2019 Volume 84 Issue 1 Pages 019-038
In the study of African states, especially in political anthropology and political science, analysis of patronclient relations in the logic of rule and governance is one of important topics. These arguments assume that societies in Africa are ruled through the interpersonal relations between patrons and clients which are highly personal characteristics. International aid organizations and developed countries demanded implementations of fair elections and introduction of bureaucratic system in the assumption that the representative democracy and bureaucratic operations can dispel interpersonal rules. However, fair elections and bureaucratic system cannot dispel patron-client relations. This paper argues that these two different logics existing hand by hand in the daily operations of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bike Riders Union (SLCBRU). The SLCBRU is one of actors of traffic governance, which was established in 2011. It can be interpreted that the riders and the executive members establish positive relations in-between spaces of bureaucracy and patron-client relations through the morality of the later. The interpersonal relations between the executive members and riders work for implementation of the bureaucratic works of SLCBRU smoothly.
