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The chieftaincy institution in Ghana is a system that structures and regulates the activity of local chieftains in the Ghanaian society and state. This institution served as the governing structure of various societies in Ghana prior to European colonisation.
In pre-colonial times, chieftaincy leadership was the axis of executive, legislative and judicial powers. Since the colonial era, the institution has been linked to Ghanaian politics. Several governments - the colonial, civilian, or military - have attempted, in one way or another, to influence the role of chiefs in political affairs. [1] The legislation that underpins the chieftaincy institution in Ghana currently is Ghana's constitution [2] (chapter 270–277) and the chieftaincy act of 2008. [3]
The chiefs are divided by the act of leadership into 5 categories (as for authority): [4]
This popular hierarchy system informally divides chiefs between royalty and nobility, using the European comparative scale of equivalence: [5]
They are the monarchs proper, who prevailed before colonisation with sovereignty or complete autonomy (depending on the primacy). We can divide in:
The primary difference between the nobility and traditional royalty is the "stools" which the latter possess, that is, the thrones. Just as royal titles are very diverse and vary from ethnicity to ethnicity, so too are those of nobles, but when comparing them to the basic categories of the Western European standard we have:
A relatively new phenomenon has been observed in Ghana, as in other parts of Africa. Dynastic orders related to the royal chiefs and their lineages have begun to appear. [8] [ unreliable source? ] Some examples: