, ARTICLES MODERN IZAT ION AND HHm by J. Ayo Lang ley" Modernization and its malcontents or rather, critics - this is the general area of concern in this paper. Our main Interest centres on one of the most original and uncompromising of the critics. William Essuman-Gwira Sekyi (popularly known as Kobina Sekyi), a radical conservative (or conservative radi- cal?) Ghanaian nationalist who condemned not modernization whose benefits he praised and highlighted, but the particular character which that process assumed In his own country during the colonial era and up to the eve of Independence. He would have preached the doctrines which he so consistently preached between 1912 and 1956 had he lived to see an Independent Ghana. In fact he had always warned the new political class represented by Danquah and Nkrumah, of the dangers of copying foreign political Institutions and Ideas, and of the problems of nation-building as early as the 1940s. The enduring significance of the man for African political thought and practice is Illustrated by the fact that as late as February 1969, after all the post-mortems and 'what went wrong in Ghana1 lectures and broadcasts, opinion-makers of post-Nkrumah Ghana saw fit to reprint an article Sekyi had written in 1950 entitled MThe best constitutions are born pot made" in the £ajjj^__£ra£hj£, with the. caption: "A look at an historic docu- ment", warning Ghanaians on the eve of the return to civilian rule that the mere existence of a Western style constitution was no guarantee of stability and freedom. Sekyi was an ideologue, so It Is In the context of African ideological history that he has to be seen, i.e. in the tradition of Norton, Blydens Sarbah, Casely-Hayford and even Kenyatta, although his criticism of colonialism, his analysis of the traditional African polity and his theory of what form the modern African state should take, as well as his theory of Pan-Afrlean ism, differs radically and sub- Dr. J. Ayo Langley is a Lecturer at Studies, University of Edinburgh. the Centre of African ARTICLES 2. stantlally from the former. My hope Is that this preliminary exercise will Interest students of African history and also those who concern themselves with Ideology and social change in modernizing societies. It must be noted, however, that Sekyi, in spite of his uniqueness, was among the majority of African Ideologues for whom tradition - the Inherited values of the remarkably durable Akan social system - played a role at least, equally as decisive as Western Ideas in shaping att I tudes towards modern Izat ion, I i Very few political scientists took any notice when Harold Lasswel1 wrote In 1935 that "political symbols and practices are so intimately Intertwined with the larger array of symbols and practices In culture that it is necessary to extend the scope of political Investigation to Include the fundamental features of the culture sett Ing".2 Today, as Heinz Eulan has pointed out-* Lasswel!'s early work has assumed great significance in political science, ft has had great impact on the development of psychological and sociological approaches to politics, and students of political behaviour in the West (and hopefully, In underdeveloped countries) have come to appreciate that purely forma! and legalistic concept- ual frameworks are Inadequate to provide meaningful answers to such problems as socialization, political integration, per- sistence and change, and the complex bases of political autho- rity and legitimacy. Indeed, the very notion of the political system has recently undergone a profound re-appraisal. 1 refer to David Barton's writings, part icul arly System, to which I shall return later., ^ There Is a lot of talk nowadays about African political thought, as If this is a new thing. But as Professor Shepper- son has pointed out as early as 1§6^» "African political thought Is as old as human society in Africa. To believe otherwise is to presume that pre-1 Iterate peoples cannot ARTICLES 3. themes think politically or that, in spite of constant repetitions of Aristotle's dictum, man is no political animal. Such truisms ought to be constantly in mind,.,,.., otherwise it may too easily appear that, either in systematic or unsystematic forms.., political thinking amongst the indigenous inhabitants of Africa south of the Sahara is nothing more than a by-product of Europe- Anthropolo- an influences and the introduction of writing".^ gists, of course, have added to our knowledge of African poli- tical institutions, notably Fortes and Evans-Pritchard in African Political Systems, Nadel in Black Byzantium and Smith in Government in Zazzau, historians and political scientists have also written on certain themes in African political think- ing and have related these themes to political concepts derived from the West.-' Recently Robert July has assembled an array of African political writing in his Origins of Modern African Thought, but none of these coinmentar ies has dealt with any single African political thinker or ideologue with a systematic theory of politics, law or Pan-Africanism. Nowhere is any attempt made to show the existence of an African theory of political develop- ment written by an African without reference to Western political concepts. Instead (and this includes the writings of Nkrumah, Senghor and Nyerere) the assumption has always been that a writ- ten and systematic, ontologica!ly grounded African political theory comparable to Western political theory, does not exist. It could only exist because of Western influences, or so it is argued. For example, Herbert Spiro, writing in 1967, asserted: "There is, however, a special difficulty in getting African interpretations on African events that have a reasonably high theoretical content. The reason is twofold: Africa's lack, until now, of a separate estate, caste, or profession of poli- tical philosophers, and f:he fact that, with few exceptions like Nkrumah and Senghor, few African politicians have had the time or inclination to write about political problems in a systematic and disciplined way".