"Governance" is a new policy vogue in Africa, driven mostly by aid donors in an effort to push through "democratization" processes. In the last several years, the policy has usually emphasized "local governance." This is the level at which the importance of "traditional authorities," defined in the book as "kings, other aristocrats holding offices, heads of extended families, and office holders in other decentralized polities, as long as their offices are rooted in pre-colonial states and other political entities", is paramount. Yet these traditional authorities, referred to by the generic name of "chiefs," have had a long history of neglect, which in part reflects the central problem of how to integrate them into democratic systems of local government.

The institution of chieftaincy has gone through many vicissitudes in both the colonial and the postcolonial state. During the fifties and sixties, the institution was generally under attack from various quarters, including politicians and intellectuals who came to view it as primitive and resistant to change. To the fashionable modernization theorists of the time, the ascriptive nondemocratic and therefore antimodern character of the institution would not guarantee its survival in the face of "modernization." To the dependency theorists, the appropriation of chiefs as agents of rule by colonial and postcolonial states undermined their ability to mobilize for sociopolitical change. Yet half a century into the establishing of the post-colonial state, chieftaincy continues to belie the predictions of these theorists. On the contrary, it has demonstrated exceptional resilience, not only because chiefs remain influential with their subjects, but also because modern elites from all walks of life strive to get chiefs to become their active allies in the pursuit of power. It is this evidence of "retraditionalization" in many parts of Africa that has rekindled interest in the study of chieftaincy.

The book under review falls into this category. It is the result of a number of conferences organized to bring the issue of chieftaincy back to center stage in the debates on "rural local government," since rural areas have been badly neglected by postcolonial governments. As an edited volume, it suffers from the usual lack of balance: More than half the book deals with southern Africa, two chapters are concerned with Ghana (the only country represented from West Africa), while a single chapter on Jamaica is all that represents the Afro-Caribbean. Yet the conclusions arrived at are instructive and generally hold true for most of sub-Saharan Africa. The survival of the institution of chieftaincy can be accounted for by the fact that its sources of legitimacy, deeply rooted in the precolonial past, are inaccessible to modern governments. Consequently, the popularity of the institution among chiefly subjects is axiomatic, and this makes it a legitimate force to be used in promoting local development.

However, the case studies show that this reality has yet to be fully appreciated since no proper, legal accommodations have been worked out. In at least three countries (Ghana, Botswana, and South Africa), Houses of Chiefs exist which can advise governments on any issue, but they do not constitute part of the legislature. For the most part, the chiefs continue to fill in for the government at the grassroots where it is thin on the ground. In Jamaica, where the Maroons have maintained a social organization based on what was remembered of their cultural roots in precolonial Ghana, modern governments have been reluctant to grant them recognition. In South Africa, the constitution recognizes the Zulu king as king over the people of Kwa-Zulu Natal, but nothing else is clear.

The message of this book is unmistakable. Traditional authorities are culturally so deeply rooted that they still remain influential with their peoples. Consequently, they are a legitimate agency for development at the local level. It is therefore imperative to design policies that integrate them into democratic government at this level. These roles are not necessarily incompatible and need not be seen as contradictory. We are reminded that in the U. K, for instance, the Queen is a traditional authority and yet is part of modern democratic governance. I would say the same for the Netherlands.

Grassroots Governance? makes a bold and laudable attempt to push the agenda for chiefly agency in modern local governance and development, a position fully justified by the logic of the situation. Important studies have been done in Cameroon and Sierra Leone, and one hopes to see these included in the future. Although the book is obviously of interest to Africanists and political scientists, it is imperative reading for every African government, public officials, and all aid donors and agencies involved in development work in Africa. Above all, developed democratic countries with lingering minority problems of the original inhabitants such as Australia, Canada, and the U. S. should start thinking seriously about the lessons proffered.

By: Politics Donald I. Ray and P. S. Reddy, eds. Grassroots Governance? Chiefs in Africa and the Afro-Caribbean. Calgary, Canada: University of Calgary Press, 2003. ix + 313 pp. Photographs. Bibliography. Index. Price not reported. Cloth.