Tuesday 3 March 2015

USING ANY PRE-COLONIAL AFRICAN SYSTEM DISCUSS THE INTER-PLAY BETWEEN POLITICS AND LAW.



INTRODUCTION
As widely argued before colonialism, the African societies had a rich tradition of political, economic and social institutions that dealt with the allocation of resources, law-making and social control. Traditional institutions, which are still in operation in rural Africa are complex and vary from place to place. Therefore, before the advent of colonialism some parts of Africa had developed centralized systems of governance with chiefs and kings often times the power of these rulers were restricted by various arrangements, including the institution of councils. In other cases, such as Abyssinia and Rwanda, the rulers enjoyed more absolute power. In most of Africa, however, political tasks such as social control were not carried out solely by the state. Some of them were assigned to other organisations, based on other organizational principles, particularly to families, village communities, age sets and religious congregations. One of the characteristic that is commonly found among many of the decentralized African traditional institutions of governance is the consensual nature of decision making in the areas of resource allocation and law-making. The Igbo’s however operated a decentralized political system. Many institutions were put in place and political authority was shared among them. For example, the Ofo title holders [council of elders}, Ozo title holders, age grades etc were all involved in the power –sharing exercises.  No wonder the ‘’acephalous ‘’was ascribed to the political organization of the Igbo political system {Dibie 1999}.   Therefore, using the Igbo traditional system we clearly see the inter-play of politics and law, the structure of the Igbo political system.

CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION
In the context of this work some terms will be defined.
Politics                                                                                    
Harold Lasswell defined Politics “as governmental determination of who gets what, when and how”.
David Easton’s definition of politics “the authoritative allocation of values for society”.
Hans Morgenthau defined it as “the struggle for power”
The essence of such a society is that a group of people called the government are clothed with authority to make laws and enforce them; they claim obedience from the members of the society whom they govern. (Appadorai, 1968)
Law
According to Pound “the body of principles recognized or enforced by public and regular tribunals in the administration of justice”.
According to Green “the system of rights and obligations which the state enforces”.
According to Salmond “the body of principles recognized and applied by the state in the administration of justice”. (Appadorai, 1968)
A BACKGROUND OF THE IGBO ETHNIC GROUP
The Igbo appear to have settled in their present area thousands of years ago possibly from Egypt/Sudan. The origin of the Igbo people is still a subject of speculation and debate. To give some directions in the issue, we must look at Nigeria's oldest Kingdom, the Nri Kingdom as well as oral tradition (through sometimes fragmentary) and genetics and linguistics. Contemporary views in Igbo scholarship dismiss completely earlier claims of Jewish or Egyptian origin that is, "the Hamitic hypothesis “as "the oriental mirage." Instead, there are two current opinions as a result of evidence derived from several sources that take into account oral history, archaeology, linguistics, and art history. The Igbo, sometimes (especially formerly) referred to as the Ibo/Ebo, are an ethnic group in West Africa numbering in the tens of millions. Most Igbo people live in south-eastern Nigeria, which is one of the largest of the Nigeria's population they can also be found in significant numbers in neighbouring Cameroon and other African countries as well as in other countries outside of Africa. Their language is the Igbo language. The Igbo in Nigeria are found in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, as well as in Delta and Rivers States. The Igbo language is predominant throughout this area, although English (the national language) is also spoken. Prominent towns in Igbo country include Aba, Abiriba, Awka, Abba, Nigeria, Owerri, Orlu, Nnewi, Mbaise, Nsukka, Enugu, Onitsha, Afikpo, Okigwe, Umuahia, Asaba, Ohafia, Arochukwu,Ngwo, Mbaitoli, Ikeduru and Ihiala amongst others.