^ Spiro is, of course, referring to con- temporary African politicians and 'political philosophers1; the former, he says, are "comparatively unideological and untheoretic", while the latter, trained in the West, may be so mesmerised by Western political theory that they may "over intellectualize or overideologize the operationally relevant thought of African politicians".'7 Some of these African scholars, notably AH Mazrui, seem to be too pre-occupied with the 'impact' of West- ern political theory on African political thought. They would have us believe that Africans would not have held different ARTICLES k. Even when token acknowledgments are made political notions and practices had It not been for the 'Europe- an stimulation1," to the 'originality' of pre-colonial African political systems, the assumption seems to be that the ideas and symbols of these systems should not be accorded the status of political theory Jsecjause there is an absence, or there is deemed to be an absence in these ideas of Western political concepts like State, Sovereignty, Law, Nation etc. Moreover, since the main interest of political scientists seems to lie in the study of current African ideology and the politics of modernization, it is usually implied that traditional African political systems and ideas are either Irrelevant to the problems of nation-building and modern- ization or are obstacles to nation-building. In assuming this, they immediately postulate the now much criticised tradition- modernity dichotomy In the modernization process, A good example of this type of approach to the study of African ideology is to be found in Harvey Glickman's paper-* where he asserts that in Africa "often major ideological statements are circumstantially oriented rather than premeditated; African political theory is still in the era of the pamphlet, not the book,., A major dilem- ma confronting those involved in the construction of ideology in Africa concerns the somewhat contradictory nature of the job. If the inhabitants of a territory are to develop citizenship ties to the state, the emergent civic culture must reflect some part of their social experiences^ i.e. their traditions. Yet the residues of traditional culture pose serious obstacles to the creation of attitudes conducive to the growth of modern institutions,. face towards tradition It must act as an agency of modernization. The paradox in this is fhat political modernization aims toward the construction of a democratic state; yet to encourage demo- cracy, to solicit popular participation in public affairs, leaders must invoke attitudes still embedded in traditional loyalties and outlooks", Glickman further asserts that; the handful of African political theorists get round this "paradox" by denying the existence of social conflicts and postulating the inherently democratic and egalitarian nature of traditional African polities. The point is Glickman and many others like him, expect an elaborate discussion of the "classic questions of political theory" (as they understand them)10 in these theorists, and when they cannot find them mutter something about African ideology or political theory being "eclectic" or !lc Ircumstant ial 1 y oriented" or "emergent11. Some. like At the same time as an African ideology must ARTICLES 5. Glickman cannot decide whether to approach Nyerere as a politi- cal theorist or as a ideologue so that when Nyerere asserts that Africa practised democracy and socialism before the coming of the Europeans they turn round and accuse him of evading con- ceptual difficulties.' Yet others like the anthropologist W,J. Argyle bustle about as judges condemning here, giving absolution there, recommending what African ideology jshojjjjd be and resolu- tely denying African ideologues, particularly West African ideo- logues, who are Dr. Argyle's j^2t_es. ££J_rs_, the privilege of theo- rising about what goals their societies ought to pursue. The reason they give is that socialism and centralized planning are bad for Africa and ideology is the business of "professional students of society11.1'' Since when, may 1 ask, have ideologies been formulated by "professional students of society"? I raise these problems, not so much to solve them as to illustrate the muddled thinking that has characterised the study of African political thought and the undeveloped state of the discipl ine. A few of the commentators with more facile pens have even rea- ched the stage where*- they are now theorising about miniskirts and nudity in African politics.' Very soon, we may well be the influence of the Holy Ghost on African politics, hear ing about encouraged in this preliminary attempt at an I am, however history" of a pre-colonial African society by "intellectual as David Easton'^ and in particular by Thomas scholars such Hodgkin who has rightly argued that "it is important at the outset to avoid using the kind of conceptual framework which distinguishes sharply between the 'traditional1 values of pre-colonial African societies - or of such contemporary societies as appear to have been relatively little affected by what we call 'Western' institutions and ideas - and the 'modern' values of societies which have been exposed to a marked degree to 'Western' influences. Given such an approach, an idea such as that of 'freedom' is