In a rather interesting essay Holly Dunn quoted the following statement:

“The government manages things like they don’t know it exists, but in some ways, they know it. Here, we go to the traditional leaders, and they know if it is witchcraft or not.“

This is kind of interesting quote because it shows that even in modern, post-modern, modernizing countries-states, traditional leaders are credited to be more knowledgeable than the government about the way things work on the ground in the country–something that may have considerable implications for the legitimacy, the effectiveness, the credibility, the performance of the government.

The quote above is taken from the following source: Legal Consciousness and Vigilantism: Seeking Justice for Witchcraft Harms in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo | Law & Social Inquiry | Cambridge Core