For the umpteenth time, Africa's governance architecture has been benchmarked against the colonial Eurocentric model – paradoxically the very same system culpable and complicit in rendering Africa's governance systems ineffective. The volume on Interfacing Traditional and Modern Leadership in South Africa Towards a 3rd Decade of Democratic Rule by Kgothatso Shai and Ndwakhulu Tshishonga is a courageous modest attempt to demystify the unjustified colonial arrogance and sarcastic depiction of Africa's systems of governance in an ahistorical manner. Yet, before the treacherous contact of Africa with Europeans, African traditional leadership occupied the pinnacle on the scale of South Africa's governance architecture but was deliberately placed on the peripheries of the governance equation immediately after the invasion of white settlers. In some instances, as the authors opine, the African traditional leadership was coerced into becoming a willing enabler of the illegal apartheid regime and, in other instances, decimated through nefarious legislation targeted at the entire eradication and extinction of the institution. The book animates some captivating debates and is a clarion call for the complete revival and incorporation of traditional leadership not only in South Africa's governance equation but the entire African governance apparatus. There is no doubt this text, exposing some uncomfortable truths, will be an indelible mark in Africa's system of governance literature in theory and practice.
Dr Alexander Madanha Rusero Research Fellow, Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS Management, Stellenbosch University.