usually included in the latter category. It is thus regarded as a 'Western importation'; and the image is created of a small minority of 'Western-edu- cated1 African intellectuals and politicians making use of con- cepts which have been borrowed, in varying modes and proportions, from Locke and Rousseau, Mazzint and Marx, and which are then diffused among their supporters. If this were indeed the case, the study of African political ideas would be extremely boring, since what we would be concerned with would be simply the re- flections of 'Western' ideas in African thought and activity. But the image, fortunately, bears little relation to reality".'' ,12 ARTICLES In discussing the possibility of tracing the evolution of con- cepts like "freedom" in colonial and pre-colonial Africa Hodgkin acknowledges the lack of accessible data to make such an opera- tion feasible, and concludes, significantly for this seminar: "It is only fairly recently that African pre-colonial history - in the limited sense, that is, of the history of the states and peoples of sub-Saharan Africa - has begun to be taken seriously. Within this very wide field what might be called 'Intellectual history1 has not yet attracted much attention. Social anthro- pologists have been more interested in the values of African societies than those working in other disciplines. But their findings, for the most part - except In the case of those who have been willing to function as historians - are only indirect- ly relevant to the study of pre-colonial societies. Such work as has been done on the rise of national movements during the present century has been more, concerned with historical roots and forms of organisation than with ideas. Moreover, any adequate discussion of what, within a given African national movement, is meant by a term such as 'freedom' or 'iiberte1 clearly involves a thorough understanding of its African equiva- lents, and the range of contexts in which they occur. But few linguists or philosophers have as yet turned their attention to the study of African political language". The Ghanaian philosopher, Willie Abraham, has dealt partially with the question raised by Hodgkin in T^e_JijjTd_j3f Afr ica. In this paper I wish to draw attention to a twentieth century Ghanaian philosopher, William Essuman-Gwira Sekyi, Kobina Sekyl, (1892-1956) who addressed himself to the question of ideology, and political development long before independence, and many of whose ideas can be said to have preshadowed the current concern with nation building. It is argued here, that Sekyf's challenge to the accepted, and essentially Bodinlan- Hobbesian and Austinian doctrines of law, sovereignty and nationhood (as defined and practised In Europe and in the colonial semi-state) remarkably presages Harold Lasswell's warning to heed the relevance of culture patterns to political processes, but also some of the themes that are discussed in contemporary socio-political theorizing about the new states of Africa. ft seems to me remarkable that after studying Sekyi's legal and political writings which extend between 191^ and 195*1, one should come across modern political anthropolo- gists stating almost exactly what Sekyi had argued and advocated ARTICLES 7. before the coming of the new science of development. Lloyd Fallers, for example, suggested as recently as 3963 that "a primary task for political anthropology in the future is the detailed study of the ways in which the old societies, which must now be conceptualized as local ethnic units within the new national societies, relate to these new political insti- tutions. Broadly speaking, it would appear that the tradition- al polities which fn the colonial period were made to funct- ion.,., as primarily administrative units, in the period of independence, are coming to function primarily as political units".'5 yet another anthropologist, aHdressing himself to contemporary problems of nation-building has observed that "one of the problems involved in the creation and federation of new states is essentially that of converting a political system of relations between once sovereign peoples within its , boundaries into a more comprehensive political organization". Sekyi, in his criticism of colonial overrule, and in his search for an indigenous and viable political system that would re- place the colonial administration, arrived at a similar con- clusion, but from a typically Sekyian viewpoint. He adorned his outline of a polity for a self-governing and independent Ghana with a traditionalist ideology and an ethical system emphasising identity and loyalty which was based on the Akan social system. In this he was not making an entirely new departure: he was in a very real sense, resurrecting, re- stating, strengthening and providing an ethical basis for, the Asante Union and the Fanti Confederation, particularly the latter whose architects included nationalists like J.A.B. Norton, Brew, Sarbah etc. - Ghana's first modernizers who consciously tried to model their new polity on the principles of the Meiji Reformation in Japan'7 in order to create what, had it not been suppressed by the British administration'" would have developed into a remarkably modern traditional polity in Africa, with the ability to preserve and a willing- ness to reform. Sekyi!s political and ethical ideas, as we shall see, are rather similar, particularly his philosophy of loyalty, his theory of political obligations his views on the instrumental nature of family upbringing and education, and in his conservatism, to the Japanese Kokutai No Hongi or Cardinal Principles of the National Entity of Japan which ensured that "religion and education, community and family, found their natural and practical expression in the state, which could therefore contemplate change while continuing to ARTICLES 8. hold the loyalties of its members", and that "the primacy of political values and the emphasis on the polity allowed modifi- cation In social institutions, particularly economic ones, without dramatically rupturing the values and social beliefs of the Japanese".19 IV. It is important to ideology and the Colonial Situation: emphasise that Sekyi was both a conservative and a modernizer. His organizational base was the old Fanti Confederation and the Aborigines Rights Protection Society.