AFRICAN TRADITIONAL DEMOCRACY

Abstract

African traditional political systems have often been described as either monarchical or aristocratic. Hardly is there any reference to democracy. In fact, many European and African political thinkers see democracy as a system of government that began in Greece and was imported through Europe to Africa. Contrary to these opinions, this piece, using the phenomenological and analytical methods of inquiry, argues that democracy is a cherished African value, which existed in pre-colonial Africa as a pattern of African administration. It avers that democracy was already in Africa before the encounter of Africa with the West, and thus, that Africa is not a passive recipient of democracy. In this study, the Yoruba and Igbo democratic models were employed.