African communalism past and present: inhabitants’ assemblies and decision-making by consensus
A tradition that is still relevant today!
Although the State has existed in Africa for a long time (ancient Egypt – unification of the Nile valley around 3500 BC, Kingdom of Kush (Nubia) around 1100 BC), many African societies have chosen to do without a state structure throughout history. They have often been described as “stateless societies”: for example, the Igbos (Nigeria, Benin), the Dogons (Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast), the Logoli in Kenya and the Nuer in southern Sudan (see the bottom of the article for a non-exhaustive list of stateless societies in Africa).
Many traditional African societies were based on communalism, that is to say on communities/villages (more or less) politically independent of each other, which managed their own affairs (autonomy, self-government), and where all individuals without exception took part, either directly or indirectly, in the management of the community’s affairs, at all levels. In traditional societies, Africans made the most important political decisions by consensus, not by vote.
What is interesting, the two authors point out, is that these communal traits still exist in rural areas.
Political organization had a horizontal, not vertical, structure, characterized by a high level of sharing of functions and powers. Political leadership was not imposed by force or by centralization: it emerged from a common consensus or a perceived mutual need. Thus, war was not declared on another village unless there was consensus within the village. Among them were matriarchal communal societies, famous for their traditions of female leaders.
This high degree of egalitarianism and freedom was made possible, in particular, the authors emphasize, by the low level of production: there existed a “village mode of production” (4) that was carried out without any state, based on a very egalitarian division of land. The market was free, families could dispose of their surpluses as they wished and go and sell them at the market.
EXAMPLES OF POPULAR ASSEMBLIES as a FORM of GOVERNMENT in West Africa
Before European colonization, the Igbo people (in the southeast of present-day Nigeria, particularly the Biafra region) lived in small autonomous political communities, without kings or chiefs and without a central government.
To this day, general assemblies of citizens exist in Igbo societies. It is the duty of the town crier to go through the village with his gong in the evening, when everyone has returned from the farms, to summon all the inhabitants to the village square. The agenda of the assembly is often very precise. In the village square, the elders highlight an issue in detail and the inhabitants express their views as clearly as possible until a consensus is reached.
The small scale of Igbo institutions has made true democracy possible. According to the historian Isichei: “One of the things that struck the first Europeans visiting the Igbo was the extent to which democracy was practised” (Elizabeth Allo Isichei, A History of the Igbo People. London: Macmillan, 1976).
Alongside the Council of Elders, age groups and secret societies (which acted as instruments of social control), the Umuada, the assembly of village women, played a key role in decision-making and the implementation of decisions, particularly for any decisions concerning women and children.
Not far from the Igbos, among the Tallensi (Ghana) and the peoples of the Niger Delta (Nigeria) – which we will discuss again in the future – the practice of political decision-making in an assembly of inhabitants, by consensus, was also common. The basis of the organization of the peoples of the Niger Delta (present-day Nigeria) was the City-States (formed of several “houses”), as in ancient Greece. As in Greece too, it was the city assembly that took the important political decisions.
The Tallensi (Ghana), a West African people living in north-eastern Ghana and also in the region bordering Burkina Faso, were mainly peasant farmers, growing cereals above all. Their social organization was based on the clan. To make crucial decisions concerning the community/village, the Tallensi had the practice of convening large assemblies of inhabitants.
LIST OF STATELESS SOCIETIES in AFRICA:
It can be said that stateless societies are among the oldest forms of socio-political organization in Africa (5)… Examples include, and obviously according to very diverse modalities:
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NOTES:
(1) As I.E. Igariwey and Sam Mbah write, it is not a question of saying that certain traditional African systems were perfect, nor of idealizing a traditional African model. Some had serious flaws, as did their counterparts in Europe and elsewhere.
(2) Sam Mbah and I.E. Igariwey, African Anarchism: The History of a Movement, Tucson, Ariz.: See Sharp Press, 2001, p. 58.
(3) Sam Mbah is a Nigerian journalist and lawyer.
(4) On this subject, the authors recommend the work of the Egyptian economist Samir Amin.
(5) Ibid, p. 56.
Decision-making by consensus Why? How? Under what conditions?
Rebounds:
Translated by TerKo with the help of a free translation tool.