The Legitimacy of Traditional Leaders in Democracies

This study analyses the issue of legitimacy that unfolds to understand the authority claims of traditional leaders underpinned by customary law in contrast to modern law and legislations in the democracies of two erstwhile British colonies: South Africa and the Tangkhul Nagas of India and Myanmar. The study enquires: if the warrant of modern and traditional law, the fulcrum of traditional leaders’ legitimacy, is questioned in the democratic dispensation, what is the underlying basis of legitimacy that makes traditional leaders resilient? It employs historical, cultural and linguistic analysis to understand how traditional leaders mediate legitimacy. It concludes that cultural cognitive categories like metaphors and aphorisms are instrumental in leveraging the legitimacy claims of traditional leaders across countries.