Paper Topic:

African traditional institutions

Oromo in Ethiopia and Kenya , Tseo and Lango of Uganda Tonga of Zambia and the Neur of Southern Sudan (2009

On the other spectrum lied the king and monarchy of African traditional institutions , subscribing to centralization . There were no negotiations instead there were chieftains , ruling over everyone else (Economic Commission for Africa 2009 . One advantage of having a centralized system was that decisions were easily made . However , unlike the decentralized communities , villages that followed this had difficulty conducting a check and balance precisely because there would be no third-party , no objective

figure . Accountability was difficult to achieve . The Abyssinia in Ethiopia and Rwanda were examples of villages that followed absolute power . In some cases , authority was handed down by a council (2009

Both the consensual (decentralization ) and chieftaincy (centralization systems greatly influence the colonialism of Africa . For instance villages following the consensual system would not easily accept modernity , as represented by the colonial state for abiding them would negate everything they believed in . The colonial State attempted to persuade decentralized traditional systems by creating chieftaincies and enforcing rules but was unsuccessful (2009 . The same outcome happened with centralized traditional systems

Africans ' sense of identity has been rooted in traditional institutions that altering them prove futile . Traditional institutions , whether decentralized or centralized , have been ingrained into African society so much that the people have a lack of adaptive capacity . This means that Africans are not able assimilate any foreign idea . This is rather interesting for traditional African institutions are actually entrenched in modern , democratic ideas such as consultation and accountability

Works Cited

Economic Commission for Africa . Relevance of African Traditional Institutions

of Governance ' Economic Commission for Africa .2007 . UNECA .org

9 June 2009

Ember , Carol and Melvin Ember . Anthropology 7th ed

New Jersey : Prentice Hall

Stock , R . et al . Africa ' Microsoft...

2 pages

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