SUMMARY

Traditional leadership is a factor that has been significantly overlooked in evaluations of rural local government in much of contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa and in many parts of the Afro-Caribbean. This oversight continues to result in lost opportunities for rural local government. This interdisciplinary and intercontinental volume responds to this perception and seeks to establish a base line for best practice in rural local government and traditional leadership (also called chiefs) in Africa and elsewhere that policy practitioners, political leaders, traditional leaders, researchers, and other citizens can use.

Case studies from Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, other Commonwealth countries in West, East and Southern Africa, as well as Jamaica (with its heritage links to West Africa) are the bases of the analyses of traditional leadership and rural local government. Case studies are analyzed within country and regional contexts. The question of how to integrate, or indeed reconcile, traditional leadership into democratic systems of local government is addressed. The prevalence, importance, and contribution of traditional leadership to the culture of local governance are examined. The importance of traditional leadership’s involvement in the administration of land at the local government level is scrutinized. The development and management implications of having traditional leadership participate in rural local government are explored. Drawing comparisons between the case studies, the book discovers lessons and trends. Some initial implications of this for Canadian chiefs are considered, especially in the realm of the use and creation of Houses of Chiefs as an instrument of governance.