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Local and District Councils – Should They Be Forgotten?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Sheridan Johns  and
Richard Riley
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Extract

Local and district councils as institutions of democratic representative government have enjoyed a brief and fragile life in Commonwealth Africa. Furthermore, throughout the period of their existence they have never been a priority concern for either colonial rulers, African leaders, or social scientists, and their very existence has been recently challenged. In a number of countries, particularly those which have experienced military take-overs, the councils have been abolished; where they remain in existence they have been transformed with few exceptions into bodies with even more limited powers and autonomy. Nevertheless, their activities, even if greatly curtailed, still offer a focal point for the study of certain questions of representation and administration in the context of political change in independent black Africa.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , June 1975 , pp. 309 - 332
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

Page 310 note 1 For a survey of the process by which ‘native authorities’ were established, see Wraith, Ronald L., Local Administration in West Africa (New York and London, 1972), pp. 30–1, 34, and 91–4.Google Scholar

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Page 312 note 1 For a general overview of the problems confronted by British administrators, and the evolution of British policy from 1947 until the end of British rule, see Lucas, Bryan Keith, ‘The Dilemma of Local Government in Africa’, in Robinson, Kenneth and Madden, Frederick (eds.), Essays in Imperial Government presented to Margery Perham (Oxford, 1963), pp. 193–208.Google Scholar A more detailed survey of the situation in West Africa is to be found in Wraith, op. cit. pp. 139–215.

Page 315 note 1 The terms ‘revolutionary-centralising’ and ‘pragmatic-pluralising’ were proposed by James S. Coleman and Carl G. Rosberg, Jr. to distinguish two broad trends which they saw emerging in the early post-independence period; Political Parties and National Integration in Tropical Africa (Berkeley, 1964), p. 4.Google Scholar At the same time they also discussed the possibility of the decline of party structures and the strengthening of governmental bureaucratic structures; ibid. pp. 673–6. More extensive analyses of the decline of African parties and their merger with state bureaucratic structures have been made by Wallerstein, Immanuel, ‘The Decline of the Party in Single-Party African States’, in LaPalombara, Joseph and Weiner, Myron (eds.), Political Parties and Political Development (Princeton, 1966), pp. 201–14,Google Scholar and by Zolberg, Aristide R., Creating Political Order: the party-states of West Africa (Chicago, 1966).Google Scholar

Page 317 note 1 The process by which this was achieved in one area of Ghana has been delineated and analysed by Owusu, Maxwell, Uses and Abuses of Political Power: a case study of continuity and change in the politics of Ghana (Chicago, 1970), pp. 270–95.Google Scholar

Page 318 note 1 Tordoff, William, ‘Local Administration in Botswana - Part I’, in Journal of Administration Overseas (London), XII, 4, 1973, p. 176.Google Scholar

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Page 318 note 3 On development committees, see Bienen, Henry, Tanzania: parry transformation and economic development (Princeton, 1967), pp. 322–33 and 349–52;Google ScholarRainford, Roderick, ‘Provincial Development Committees in Zambia’, in Journal of Administration Overseas, X, 3, 1971, pp. 178–91;Google Scholar and William Tordoff, ‘Local Administration in Botswana - Part II’, ibid. XIII, I, 1974, pp. 293–300.

Page 318 note 4 The action of the Kenya Government has been critically evaluated by Hydén, Göran, ‘Local Government Reform in Kenya’, in East African Journal (Nairobi),VIII, 4, 1970, pp. 19–24.Google Scholar

Page 319 note 1 For rivalries between traditional leaders and the new local councils, see Owusu, op. cit. pp. 195–240, and Waliman, Sandra, Take Out Hunger: two case studies of rural development (London, 1969), pp. 115–52.Google Scholar

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Page 319 note 3 For a discussion of the changing situation in Ghana and Northern Nigeria, see Wraith, op. cit. pp. 171–4 and 206–12.

Page 320 note 1 Ibid. p. 194.

Page 320 note 2 Such an alternative was rejected in Botswana; Tordoff, loc. cit. p. 177.

Page 320 note 3 Wraith, op. cit. pp. 194–7.

Page 320 note 4 Ibid. pp. 184–5.