^0 intellectually and socially he can be identified with the intelligentsia which spearheaded these movements. Family ties and personal friendship (he was the nephew of H. Van He in, successful Gold Coast merchant, lawyer and one of the leaders of the National Congress of British West Africa, step-son of the Rev. S.R.B. Attoh-Ahuma, author of Memoirs of West African Celebrities and The Gold Coast Nation and National Consciousness, grandson of Chief Kofi Sekyi, a distant relative of J. Mensah Sarbah, as well as an admirer of S. Brew whom he met during his student days in London, while the latter was in retirement in England, as well as his being a Fanti and Cape Coast intellectual, deep- ly influenced his conservative ideology. But important as these factors are, they do not fully explain the making of an ideologist and his intellectual confrontation with the political and ethical problems posed by the colonial transition. Sekyi's re-statement of traditional political thought was the product of an agonising search for Identity by a young Anglo-Fanti in a period of cultural crisis, a search in which the quest for per- sonal salvation could only be achieved in a scheme for national salvation by galvanizing the political corpse of the traditional political system whose values and institutions had been distor- ted or rendered ineffective by the economic, legal, religious and political forces of the colonial system. His solution was to reclaim the sovereignty of the Gold Coast, based on the Bond of J844 (which he rather naively accused the British of usurping), then answer charges of unpreparedness for self-government by bringing all the states of the Gold Coast into a federation on the lines of the Fanti Confederation of the 1860s, with a King/ President elected by the Executive of the G.C.A.R.P.S., stren- ARTICLES 9. gthen the traditional authority of Kings and Chiefs, resurrect traditional concepts of duty and social obligation, and African- ise the educational system to arrest the individualism and de- bilitating effects of excessive Westernization. In short, he was particularly concerned with the basic question: how to Westernize without being Westernized; how to preserve while modernizing.21 Just as contemporary problems of modernization have their roots in the colonial situation, so did Sekyi's cultural crisis. Georges Balandier has provided a useful de- finition of the colonial situation^ which is of particular interest here in that it enables us to understand Sekyi's re- action and the significance of that reaction for the study of nationalist ideology and political development. Colonialism, says Balandier, imposes on subject peoples a very peculiar type of situation which not only conditioned the reactions but is of great contemporary significance. Colonialism in the first place shattered the isolation of subject peoples and provided itself with an ideology justifying its spurious "role". It established its own administrative and economic systems to guarantee the "colonial peace", and made the colonial enterprise economically profitable. Political control is achieved by power imperialism and economic control by compromising the native aristocracy, encouraging population movements to serve the exigencies of the colonial economy and by alteration to or transformation of custo- mary !awss particularly laws relating to land and resources. In short, colonialism literally became "an act of social surgery" resulting in social and cultural crisis. Reactions to this crisis varied: the "closed societies" of Far Eastern peoples opposed these intrusions' in spite of outward appearances of Westernization; relations between the colonising Power and Islamic societies remained tense, with the latter exhibiting a sense of superiority and a "veiled and silent" hostility; and, of course, the Africans were said to be ready imitators who lacked confidence in the resources of their past. inter- nal ly, colonialism took the form of a "crude sociological experiment" with traditional society - colonial administocracy experiments with, modifies or destroys traditional political and legal systems and patterns of authority. The superiority of the white race is taken as given as well as the unfitness of subject peoples for self rule. The missionaries and the imperial economy add to the disintegration of the traditional order. The result is a precarious lumping together of radi- cally heterogeneous social forms: things fall apart, and a ARTICLES 10, numerical majority becomes a sociological minority, Balandier has summarized the colonial situation as follows: "(1) the domination imposed by a foreign minority, racially (or ethni- cally) and culturally different, acting in the name of a racial (or ethnic) and cultural superiority dogmatically affirmed, and imposing itself on an indigenous population constituting a nume- rical majority but inferior to the dominant group from a material point of view; (2) this domination linking radically different civilizations into some form of relationship; (3) a mechanized, industrialized society with a powerful economy, a fast tempo of life, and a Christian background, imposing itself on a non- Industrialized, 'backward' society in which the pace of living is much slower and religious institutions are most definitely 'non-Christian1; (h) the fundamentally antagonistic character of the relationship between these two societies resulting from the subservient role to which the colonial people are subjected as 'instruments1 of the colonial power; (5) the need, in main- taining this domination, not only to resort to 'force1, but also to a system of pseudo-justifications and stereotyped behaviours etc."