Full Description
Traditional leadership is a factor that has long been overlooked in evaluations of rural local government in much of contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa. Grassroots Governance, an interdisciplinary and intercontinental collection, addresses this gap in African scholarship and brings new perspectives on the integration, or reconciliation, of traditional leadership with democratic systems of local government. Articles from the fields of political science, law, postcolonial studies, anthropology, cultural studies, and policy and administrative studies establish a baseline for best practice in Africa and the Afro-Caribbean while taking into account the importance of traditional leadership to the culture of local governance.
Case studies are drawn from Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, and Commonwealth countries in West, East, and Southern Africa, as well as Jamaica.
Contents
Summary Preface by P.S. Reddy
Rural Local Governance and Traditional Leadership in Africa and the Afro-Caribbean: Policy and Research Implications from Africa to The Americas and Australia
Donald I. Ray
Setting the Ghanaian Context of Rural Local Government: Traditional Authority Values
Christine Owusu-Sarpong
Social Characteristics of Traditional Leaders and Public Views on their Political Roles
Charles Crothers
Ghana: Traditional Leadership and Rural Local Governance
Donald I. Ray
Chiefs: Power in a Political Wilderness
Robert Thornton
Local Governance in Lesotho: The Central Role of Chiefs
Tim Quinlan and Malcolm Wallis
Traditional Authorities, Local Government and Land Rights
Lungisile Ntsebeza
"We Rule the Mountains and They Rule the Plains": The West African Basis of Traditional Authority in Jamaica
Werner Zips
Traditional Leadership and Rural Local Government in Botswana
Keshav C. Sharma
Rural Local Government and Development: A Case Study of Kwazulu-Natal: Quo Vadis?
P.S. Reddy and B.B. Biyela
What Role for Traditional Leadership in the "Pluralistic State" in Africa?
Carl Wright
