Harnesing Ghana’s Multi-Party Democracy through Traditional Governance

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue VII, July 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Harnesing Ghana’s Multi-Party Democracy through Traditional Governance

Dominic Alimbey Dery (PhD)
Department of Languages and Liberal Studies, Faculty of Applied Art, Tamale Technical University, Ghana

Abstract: – This paper explores the relationship between aspects of indigenous African political culture and the search for appropriate principles and practices for Africa and Ghana’s political future.The main thesis is that some political values of traditional Dagbon, Gonja and Bulsa societies are relevant to our contemporary lives and should, therefore, be adapted and integrated into strategies for better governance in the modern Ghanaian setting. I make this claim based on the premise that some features of traditional culture can play an important role in the search for enduring and workable solutions to Africa’s socio-political and economic problems. The study uses an ethnographic approach. A total number of thirty participants made up the study population, out of which fifteen were chiefs and the other fifteen were key informants /opinion leaders. Information was elicited from the former using semi-structured interviews while in the case of the latter, focus group approach was relied on. Despite some of the weaknesses of traditional governance, it has the characteristics that can serve as foundations in building culturally-relevant institutions of democratic governance in contemporary Africa and Ghana.

Key Words: Harnessing, multi-party democracy, traditional governance

I. INTRODUCTION

This study has become necessary because the current practice of multi-party democracy, has left Ghanaians deeply divided on party lines and has created lots of acrimony and insecurity. Elections years are normally as though the country is at war with itself. Insults become the order of the day, impunity on the part of party supporters and above all violence become the order of the day. This has led several well-meaning Ghanaians to propose a departure from the current multi-party democratic system.
The issue of governance is not a new phenomenon to African societies. Long before the introduction of the colonial project, African societies had on their own established a variety of political systems with corresponding politico-socio-economic institutions which catered for the allocation of resources, law- making, and social and political control.

Read More