Consideration of Chiefs’ Roles in the Local Administration in Zambia

Abstract

This study examined the development of multiethnic communities in northwestern Zambia and the roles of traditional chiefs in local administration since the colonial period. The study also provides basic information for considering challenges facing traditional chiefs and their potential and decentralization in sub-Saharan Africa. Northern Rhodesia was under the rule of the British South Africa Company and British Colonial Office during the colonial period. During the Protectorate, the government created the position of chief and ruled over rural areas indirectly via chiefs who participated in local administrative and judiciary matters. Chiefs ruling over the areas understood the local circumstances. In northwestern Zambia, the Kaonde chiefs accepted non-Kaonde immigrants, and multiethnic communities developed. This study demonstrates that the chiefs who understood the circumstances of their own territories well played important roles in local governance under decentralization. However, the prejudices of local chiefs may have also affected community development.