The now nearly unanimous acceptance of the importance of the study of local politics in understanding the processes of political development, modernization, and change in Africa poses a challenge to contemporary Africanists which is at once both perplexing and stimulating. A central focus of this study is on the fusing of the old and new at the local level and the concomitant necessity of analyzing the nature and impact of the surviving residue from traditional societies on the roles and institutions of more recent constitutional government. One of the most perplexing aspects of this challenge is the plethora of tools, models, vocabularies, and methodologies with which we have to work. In attempting to construct a useful and informative, not to mention reasonably accurate, research model, one often finds that his initial inquiry into which framework to use is the most formidible task. One writer has likened this effort to that of knights errant seeking the Holy Grail.