^3 Four important'aspects of the colonial situation are that (1) It is a dynamic total situation, (2) colonial societies are sick societies to the extent that the colonial Power opposes genuine solutions whereat "among colonial peoples the quest for norms coincides with the^quest for autonomy", (3) the colonial situation creates "that peculiar state of ambiguity" wherein both traditionalist and modernist elements co-exist and interpenetrate, (k) the colonial situation is characterised by cultural crisis and ethnic conflict, and enables us to study the ways in which the conflicts are felt or resolved by the individuals involved. The rest of this paper will ideal with Kobina Sekyi!s Ideological res- ponse to the crisis of the colonial situation and his attempt to. resurrect and strengthen what most of his contemporaries regarded as a Paradise Lost - the Akan-Fantf state system - to meet the challenge of modernization and self-government. IVb. Morphology of the |,that members of the family council of the head of each political group are not also members of the pol i t ical counc i1s of such political heads. Membership of the latter councils is either official, as in the case of sub-chiefs under the head of the political group, or unofficial, as in the case of members of the public nominated by the political head and his advisers or councillors. Under the constitution of the Akan-Fanti, each member of a political group forms part of the wider political group, and this applies even among friendly states between which exists an unwritten body of inter- state customary law. modern international lawyers will say about this African diplomatic practice). Superimposed on all this is the tribal family (or clan) or ebusua, which based on descent from one of the traditional twelve clans, unites the various families, even in hostile states. Beyond the family council, there is public opinion, and in certain cases, the council of the King or Oh in, which no amount of family influence can sway. (it would be interesting to see what The next unit above the family is the village, with Its head, who is known as the odz ikuro (ods i = he holds; _ku££ = town or village). He is the head of.a family as well as the ARTICLES 37. village head. His family council selects out of its members and with the approval of the people, the successor of the odzikuro. The odzikuro, however, has a special village council, composed of important men of the village. The unit above the village is the town with Its head, known as the oh in (sometimes the occupant is referred to as Damfu, although there is some doubt about this). The oh in Is head of a wider group, the village group, and has a number of odz ikuro under him, and his official council Is a powerful body. He is a political rather than a social functionary, and his dig- nity is that of a king. He administers his district with the assistance of his council and other state officials. He rules quamdiu bene se gesserit otherwise he is destooled or deposed after he has been ineffectually warned. The town itself is divided into neighbourhoods belonging to the members of the various military units known as the asafu.JO** Each body of asafu is controlled by asafunh ifu or captains who are under a safuh in or head-captain. The whole military organisation is under the control of the Tufuh in, the master of Arms or comman- der of all the military units of a town or district. The Tufuh in, who is next to the oh ?n, is the most important person in the town. The asafu also constitute the municipal organi- sation of the town, since they undertake all work of the nature of public works.105 When the town is the capital of a state or Oman, its head is an Omanhin, who is really the first of the ahlnfu of the state who are short of his equals, but he has been chosen paramount, or has made himself paramount by conquest. Omanhin must be distinguished from Oh in who may be simply the ruler of a single town. The foregoing sketch of the Akan-Fantl polity must be compared with S e k y Ms more theoretical account In Thoughts for the Reflective (19**7) where he makes use of Sarbah'i Fanti National Constitution, Chapter 1: "Origin and Government of Akan Communities", particularly S e k y Ms remarks on the military states of Denkyira and Ashanti, and his discussion of the various forms of federalism and republicanism and elective monarchical systems within such states.'06 The traditional concept of kingship did not accord with the European and Asiatic view of kings as absolute masters and arbiters over the lives and properties of their subjects. The Akan-Fanti conception was that the king was the highest public servant In the state (Oman). A king is an elected ARTICLES 38. constitutional functionary, not a legislator, who must govern in accordance with customary law. His relation to his 'subjects' was like that of a father to his children or grandchildren. In fact there Is no corresponding word in Akan-Fanti usage to ubject". The people are sovereign, and the king Is himself b f bh or jriba for both f th t pp th g, H a "subject". Hence the use of the term king and "subjects". "In English law the King Is not a subject, neither Is he "It is a matter because the people are sovereign; sovereignty of the group, rather than the of convenience, that the sovereign: for the Parliament is sovereign, in our law Jit!JLJLyjLi!