Page 320 note 5 Odenigwe, G. A., ‘Divisional Administration: a new structure of local government in the East Central State of Nigeria’, in Journal of Administration Overseas, XII, 2, 1973, pp. 100–11.Google Scholar

Page 321 note 1 The major features of the new system have been delineated by President Nyerere, Julius, Decentralization (Dar es Salaam, 1972).Google Scholar

Page 322 note 1 See, for example, Apthorpe, Raymond (ed.), From Tribal Rule to Modern Government (Lusaka, 1959);Google Scholar and Mair, Lucy P., ‘Representative Government as a Problem in Social Change’, in Rhodes-Livingstone Journal (Manchester), XXI, 1957, p. 17.Google Scholar

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Page 322 note 4 This approach was employed by Campbell, M. J. and Brierly, T. G., The Structure of Local Government in West Africa (The Hague, 1965);Google ScholarCowan, L. Gray, Local Government in West Africa (New York, 1958);Google Scholar and Dryden, Stanley, Local Administration in Tanzania (Nairobi, 1968).Google Scholar

Page 322 note 5 E.g. Wraith, Ronald L., Local Government in West Africa (London, 1964).Google Scholar

Page 322 note 6 E.g. Burke, Fred G., Local Government and Politics in Uganda (Syracuse, 1964).Google Scholar

Page 323 note 1 Wraith, Ronald L., Local Administration in West Africa (New York and London, 1972),Google Scholar the revised and updated version of his 1953 and 1964 studies.

Page 323 note 2 See, for example, Shadbolt, K. E. ‘Local Government Elections in a Tanganyika District’, in Journal of African Administration (London), XIII, 2, 1961, pp. 78–84;Google ScholarTanner, R. E. S., ‘Local Government Elections in Ngara, Tanganyika: a study in the process of social change’, in Journal of Local Administration Overseas, I, 3, 1962, pp. 173–80;Google ScholarHudson, W. J. S., ‘Local Government Reorganization in the Isoka District, Zambia’, in Journal of Administration Overseas, IV, I, 1965, pp. 47–50;Google Scholar and P. L. Taylor, ‘Training of Elected Councilors in Zambia’, ibid. VI, 4, 1967, pp. 252–5.

Page 324 note 1 Magid, Alvin, ‘District Councillorship in an Mrican Society: a study of role and conflict resolution’, Michigan State University, Ann Arbor, 1965.Google Scholar

Page 324 note 2 Nyquist, Thomas, ‘Local and Provincial Councils in the Sudan: a study of their recruitment and decision-making functions’, Northwestern University, Evanston, 1966.Google Scholar

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Page 324 note 4 Callaway, Barbara, ‘Confusion and Diffusion in Local Government: a case study from Eastern Nigeria’, Boston University, 1970.Google Scholar

Page 324 note 5 Chard, Everett W., ‘District Government and Economic Development in Kenya’, University of California, Berkeley, 1970.Google Scholar

Page 324 note 6 Trends and controversies in the field of political anthropology have been discussed in the Canadian Journal of African Studies (Ottawa), III, I, 1969. pt. I.Google Scholar

Page 324 note 7 For examples of anthropological studies, see Kuper, Adam, Kalahari Village Politics (Cambridge 1970);Google Scholar and Richards and Kuper, op. cit. For the work of political scientists, see Callaway, Barbara, ‘Transitional Local Politics: tradition in local government elections in Aba, Nigeria, Keta, Ghana’, in African Studies Review (East Lansing), xv, 3, 1972, pp. 403–12;Google Scholar and Magid, Alvin, ‘British Rule and Indigenous Organization in Nigeria: a case study in normative-institutional change’, in The Journal of African History (Cambridge), x, 2, 1968, pp. 219–313.Google Scholar

Page 325 note 1 Cohen, Abner, Custom and Politics in Urban Africa (Berkeley, 1969);Google ScholarParkin, David, Neighbours and Nationals in an African City Ward (Berkeley, 1969);Google ScholarSchildkrout, Enid, ‘Strangers and Local Government in Kumasi’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), VIII, 2, 07 1970, pp. 251–69;Google Scholar and Wolpe, Howard, ‘Port Harcourt: a community of strangers’, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 1967.Google Scholar

Page 325 note 2 The most important collection of anthropological work in this area is found in Swartz, Marc (ed.), Local-Level Politics (Chicago, 1968).Google Scholar For examples of work by political scientists, see Miller, Norman, ‘The Political Survival of Traditional Leadership’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, VI, 2, 08 1968, pp. 183–98;CrossRefGoogle ScholarRoss, Marc, The Political Integration of Urban Squatters (Evanston, 1973);Google Scholar and Yeager, Rodger, ‘Micropolitics and Transformation: a Tanzanian study of political interaction and institutionalization’, Syracuse University, 1969.Google Scholar

Page 325 note 3 Among the studies which have considered district councils from this perspective are Cottingham, Clement, ‘Clan Politics and Rural Modernization: a study of local political change in rural Senegal’, University of California, Berkeley, 1969;Google Scholar and Owusu, op. cit.

Page 325 note 4 See Stren, Richard, ‘Policy, Local Polities and Urban Development: a study of low cost housing in Mombasa, Kenya’, University of California, Berkeley, 1971;Google Scholar and Waliman, op. cit.

