Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Uneasy Alliances: Traditional Leaders and Equality.

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

The dynamic values and practices of African traditional leaders often clash with the democratic values underpinning the states in which they reside. Of particular concern is some chiefs' support of patriarchal customs that conflict with the value of equality enshrined in many African constitutions. Namibia is an especially relevant case to the study of traditional leaders' interaction with equality policies. In 2007, despite laws that prohibit chiefs' participation in governance, the Namibian government began a concerted effort to engage chiefs as key stakeholders in the implementation of several gender equality policies and campaigns. In a country in which nearly 70 percent of the population recognizes a traditional leader's authority, the state's decision to use chiefs as stakeholders in women's rights issues will likely impact the efficacy of its policies and campaigns. The engagement of chiefs in the promotion of equality policies motivates this project's central question: under what conditions will traditional leaders promote women's rights? To answer this question, the project examines the gender-related elements of three policy areas in which chiefs have legal power or have been recruited by the state to serve as stakeholders: HIV/AIDS education and prevention, communal land allocation, and anti-gender-based violence campaigns. The project predicts that chiefs are most likely to support policies that promote women's rights in matters outside their historical areas of authority, thereby enlarging their sphere of influence. The project combines archival research with interviews of informants from the government, NGOs, rural communities, and traditional authorities. An original survey of traditional leaders will capture demographic information and examine motivations behind their policy preferences. Case studies of chief-headed communities with varying policy preferences will pinpoint causal mechanisms accounting for the logic of chiefs' support. The intellectual merit of this research stems from its efforts to advance understanding of equality policies and has two goals. First, it illuminates conditions under which a traditional institution will promote democratic principles. Second, it examines the ways in which the relationship between traditional authorities and the state changes the goals and values of each institution. This project contributes to three bodies of scholarship. To studies of formal and informal institutions, it introduces a third, quasi-formal type of institution that questions the institutional dichotomy accepted by most scholars. It joins a growing movement in the traditional governance literature to move beyond discussions of chieftaincy as threatening to democracy and instead examines situations in which traditional leaders can assist in the task of democratic consolidation. To the research on women in politics, the project adds a local-level perspective on women's efforts to lobby chiefs in communities overseen by traditional leaders. The project has broader impacts as well. For policymakers, understanding the motivations behind traditional leaders' decisions to support or reject policies will improve their strategies for crafting legislation that maximize chances of chiefly endorsement. Findings in this case, moreover, will extend far beyond Namibia to other African countries with strong chieftaincies, along with other countries that have traditional leaders in some form, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Pacific nations. For women's rights organizations, gender equality policies are critical to the improvement of women's lives. The project suggests that chiefs do not always threaten the success of women's rights policies but can, in some cases, actually hasten the achievement of policy goals. This insight will allow women's groups to more effectively lobby traditional leaders for support of policies that they are likely to endorse.