional leadership and customary law in contemporary African societies requires us to understand its history. Such post-electoral pacts reflect the conclusion that stability is more important than democracy. Poor leadership can result in acts of commission or omission that alienate or disenfranchise geographically distinct communities. In many cases, the invented chieftaincies were unsuccessful in displacing the consensus-based governance structures (Gartrell, 1983; Uwazie, 1994). 2. In many cases European or Islamic legal traditions have replaced or significantly modified traditional African ones. In many tribes, the chief was the representative of the ancestors. Using a second conflict lens, the number of non-state conflicts has increased dramatically in recent years, peaking in 2017 with 50 non-state conflicts, compared to 24 in 2011. The optimistic replyand it is a powerful oneis that Africans will gradually build inclusive political and economic institutions.18 This, however, requires wise leadership. It then analyzes the implications of the dual allegiance of the citizenry to chiefs and the government. One of these will be the role and weight of various powerful external actors. Command economies, as opposed to free-market economies, do not allow market forces like supply and demand to determine production or prices. 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%. The usual plethora of bour- Constitutions of postcolonial states have further limited the power of chiefs. African traditional administrative system with bureaucratization in the emerged new states of Africa. Land privatization is, thus, unworkable in pastoral communities, as communal land ownership would be unworkable in a capitalist economy. There are very few similarities between democracy and dictatorship. Second, the levels of direct battle deaths from these events is relatively low when compared with far higher levels in the wars of the Middle East. It considers the nature of the state in sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. The Dutch dispatched an embassy to the Asantehene's . The nature of governance is central because it determines whether the exercise of authority is viewed as legitimate. Perhaps one of the most serious shared weakness relates to gender relations. Fitzpatrick 'Traditionalism and Traditional Law' Journal of African Law, Vol. Certain offences were regarded as serious offences. 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. In most African countries, constitutionally established authorities exercise the power of government alongside traditional authorities. Table 1 shows the proportion of the population that operates under traditional economic systems in selected African countries. Under the circumstances, it becomes critical that traditional leaders are directly involved in local governance so that they protect the interests of their communities. This point links the reader to the other Africa chapters that have been prepared for this project. FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. Traditional institutions have continued to metamorphose under the postcolonial state, as Africas socioeconomic systems continue to evolve. 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 political history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans andat least 200,000 years agoanatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states. Abstract. 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. Institutional dichotomy also seems to be a characteristic of transitional societies, which are between modes of production. 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. Furthermore, for generations, Africans were taught the Western notion of the tribe as . Less than 20% of Africas states achieved statehood following rebellion or armed insurgency; in the others, independence flowed from peaceful transfers of authority from colonial officials to African political elites. 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. On the one hand, they recognize the need for strong, responsive state institutions; weak, fragile states do not lead to good governance. 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. Although much has been lost in the shadows and fogs of a time before people created written accounts, historians . 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. 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. Although considerable differences exist among the various systems, opportunities for women to participate in decision making in most traditional systems are generally limited. They must know the traditional songs and must also be able to improvise songs about current events and chance incidents. Botswanas strategy has largely revolved around integrating parallel judicial systems. In Sierra Leone, paramount chiefs are community leaders and their tasks involve - among others - protecting community safety and resolving disputes. 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. It assigned them new roles while stripping away some of their traditional roles. At times, these traditional security system elements are sufficient enough for some uses, but there's certainly no denying . Paramount chiefs: Another category of leadership structure is that of hereditary paramount chieftaincy with various traditional titles and various levels of accountability. Reconciling the parallel institutional systems is also unlikely to deliver the intended results in a short time; however, there may not be any better alternatives. Extensive survey research is required to estimate the size of adherents to traditional institutions. The swing against western norms was captured in an interview with Ugandas repeatedly re-elected president Yoweri Museveni who remarked How can you have structural adjustment without electricity? The traditional and informal justice systems, it is argued offers greater access to justice. 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. Africas economic systems range from a modestly advanced capitalist system, symbolized by modern banking and stock markets, to traditional economic systems, represented by subsistent peasant and pastoral systems. Virtually every group was involved in the . They are well known, among others, for their advancement of an indigenous democratic process known as Gadaa. Wise leadership respects ethnic diversity and works toward inclusive policies. 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. 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. In some cases, community elders select future Sultanes at a young age and groom them for the position. 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. The population in the traditional system thus faces a vicious cycle of deprivation. Stated another way, if the abolition of term limits, neo-patrimonialism, and official kleptocracy become a regionally accepted norm, this will make it harder for the better governed states to resist the authoritarian trend. Among them were those in Ethiopia, Morocco, Swaziland, and Lesotho. The result is transitory resilience of the regime, but shaky political stability, declining cohesion, and eventual conflict or violent change. 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). 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). It should not be surprising that there is a weak social compact between state and society in many African states. Traditional leaders would also be able to use local governance as a platform for exerting some influence on national policymaking. To sum up, traditional institutions provide vital governance services to communities that operate under traditional socioeconomic spaces. Sometimes, another precedent flows from thesenamely, pressure from outside the country but with some support internally as well for creating a transitional government of national unity. 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). Third, Africas conflict burden reflects different forms and sources of violence that sometimes become linked to each other: political movements may gain financing and coercive support from criminal networks and traffickers, while religious militants with connections to terrorist groups are often adept at making common cause with local grievance activists.

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