African Indigenous Institutions For Conflict Resolution

African societies have their own traditional institutions for democratic administration. It would be quite reasonable to argue that Africans, at least like any other people elsewhere, certainly have for long time developed their own unique system of governance. As part of their strong and viable system, they had also and still have effective and practically workable conflict resolution mechanisms unlike some Westerner centric arguments which consider African people as savage and uncivilized. It has been assumed that the Western techniques of conflict resolution would also apply to African societies where the context is quite different. Unlike the Western techniques, the African traditional principles of conflict resolution are targeted at bringing about sustainable peace among the disputants; thereby the prevalence of enmity and hatred within as well as across communities could permanently be vanished. Indeed, this is also possible for the Irob society to do it away customarily at the grass-root level through the use of Melat-agle, one of their cultural institutions.

Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in West Africa:Beyond Right and Wrong expands the discourse on indigenous knowledge. With several examples and case histories, the work defines, characterizes, and explains indigenous conflict management strategies in West Africa, particularly in Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon. The book critically evaluates indigenous conflict management strategies with a view to determining their effectiveness in the context of the societies’ history and culture, and the relevance and adaptability of these strategies in contemporary contexts. This book takes a scholarly approach, avoiding romanticizing or idealizing indigenous conflict management strategies in West Africa. It advocates a set of mechanisms by which the best elements of indigenous knowledge and skills in conflict management may be deployed to settle contemporary disputes, and made portable for adoption and adaptation by other complex societies in the region and beyond.

We know that since the end of the Cold War, conflicts in non-Western countries have been frequent, frequently violent, largely intra-state, and protracted. But what do we know about conflict management and resolution strategies in these societies? Have the dominant Western approaches been transplantable, suitable, effective, durable, and sustainable? Would conflicts in non-Western societies be better handled by the adaptation and adoption of customary, traditional, or localized mechanisms of mitigation? These and similar questions have engaged the attention of scholars and policy-makers. Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies: Global Perspectives is offered as a global compendium on indigenous conflict management strategies. It presents diverse perspectives on the subject. Fully aware of the tendency in the literature to over-generalize, over-romanticize, and over-criticize the localized and customary mechanisms, the book takes a slightly different approach. It presents a variety of traditional conflict management approaches as well as several cases of the successful integration of the indigenous and Western strategies in the contemporary period. The main features, strengths, challenges, and weaknesses of a multitude of indigenous systems are also presented.

This text identifies contributions of traditional mechanisms for conflict management in Africa and elsewhere. With African conflicts eluding efforts to be controlled, this work is guided by the question: can traditional methods yield insights and approaches that might help end the violence?

This book is dealt with Mezard institution which seems to be characterized as a democratic institution at least apparently. In the real sense however, it lacks an inherently full-fledged democratic element. In fact it appears to encourage participation of the public in general, but excluding the youth and the women to participate throughout the process and in election of the elders who can handle the existing conflicts. Moreover, based on the study conducted in the area, this book indicates that the Mezard system is cost effective way of adjudicating cases.

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Politics - Topic: Development Politics, grade: Very Good, , course: Development Studies, language: English, abstract: This study deals with indigenous conflict resolution mechanism in Rural Alamata woreda specifically in the institution called Mezard exercised by the Raya people. The study was aimed at examining the Mezard indigenous institution of conflict resolution. The research design employed for this study was case study research design. To this end purposive sampling design was used, employing 24 total sample sizes. Its composition was from indigenous judges, court leaders, to explore the sustainability of the institution, the enforceability, strengths and weaknesses and its role in maintaining peace and stability in the area. This study was conducted using unstructured interview as the main data collection instrument along with focus group discussion employing open ended questions to supplement the data gathered from the key informants. Accordingly, the study finding shows sustainability of the institution is being in formidable challenges, this is mainly because of its less attention on transferring the practice to the young generation and some forces of modernization, etc. With regard to enforceability, the decisions passed by the institution are found to be high in being accepted by the community of the study area. In order to integrate Mezard indigenous conflict resolution mechanism with the formal court legalizing their role and defining their jurisdiction is so important. In addition advancing affirmative action, increasing the income of women by creating new job opportunities, give chance the youth to decide on their matters continually, raising finance generated from the community, etc can help the sustainability of the Mezard institution of conflict resolution. Key words: Erq, indigenous conflict resolution, Mezard, Tabia, Wonz

Nowhere in the world is the demand for peace more prominent and challenging than in Africa. From state collapse and anarchy in Somalia to protracted wars and rampant corruption in the Congo; from bloody civil wars and extreme poverty in Sierra Leone to humanitarian crisis and authoritarianism in Sudan, the continent is the focus of growing political and media attention. This book presents the first comprehensive overview of conflict and peace across the continent. Bringing together a range of leading academics from Africa and beyond, Peace and Conflict in Africa is an ideal introduction to key themes of conflict resolution, peacebuilding, security and development. The book's stress on the importance of indigenous Africa approaches to creating peace makes it an innovative and exciting intervention in the field.

Africa has experienced dozens of conflicts over a variety of issues during the past two decades. Responding to these conflicts requires concerted action to manage the crises – the violence, the political discord, and the humanitarian consequences of prolonged fighting. It is also necessary to address the long-term social and economic impacts of conflict, to rebuild communities, societies and states that have been torn apart. To accomplish this requires the involvement of institutions and groups rarely considered in formal official African conflict management activities: schools, universities, religious institutions, media, commercial enterprises, legal institutions, civil society groups, youth, women and migrants. These groups and organizations have an important role to play in building a sense of identity, fairness, shared norms and cohesion between state and society – all critical components of the fabric of peace and security in Africa. This volume brings together leading experts from Africa, Europe and North America to examine these critical social institutions and groups, and consider how they can either improve or impede peaceful conflict resolution. The overarching questions that are explored by the authors are: What constitutes social cohesion and resilience in the face of conflict? What are the threats to cohesion and resilience? And how can the positive elements be fostered and by whom? The second of two volumes on African conflict management capacity by the editors, The Fabric of Peace in Africa: Looking beyond the State opens new doors of understanding for students, scholars and practitioners focused on strengthening peace in Africa; the first volume, Minding the Gap: African Conflict Management in a Time of change, focused on the role of mediation and peacekeeping in managing violence and political crises.