A five-day international conference on chieftaincy in Africa opens at the Accra International Conference Centre on Monday, January 6.
The conference is being organised by the Chietaincy, Governance and Development Project of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana and University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Dr Irene Odotei, a convener of the conference, which is the first to be held in Ghana, said it would be held in Ghana, said it would be attended by 150 participants from Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Swaziland, South Africa and Kenya. Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom will participate as observers. According to Dr Odotei, the conference would aim at strengthening and expanding systematic study and research in all aspects of chieftaincy issues in Africa.
She disclosed that the President, Mr J.A. Kufour, had been invited to deliver the keynote address. Topics to be discussed include chieftaincy in Africa, culture and governance, chieftaincy and ethnicity, challenges and prospects in the 21st century, the role of chieftaincy during the Atlantic slave trade, socio-religious divisions to chieftaincy and chieftaincy and indirect rule.
Others are religion and traditional leadership in Ghana, the chief as a manager between tradition and modernity and chieftaincy and human rights in Africa the case of the Akan system.
