Aqsaqal (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan)

Aqsaqal 🇰🇿 🇺🇿 🇰🇬
Location: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan
Definition: Old male members of sitting in the elderly council, tasked with mediating and resolving local disputes
Keywords: Kazakhstan – Kyrgyzstan – Uzbekistan – FSU – Central Asia – South Asia – Intermediation – Informal governance – Public service
Author: Talshyn Tokyzhanova
Affiliation: PhD student, Department of Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia

By Talshyn Tokyzhanova, PhD student, Department of Business Administration, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia

Aqsaqal (Kazakh), aksakal (Kyrgyz), or oqsoqol (Uzbek)—literally: white-bearded denotes someone who is old, elderly, wise, and who has gained wisdom through life experience. These well-respected male community members sit on the aqsaqal council of elders in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (Aksakaldar keneshi), and Uzbekistan (Oqsoqollar kengashi). This informal institution nowadays has the task of mediating and resolving local disputes. The younger generation is expected to follow the elders' guidance, and aqsaqals have the authority to summon citizens if they misbehave. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the majority of Central Asian countries used aqsaqal councils as consultative, administrative, or even judicial organizations in their efforts to construct their nations.

The model for these councils was influential in pre-Soviet Central Asian societies. In Uzbekistan, wards comprised roughly thirty to sixty dwellings, and it was a close-knit community administered by an elder council. Without the community’s permission, an outsider could not purchase a home in the ward (Bacon 1966:72). When in the 19th century, Bukhara was split into different quarters based on common descent and the professions of the residents, the senior citizens in each quarter generally competed for the position of aqsaqal. The elders and religious leaders of the quarter played a significant role in the decision-making process. Also, aqsaqals had to be approved by urban powers as their official representatives. In quarters with two or more ethnic groups, each ethnic group chose its aqsaqal (Sengupta 2000).

A conflict between two members of the same village in Kazakhstan was generally settled by one of the village's respected elders (Martin 2001:28). Aqsaqals listened to all parties and rendered a decision based on the merits of the specific case, as well as the family's overall interests. When cases were more complicated, or there was a need for arbitration between villages or kin groups, the disputing parties often turned to clan leaders known as biys.

During the Russian Empire, while clan leaders’ (biys) judicial power gradually decreased, the more traditional function of the aqsaqal was still alive. As a result, there was a parallel system of civic authority within Kazakh communities: a visible state-sanctioned structure and an ‘invisible’ customary one. Aqsaqals were instrumental in creating assar, community cooperation, and mutual assistance. Activities such as the construction of private houses were often organized under the guidance of an aqsaqal (Bankoff and Oven 2019: 385). This dualism remains a characteristic of contemporary village society today, with political, judicial, and moral authority shared between formal and informal institutions (Martin 2001:112; Bankoff and Oven 2019:381).

Due to the ethnic and geographic variety of Kazakhstan, nowadays, these councils are not universally apparent in the country; however, they can be noticed in some instances (Earle et al. 2004:17). In February 2020, after the interethnic clashes in the village of Masanchi, in the Kordai district, Kazakh authorities held a meeting with village elders. They agreed to establish a joint aqsaqal council which would include the elders of nearby settlements. The joint council members discuss the village problems. They are mandated to educate young people and organize cooperative cultural and sporting activities to foster a sense of solidarity among all nationalities residing in the district (Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan 2020).

Aqsaqal councils were put to work in labour conflicts among Kazakhstani steelworkers in 2013 when the management of the ArcelorMittal Temirtau invited the mill's elder, highly positioned former labour to join a newly formed veterans' council. The new council was inspired by traditional aqsaqal councils, and it was intended to be used to re-establish amicable connections with workers and to discuss the company's challenging circumstances (Trevisani 2019:382).

The aqsaqal council was established under the Religious Administration of the Muslims of Kazakhstan in 2022. The council will organize a national Forum of Elders, as well as the National Äjeler forumy (Forum of Grandmothers). The administration hopes that the elders will give a new impetus to the work of the Religious Administration in the field of public relations (Qazaqstan musılmandarı dinï basqarması 2022). Local administrations have also been using the aqsaqal council as advisors in preventing domestic crimes in the Karaganda region, by conducting individual preventive interviews with over 200 people in rural areas and small towns (Polisia.kz 2022).