£_JjLJl^ for the Oman, that Is, the Council of the state Is, in the last resort, subject to the Asafu or Companies, There is In that Council a perpetual opposition: on the one side Is the Oh in (now called Ornanhln), the head of the state with the groups that go with him, that Is, his family and his J£^as_[» not exclud- ing the Ankobia or bodyguard, and on the other side Is the ruler who holds the foot or the state, with the groups that go with him, that is the Oman proper. Hence the formula which is in use in Elmina state: JEjhJ_n_H2_JlJ_J2an. '07 The ruler is merely a representative of the sovereign of the group: there should be a .single representative of the whole state and that such a representative, as the representative of the ruling power, should be higher In rank than the representatives of all the sub-divisions of the sovereignty.'08 positions of king and subject In England and the Gold Coast, Sekyi noted "one of the greatest legal doctrines among us Is the doctrine that the ruler is the ancestor {grand relative) of the ruled or subject. The subject Is therefore in our constitutional law, a relative of the ruler. This mutual relationship determines the attitude of the ruler to the subject and that of the subject to the ruler. It is clear that the English usage of the term 'subject1, which erects the ruler into an autocrat and the subject Into a serf, belongs to the days before the emancipation of the serf and the era- dication of vi! le inage.. «!I'O9 There was indeed a traditional distinction between J2£S£Xill£H anc^ S^LSH^lJS '*e* between those who were members of Oman or State Council and those who were not, but this did not correspond to the European distinction between commoners and peers, "Here the King is himself a subject of the State, a servant of the State who Is created and can be deposed by the State without recourse to extra- Contrasting the ARTICLES 39. The Fanti proverb edatn, meaning "A State is, and the King is the fish body of water, apt illustration of the legal position Moreover the king or chief is bound by his ordinary or revolutionary acts"J'0 Oman ye nsu na eh in ihin nyg adwin < or is comparable to, a (or gem) in it", is an of the king. " I oath of office - the Ntamkes i - during his occupancy of the stool or throne. Paramountcy, Sekyi described as an "indefi- nable attribute of rulership", after noting that there was a difference between the paramountcy of the stool and paramountcy of the stool in relation to land. Blackstone's chapter on English tenures in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, he argued, did not apply to the Akan-Fantf doctrine of the king's paramountcy over land. Quoting Sarbah's Fanti National Consti- tut ion, Sekyi noted that whereas in the Fanti system allegiance is personal, It was both personal and territorial in Ashanti and that a ruler was not necessarily the owner of any land in his jurisdiction. It was unusual for the principal stool in a state to own all the land, for the ordinary state of affairs was one in which every family had its own land. Even in relation to common land, it could not be argued that they were owned by the stool, "for it is the people who own such lands, and the principal stool or its occupant is the trustee of such lands for the people..."112 He was obliged to re-state the African conception On the question of sovereignty in the traditional political system Sekyi's view was tha' ; "our ideas of a State and of sovereignty differ fundamentally from those of people whose institutions are based on the Feudal system, and depend on loyalty to an individual, namely, a chief or a ruler, instead of being based, as our institutions are, on loyalty to the people as a whole".'13 of the legal status of the individual and as well as the traditional concept of sovereignty and representative government in reply to the theories of Blackstone and of Professors Dicey and Holland: "The interesting thing to observe is that... since every man thinks his own geese are swans, or, as we say, obi nfa n? nsa benkum nkyire n'egya fie kwan, 'no one points out the way to his father's house with his left hand1, some English authorities, especially Professor Dicey, incline to the view that it is only under the English Constitution that the liberty of the subject and his other rights are secured to the fullest extent, it seems to me that this view is not correct..."!'^ For Sekyi the stool, i.e. all the principal stools originating from the ARTICLES 40. Golden Stool of Ashantl, symbolised not only Akan-Fantl sovere- ignty, but the living, unwritten constitution, the "plastic political theory"'15 and personality of the Akan-Fanti state system. indeed the only other visible expression of sovereignty and nationhood with which he could meaningfully compare the stool was the Holy Crown of St. Stephen of Hungary, "Thinking ! in English1 on the subject of modes of govern- ment would lead the loyal among us to believe that representative government was invented by the English. I wonder whether any of those who fondly call England "the Mother of Parliaments" has read about the Hungarian constitution and its institution of the .Holy Crown of Hungary. I wonder if any of our people who have read of interesting European institution can see in how many respects that like our institution of the stool, which makes Its occupant it is extent that his individuality is so completely sacred to such an merged in that of his predecessors that he can call "any of their acts h is own, and any of their children his children, any offence against any AJ C. U . P., G. Llenhardt, Social Anthropology, London, I96^i P-7^, quoted Ibid., p.hk. Sec also S.N. Elsonstiidt, "Some Reflections on Problems i>. 