NIGERIA: KINGSHIP, POLITICAL RIVALRY AND COMPETING HISTORIES IN ABEOKUTA DURING THE 1990s
decentralised despotism of the local rulers whose legitimacy is entrenched by notions of community and culture. In more general terms, Herbst (2000: 173-97) asserts that the traditional control over the allocation of land reflects the inability of African states to project power to the rural areas. Correspondingly, van Rouveroy (1999: 21-47) maintains that traditional authority inevitably poses a challenge to the political and administrative process in Africa. Believing that the state is losing ground in the conflict with the traditional, von Trotha (1996: 91) even suggests that traditional authorities' are the ideal candidates to preside over the 'political tribalisation' of the social order in Africa. However, the increased role given to traditional authority even in successful or 'strong' states like South Africa would suggest that the perceived dichotomy between traditional and state authority does not characterise all of Africa. Bayart (1993) argues that, in many African nations, the state bureaucracies do not exist in opposition to traditional authority, but as spaces for the assimilation, mediation and collaboration of elites. In this process, those whose social positions are legitimised by tradition try to establish or widen their access to the state, while the 'modem' power holders attempt to utilise what is perceived as traditional legitimacy for their own ends. As Rathbone's (2000) and Vaughan's (2000) studies of traditional authority in Ghana and Nigeria respectively illustrate, this process is often conflictual. However, as revealed by Hameit-Sievers's (1998) analysis of modem INSA NOLTE lectures on African religion and popular culture at the Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham, where she obtained her Ph.D. in 1999. Her research interests include chieftaincy and politics in Nigeria. 1 The term 'traditional authority' is used as a general technical term only. It refers to any form of authority which is based on recourse to the principle of tradition.