Aqsaqal councils are diffused in universities as well. They usually consist of well-known elder teachers and professors who have worked in university for many years. The councils are established as a public advisory board to develop proposals and discuss issues related to the development of the educational, scientific, and social life of the universities (Kazakh National University 2010; Kazakh National Medical University 2013). Sometimes universities form aqsaqal councils as associations of honorary professors to connect with well-established, elder professors to teach in special new programs (Satbayev University, 2017).

The court of elders is nowadays a regular feature of Kyrgyz village life. The former Kyrgyz president Askar Akaev and his government launched the court of elders in 1995. These courts, according to the law, judge based on: "moral criteria that reflect the Kyrgyz customs and traditions". Torts, family disputes, land, property, and water conflicts can all be handled by these courts. (Beyer 2006: 142). The courts responded to increased demands from international organizations to democratise and decentralize the state bureaucracy. Also, a weak state, without the capacity to administer justice, was able to decentralize judicial power (Beyer 2015:55).

External donors in Central Asia have also recognized the value of engaging with aqsaqals before launching projects. Their presence legitimises the project from a local standpoint and motivates people to participate in the initiative. The aqsaqals' authority is frequently required to encourage community members to commit their time and money to a specific project (Earle et al. 2004:43). However, research undertaken in a village in the Osh Oblast showed that by doing this, donor initiatives reinforce power dynamics and social inequality in rural areas. As a result, women and poorer community members are excluded from the decision-making process. In particular, women in the village did not have the opportunity to express their disagreements during the hearings led by the aqsaqal. They believed that he would not have listened, and at the same time, they did not feel comfortable challenging a well-respected man in the village (Earle et al. 2004: 29).

Funding

This research was realized as part of the EU Commission Horizon2020 MSCA Innovative Training Networks (MSCA-ITN) project MARKETS: Mapping Uncertainties, Challenges and Future Opportunities of Emerging Markets: Informal Barriers, Business Environments and Future Trends in Eastern Europe, The Caucasus and Central Asia, Grant agreement ID: 861034.

References

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Bankoff, G., Oven, K. 2019. ‘From nomadic communitarianism to civil socialism: searching for the roots of civil society in rural Kazakhstan’, Journal of Civil Society, 15(4): 373-391

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Beyer, J. 2015. ‘Customizations of law: Courts of elders (aksakal courts) in rural and urban Kyrgyzstan’. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review, 38(1): 53-71

Earle, L., Fozilhujaev, B., Tashbaeva, C. and Djamankulova, K. 2004. ‘Community Development in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan’, Occasional paper, 40

Kazakh National Medical University. 2013. ‘Aqsaqal keñesi,’ https://kaznmu.kz/a-sa-al-ke-esi/

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Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan. 2020. ‘Council of Aksakals to be created in Korday region,’ 10 February, https://primeminister.kz/en/news/sovet-aksakalov-sozdadut-v-kordayskom-rayone

Polisia.kz.2022. ‘Sovet aksakalov sodeystvuyet v profilaktike bytovoy prestupnosti,’ 1 February, https://polisia.kz/ru/sovet-aksakalov-sodejstvuet-v-profilaktike-bytovoj-prestupnosti/

Qazaqstan musılmandarı dinï basqarması https://www.muftyat.kz/kk/news/qmdb/2022-02-09/38638-kmdb-zhanynan-aksakaldar-kenesi-quryldy-foto/

Satbayev University. 2017. ‘V Kazakhstane sozdan Mezhdunarodnyy nauchno-obrazovatel'nyy tsentr atomnoy promyshlennosti,’ 21 April, https://satbayev.university/ru/news/v-kazakhstane-sozdan-mezhdunarodnyy-nauchno-obrazovatelnyy-tsentr-atomnoy-promyshlennosti

Sengupta, A. 2010. ‘Imperatives of national territorial delimitation and the fate of Bukhara 1917-1924.’ Central Asian Survey 19, no. 3-4: 394-415.

Trevisani, T. 2019. ‘The veterans’ gala: the use of tradition in an industrial labour conflict in contemporary Kazakhstan’ Central Asian Survey, 38(3)