ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to contribute to the expropriation of the expropriators through the intrinsically radical endeavour of recovering the past. It asserts that enquiry and understanding of African political history and systems necessitates a methodological commitment to concrete historiographical research, and refutes the commonplace imperial practice whereby judgement is conferred on the basis of inadequate or nonexistent evidence or prior to any assessment of the evidence. The chapter highlights the specificity of African political history and systems in the nineteenth century, with examples of historically and culturally specific forms of political community and notions of 'democracy.' It demonstrates elaborate and diverse rule-based systems of governance characterised by complex systems of claims and obligations, restraints on political authority, collective decision making and the principle of consensus, complex mechanisms to constrain and mediate tensions or internal oppositions.
