Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Politics. (PDF) The role and significance of traditional leadership in the 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. In Module Seven A: African History, you explored the histories of a wide diversity of pre-colonial African societies. Command economies, as opposed to free-market economies, do not allow market forces like supply and demand to determine production or prices. Challenges confronting the institution of chieftaincy have continued from the colonial era into recent times. The Ibo village assembly in eastern Nigeria, the Eritrean village Baito (assembly), the council of elders (kiama) of the Kikuyu in Kenya, and the kaya elders of the Mijikenda in the coast of Kenya are among well-known examples where decisions are largely made in a consensual manner of one kind or another (Andemariam, 2017; Mengisteab, 2003). Chiefs with limited power: Another category of chiefs is those that are hereditary, like the paramount chiefs, but have limited powers. The Constitution states that the institution, status and roles of traditional leadership, according to customary law, are recognised. Yet political stability cannot be based on state power alone, except in the short run. A more recent argument is that traditional institutions are incompatible with economic, social, and civil rights (Chirayath, Sage, & Woolcock, 2005). Government: A Multifarious Concept 1.2. 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. The structures of leadership of African traditional institutions are diverse and they have yet to be mapped out comprehensively. According to this analysis, Africas traditional institutional systems are likely to endure as long as the traditional subsistent economic systems continue to exist. As noted, African countries have experienced the rise of the modern (capitalist) economic system along with its corresponding institutional systems. Within this spectrum, some eight types of leadership structures can be identified. In addition to these measures, reconciling fragmented institutions would be more successful when governments invest more resources in transforming the traditional socioeconomic space. The essay concludes with a sobering reflection on the challenge of achieving resilient governance.
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features of traditional african system of government