Relevance of - United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

communities as much as possible. As a member of the Nigerian Legislative Council for
the Ibo Division, a certain chief, I. O. Mba, for example, is said to have argued “... I must
say one thing in regard to the poll tax, that when I talked to people about it there was
not one soul who was for it; not one Chief either who was for it ...” (Okafor, 1972:128).
In some cases chiefs also rebelled against colonialism when unable to persuade colonial
administrators to modify some of their policies.
1.3. Traditional institutions in the post-colonial era
Decolonization represented another landmark in the transformation of African traditional
institutions of governance, especially the institution of chieftaincy. The abolishment of
the colonial system of indirect rule left in flux the role of the upper echelons of chiefs
and their relations with the new African State. Many of Africa’s nationalist, firstgeneration
leaders, such as Houphouet-Boigny, Sekou Toure, Leopold Senghor, and
Kwame Nkrumah, saw chiefs as functionaries of the colonial State and chieftaincy as
an anachronistic vestige of the old Africa that had no place in the post-colonial political
landscape. African nationalist leaders, therefore, often pursued policies to Africanize the
bureaucracy without indigenizing the institutions of governance. The new elite, which
increasingly grew self-serving and autocratic, also could not tolerate the existence of
contending points of power. As they banned opposition parties, they also dispossessed
chiefs of the bureaucratic positions they held within the indirect rule system of the
colonial State. Burkina Faso, Guinea, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, among
others, attempted unsuccessfully to strip chiefs of most of their authority or even abolish
chieftaincy altogether. In many other cases, in efforts to enhance its own legitimacy, the
new elite, especially among the second generation of African leaders, attempted, with
varying degrees of success, to co-opt traditional leaders.
Despite these ambiguous efforts, chieftaincy has continued to operate with large numbers
of adherents, especially in rural areas. As an ECA study (2005a) notes, chiefs often operate
as custodians of customary law and communal assets, especially land. They dispense
justice, resolve conflicts and enforce contracts. They also serve as guardians and symbols
of cultural values and practices. Unfortunately, chiefs operate largely in an informal
setting without clear definitions of their authority. Some countries that have realized the
resilience of the institution, such as South Africa and Uganda, are still grappling with
how to incorporate chieftaincy and monarchy into their modern governance structure.
1.4 Gender relations in traditional institutions
Gender relations in Africa in general, and women’s participation in decision-making
in particular, vary from one community to another and it is not clear how much of the
variation is associated with differences in the traditional political systems that prevail on
the continent. Part of the variation seems to be related to whether or not women are
engaged in the production of valued goods that would empower them economically and
whether the community has a matrilineal or patrilineal social organization. In general,
women who control wealth or who are engaged in the production of high-value products