The New African Chiefs

Extract

WHEN the parliamentary bodies, the national assemblies of Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania convene, the mace, the wig, the Hansard, the speakership denote an endowment from the former colonial mentor and Mother of Parliaments, England. Front benches are reserved for the Ministers of Government. Oppositions, such as they are in many of the newly emergent African states of British vintage, face one another or, in one-party states, dissent is heard from the back benches. Inheritance of British parliamentary forms by youthful African states has been extensive. The substance of the democratic bequest from Britain as accepted and practiced by these and other new nations is quite another question. For African statesmen are quickly developing their ideals, adapting the colonial bequests to their own needs.