Comments on Timo Kallinen’s “I now go to church, I am not under the chief.”

Traditional leaders and their role in current politics are hot topics in the analysis of contemporary African society. A recent book on the relations between state, traditional leaders and democracy in Africa (Buur and Kyed [eds] 2007) prophecies “a new dawn for traditional authorities”, and shows that the category of traditional leadership—reinvented at times, at others subjugated, often featuring new functions—is a novel and vigorous player in the political game both locally, nationally and on the global developmental scene. The persistence of the term ‘traditional leaders’—also applied to newly invented power-holders—conveys that the label carries particular weight in the rallying of popular local support. Very little attention has been given to where the appeal of traditional leaders has its root. Timo Kallinen’s paper, however, does just that. It highlights the basis of power of traditional leaders, using the example of Asante society in Ghana. He points out that political power in Asante was once intricately intertwined with religious power, and this is true for a majority of polities in Sub-Saharan Africa. There is, however, a persevering tradition of neglecting this reality which can be traced from early British anthropology down to political analysis of Africa in the present time.