3f 1969, 53. One may not In fact agree with this equation v'fh -;.*•._.-- or what Is natural - See K. Baiei s « g. Also Peter Winch, "Nature an. . ARTICLES 54. t he Theory of E v o l u t i o n ", pp. 107-131 '960 and a l so Anthony Quinton, in •» " E t h i cs and I . T. Oxford, 1965, e s p. pp. 125-130. R a m s e y, e d. _B_j_oJ_og_y_ a nd P e r s o n a l i t y, B a s il B l a c k w e l l, 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62, 63. 64. .651 66. 67. "Morality and N a t u r e ", p . 5 5, Ibid. I b i d ., ted ^_Ujra]J_sm Yale Univ. P r e s s, S e k y i 's c r i t i c i sm of Huxley seems to be suppor- J[h£jj|£r_jij_Ji£2T_y_^il_^2ljdiiionaXX lsU5',"'"pp7~90^W. ~™~ In W.F. Quit Han i b i d. Ibid. !bld. B, R u s s e l l, £JllJ^12£lll££i_i*s^X£» London 1966 edn.» p»2* quoted 1967, in A.G.N. Flew, J^2iHii£!l£!IX_£S,n'cS» Macmillan, p . 4 4, "The E s s e n t i a ls of Race Manhood", J2l^^fjll£HL_l£i£2il££!2 M i r r o r, December 1| Ibid. Ibid. Ibid, "Education In B r i t i sh West A f r i c a ", A_J^J3JjL» July 1917. "The E s s e n t i a ls of Race Manhood", I b i d ., p . 2 6. found t he s o c i al e v i ls of c o l o n i a l i sm See £y£_MlIi£Jl!li£!ldl' PP* 22-167; JJ]£_£££iiil£_£Ll!l£ W£y_£; c o n d e m n a t i on of is a l so ( 1 9 1 5 - 1 8 ), £2fJ5£££Ll0iJJfillL^2lM« "Mirage", For a S e k y i 's r e a c t i on see h is essay "The Anglo-Fanti", s e r i a l i s ed a n c' s u cn poems as l i t e r a ry and psychological study of to the c o l o n i al a c c u l t u r a t i on process In h is s o n n e t s, p a r t i c u l a r ly in Vfest Africa, ARTICLES 55. London, 25 May - 12 Sept. 1918 and reprinted In Nancy Cunard's H££C£_^Gl!2£l£ai» ^932, and his s a t i r i c al play s i g n lf Ica^lTTrTtTtTed^The B! Inkards", 1915, depicting the Anglo-Fantl 's of Cape Coast. interesting aspects of the colonial s i t u a t i on with Balandier's paper, op. e f t ,» R. Maun «er's JiT^^^SocjoJogyofColonles, 2 vols.8 London 1938. to compare Sekyf's analysis of the Is p a r t i c u l a r ly Internal It See David E. Apter, J^eol_O22_££d_£]£conten>t and Robert A. Scalaplno, "Ideology and Modernization - the Japanese Case" in D. Apters ed» J^£OJ£3iy__SILl_^il£2li£!lt» Free Press of Glencoe, 1964, Introduction and Ch» 3. 4 Magnus Sampson, "Kobina SekyI as 1 knew him", Sekyi Papers, Ghana National Archives, Cape Coast, See Lucian W. Pye8 ^£6£tsofPolJtlcalDeyelopment, Boston, 1966; S.N. EisenstalJt7~nBrlJliTd_£ew__States; Edward Shi Is, " P r i m o r d i a l, P e r s o n a l, S a c r ed a nd Civil T i e s ", B r i t i sh Journal of Sociology, Vol.8, 1957, pp. 130-145; Brokensha, Soc ia 1 Change at tarteh Ghanat D. O.U.P., 1966, Sekyi, "The Essentials of Race Manhood", op.cit., p.26, Sekyi, "The Future of Subject Peoples", op.cit,, p.109. Ibid., p.110. See Our White Friends, p.32-33. See The Relation Between the State and the Individual where he discusses the role of stratification in the evolution of the nation-state, and the origin of a new political and economic class. Cf. Morton Fried's useful discussion of this in his "On the Revolution of Social Stratification and the State", in Stanley Diamond, ed. Culture in History, Columbia University Press, N.Y. I960, PP. 7 1 3 - 7 3 1, e s p e c i a l ly p p. 7 2 1 - 7 2 3, 7 2 8 - 7 2 9; s ee a l so Fried's "Anthropology and the Study of Politics" in Sol Tax, ed., Hor izons of Anthropology, George Allen and Unwin, 1965, pp. 1 ffuTWTesp7~pp7 187-188. Our White Friends, pp. 82-85. As Clifford Geertz has observed, "It is a loss of orientation that most directly gives rise to ideological activity, an inability, for lack of usable models, to comprehend the universe of civic rights and responsibilities in which one finds oneself located. The development of a differentiated polity (or of greater internal differentiation within such a polity) may* and commonly does, bring with It severe social dis- location and psychological tension. But ft also brings with it conceptual confusion, as the established images of political order fall into irrelevance or are driven into disrepute..." D.E. Apter, op.cit., p.6k. "Ideology as a cultural system", ARTICLES 57. 85. 86. 87, 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96. 97. See _0u_r_Wh[te_ Frj^ends, pp. 175-6. Sekyi, "The Future of Subject Peoples11, o p . c i t ., p.HO. i b i d ., p.110. in B r i t i sh West A f r i c a ", A.T.O.R., Sekyi, "Education o p . c i t .; also Sekyi, " P o l i t i c al Development Gold Coast since 1900', p.12 - t a lk given at the t i on of Dr. K.A. Busia, then Professor of Sociology, University College of the Gold Coast, 1952. in the i n v i t a- for example, W.W. Rostow, J_h_eJ>tages of Economic See, jrowtj]j__ a Non-Communist Manife¥to7~~OVu7P7I W T1T ~ *rlT I960, also ProbTems of TnTernat ional Development", Vol.7, 1965 and Vol.8, T9SB1 S.M. Lipset, Political Man, N.Y., 1959, pp. 31-37; Max F. Millfkan and D. Blackmer, The Emerging Nations, Boston, 1961. ^ See Sekyi "s remarks in Our White Friends, pp. 115-116. Stanley Diamond, "Plato and the Definition of the Pri- mitive" in Stanley Diamond, ed., Culture in History, Columbia University Press, N.Y., I960, p.l18. Sekyi, Jhe_^_Parjjn£jof.. Jt he Ways, p.28. See Kimbie, op.eft., p.524-5. Sekyi, The Relation Between the State and the Individual...", p.14, aTso~pp7 15-16, 20-23. Discourse on the Arts and Sciences and Essays on the Origin of inequaj