This course will make a detail examination of the history and the models of traditional African leadership. Literature, observations and intellectuals discussions on various traditional and modern leadership in Africa will be discussed. The differences between traditional and modern leadership in African communities will be discussed in detail. The basic terms and concepts of discussion will be the comprehension of the concepts of power and authority in traditional Africa communities. Distinctions between traditional and modern democratic leadership and challenges, the types of legitimacy and functions performed by both types of leadership, the ways of gaining power and authority, the traditional political institutions, and decision-making mechanisms, contemporary relations of patron-client type of leadership, different forms of political systems, regimes, and government in traditional Sub-Saharan Africa will be discussed.

The course will also examine the conditions of current African state institutions, building democracy and power-sharing formula in Sub-Saharan African societies. Same will be the role of theocratic leadership and the civil society organisations. Finally, the course will look at the correlation between the types and efficiency of leadership and current global development concepts.