In African you have "State" and "Stateless" society's. The "state" is bureaucracy organized specifically to carry out the activities; taxes, laws, and public safety. The "stateless" is a non-centralized system of organization based on kinship or other informal structure. Most tribes in Africa used the "stateless" system and found it useful in using the extended family and lineage forms for organizations. This system worked great for tribes in Africa. They based there way of life on kinship but for people in the West they needed the "State" society to solve the problems of daily life.
Ways to Resolve Disputes, in tribes....Ordeals, Seers/Diviners, Contests, Self Help
Ordeals- done when there is an absence of evidence, oaths are given at shrines
Seers/Diviners- Contact the Gods
Contests- competition "winner"
Self Help- man collects his own debts (common in stateless)
The reason why Africa grew into state and stateless societies is because of Europeans forcing themselves onto Africans land. The Europeans made several state colonies with polices Africans did not want to follow. One was the military dictatorship and the other is the one party state. As stated in “(chapter 7”), the military dictatorship had no pretense at parliamentary institutions of any kind. As for the one party state; they are under control of a president who is the head of the political party.
ReplyDeleteThose to political ways didn’t stay the same since it didn’t fit African traditional values into them. So therefore they became what are now state and stateless societies. The African state societies are related to the “one party state” because they need people in different offices to make sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to do which is maintain order. The stateless societies are related to military dictatorship because they use kinship instead of the military. All of the political policies stayed within the family.