Relevance of - United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

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The task of reversing Africa’s general crisis and realizing the New Partnership for Africa’s Development’s (NEPAD) concept of “African solutions to African problems” are likely to require integration of the parallel institutions of governance so that they can complement each other. Harmonizing the two sets of institutions, in turn, requires reform of both in ways that would make them democratic and amenable to integration into a coherent and effective system of governance. This vision provides the imperative for the proposed ECA project, whose overarching objective is to explore ways to reform and integrate the two parallel institutions in a manner that promotes democratic governance. This objective can be attained only through careful analyses of the characteristics and dynamics of traditional institutions in order to gain insight into their actual and potential contributions to democratic governance and economic transformation. This exercise will be particularly useful as traditional institutions on the continent are largely understudied and misunderstood. As a first step towards the broad objective outlined above, this concept paper aims to undertake the following: • Describe briefly the complex diversity of traditional institutions, including, their mechanisms of accountability, the transformation they have undergone over time, and the gender relations they foster; • Outline the nature of the debate over the relevance of traditional institutions; • Sketch a theoretical framework to explain how traditional institutions can contribute to Africa’s socio-economic transformation; • Identify specific areas in which the application of traditional institutions of governance would have significant transformative impact; • Examine inadequacies in models that have been used by some African governments to incorporate traditional authorities into modern governance structures; • Suggest some critical areas of policy-relevant research which would serve as the first step towards filling gaps in our understanding of traditional institutions; this would serve as the basis of a new model for integrating traditional institutions into the modern governance structures in a manner that would promote Africa’s socio-economic transformation; and • Construct a brief schematic roadmap for conducting a pilot study to test the research propositions outlined in section six.
1. Diversity and transformation of African traditional institutions African traditional institutions of governance are diverse. They have evolved significantly from their pre-colonial forms in tandem with transformation of the continent’s political systems, during the colonial and post-colonial eras. Despite their complex diversity, much of the post-independence literature classifies African traditional institutions of governance into two types, based on their pre-colonial forms: (a) the consensus-based systems of the decentralized pre-colonial political systems; and (b) chieftaincy of the centralized political systems. • Decentralized systems In large parts of Africa, pre-colonial political systems were highly decentralized with law-making, social control, and allocation of resources carried out by local entities, such as lineage groupings, village communities, and age-sets. These systems were largely based on consensual decision-making arrangements that varied from one place to another. As Legesse (2000; 1973) notes, the fundamental principles that guide the consensusbased (decentralized authority) systems include curbing the concentration of power in an institution or a person and averting the emergence of a rigid hierarchy. The settlement of conflicts and disputes in such consensual systems involves narrowing of differences through negotiations rather than through adversarial procedures that produce winners and losers. Decentralized authority systems are based on respect for the rights and views of the individual, as individuals can veto the opinions of the majority. However, individuals are also expected to respect the wishes and interests of the community by accepting compromises, as they can face various forms of community censure, including social isolation, if they fail to do so. The extent to which minority views are accommodated enables these systems to prevent conflicts between minority and majority segments of a community. Another important aspect of the system is that it avoids the existence of political and social gaps between the governed and those who govern, as all eligible members of the community participate in both the creation and enforcement of rules. When the appointment of individuals for specific tasks is necessary, the duration of the appointment is rather short, often not exceeding a year. In many other cases, task assignments are based on agecohorts. One drawback of the decentralized authority systems is that decision-making is generally slow, since consensus-building is a time-consuming process. The Ibo village assembly in eastern Nigeria, the Eritrean village baito (assembly), the gada (age-set) system of the Oromo in Ethiopia and Kenya, as well as the council of elders (kiama) of the Kikuyu in
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Skinner, Elliott P. “The ‘Parad
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