itj^. Ibid., pp. 23-24. See Alexander Passer in D'Entreves: The Not ion of the State, O.U.P., 1967, p.144; it may be that D'Entreves is aware of the difference in interpretation, as between Western Europe and Afro-Asia, as to what constitutes the rule of law; the former argues In terms of 'ethical ARTICLES 58. neutrality1 and 'efficacy' as the basis of political legitimacy, whereas the latter defines law as 'the realization of the appropriate conditions for the development of human dignity1. D'Entreves, like the legal positivists seems to dismiss all talk about 'moral legitimation1 as mere ideology or personal opinion, and argues in terms of the state as an 'official system1 - a concept Sekyi rejected. For a refreshing and original critique of the notion of the state as official system, see David Easton? The Political System, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1966, Ch."57*™esp^ pp. 106-115. 98. 99. 100 101 102 Sekyi, op.cit., p.28, T.O. Elias, Chester Uni Sekyi, Ibid.s p.55. , p.53. Man" Sekyi later clarified the status of slaves in £us_tom_an_d U w J n W e s t A f r i c a, pp. 12-13, and The_^e^ning__of the cf. T.O. Elias, Manchester Un i 103 Sekyi, op.cit., p.56. For the significance of the j|sa_fju see J.C. de Graft Johnson, !lThe FantI Asafu", Afjjka, 1932, Vol .V, No.l, pp. 307-322. Sekyi, "The Social System of the Peoples of the Gold Coast", in draft of The Relation Between the State and the Individual...", "pTB"! Xfo.9HS.ftM.. f.9L the Reflectjye, pp. 6-12. Sekyi, ibid., p.9. Sekyi, ibid., p.9. 105. 106 107 108 ARTICLES 59. 109. no, m. 112. ibid., p.10; for Sekyt's discussion of the status of the individual in the Akan-Fanti polity see his A Comparison of English, Gold Coast and Akan_-Fanti Laws Respecting the Absolute Rights c>f Individuals", Lecture I, p. 10, Lecture II, pp. ! - 3, "¥7Tec*ture~T I i, p.ls 6-8; on the law of succession and the status of women see Custorn and Law_iji_j^s^_Ajfjrjc£. pp. 9-12; on the Individual and due process of law T ee Sekyi's discussion of the use of the oath (jvtam and as criminal summons or warrant in inst itut ions, T "p.82ff pp. 5-6; compare with T.O. Elias, op.cit. espT pp. 89-90, p.222 and p.241. Sekyi in The Go1d Coast Observe^, December 19, 1950, Sekyi, The Study of 0ur Instjtu[tjons, p.6. Sekyls Thoughts for the Reflective, p.Ik; both Casely Hayford, Gold Coast Nat iona 1 Instttut tons, p.45 and J.B. Danquah, Akan Laws andCustoms, pp7~2T4~-215, had that particular land. paramountcy did not carry with it ownership of any and Customs, pp. 214-215? had concurred 113. Sekyi, The Gold Coast Observer, December 19, 1950, 115. 116. Sekyi, A Compar is on of English, Gold Coast and Akan- Fanti Laws Relating tq^^the Absolute Rights of tndivj_dual_s» Lecture V!, p.1. I owe this expression to Mr. Quarcoo, Research Fellow of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, who is currently completing a doctoral thesis on the Stool in Contemporary Ghana. Seky i, The Meaning of the Expression jTh In..kJjig_jjT_£rig_n_sh ', Lecture 4, p.3; for the noTToir^f™tlTenn*ng1Ts¥rvants as an 'expression of his own personality1 and the severity of the punishment attached to acts calculated to under- mine the king's dignity and authority see J.N. Matson, "The Supreme Court and the Customary Judicial Processes in the Gold Coast", The International an4_£2!I!££££L Quarterly. Vol.2, PtTT, JanuaryT^537T^S~and 50. ARTICLES 117 Ako<» 60, ''T - > • o jv Crown or the Develop- • »• • -1 Ion of Public Rights < • • ' - - <' , ( .VJ . - > •• ,f •' n vi", pp. 184-195, !'l\-er: ' .'"„"..1™» Pd- G- Spiller, London •?- Ti'!in o',""1 Sekyi denied the y existence of the European notion, of feudalism In their respective countries It will be useful to consult In this connection Jack Goody, "Feudalism In Africa", Journal of M j2 . -v» 18. 16 J 1963, Vol.4, No. l4 y, pp 8 118. 119, 120. 121, 122, 123, 124. Sekyi, Ibid., p . 1 7. ^}£2.s p. 16, Ibid., p.17; for a provocative discussion, from a philo- sophical stand-point, of the problem raised by Sekyi, I.e. how to make Intelligible, say. In European terms, institutions of a non-European culture whose standards of rationality and InteliIgibI1 fty differ from, or are opposed to, European standards, see Peter Winch's discuss- ion of E.E, Evans-Pr Itcharcl 's Wj_t£h£r£fy^_J^^ and of Alasdalr Maclntyre's is Understand inc in his "Understanding a Vol.1, Pr I ml t i ve Soc iety1*, No,4, October 1964, pp. Seky i, pp. 9-10, Ibid,, p.!0. PhiJ^^ ^ , For c3 brief discussion of cultural symbol-systems as extrinsic sources of information - "templates for the organization of social and psychological processes" in societies where Institutionalized guides for behaviour, feel ing or thought are weak or absent, see CIIfford Geertz, op.cit., pp. 60-63. See Sekyi's sonnets entitled "Concerning Man's World", which are really detailed criticism of the meaningless- ness of European philosophy and of the disparity between scientific knowledge and social well-being. ARTICLES 61. 25 126. 127. 128. 129. 130. 131. In general see Lucian Pye and Sidney Verba (eds.) Pol f t tea 1 Cu 1 ture and Po 1 i t )*ca1 Deve1 opment, Princeton "UnW7~¥resrrTs^5T~^3bFTe c al Systems", jJo^rn£J__££J^oJJ_tj£S, X V I I I, 1956, and S.N. Elsenstadt, fS^l^S!}££^j2!l^l2^3^Il£L^J2!l' of Glencoe, 1956. I AI m^n^7~TTCompa"ra't r ve P o l i t i- Free Press Sekyl, pp. 5^-57. ADM.11/1746, 20 November 1937, Ghana National Archives. Introduction to Memorandum, op.cit. Meyer Fortes, p.16, Memorandum, op.cit. The Epistle Dedicatory, ll^ments^ofj^, May 3, 1640. Julius Nyerere, speech on Tanzania's Second Five-Year Development Plan, May 28, 1969, reprinted In East Afrlea Journal, October 1969, pp. 6-12.