Sam Young introduced us to the world of Igboland, prior to European economic expansion in Africa. The original article is here, but if you are not a Medium member, you might not be able to access it.
Igboland was situated in modern Nigeria. According to Sam, this African nation had a somewhat complex democracy. It was fairly decentralized, with villages making many decisions. Groups of villages would be a political unit, similar to the district in the TDG. Each village would send a representative to the “district” and that representative would bring the deliberations to the village. Sometimes the village agreed to the district decision. If not, the village had the right to petition the district for a rethinking. There was lots of discussion around such decisions.
Sam does not whitewash the Igbo society. Slavery was a part of Igbo life; my between-the-lines reading suggested that this slavery was less horrid than American slavery. And there seemed to be too much emphasis on wealth creation, with the wealthier men having more influence; but they still had to engage with their many subordinates to implement a village plan.
When the British exerted their influence in West Africa, the Igbo institutions were cast aside in favor of a centralized version of western democracy. Nigeria has been suffering ever since.
Sam’s stated objective for his article was to show that other ways of democracy have been tried before. We should study these ways. More study will lead to more hope. More hope will lead to action.
Published on Medium 2023
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