The Igbo believe in principal spirits of the sun (Anyanwu), the sky (Igwekaala) and thunder and lightning (Amadioha). There are numerous other deities related to rivers and streams, forests and sacred woods, agriculture, the days of the calendar which is structured around major and minor market days, the professions, and so on. Another principal Igbo deity is Njoku or Ajoku, guardian deity of the yam which in previous times was the major staple crop of the Igbo. In parts of Igbo land there are annual rituals in honor of the yam deity known as Ifejioku, and in other parts children who were dedicated to the service of the deity were named Njoku. As adults such children were expected to become prosperous yam farmers which made them into nobility. Among the Igbo each major deity has a priest in every town that honors it, and the priest is assisted by a group of acolytes and devotees. (Johnson, 1991)
As a result of the Igbo belief in super-natural powers, life after death and in spirits, oracles, juju priests and diviners influenced people’s moral and social behaviour by their sanctions judgements and predictions. Age grades also played very useful political role in the Igbo pre-colonial administration. (Johnson, 1991)
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE IGBO
The Family: the family was the basic unit of social organisation and administration among the Igbo during the pre-colonial period. Since age and sex influenced one’s position and role in Igbo society, the Igbo family was (and still is) patrilineal (a family relationship which is reckoned through the father or through the male alone). At the extended family, level, there was some kind of government with the head of the senior household called the “Okpara” at the center of administration. Although the “Okpara or elders played prominent roles in the administration of the society, they did not rule or administer the society alone. All decisions were in consultation with the various heads of the families. The Okpara who represented the unit with other extended family units also offered sacrifice on behalf of his extended family and ensured that things went well. He was also the keeper of the extended family’s Ofo which was the Igbo’s symbol of authority, good conduct, justice and link between the dead and the living. Matters which could not be settled by the Okpara at the extended family level which affected the whole lineage went to the head of the senior extended family or sub lineage or the assembly of the unit which was usually composed of adult male members and some cases with some prominent women.(Akindabe, 2008)
The Lineage Assembly: The lineage assembly was subordinate to the Village Assembly or Clan Assembly or Village group which was the highest level of political organisation. The assembly itself has an inner caucus or council which comprised of lineage heads called the “Ama-Ala or “Ndi Isi Ofo or the “council of elders” which usually met to resolve issues that could not be resolved by the Assembly and except in cases of emergencies, only representatives of the constituent villages attended the meetings in full consultations with their respective village members and decisions taken at such meetings were binding on all villages.(Akindabe, 2008)
Village Assembly: Another important political institution was the village assembly. The assembly which was the highest level of political organisation, made up of all adult male members of the village who participated fully in all village assembly debates or proceedings. The body could discuss any matter affecting the village and could summon the Council of Elders on any matter that was of interest to the people. There was freedom of expression at village meetings and final decisions must be unanimous. The assembly could bring the village to a halt if the Council of Elders was recalcitrant.(Akindabe, 2008)
The assembly more or less served as a check against the excesses of the Council of Elders. This demonstrated the democratic nature of the Igbo traditional political system. (Johnson, 1991)
Priest of the Village God: Each village had its own god and the god had a priest. The village priest was a traditional but significant institution. He interpreted spiritual events, pronounced sanctions on those who offended the gods and performed rituals. The village priest therefore wielded a great deal of power in the administration of the village.(Akindabe, 2008)
Ozo Title Holders: There were many secret societies and cults among the Igbos but there were stringent conditions for their membership. In the case of the “ozo” title membership was restricted to people of wealth and influence in the society. Though they were not traditional rulers, ozo titleholders played important roles in the administration of the village. They offered advice to the elders, settled family disputes and assisted in settling inter-village conflicts. The enormous powers conferred on Ozo titleholders whose only claim to the pre-eminent position was wealth indicated the importance attached to material success in the Igbo society.
Age Groups: The age groups or age grades played important roles in the Igbo traditional political system. An age group comprised all the male children who did their initiation around the same time. Being generally young, they provided free labour for the construction of public projects such as roads and markets, enforced decisions of the Council of Elders and served as the police and military force of the community. Besides, the age groups settled disputes among themselves, checked the behaviour of one another and summoned the family heads for important meetings.(Akindabe, 2008)

THE INTER-PLAY BETWEEN LAW AND POLITICS IN THE PRE-COLONIAL IGBO SOCIETY
Is law a creature of the political order? Does law also structure politics? What are then the relations between politics and law in the pre-colonial Igbo society?
The existence of a legal system causally depends upon political acceptance of a rule of recognition. It is logically inconceivable for a legal system to exist without an ultimate rule of recognition which is defined as one accepted by officials.
Effectiveness is a necessary condition for law. Effectiveness depends on a political order, which implies political agreement on the structure of the order. While the political order must be effective for the legal order to exist, it is the basic norm which provides a normative character to the political system.
The inter-play between politics and Law in the pre-colonial Igbo society could be seen in the various ways below;
Existence of a Decentralized Government: It should be noted that the idea of kingship was not universal in pre-colonial Igbo nation. Igbo’s never had a centralized government in the form of a king with a consolidated power, but they were law-abiding people long before the advent and spread of European influence. They had well-established norms of conduct and maintained numerous institutions for the express purpose of ensuring that laws were observed and that order and harmony were maintained.  Infringement of laws was dealt with by the Oha, under the direction of the elders, and this was the key to the success of the Igbos’ unique system of government.          
