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318 GOVERNING ESSENTIAL RESOURCES IN ACTION Kyed and Buur (2006, ii) argue that “traditional leaders now officially form part ofestablishing some kind of bottom-up benign governance based on a variety of different local, national and transnational modalities of power.” The postcolonial African state has, however, remained largely centralized, with minimal devolution of power to institutions at the bot- tom, yet such institutions remained central to the everyday experiences of rural people. The knowledge of communities and resources built up over centuries is instilled within these structures, yet their involvement remains peripheral and token. Mamdani (1996) theorizes that indirect rule under colonization cre- ated traditional leaders in Africa as decentralized despots. Keulder notes that traditional leaders were given extensive coercive powers and subse- quently became local-level lawmakers, tax collectors, police commission- ers, and judges.2 Colonial authorities thus found a way to ensure order by using customary law and appointing the chiefs they wanted. The post- colonial state in Africa inherited this system and has continued to use chiefs to ensure political survival. In Zimbabwe, Mandondo (2000) high- lights that the Traditional Leaders Act (1998) replicated the colonial roles played by chiefs and allied traditional leaders. Chiefs are appointed by the president with roles that include the supervision of headmen, promotion of cultural values, and oversight of the tax and levy collection for rural district councils. Moreover, chiefs were meant to ensure that land and natural resources were used in accordance with national legislation—espe- cially legislation prohibiting overcultivation, overgrazing, and deforesta- tion (Mandondo 2000). Without proper authority this institution has lost the ability to enforce environmental regulation and equal access to the commons for local communities. When defining traditional leadership in Africa, it is important to contextualize local definitions and societal constructions. Traditional leaders and institutions are varied in their appearance and importance. They also differ in how they relate to natural resource governance and in their efficacy in resource mobilization. Traditional leadership is defined as an authentic authority that encourages decentralization with clear lines of communication and values (Wunsch and Olowu 1990). Its authentic- ity is derived from the fact that traditional leaders know they cannot operate in a vacuum—nyika vanhu or ilizwe ngabantu (the people make the nation)—so people are empowered and given a voice. In practice, however, traditional leadership tends to be a complex interplay of negotia- tion, compromise, and dictation between past customs and the modern

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