Study On The Chieftaincy Institution Of Yoruba In Nigeria

The chieftaincy institution is one of the most important and fundamental system of the traditional political system in the African continent. It has played a crucial role in its historical development. Even in today’s political life of African countries, this ancient and traditional chieftaincy institution still has extensive and complex effects. That is to say if someone don’t understand Africa’s chieftaincy institution, it is difficult for him to understand the history and current situation of Africa. Since the beginning of the colonial period, European scholars and businessmen began to study on the Africa’s chieftaincy institution. After the Second World War, with the continuous independent of the nation-states in Africa, African scholars have done a lot of research on the chieftaincy institution. Chinese scholars have been primarily involved in this field, but overall the breadth and depth of the research is not enough, especially lack of case study and empirical research.This paper selects Yoruba, which is the important ethnic group in southwestern of Nigeria country, as a case. Based on the abroad study in Nigeria, the author made a monographic study of Yoruba chieftain system from the different perspectives of the history, theory, and empirical research. In this paper, by taking the course of history as clues, the author will give a description and analysis of the Yoruba chieftaincy institution from three stages:the religion, politics, justice, land and military system of Nigerian Yoruba chieftaincy institution in the pre-colonial period; The transformation of the chieftaincy institution in Britain colonial period; The transformation of the traditional chieftaincy institution and the problems under the control of successive governments of Nigerian in the post-independence period. By putting the Yoruba chieftaincy institution into the framework of African history and using a long period of time history analysis method and political change perspective, this paper analyzes the connotation and transition of Yoruba chieftaincy institution, and then investigates the historical change of Yoruba chieftaincy institution and its role and functions.The research on the Yoruba chieftaincy institution has shown that:First of all, the Yoruba chieftaincy institution of the pre-colonial period is the transition product of the clan society to the early class society. It is a kind of "ancient feudal" political system developed based on the consanguinity relationship. It belongs to the "centralized" political structure of chieftaincy institution. The political structure of Yoruba chieftaincy institution is mainly divided into three levels:city-state leaders, urban district leaders and patriarchal family or village community leader. All level chiefs are the power owner of religion, politics, justice, land and military, so as to manage the effective operation of the society. Secondly, the transformation of the chieftaincy institution in Britain colonial period gradually broke the independent state of the branches between the Yoruba ethnic groups. At the same time, the British colonists use the form of the constitution to bring the chief into the modern national political system. Thirdly, in the post-independence period Nigeria successive governments embarked on the further transformation of chieftaincy institution, trying to weaken the power of the chiefs, strengthen the centralized power, and then construct the perfect modern government management system. But the serious political, economic and other objective reality makes the chiefs still maintain larger political and economic influence in the local affairs.From Nigeria’s domestic political and economic realities, in its modern political development, the conflict between traditional chiefs and modern political elites will still exist for a long time. But with the development of economy and improvement of the modern government step by step, I believe that modern government will gradually integrate traditional chiefs into the modern national political system, so that the chiefs can play their unique positive social role to serve the country and the people. Therefore, the Nigerian National Government will really develop into effective governance and management institutions.