The impact of state law on custom and leadership in a post-colonial state : a legal historical case study of centralised Wa and acephalous Chakali in northern Ghana

• Main Author: Daannaa, Henry Seidu
• Published: London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) 1992
• Subjects: 320.4667
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.580305

This dissertation is based on my research into two different types of societies located in the Republic of Ghana in West Africa. These societies are: Wa, a centralised society of identifiable groups; and, Chakali, an acephalous society of autonomous village groupings. My eight part text covers the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial experiences of Wa and Chakali. I argue in the thesis that, in a post-colonial state, the machinery of State Law should control the customary institutions of leadership in the country. My reasons for saying this include: 1) that the customary institutions of authority in the post-colonial state are the remnants of indigenous institutions which were trimmed to suit the needs of the Colonial Administration during the colonial period, and which therefore, consequently lost part of their traditional validity; 2) in the thesis it is proven that these institutions for minority societies in the post-colonial state are often imposed practices only brought on them through colonial law and policy during the colonial period; 3) I conclude that in a post colonial state the state must, where national interests are at issue, intervene actively, by law, in all customary forms of leadership which bear the semblance of colonial legacies.