Page 325 note 5 For examples of studies by political scientists, see the following conference papers prepared for the October 1966 meeting of the African Studies Association: Jonathan Barker, ‘Political Integration and Elite Recruitment in an Arrondissement in the Saloum Region of Senegal’; Alvin Magid, ‘Elite Recruitment and National Integration in Idoma, Northern Nigeria’; and Samuel W. Speck, Jr., ‘Recruitment and Role Perception of Local Government Elites in Malawi Before and After Independence’. For examples of analyses by anthropologists, see Ottenberg, Simon, ‘Elite Recruitment and Political Integration in Abakaliki Township’, African Studies Association Conference Paper, 10 1966;Google Scholar and Vincent, Joan, African Elite: the big men of a small town (New York, 1971).Google Scholar

Page 326 note 1 Sklar, Richard utilised the concept of ‘emergent class’, in Nigerian Political Parties: power in an emergent African nation (Princeton, 1963).Google Scholar He has elaborated upon his preference for class analysis in ‘Political Science and National Integration - a Radical Approach’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, V, X, 05 1967, pp. 1–11.Google Scholar

Page 326 note 2 Cliffe, Lionel, ‘The Policy of Ujamaa Vijijini and the Class Struggle in Tanzania’, Afrika Studiencentrum, Leiden, 12 1970,Google Scholar and Cliffe, Lionel and Saul, John, ‘The District Development Front in Tanzania’, in The African Review (Dares Salaam), II, I, 1972, pp. 65–104.Google Scholar

Page 326 note 3 Leys, Cohn, Politicians and Policies: an essay on politics in Acholi, Uganda (Nairobi, 1967).Google Scholar

Page 326 note 4 This was the focus of articles in Canadian Journal of African Studies, IV, I, 1970.Google Scholar See also Barker, Jonathan, ‘The Paradox of Development: reflections on a study of local-central relations in Senegal’, in Lofchie, Michael (ed.), The State of the Jvations: constraints on development in independent Africa (Berkeley, 1971), pp. 47–63;Google ScholarMulusa, Tom, ‘Central Government and Local Authorities’, in Hydén, G., Jackson, R. H., and Okumo, J. (eds.), Development Administration: the Kenyan experience (Nairobi, 1970), pp. 233–5;Google ScholarStryker, Richard, ‘Center and Locality: linkage and political change in the Ivory Coast’, University of California, Los Angeles, 1970;Google Scholar and Stryker, Richard, ‘Political and Administrative Linkage in the Ivory Coast’, in Foster, Philip and Zolberg, Aristide R. (eds.), Ghana and the Ivory Coast: perspectives on modernization (Chicago, 1971), pp. 73–102.Google Scholar

Page 326 note 5 Staniland, Martin, ‘Nationalism and Communal Partisanship: the case of Bongouanou, Ivory Coast’, in Allen, Christopher and Johnson, R. W. (eds.), African Perspectives: papers in the history, politics and economics of Africa presented to Thomas Hodgkin (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 371–91.Google Scholar

Page 326 note 6 Lemarchand, René, ‘Political Clientelism and Ethnicity in Tropical Africa: competing solidarities in nation-building’, in The American Political Science Review (Menasha), LXVI, 5, 03 1972, p. 68.Google Scholar

Page 326 note 7 Ingle, Clyde, From Village to State in Tanzania: the politics of rural development (Ithaca, 1972).Google Scholar

Page 327 note 1 Staniland, Martin, ‘The Rhetoric of Centre-Periphery Relations’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, VIII, 4, 12 1970, pp. 617–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 327 note 2 See Gertzel, Cherry, ‘Provincial Administration in Kenya’, in Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies (Leicester), IV, 3, 1966, pp. 201–13,Google Scholar and ‘The Provincial Administration and Development in Kenya, 1965–68’, Provisional Council for Social Science in East Africa, 12 1970;Google Scholar also Tordoff, William, ‘Regional Administration in Tanzania’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, III, 1, 05 1965, pp. 63–89,CrossRefGoogle Scholar‘Provincial and District Government in Zambia’, in Journal of Administration Overseas, VII, 3, 1968, pp. 425–33, and VII, 4, 1968, pp. 538–45,Google Scholar and ‘Provincial and Local Government in Zambia’, ibid. IX, I, 1970, pp. 23–35. For an overview, see Burke, Fred. G., ‘Research in African Local Government: past trends and an emerging approach’, in Canadian Journal of African Studies, III, I, 1969, pp. 73–80.Google Scholar

Page 327 note 3 Lee, Eugene, Local Taxation in Tanganyika (Berkeley, 1965);Google ScholarLury, D. H. and Shah, A. A., ‘Local Government in Kenya: income and expenditure, 1959–1961’, in East African Economic Review (Nairobi), II, N.S., I, 1966, pp. 1–18;Google ScholarPenner, R. G., Financing Local Government in Tanzania (Nairobi, 1970);Google ScholarNorris, M. W., ‘Some Problems of Native Authority Finance in the Northern States of Nigeria’, in Administration (Ibadan), II, 4, 1968, pp. 233–47;Google Scholar and G. O. Orewa, ‘Financial Administration and the Theory of Size in Local Government’, ibid. II, 4, 1968, pp. 221–32.

