Traditional Akan Conception of Consensual Democracy

This research project was an inquiry into the nature of the traditional Akan conception of consensus and how consensual democracy was expressed and practiced in Akan societies. It also sought to do a conceptual, linguistic, and empirical analysis of a traditional practice of consensual decision making instituted in meetings called agyina. One primary objective of the research was to determine whether this traditional conception and practice of democracy is compatible with, or antithetical to, the multi-party system of democracy in contemporary African societies.