Kyed, Helene Maria, and Lars Buur."Introduction: Traditional authority and democratization in Africa." In State Recognition and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa, pp. 1-28. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2007.

The authors explore the factors accounting for the convergence between formal recognition of traditional authority and democratization in Africa. The authors argue that the current ambiguous nature of the relationship between traditional leaders and postcolonial states can be traced to the nature of colonial systems of governance (direct and indirect rule) which incorporated traditional leaders as an extension of colonial regimes to enable them extract human and natural resources. The authors also argue that the renewed interest in traditional authority arose from the 1990s. They attribute this to tradition’s contact with modernization. Subsequently the institution has also found new ways of asserting their relevance by carrying out some state functions within the local political settings, such as dispensing informal justice and community policing to mention a few. This can be viewed as competition with the modern state whilst others view their role as complementing the state at places out of its reach. The authors conclude that traditional authority remains the main expression of indigenous cultural, social and political expressions for many African societies, Therefore, there is the need for the modern state to recognize and incorporate them in order to gain control of its citizenry as this can provide stability and improve governance and development most especially with respect to decentralizing its policies.