Reinventing African Chieftaincy in the Age of AIDS, Gender, Governance, and Development

This collection of essays examines the relatively new, and frequently overlooked, political phenomenon in post-colonial Africa of chieftaincy ＂re-inventing＂ itself. The traditional authority of chiefs has been one of Africa’s missing voices who are now bringing new resources to the challenges that AIDS, gender, governance, and development pose to the peoples of Africa.

Reinventing African Chieftaincy in the Age of AIDS, Gender, Governance, and Development presents new research in Ghana, Botswana, and South Africa, providing the broadest geographic African coverage on the topic of African chieftaincy. The nineteen authors, many of them emerging scholars from Africa, are all members of the Traditional Authority Applied Research Network (TAARN).

This collection provides critical insight into the transformation processes of chieftaincy from the end of the colonial/apartheid periods to the present. They also examine the realities of male and female traditional leaders in reinventing their legitimacy and their political offices in the age of great social and political unrest, health issues and governance and development challenges.

Donald Ray teaches comparative politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary. He is the International Coordinator of the Traditional Authority Applied Research Network (TAARN). He has published extensively on the topics of African politics, state-chief relations in Africa, the politics and policies of development, and political responses to change.

Tim Quinlan is the research director of the Health Economics and AIDS Research Division (HEARD) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

Keshav Sharma is a professor in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies at the University of Botswana in South Africa.

Tacita Clarke works in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary.

With Contributions By: Donald I. Ray, Tim Quinlan, Keshav C. Sharma, Tacita A.O. Clarke, Brian Keating, Kereng Daniel Lebogang Kgotleng, Mpilo Parl Sithole, Mpho G. Molmo, Robert Thornton, Mogopodi Lekorwe, Morgan Nyendu, Sibongiseni Mkhize, Shahid Vawda, Christiane Owusu-Sarpong, Kimberly Schoon, Sherri Brown, Wilhelmina J. Donkoh, and Gaelle Eizlini