The Igbo communities which had kings, e.g Onitsha and Oguta, were actually groups who migrated from other places and settled among the Igbo. The Onitsha Igbo for example still trace their origin from the ancient kingdom of Benin. These resettled Igbo had their cultures which in no way serve as a source for tracing Igbo history. Even among the Onitsha or Oguta Igbo, the father in a household up to the present still holds authority of first disciplinary instance, and the kings never settled private matters. Similarly, the Nri migrated from Aguleri/Umuleri communities. Although its agents exercised religious functions of earth cleansing and sacrificial offering in cases of abominations among some Igbo, this role was exercised for a fee, and as migrants, they never wielded political authority over any Igbo group.
The Igbo society was a segmentary or stateless society. Like other stateless African societies such as the Nuer of Sudan, the Fang of Gabon, the Kikuyu of Kenya and the Bemba of the Central African Republic, the Igbo had no central political institution. Many accounts of Igbo society have described it as prototypical ‘stateless,’ ‘acephalous,’ or ‘segmentary,’ consisting of autonomous villages and village groups (obodo, ‘town’) ruled by ‘diffused’ authority without formalised, permanent, or hereditary leadership positions. (Akindabe, 2008)
Performance of Governmental Functions: The law of the land in the Igbo pre-colonial system was as important as fuel to a vehicle, because in the Igbo pre-colonial system they have to central government, but still yet the system was still been manage this was because the Igbo people strongly believes in the law of the law and abode by it. The Igbo’s are a segmentary and fragmentary people, because unlike other ethnic groups in Nigeria, they did not build any strong centralized state.
They were simply regarded as a Chief less people. The law made it in such a way that the village was the centre of government were final decisions were taken by Elders from every family in a form of Gerontocracy. All lineage including Males and Females adults in the village also participated in its political process. The age grade and titled societies where ‎ the major instrument of government.
Legislative Function: there was no legislature as such, but laws were made all the same. The following institutions took part in the law making process directly or indirectly, they include; the council of elders, the Village Assembly (it made laws especially during the second burial ceremonies), the Diviner (he handed down supernatural laws).
Executive Function: the principle instrument for village administration was the Council of Elders. Other institutions which assisted in managing the affairs of the village include the following; Family Heads, Age Groups.
Judicial Function: The judicial system of handling cases in pre-colonial Igbo land was informal.  The “court of original jurisdiction” was the “court of the father (husband) of a household”.  Justice was primarily a family affair.  The deviant acts of his wife or wives and children were dealt with exclusively by him.  If the rule violation was a victimization of any member of his family, he would convene a “court” hearing composed of his wives, older sons and daughters who would be there only to listen and witness his judgment aimed at specific and general deterrence.  The facts of the matter would be laid down.  The accused may call a witness or witnesses from within or outside the immediate family.  If he was found guilty of the offense, he was punished, most of the time, by corporal punishment or denial of a meal, a knock on the head or a slap on one cheek, depending on seriousness of the offense.  In cases of repeat persistence in serious offending, an overbearing father may rub some hot pepper by the eyes of the offender. The authority of the father was not questioned by anybody in his family, as patriarchy and patrilineal formed the order of authority and inheritance.  
The second level of “court” was the council of elders in the village.  Each village was made up of people who were united by ties of consanguinity.  The cases that reach the village or community council were inter-family civil or criminal victimizations.  Civil matters were settled amicably, but criminal victimization had double-barreled penalty.  The convicted offender had to pay back whatever he took away from the victim by restitution or compensation. For very serious offenses like burglary or robbery, the guilty offender had to be shamed before the community in the village market square by stripping him or her stark-naked and beating him/her as they parade him/her around the market square, and then leave him to go home. The trials are held in the village square, and are open to all members of the community who wishes to attend including children.
In cases of abominable hateful offenses like murder, an offender and his family may be permanently expelled from the community. If the offense is manslaughter; an unintentional murder, the resultant penalty would differ. The guilty person and all his family are required to go on exile for a given number of years after which they would be reconciled with the community. In either case, the offender’s home and all property are razed to the ground by the younger age grades in an effort to assuage the anger of the earth god against shedding the innocent blood of a kinsman.
The first “court of appeal” in pre-colonial Igbo judicial system was the diviner.  He was consulted when there were doubts about the identity of the offender.  The council of elders could submit suspects to the diviner.  The diviner, after some incantations, would tell his consultants the person who committed the offense.  The elders would take the offender home and apply an appropriate punishment.  Some diviners could use trial by ordeal to reach their conclusions.
