Diffusion of Innovation and Community Leadership in East Africa

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the participation of formal leaders in the diffusion of innovation in a rural community in Tanzania. Weber's definition of the basis of traditional leadership indicates a diffuseness of authority, which may become enhanced by directed change, giving the formal leaders a potentiality for influencing processes of social change in general. The results show that the authority of the formal leaders extend to agri cultural matters. Through a central position in the communication structure, they have exercised strong influence in favour of adoption and thus contnbuted to a high rate of diffusion of the innovation in the community. Variations in rates of diffusion between categories of formal leaders and opinion leaders indicate that connecredness to communication networks affect rates of diffusion, but also that additional factors related to formal leader ship itself are important.