The Timeless Solutions of the Gadaa System

Africa’s borrowed Western democracies are experiencing an existential crisis of legitimacy, with political turmoil, election disputes and governance failure eroding citizens’ faith in representative institutions. Since 2020, some African countries have witnessed democratic backsliding, often culminating in military coups or de facto consolidations. Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso and Niger have all become military-led, showing the susceptibility of Western democratic systems on the continent. These all point to a broader crisis under which citizens are, due to frustration with corruption, repression and poverty, increasingly looking toward the military not as a menace but as the solution. As African nations grapple with these challenges, there is a growing need to explore alternative governance models prioritizing accountability, involvement and stability.

One such system is the Gadaa system employed by Ethiopia and Kenya’s Oromo people, which offers centuries-long proof of indigenous democratic governance. Gadaa structures leadership changes, facilitates group decision-making and ensures conclusions keep power responsive to the people. Gadaa fosters participatory democracy, social harmony and shared good. This system challenges the notion that democracy is somehow a Western concept, echoing again that Africa has rich cultural traditions of self-rule and justice. As Oromo scholar, Ebba Turi, pointed out in a 2024 interview I conducted at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, ‘Democracy is not a foreign import for us; it is our cultural vernacular, shaping and sustaining our collective existence.’