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Changing Political Leadership in West Africa1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

Philip Garigue
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Extract

Much recent research has been concerned with obtaining an acceptable definition of the terms ‘leader ’and ‘leadership’ to provide a basis for a theory of leadership. Some results have been achieved in the study of leadership in the ‘face-to-face’group. It is when large-scale social movements are involved that the techniques of the sociogram and personality tests, which have been the main tools of analysis in the ‘face-to-face’ studies, are not sufficient, and the investigator has to employ the institutional analysis, which places the individual aspect of leadership in a secondary position.

Résumé

CHANGEMENTS DANS LA DIRECTION POLITIQUE EN AFRIQUE OCCIDENTALE

L'auteur analyse les changements survenus dans la direction politique, manifestés par l'évolution, au cours des cinquante dernières années, de trois sociétés de l'Afrique Occidentale: les Yoruba, les Achanti et le Dahomey. Ces trois sociétés ont été choisies parce que leurs histoires antérieures montrent des similarités accusées, et aussi en raison des renseignements abondants qui sont disponibles sur tous les trois. Dans chaque cas, l'analyse traite non seulement des changements dans la structure des sociétés étudiées, mais également des changements dans les croyances et la manière de penser, qui ont accompagné, et fréquemment ont stimulé, des modifications sociales. Il apparaît que les principaux facteurs dans les changements d'ordre social survenus dans chacune de ces sociétés, sont l'accroissement de la population, le développement d'une économie monétaire offrant des possibilités pour des particuliers de posséder de la richesse, et le relâchement qui en résulte du contrôle exercé par des groupes de lignée; l'essor de nouveaux groupements professionnels et d'une élite économique; la diffusion de l'instruction basée sur le type européen, et la naissance du nationalisme. Tous ces facteurs ont opéré pour effectuer une modification de l'attitude envers la structure traditionnelle d'autorité et une orientation nouvelle de la fidélité et de l'obéissance. La situation des autorités traditionnelles — chefs de tribu et de lignée—a été influencée d'abord par l'établissement de l'administration coloniale, bien que la plupart des chefs aient accepté de collaborer avec le nouveau système d'administration et aient été assimilés dans la structure d'autorité créée par la puissance coloniale.

Un stade plus avancé fut atteint avec l'évolution d'associations spécifiquement politiques et nationalistes dont la direction était essentiellement individuelle. Parmi ces associations, dont les membres appartenaient aux nouveaux groupements professionnels, des chefs se révèlerent qui adoptèrent la politique comme carrière; ils développèrent des techniques pour l'organisation et l'administration d'associations politiques. Au fur et à mesure de la diminution de la puissance des autorités traditionnelles, par suite des modifications sociales, les mythes qui les ont soutenues perdirent leur raison d'être. En même temps, la naissance de croyances nouvelles et l'influence des conceptions occidentales concernant l'autorité publique empêchèrent la stabilisation de la structure d'autorité coloniale. D'après son examen des changements d'ordre social et politique dans les trois sociétés étudiées, l'auteur indique que les modifications survenues dans la direction politique ont toutes suivi la meme voie générale; l'autorité a été transférée des chefs des groupes de parenté et d'unités territoriales aux professionnels occidentalisés de la bourgeoisie, qui dirigent des partis politiques et ne sont pas astreints à des obligations de parenté ou de fidélité territoriale. La création, après la deuxième guerre mondiale, de constitutions basées sur des modeles européens a permis le remplacement d'un système visant l'intégration des chefs traditionnels dans l'administration colonial par l'organisation d'un parti politique. Les dirigeants de ces organisations politiques constituent les symboles des changements politiques désirés, qui sont capables de canaliser ce désir et de l'exprimer par une action politique.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , July 1954 , pp. 220 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1954

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References

page 222 note 1 Lagos Annual Report, 1903, p. 43.

page 222 note 2 Perham, M., Native Administration in Nigeria, Oxford, 1937, p. 172.Google Scholar

page 223 note 1 Dt. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ibo by birth (1904), Student in Lagos and the U.S.A. until 1925; returned to Nigeria in 1937 and became a journalist, creating a chain of newspapers. Joined the Nigerian Youth Movement, but later resigned over policy, and became the leader of the National Congress of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), and the most important of the Ibo political leaders. A description of what is meant by ‘Zikism’ is given by Orizu, Nwafor, in Without Bitterness, New York, 1944, pp. 287–344.Google Scholar

page 223 note 2 Among these was H. O. Davies (born 1905), a student in Lagos and later in London; he was the manager of the C.M.S. bookshop in Lagos. He entered active politics at the foundation of the Nigerian Youth Movement, and was its secretary and its chairman. He returned to London to become a barrister in 1947. On his return he broke away from the Nigerian Youth Movement to create in 1950 the Nigerian People's Congress (on the lines of the British Labour Party). He was installed as chief in his home town in 1952.

