Chiefs still play an important role in the lives of many Africans – Original Nii Martey Laryea I

It was a display of rich Ga culture amidst an unusual glitz and glamour over the weekend when the people of Teshie joined by other dignitaries celebrated the one-year anniversary of the enstoolment of the Teshie Gbuglah Oblahia Mantse (Youth Chief), Original Nii Martey Laryea I.

It was a week-long celebration, which started from Monday 14th March to Sunday 20th March 2022 with a series of activities taking place across the Teshie municipality daily. As part of the celebration, over 5,000 people were registered onto the National Health Insurance scheme over three days sponsored by Original Nii Martey Laryea.

There were also sporting activities, which received a lot of interest from people within Teshie and its environs. Sixteen teams participated in the keenly contested playing cards competition with the finale held on Thursday 17th February at the Teshie Salem Square, attracting thousands of patrons. Another major activity was a football match on Friday 18th february at the Teshie Salem Park.

On Saturday 19th February, Teshie came alive with a big gathering of chiefs, opinion leaders, sons and daughters of the land and other specially invited guests including royals, religious leaders, government officials, politicians and celebrities.

In his speech at the event, Original Nii Martey Laryea I emphasized the essence of putting in place pragmatic steps to achieve the theme for the celebration, “Building Our Community and Our People”.  He said, “we are at a point in time when we all need to come together and put our differences aside. Without unity, I am sorry to say we will not achieve anything and cannot develop Teshie. Let us focus on the positives that will bring growth and development to our community. Also as young people, we have to consider developing our capacities to enhance our lives. This will go a long way to set us up for success”.

The Youth Chief further cautioned the youth to desist from engaging in acts that could be detrimental to their future. “I will urge all young people to stay away from social vices knowing it is not going to help them in any way. It is becoming worrying the stories we are receiving about how some people in our community treat drivers of commercial vehicles who come to Teshie to drop or pick up passengers”, he added.

The celebration ended on Sunday 20th February with a thanksgiving service at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana – Peniel Congregation, Teshie, which was followed by a buffet lunch event at the Teshie Salem Square.  During the event, I had the opportunity to interact with Original Nii Martey Laryea I and our conversation focussed on the chieftaincy institution and its significance in modern day.

In precolonial times, the main functions of chiefs included dispute resolution, codification of customary law, arrangement of ceremonies and festivals, organization of communal labour and promotion of socioeconomic development. According to Original Nii Martey Laryea I, times have changed and a lot more is expected of chiefs now.

“Chiefs have been involved in the development of their areas all these years before the coming of the white man. However, contemporary chiefs face new challenges such as demands for good governance, the introduction of information and communication technologies and expectations of international connections. In addition to royalty, education and access to powerful networks are now becoming key expectations of chiefs”, he added.

It has become obvious that there are differences in the degree to which chiefs can circumscribe tradition. The more powerful chiefs have a greater say in which traditions should be considered useful or redundant. Most chiefs will use their professional and international experience to spur local development and modernize the chieftaincy institution.

There is an ongoing debate on whether democracy and the African chief can co-exist?  Traditionalists regard Africa’s traditional chiefs as the true representatives of their people, accessible, respected, legitimate and therefore still essential to politics on the continent. Modernists view traditional authority as a gerontocracy, chauvinistic, authoritarian and increasingly irrelevant form of rule that is antithetical to democracy.

This debate has intensified in the last two decades as efforts at democratization and decentralization have increased competing claims to power and legitimacy, especially at the local level. Some people see traditional authority and elected political leaders as competitors with a struggle between the two for political power and legitimacy.

Original Nii Martey Laryea I is convinced traditional leaders, chiefs and elders still play an important role in the lives of many Africans in spite of the considerable cross-country variation in the status and importance of African chiefs and elders.

“In many countries traditional authorities play a pre-eminent role as mediators of violent conflict. The sharp distinctions outsiders draw between elected local government officials and hereditary chiefs are not made by most of the Africans who live under these dual systems of authority. Far from being in competition with elected leaders for the public’s regard, traditional leaders and elected leaders are seen by the public as two sides of the same coin”, he further stated.

Popular evaluations of both traditional and elected leaders depend on the leader’s leadership capacity. An individual’s level of modernization plays a much smaller role in shaping perceptions of traditional authority.

There are no simple solutions to the question of how to define the role of chiefs and elders in African political systems. Individual local context is important and as far as democracy and traditional rule is concerned, there is no evident conflict between supporting traditional leadership and being a committed and active democrat.There is a strong connection between traditional authorities and local government leaders – far from competing for public support, the fates of each appear to be inextricably linked.

(Source: Chris Koney)