Traditional leadership is a factor that has long been overlooked in evaluations of rural local government in much of contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa. Grassroots Governance?, an interdisciplinary and intercontinental collection, addresses this gap in African scholarship and brings new perspectives on the integration, or reconciliation, of traditional leadership with democratic systems of local government. Articles from the fields of political science, law, postcolonial studies, anthropology, cultural studies, and policy and administrative studies establish a baseline for best practice in Africa and the Afro-Caribbean while taking into account the importance of traditional leadership to the culture of local governance. Case studies are drawn from Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, and Commonwealth countries in West, East, and Southern Africa, as well as Jamaica.

With Contributions By: B.B. Biyela Charles Crothers Lungisile Ntsebeza Christiane Owusu-Sarbong Donald I. Ray P.S. Reddy Keshav C. Sharma Robert Thorton Carl Wright Werner Zips

Donald Ray teaches comparative politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary. He is the International Coordinator of the Traditional Authority Applied Research Network (TAARN). He has published extensively on the topics of African politics, state-chief relations in Africa, the politics and policies of development, and political responses to change.

Donald I. Ray's profile page

P.S. Reddy is a professor in the School of Governance, University of Durban-Westville, Durban, South Africa. He is currently the project director of the Working Group on Local Governance and Development of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), headquartered in Brussels.

P.S. Reddy's profile page

P.S. Reddy is a professor in the School of Governance, University of Durban-Westville, Durban, South Africa. He is currently the project director of the Working Group on Local Governance and Development of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), headquartered in Brussels.

Christiane Owusu-Sarbong's profile page

P.S. Reddy is a professor in the School of Governance, University of Durban-Westville, Durban, South Africa. He is currently the project director of the Working Group on Local Governance and Development of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), headquartered in Brussels.

Charles Crothers' profile page

P.S. Reddy is a professor in the School of Governance, University of Durban-Westville, Durban, South Africa. He is currently the project director of the Working Group on Local Governance and Development of the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA), headquartered in Brussels.

Robert Thorton's profile page

Lungisile Ntsebeza's profile page

Werner Zips' profile page

Keshav C. Sharma's profile page

B.B. Biyela's profile page

Carl Wright's profile page