page 223 note 3 The type of man who led these trade-unions can be illustrated from the life of H. P. Adebola (born 1916), a student of a Moslem school until he entered a Grammar School. He has been the secretary of the Railway Station Staff Union since 1945 and general secretary of the Nigerian Union of Railwaymen since 1946. He was elected to the Western House of Assembly on a NCNC party ticket.

page 223 note 4 Awolowo (born 1909) came of a small farming family and went to school at the local mission at Ijebu-Ode until he was 11. He then began to earn his living and was successively a clerk, journalist, and trade-union secretary. He came to London in 1944 and took the degrees of B.Com. and L.L.B., returning to Nigeria as a solicitor. He has been active in politics since the formation of the Nigerian Youth Movement and helped to create the Egbe Omo Odudutva of which he was the secretary. He later became the leader of the Action Group. It was in answer to the leadership of the Yoruba Action Group that Azikiwe reorganized the NCNC with a cadre of full-time organizers.

page 224 note 1 Lloyd, P. C., ‘Some comments ori the elections in Nigeria’, Journal of African Administration, vol. iv, no. 3, 1952, pp. 82–92.Google Scholar

page 224 note 2 Sir Adosoji Aderemi (born 1889), Oni of Ife, was a student at the local Ife Mission and became a railway clerk. After saving some money he resigned and went into business on his own. Was very successful and rose to a position of influence before he became Oni. He was given a C.M.G. in 1945 and a knighthood in 1950. He became a leading member of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa at its formation, and later became an Action Group leader. He is a member of many Government committees and a director of the Cocoa Control Board.

Chief Bode Thomas, Minister of Transport (born 1918), son of a wealthy Lagos trader, was a student at the C.M.S. Grammar School, Lagos, and later became a railway clerk. He came to London to become a barrister in 1939. On his return to Lagos he established one of the foremost legal firms of Nigeria. He became a leader of the Nigerian Youth Movement and was at one time its Federal Treasurer. He also became a leader of the Egbe Omo Oduduwa on its formation, and was one of the founders of the Action Group. He was given the title of Balogun of Oyo, and is also a Chancellor of the African Churches Association.

Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Minister of Labour (born 1910), was a student at the Ogbomosho Mission school. He became a teacher and later took up journalism. After the Second World War he went to Oxford to qualify as a barrister, and set up in practice in Lagos in 1949. He then entered politics and became the chairman of the Lagos branch of the Nigerian Youth Movement, and later joined the Action Group.

page 225 note 1 Ashanti Annual Report, 1908, p. 7.

page 225 note 2 Busia, K. A., The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti, London, 1951, pp. 215–16.Google Scholar

page 227 note 1 Colonial Office, Gold Coast 1951, H.M.S.O., 1952 pp. 105–6.Google Scholar

page 227 note 2 A leading example of the new type of political leader in Ashanti is Edusei Krobo (born 1919). He was educated at a government school and became a journalist in 1931. When the CPP was formed he became full-time Ashanti Region propaganda secretary, and was chairman of the boycott committee in Ashanti in 1948. He became a member of the central committee of the CPP, and was imprisoned for twelve months for ‘positive action’ in 1950. After his election he was appointed Government Chief Whip and Under-secretary to the Minister of Justice.

page 227 note 3 Report of the Select Committee of the Legislative Council appointed to make recommendations concerning Local Government in Ashanti, Accar, 1951, p. 10.

page 228 note 1 Le Hérissé, R., Voyage au Dahomey, Paris, 1903, pp. 108–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 228 note 2 Buell, R. L., The Native Problem in Africa, 2 vols., New York, 1928, vol. ii, p. 16Google Scholar, and vol. i, p. 109.

page 228 note 3 Among the best known of these journalists were the following two. J. M. Dorothe Lima (born 1885). Was a student at the local Catholic mission in Porto-Novo, and became a clerk in the Administration in 1914. He became a French citizen in 1916, and served in France until 1918. On his return to Dahomey he bought a printing-shop and began newspaper publishing. Jose Firmito Santos was a student at the local Catholic Mission of Agoue. He entered the Administration as a clerk and later also became a Municipal Councillor. He was the principal accused in the case against the newspaper La Voix du Dahomey, which was charged with stirring up the people against the Administration and of stealing official documents.

page 229 note 1 Sourou-Migan Apithy, born 1913 in Porto-Novo, where he studied at the local mission school; later went to France where he obtained diplomas in political science and accountancy; joined the French Socialist Party 1945–7, and the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA) 1947–8, and the Parliamentary Group of the Oversea Independents in 1948. He was elected to the French National Assembly in 1946, after having been a member of the Interim Assembly in 1945, and was re-elected in 1951. He is president of the Dahomean Territorial Assembly. He founded the Dahomean Republican Party in 1951. He is also secretary of the French National Assembly, and a judge of the High Court of Justice, and the director of the newspaper Ouest-Africain.

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