Reinventing African Chieftaincy in the Age of AIDS, Gender, Governance, and Development

Discover critical insights into the ongoing transformation and reinvention of the traditional authority of chieftaincy in post-colonial Africa in a groundbreaking collection from members of the Traditional Authority Applied Research Network.

This collection of essays examines the relatively new, and frequently overlooked, political phenomenon in post-colonial Africa of chieftaincy “re-inventing” itself. The traditional authority of chiefs has been one of Africa’s missing voices who are now bringing new resources to the challenges that AIDS, gender, governance, and development pose to the peoples of Africa.

Reinventing African Chieftaincy in the Age of AIDS, Gender, Governance, and Development presents new research in Ghana, Botswana, and South Africa, providing the broadest geographic African coverage on the topic of African chieftaincy. The nineteen authors, many of them emerging scholars from Africa, are all members of the Traditional Authority Applied Research Network (TAARN).

This collection provides critical insight into the transformation processes of chieftaincy from the end of the colonial/apartheid periods to the present. They also examine the realities of male and female traditional leaders in reinventing their legitimacy and their political offices in the age of great social and political unrest, health issues and governance and development challenges.

With Contributions By: Donald I. Ray, Tim Quinlan, Keshav C. Sharma, Tacita A.O. Clarke, Brian Keating, Kereng Daniel Lebogang Kgotleng, Mpilo Parl Sithole, Mpho G. Molmo, Robert Thornton, Mogopodi Lekorwe, Morgan Nyendu, Sibongiseni Mkhize, Shahid Vawda, Christiane Owusu-Sarpong, Kimberly Schoon, Sherri Brown, Wilhelmina J. Donkoh, and Gaelle Eizlini 

Donald Ray teaches comparative politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary. He is the International Coordinator of the Traditional Authority Applied Research Network (TAARN). He has published extensively on the topics of African politics, state-chief relations in Africa, the politics and policies of development, and political responses to change.

Tim Quinlan is the research director of the Health Economics and AIDS Research Division (HEARD) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

Keshav Sharma is a professor in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at the University of Botswana in South Africa.

Tacita Clarke works in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary.

Preface

Introduction
D.I. Ray, T. Quinlan, K. Sharma, T.A.O. Clarke, with W. Donkoh, C. Owusu-Sarpong, M. Lekorwe, S. Vawda, S. Mikhize, M. Nyendu, R. Thornton, M. Molomo, P. Sithole, and K. Kgotleng

Chiefs as Development Agents: Ghanaian Pilot Study
Donald I. Ray and Gazelle Eizlini

Traditional Rulers as Partners in Health and Eudcation Delivery
Wilhelmina J. Donkoh

Building HIV/AIDS Competence in Ghana—Traditional Leadership and Shared Legitimacy: A Grassroots Community Intervention Best Model
Donald I. Ray and Sherri A. Brown

The Development and HIV/AIDS-Fighting Role of Traditional Rulers: Agency of Festivals
Wilhelmina J. Donkoh

Building AIDS Competence in Manya Krobo and the Role of the Manya Krobo Queen Mothers Association
Sherri Brown

From Calgary to Krobo and Back: How the IDRC Encouraged Grassroots Links between Canada and Ghana
Kimberly Schoon

The Predicament of the Akan ‘Queenmother’ (Ohemmaa)
Christine Owusu-Sarpong

Gender and Traditional Leadership in Botswana
Mogopodi H. Lekorwe

Governance Policy and Democracy: Reconstituting Traditional Authorities in the eThekwini Municipality (Durban), 1994-2003
Shahid Vawda

Gearing Up for Constructive Engagement: Traditional Authorities and the Predicament of the 2000 Local Governmental Elections in the Durban Region, South Africa
Sibongiseni Mkhize

Traditional Authorities and the Distinct Assemblies System: A. Case Study of the South Tongu District, Ghana
Morgan Nyendu

The Kgotla and Traditional Leadership in Botswana Mogopodi Lekorwe

"Traditional Authority" and Governance in the Emjidini Royal Swazi Chiefdom, Barberton, Mpumalanga
Robert Thornton

Widening the Democracy Debate: Bogosi and Ethnicity in Botswana
Mpho G. Molomo

The Role of the House of Cheifs (Ntlo ya Dikgosi) in Botswana
Keshav C. Sharma

The National House of Cheifs—Ghana
Kusi Ankara

The Role of Traditional Leaders in the Administration of Customary Courts in Botswana
Keshav C. Sharma

The Secular Dynamics of Traditional Leadership in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: The Decade of Active Political Transformation after Apartheid
Mpilo Pearl Sithole

Contesting the Political Meaning of Chieftaincies in the New South Africa
Kereng Daniel Lebogang

Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary: Contributions of Ghana’s Traditional Leaders to Partnership Successes with the Calgary Zoo, Canada
Brian Keating

Dikgosi and the Politics of Land in Botswana
Mpho G. Molomo

Conclusions
Donald I. Ray, Tim Quinlan, Keshav Sharma, and Tacita A. O. Clarke

Glossary
Notes on Contributors
Index