CHAPTER TWO
2.2 TRADITIONAL LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA: AN OVERVIEW
2.2.5 Case Studies
2.2.5.3 Traditional leadership and local government
There were many policies which impacted on traditional leadership, especially in terms of modernising of local government. Rathbone (2000: 125) conceptualised the views that negatively impacted on traditional leaders and modem local government as follows:
The frustration which led government to combine active interventionist policies with palpable intimidation was real enough. The newly independent state's local government structure, its capacity to collect revenue and to promote rural development remained in disarray. While some of these deficiencies were almost certainly systemic, much of the mess could be attributed to the clumsy statutory linkages between modem local government and the remnants of the old Native Authority system which rested upon chieftaincy.
In Ghana independence came with local government reform which became a political battleground for different political interests (Rathbone, 2000: 45). Planners had to
implement development projects in this stand-off between traditional and modem structures which were unresolved. For Rathbone (2000: 57) development delivered by these parallel systems of governing has been a mess. He further argued that independence did not bring any smooth running of local government and embraced the view that 'part of the blame for this lay with the messy nature of local government structure for which CPP was not responsible and for its over-rapid implementation, for which it was'. Therefore, he warned that 'traditional structures need to be recognised in all reformed government structures' (Rathbone, 2000: 46).
By 1962 Ghana had formally declared that each and every village should have development committees. Authors like Amonoo (1981: 141) write: 'the development committee system had been introduced at a time when the system of native administration and local government was under severe criticism from the young men, latter day CPP leaders and functionaries'. The local government units were under chiefs and elders. These chiefs and councils of elders were criticised by young men who were convinced that councils were unrepresentative and insufficient. Chiefs were seen by the dominant party masses in Ghana of the 1960s as failing to provide improvement. As Rathbone (2000: 157) eloquently put it: 'village development committees whose creation had been encouraged by government and which had been in many cases initially chaired by chiefs were taken over by local CPP branches and were sucked into local administration'. Nkwane Nkrumah's views of chiefs would have been infused to CPP masses. There was a view that the formation of these development committees was to dismantle local government system which was dominated by chiefs in Ghana. As Amonoo (1981: 142) suggests: 'development committees flourished where the criticism against the chiefs and elders was severest'.
Amonoo (1981: 143) further argued that these young men who were involved in the activities of development committees refused to work with traditional representatives, even those involved in new local authorities. It was questionable as to why the youth was not interested in working with traditional leaders. At times the youth was driven by the idea that their initiatives were to promote local self-determination and grassroots democracy (Amonoo, 1981).
The dominance of chiefs in development in Ghana was changed by the operation of local development committees. In villages chiefs and local development committees had to operate on an equal footing. As Amonoo (1981: 147) eloquently put it:
'villages therefore became to a considerably extent internally united as the traditional barriers between the chiefs and youngmen were lowered. Through the development committees traditional authorities were increasingly neutralised and given new perspectives'. Division of functions and responsibilities seemed to have neutralised the relationship between traditional leaders and local development committees. These development committees were in business of serving the model of CPP regime but had limited powers (Amonoo, 1981). It was concluded that they had 'no statutory provision in matters related to exacting labour' (Amonoo, 1981: 149).
Local government in Ghana in 1964 faced challenges which were posed by paramount chiefs. Amonoo (1981: 160) argued that some of the paramount chiefs demanded the creation of separate local authorities. This pressurised traditional authorities' representatives in the National Assembly to challenge or to ensure that the legislation was enacted that would support the creation of separate local authorities and the . extension of local council's jurisdiction in rural areas. These were advocated by paramount chiefs to local authorities and further exacerbated long-standing tensions in rural areas.
According to Amonoo (1981: 160) the exclusion of chiefs from local authorities proved to be of no benefit to local government structure. Chiefs became hostile because local authorities did not give enough support to traditional authorities (Amonoo, 1981). Indeed, such inadequate support contributed to inequality as chiefs did not have enough resources to provide their subjects which were far from local authorities' services. As Amonoo (1981: 161) eloquently put it:
It was a common practice that councillors from the headquarters areas, who were usually in the majority, collaborated with the District Councils (DCs) in discriminating against the rest of the council areas. They outvoted and outmanoeuvred the majority councillors from the peripheral areas in matters concerning the distribution of amenities and services.
All these activities contributed to existing tensions within and among local party organisations. Conversely, these local authorities ensured that CPP regime model was dominant.