Page 327 note 4 See Chambers, Robert, Settlement Schemes in Tropical Africa: a study of organizations and development (New York, 1969);Google Scholar also Widstrand, Carl (ed.), Cooperatives and Rural Development in East Africa (New York, 1971).Google Scholar

Page 327 note 5 Cliffe and Saul, ‘The District Development Front in Tanzania’, loc. cit. pp. 65–104; Davey, K. J., ‘Local Bureaucrats and Politicians in East Africa’, in Journal of Administration Overseas, X, 4, 1971, pp. 268–79;Google Scholar Clyde Ingle, op. cit. pp. 107–44; Cohn Leys, op. cit.; and Pasteur, D., ‘The Role of Local Government and Field Administration in Uganda: partnership or conflict’, University of Birmingham, 1969.Google Scholar

Page 328 note 1 See, for example, Kasfir, Nelson, ‘Development Administration in Africa: the balance between politics and administration’, in Canadian Journal of African Studies, III, I, 1969, pp. 94–503;Google Scholar and Lofchie, Michael, ‘Representative Government, Bureaucracy and Political Development’, in Journal of Developing Areas (Macomb), II, I, 1967, pp. 37–55.Google Scholar

Page 328 note 2 For West African examples, see Report of the Committee on the Structure and Remuneration of the Public Service in Ghana (Accra, 1967);Google ScholarCommission of Enquiry into Electoral and Local Government Reform, pt. III (Accra, 1968);Google Scholar and Proposals for the Reorgaszisation of Local Government Councils in the Western State of Nigeria (Ibadan, 1971).Google Scholar

Page 328 note 3 Cf. Nycrere, op. cit. For two discussions of local government by permanent secretaries, see Degun, A. A. K., ‘Developing Viable Local Governments in Western Nigeria’, in Administration, III, 3, 1969, pp. 175–81,Google Scholar and J. O. Ibuje, ‘Local Government and Field Administration in the Midwest’, ibid. pp. 197–206. For the views of politicians in Ghana concerning proposed local government reforms, see West Africa (London), 2804, 1971, p. 286, and 2805, 1971, p. 314.Google Scholar

Page 328 note 4 For examples of prescriptions by expatriates, see ‘A Look at the Future’, in West Africa, 2804, 1971, pp. 275–6;Google Scholar and Göran Hydén, op. cit.

Page 328 note 5 Cf. Cahiers africains d'administrationpublique (Tanger), IX, 01 1973,Google Scholar a special issue on ‘The Management of Urban and Rural Development in Africa’.

Page 328 note 6 The Institute of Administration at the Universityof Ife has frequentlyconsidered problems of local government and administration; see, in particular, The Future of Local Government in Nigeria (Ife, 1969),Google Scholar and its quarterly journal Administration, especially the April 1969 issue. In Ghana, articles in the independent press which emerged after the removal of Nkrumah have offered suggestions for local government reform; see Andoh, A.S.Y., ‘Local Government and Local Development in Ghana’, in Insight (Accra), II, I, 1967, pp. 42–7;Google ScholarNanor, Andrews T. K., ‘Suggested Local Government Reforms for Post-Coup Ghana’, in Legon Observer (Accra), IV, 15, 1969, Pp. 8 and 10;Google Scholar and Nkrumah, S. A., ‘Some Reflections on Local Government in Ghana’, in Legon Observer, VIII, I, 1973, pp. 10–11.Google Scholar See also the review article by Ola, Opeyemi, ‘The Study of West African Local Government’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies VI, 2, 08 1968, pp. 233–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 330 note 1 The importance of this type of investigation is set forth, inter alia, in the proposals of Cliffe and Saul, loc. cit. Cf. also Ingle, op. cit. pp. 122–31 and 213–29.

Page 330 note 2 Humes, Samuel, ‘The Role of Local Government in Economic Development in Africa’, in Journal of Administration Overseas, XII, I, 1973, p. 25.Google Scholar

Page 331 note 1 Huntington, Samuel, ‘Political Development and Political Decay’, in World Politics (Princeton), XVII, 2, 1965, pp. 386–430.Google Scholar

Page 331 note 2 Huntington, Samuel, ‘The Change to Change: modernization, development and politics’, in Comparative Politics (Chicago), III, 3, 1971, pp. 315–19.Google Scholar

Page 331 note 3 Cliffe and Saul, loc. cit.

Page 331 note 4 Ingle, op. cit. p. 23.