Dr. Sara ENDENGELE MPELE
Volume: 14 Issue: 03, 2026
Abstract:
The governance problèm within contemporary African societies is not limited to the management of public affairs within the superstructure of the state. This issue applies to all human or social organizations (large and small) whithin which power relations are exercised. Traditional political structures (traditional chieftaincies), for exemple, they constitute laboratories where the management of people and property, as well as power relations in all their dimensions, between chiefs and their various subjects, are observed on a daily basis. In Southern Cameroon, the functioning of traditional chiefdom has been hampered for decades by the chiefs’management mechanisms which are denounced by local residents (within the communities) who are very often victims of arbitrary (anarchic) land expropriations. When traditional chiefs do not abuse their monarchical power (political and mystical) to seize plots of land, they support the urban elite in their same practices, in exchange for primarily food related compensation ; this situation very regularly generates conflicts between them and their subjects, All of this contributes to poor governance.