SEATED by the roadside in the Ghanaian town of Kyebi,Kwame Asiedu explains how for seven years he employed 500 people as illegal gold miners. A stout man in a leopard-print shirt, he says he gave up the business two years ago after growing closer to the local monarch, or Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin,who had campaigned against illegal mining for years (though was powerless to halt it until the state cracked down).
The king, known as the Okyenhene, and is revered. This is not strange. An Afrobarometer survey of 36 African countries in 2014-15 found that 61% of people trusted local chiefs. Among state institutions,only the army was trusted more. Faith in ancient power structures has increased as people acquire grown more wary of contemporary and democratic institutions and politicians (see chart).
One reason is because the state is often absent. It is far quicker and cheaper to ask a chief than a far-off court to dispense justice. And because he is local, his ruling may be better informed. Some chiefs also fund health care and education. The power of the chiefs has increased because they provide things the state does not, or says George Bob-Milliar of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana.
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Source: economist.com