The highest “court of appeal” in Igbo judicial system, in pre-colonial times, was the “oracle” (Uchendu, 1965).  The most famous oracles in traditional Igbo land were the Agbala of Awka, the Igwe-ka-Ala of Umunoha, the Kamalu of Ozuzu, the Ibini ukpabe of Aro-Chukwu (the “Long Juju”), the Mkpokiti abirikete of Umunze, and the Haba of Agulu.  The common characteristics of the oracles and their operations were shrouded in a strict code of secrecy and an institutionalized intelligence service.  They were consulted from far and wide throughout Igbo land.  The oracle was believed to be a lesser god with supernatural powers and was capable of connecting with the transcendental realm to get answers to questions of its consultants.  Its verdict, in all cases, was not questioned.  The oracle’s consultants could be two individuals in a conflict.  They could decide to ignore the decision of a council of elders and consult the oracle.  Sometimes a council of elders could recommend that an oracle be consulted and decide which oracle should be consulted.  From the Igbo pre-colonial times to 1902 when it was destroyed by the British forces in the now infamous Aro Expedition of 1901-1902 (Ikime, 1977), the Ibini ukpabe of Aro Chukwu – the “Long Juju”, was the most famous of all Igbo oracles.  Similarly, all of the oracles were driven into obsolescence either by colonial conquest or Christianity and colonial laws of the early 1900s.
Republicanism and the Absence of Monarchical or Central Political Structures: The law of the land in the pre-colonial system made it possible for the practice of republicanism and the absence of monarchical or central political structures among them as a group. Igbo contempt for monarchies is conspicuously embedded in the popular saying and common name, Igboamaeze; the Igbo recognize no kings. This is so because the Igbo believe that there is a king in every man, in other words that each person is a king unto themselves and master of their own affairs and the law made it possible that it was base on the hereditary i.e. as the eldest son of the family. Each Igbo community or clan is organized around age groups, social organizations, the revered and accomplished and family heads with a special place for the priest. Deference is paid to the eldest man in the clan, but each grown man has a say in the affairs of the community. Issues that affect the clan are publicly tabled and discussed and the opinion of each grown man is taken into consideration in order to reach consensus. Affairs that particularly affect women are discussed in women groups and accordingly decided and settled. In every community, the daughters of the clan or Umuada (also known as Umumgboto) occupy a particularly powerful place and could return from their different places of marriage to exercise the breaking vote in matters of grave consequence to the community. Individuals are accorded special rights in their maternal clan and may return to their mother's home town when threatened or banished from their own home towns.
Quasi-Democratic Republican System of Government: The law of the land have made the Traditional Igbo political organization to be based on a quasi-democratic republican system of government. In tight knit communities, this system guaranteed its citizens equality, as opposed to a feudalist system with a king ruling over subjects. This government system was witnessed by the Portuguese who first arrived and met with the Igbo people in the 15th century. With the exception of a few notable Igbo towns such as Onitsha, which had kings called Obi, and places like the Nri Kingdom and Arochukwu, which had priest kings; Igbo communities and area governments were overwhelmingly ruled solely by a republican consultative assembly of the common people. Communities were usually governed and administered by a council of elders.
Created Classes And Disposal System Disposal Mechanisms: In principle, the law and norms of the land in the pre-colonial Igbo land made way for three classes of people – the Freeborns (Nwa-afo or Diala), the Slaves (Ohu), and the Outcastes or ritual Slaves (Osu).  Also the concept of crime was not applied.  Instead, there were two types of offenses: abominations (public offenses), otherwise called aru, or something the Earth abhors, and delicts called mmehie (private offenses).   The law also made people who committed an abomination such as the murder of one’s parents, brother, sister or kinsman; incest, a son having sexual coitus with one’s sister or one of his father’s wives when his father is still alive; killing or eating a domestic animal dedicated to the gods; or any other offense against the gods, may be dedicated to the shrine of a god, and they became osu (outcasts or untouchables).  With some other Igbo groups, people fleeing persecution may take asylum by pledging their servitude to oracles, thereby, voluntarily inheriting the ritual slave status (osu) in exchange for “safety.” Mmehie offenses such as burglary, robbery, stealing, etc., were disposed of, not by imprisonment, but by shaming, restitution, a fine, compensation, a communion feast, or sale into slavery (for a persistent recalcitrant).
