Traditional Governance and Democracy

Indigenous governance has no written “rules.”  Governance was sustained through proverbs/poems/songs that kept the information about how the people were best governed as the traditional chiefs organized community life.

WIACT will document the policies of traditional governance historically and in contemporary life, and collect/translate the proverbs/poems addressing governance.  We will compare traditional governance ideas to modern democracy and find the correspondences.

And we can provide visiting volunteers and cultural tour participants with opportunities to see traditional chiefs in action….settling community disputes and presiding over festivals and events.

traditionalgovernance

indigenous governance

indigenous4

*Dispute Resolution
*Organizing Village Life *Succession Models
*Training to Be Chiefs

indigenous1
indigenous3
indigenous2
indigenous4
indigenous5

If you want to help during your visit to Savannah region, here are our planned projects:

•  Interview chiefs about the issues that community members bring to them for resolution

•  Record chiefs telling the proverbs they have used in working to resolve disputes

•  Document succession rules of Savannah-region tribes

•  Record a community meeting with the Paramount Chief presiding

•  Log the number of visits of community members to traditional chiefs over a month

•  Collect qualitative data about succession rules and succession histories/disputes

•  Document the role of women in traditional governance systems

WE WELCOME VOLUNTEERS INTERESTED IN THESE TOPICS, INCLUDING UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS, so send us an email explaining your interests to: visitwiact@gmail.com