Local Government Elections in a Tanganyika District
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1961.tb01265.x |
| Published date | 01 April 1961 |
| Date | 01 April 1961 |
| Author | K. E. Shadbolt |
Local
Government
Elections
in a
Tanganyika
District
by K. E.
SHADBOL
T
District
Officer
ITis now over
ten
years since there
appeared
in this J
ournal
an
account
of
the
reform
of
the local
government
of
North
Mara
District.! 1960 saw a
start
made
to the
implementing
of a new constitution which
had
been
drafted in the light
of
the
conditions in
Tanganyika
of
which
Mr.
Cory
wrote.s
It
is
not
my
intention
here to go
at
length
into
the
reasons for this
recent
change:
nor
to explain
the
details of
the
present
conststution,
nor
the processes
by
which
it was finally
arrived
at.
The
North
Mara
constitution
cannot
claim
to be
unique:
there is a growing uniformity
within
Tanganyika
of
the
factors
that
make
for local
government
changes
and
progressivelyless significance tends
to be
attached
to such variations as those
of
traditional
social structure or degree
of
political education.
What,
however,
may
be of specific interest
and
of
use to
others in similar circumstances is a short
practical
account
of
the
conduct
of
the
first elections
under
the
constitution, considered as
an
exercise in
the
application
of
general principles.
The
'Winnington-Ingram
constitution'
had
been
an
attempt
to recall
the
old
into
existence to redress
the
balance
of
the
new. Government's
quandary
had
been
that
of knowing
that
the
chain
of
executive responsibility,
which
any
modern
government
must
legitimately create, was faulty.
For
administrative
and
executive convenience chiefs
and
headmen
were necessary,
yet
their
unusually
large
number,
the
manner
of their creation
and
their subsequent
demeanour
had
completely divorced
them
from
the
people,
and
had
rendered
them
comparatively
immune
to
normal
government
supervision.
The
office
of
chief
was alien
and
spurious:
it
had
now to be
tempered
and
ultimately, it was
hoped, transformed by association
with
traditional
clan
organizations
and
loyalties
which
were to be as watchdogs over
the
honesty, integrity
and
efficiency
of
the chiefs.
There
is no
doubt
that
this
appeal
to
the
traditional
loyalties
within
the
tribe
achieved
the
effects it was designed to achieve
and,
to a large degree, the steady
subsequent
reduction
of
the
incidence
of
crime
and
corruption
in
the
district
can
be
attributed
to
that
constitution.
New
constitution
The
middle
of
1959 saw, however, the beginnings of a reaction.
'Clan'
democracy
could
not
be
equated
with
the
'undiluted'
democracy
to
which
this territory was to be
more
and
more
committed.
The
'wind
of
change'
brought
new ideas in its
train
and
pressure
mounted
for a revision of
the
constitution.
Clan
loyalties seemed incompatible
with
the
wider
loyalties
which
Africans were
now
being asked to follow,
and
it
began
to
appear
that
the
Winnington-Ingram
constitution,
having
served its invaluable
purpose
of
establishing a
sound
framework of local
government
administration,
was
not
1
J.A.A.,
Vol.
II,
No.2,
p.
10.
Reforming Local
Government
in a Tanganyika District, by C.
Winnington Ingram.
2
J.A.A.,
Vol.
XII,
No.2,
p. 77. Reform
of
Tribal Political Institutions in Tanganyika, by
H.
Cory.
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