The Law Did Not Provide For Any System Of Imprisonment:  When an abomination was committed, the sending of the offender to a perpetual exile may be accompanied with dedicating him or her to a god.  Where an offense such as murder was inadvertently committed, an offender is sent to exile for a given length of time (Achebe, 1959). The length of time varies among different Igbo groups. The whole community shared a sense of guilt for his crime, which must be sanctified.  The entire community had to offer a communal sacrifice to propitiate the gods, so that the anger of the gods would not fall upon the entire community. 
The Igbo Religion And Law Are Intertwined: there were pieces of lands, rivers, trees, forests, and some week days that were defined as sacred.  For the sacred pieces of land, there are days of the week that nobody should farm or work on them.  It was a taboo for anyone to catch and eat fish from a sacred river.  It was forbidden for anybody to cut down a sacred tree such as uboldia (umune or ogirishi) among some Igbo.  Sacred forests and caves were the location of the Holy Shrine of the People, the home of their god.  Only the priest or priestess consecrated to the Holy Shrine was allowed to enter the forest or caves, which was where he/she lives.  Any special prayer or sacrifice to the gods through the Holy Shrine must be made through the priest or priestess who was dedicated to the god of the Holy Shrine.  
The Law Of The Land  Provided Punishment For Defaulters: Most communities had certain days, in the four-day Igbo week, when nobody was allowed to work on a particular piece of land.  If anybody violated any of the above sacred rules, he or she must provide a fowl, sheep, goat, ram, or cow, kolanut, and other items to the community to offer a sacrifice to the desecrated or violated entity to appease the gods.  The sacrifice could be accompanied by reprimand and other sanctions.  Any refusal by the offender to provide the sacrificial items could lead to his total excommunication from the community, which was the severest punishment.  A person excommunicated in pre-colonial Igbo land was lost in a crowd, because if his/her fire went out in his/her kitchen, he/she wouldn’t go to his/her neighbours to get another. It is also believed that in death, he would neither be able to transmigrate nor reincarnate.  In fact, it is the fear of communal sanction, the thought of non-reincarnation, and no transmigration after death which keeps members behavior in check.
Offender Disposal: Unlike the Hausa pre colonial system ,that which their punishment include  cutting off the hand or  the head of the offenders which  is gotten from the Sharia law book which is an imported law from other Muslim society outside Nigeria . The Igbo pre colonial system because of the source of their law, the types of punishment meted to offenders was unique in pre-colonial Igbo justice system.  The goal of punishment was reintegration of the offender into the consanguineous collectivity for as long as the offense was not an abomination. Thus, the pre-colonial Igbo system of offender disposal is aimed at tertiary prevention which involved incapacitation of the offender by excommunication, expulsion from the community, and public ridicule or shaming of the offender, which is effective in both specific and general deterrence. The reconciliatory justice and offender disposal system also aims at assuaging pent-up animosity, separating combatants, and allowing enough time to calm agitated tempers (Jell-Bahlsen, 1988; Ebbe, 2003b). 
How Crime was  Prevented In The Igbo Pre-Colonial System Using The Instrument Of law and culture of the Igbo people
From birth, the Igbo’s begin to teach their children the dos and don’ts in Igbo land; the taboos, abominations, sacred and profane, sacrilege, and the importance of honour and dignity, respect for elders, women and older siblings.  Throughout the Igbo communities, social control was informal but efficient.  There was no central government to provide for police SO There was no formalized police system in modern sense of the words.           
In pre-colonial Igbo land, every head of a household provided physical security for all members of the household through environmental designs in form of architectural design of residences, wooden fence barriers and masonry barriers (walls of mud, bricks or stones).  The fences or masonry walls could be circular or rectangular surrounding all residential and non-residential buildings in the compound (Ebbe, 2003b).  There was usually only one major door or gate for exit and entrance to the compound. 
CONCLUSION
The law of the land in the Igbo pre-colonial system was as important as a fuel to a vehicle, because in the Igbo pre-colonial system they have no central government, but still the system was still been managed; this was because the Igbo people strongly believes in the law and abode by it.  Also the Igbo pre-colonial system was so unique that the power started from the grass root level that is the family. There was no such central power, that was bestowed on the Caliphate, emir, sultan and Alafin found in the Hausa/ Fulani or the Yoruba pre colonial system. This central system helps them to manipulate the law or had the power to make law for the entire society. But in the Igbo system the people believed in their culture and respected their family head and clans. This is because The strongly  Igbo  believe in principal spirits of the sun (Anyanwu), the sky (Igwekaala) and thunder and lightning (Amadioha) and they try to pass this to their generation.

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