Relevance of - United Nations Economic Commission for Africa

to commercial farmers and mining corporations with little regard for the land rights and
interests of local communities. Such concessions, in conjunction with population growth
and adverse ecological changes, have led to land shortages and the impoverishment of local
communities, triggering violent resource-based conflicts among communities and between
the state and communities in several countries, including Nigeria and the Sudan. Mitigating
resource-based conflicts is likely to require respect for the traditional land rights of local
communities and their involvement in decision-making as well as in sharing the benefits of
land and other geo-resources allocation.
5. Integrating traditional authorities into the governance
structure
To the extent that African traditional political values and customary laws are essential to the
continent’s transformation, the role of the authorities who are engaged in the practice and
maintenance of those values is indispensable. Chiefs, especially those at the grassroots level,
and elders in the decentralized political systems, are leaders in the practice of those values
and they form an integral albeit informal part of the governance structures of rural Africa.
As von Trotha (1996) notes, chiefs and village heads under civil chieftaincy constitute a
forum where local interests are debated and articulated. Thus, they can constitute a valuable
resource in informing the state about the interests of local communities as well as in
mobilizing rural populations for active engagement, not only in development activities and
the distribution of public services, but also in the national political process.
Unlike government-appointed administrators, lower-level chiefs and village leaders live
in conditions largely similar to those of their communities. They share common interests
and think like their people. As a result, they are better equipped to represent the interests
of their communities than are government-appointed administrators, who are accountable
only to the political élite. Partnership in development between local traditional leaders and
government administrators is also likely to promote cooperative state-society relations that
are sorely absent in Africa. However, even though incorporating these leaders has not been
controversial, the state has invariably underutilized the traditional leaders at the grassroots
level and has done little to integrate them into the formal governance structures.
As noted in the second section of this paper, much of the controversy over traditional
institutions lies in the debate over the incorporation of the upper echelons of chiefs into
the modern governance structures. Nevertheless, a growing number of African countries,
including some of those that had previously attempted without success to strip chiefs of
their power or to completely abolish traditional institutions, have realized the political
currency that chiefs possess. They also now concede to the political risks or opportunity
costs involved in abolishing chieftaincy. Chiefs have become “vote-brokers” in rural areas
and exercise significant informal control over the State’s intervention in local affairs (von
Trotha, 1996; van Kessel and Oomen, 1996). As vote-brokers, they align themselves with
the powers that offer the best chances for safeguarding their positions and advancing their
interests. As a result, several countries, including those led by regimes that are reluctant
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