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Historically, especially in colonial times, Chiefs were often used as instruments of indirect rule, and/or convenient alternatives to elective institutions.


CASES

In the post-colonial age, one or more Houses of Chiefs such assemblies, with that very name or a similar style, had and in some cases still have legal existence in various nations :


Africa

  • in The Southern African Republic Of Botswana , were it is the closest African equivalent to the pre-Blair British House of Lords

  • in Ghana , Africa's first independent republic, there is a National House of Chiefs, representing the various Regional Houses of Chiefs - see external link {Link without Title}

  • in the federal republic of Nigeria , Africa's most populous and complex state, there were several and plans have been drawn up for a new House of Traditional Rulers in Edo state

  • --- also formerly in (ex-German, British>Nigerian) Southern Cameroons (1958- ) - see external link {Link without Title}

  • in Sierra Leone

  • in Somaliland , there is an institution called the House of Elders, whose membership consists of the various Sultans of Somaliland.

  • in South Africa , the colonial House of Chiefs fell into disuse, but was revived post-Apartheid, first(?) within the ruling ANC party, then per new province

  • in Zambia (1996 constitution) - see external link {Link without Title}



Pacific



other

The term has also been used for similar assemblies of tribal leaders, as among certain American Indians, but as these were tiny and neither organized states nor colonial institutions, we don't treat them here in any detail.


ALTERNATIVES

Another way to include traditional Chiefs in a nation's political life is to assign to them a number of seats in a wider assembly.
This is the case in The Unicameral Republic Of Zimbabwe (10 Chiefs alongside various presidential appointees and 120 elected members in the House of Assembly under Mugabe's constitution).