15/12/2020
AFRICAN TRADITIONAL APPROACHES TO CONFLICT PREVENTION, MANAGEMENT AND RESOLUTION
DECEMBER 13, 2020
African Traditional Approaches to Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution
It is a common knowledge that Africa has the highest statistics of violent conflicts in the whole world despite international efforts at peace and conflict resolution. Can this situation be wrongly viewed from the white man’s lens that African is an atomistic society perpetually in conflict with itself? This could be possible. But the fact of the case, as has been rightly pointed out, is that,
"for many years, the treatment of conflicts in Africa involving national armies revolved around conventional mechanisms that have excluded traditional approaches."
It should be noted that African conflicts are born and bred in Africa, sharing all the cultural characteristics of Africans that gave birth to them.
For this reason any foreign peace initiative that does not go into marriage alliance with African traditional approaches is bound to fail. This is because African conflicts have ears and sentiments that only respond to African cultural languages and sentimental appeals. The following are examples of indigenous African approaches or mechanism for conflict prevention, management and resolution.
Igba-ndu or Blood Covenant Mechanism.
Igba-ndu or blood covenant is Igbo social control and adjustment mechanism designed for permanent and inviolable social integration of individuals, villages or group of villages that may not share common ancestry unto a sacred but artificially created covenant relationship through miscegenation and ritual sacrifices for the purpose of peaceful co-existence, conflicts prevention and conflict resolution. According to Afigbo,
“The Igba Institution known as Igba-ndu was a system by which two or more villages or village groups which have no formalities of blood relationship artificially contracted one for themselves by performing certain rituals.”
The reconciliatory function of blood covenant was attested to by Eze B.A. Oyo, the late traditional ruler of Nvosi in Ngwa South Local Government Area of Abia State. According to him, as a result of frequent boundary conflicts between Nvosi and Nsulu in pre-colonial times, people of the two areas came to the conclusion that permanent peaceful relationship could only be restored through a blood covenant between the two communities through selected elders who performed the ritual at the boundary after reaching some agreement.
Eldership Mechanism
Elders play very strategic roles in conflict resolution in traditional Africa, this is because elders are respected as trustworthy mediator because of their accumulated experiences and invaluable wisdom.
The primary objective of elders in any conflict is to avoid a situation that would lead to mud slinging of accusation and counter accusation between the conflicting parties. Instead, they try to soothe the hurt feelings of the parties, leading them to reach compromise that could improve their relationship.
To achieve the above objective, elders must show skill in pressurizing and manipulating the parties to accept their recommendations and useful suggestions. They must be impartial and understanding. They must be versed in the normal and traditions of the people and apply them to attain desired goals.
They must be flexible and patient enough to understand the feeling of each party and to show consideration for each one of them. Decisions reached at the end must reflect the consensus opinion of the elders and stakeholders of the parties to the case which normally attract handshakes of appreciation, cordial feelings and satisfaction of the parties concerned.
African Women Peace Strategies
Women in general have carved a niche for themselves in the annals of history as front line peace lovers. This assertion is supported by Bob Manuel from the European Peace University, Austria, who voted an example of Luo women in Kenya who were usually at the Forefront in various stages of a peace process, such as preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peacekeeping and post-conflict peace building. According to him, they used direct and indirect intervention methods through elders and women’s networks that existed within warring parties.
Whenever women perceived war at the preparatory stage, they would ask the elders in their own community to arrange for dialogue with the opposing clan. If the request was rejected, the women arrange to visit their counterparts in the enemy camp and thus built alliance as a strategy for convincing the elders of both camps to resolve their conflicts in non-violent ways. This approach created an atmosphere of trust between both communities, which encouraged informal contacts rather than contact through representatives.
With the single exception of “Nick of time preventive diplomacy” by African women, no other force in the world can turn back African warriors from attaching their enemies after having declared the war. This is exemplified by Luo women in Kenya, who even has the capacity and the ability to make peace at the eleventh hour when battle had been declared and when warriors were on the move to the battle field. But the women courageously blocked them, the path of warriors who had set out for battle and the warriors would then turn back.
In African culture it has been argued that,
“No warrior or elder could ignore the women’s cry for them to refrain from battle and no woman ignored her moral obligation to intervene and create peace in the face of violence.”
Mato Oput Reconciliation Process
Mato Oput is a process if peaceful reconciliation between conflicting parties among the Acholi people, who are Luo-speaking group in Northern Uganda. The reconciliation process is carried out through the mediation of traditional chiefs who act as arbitrators and reconcilers of disputing families and clans.
The process usually involve the following five steps:
The guilty acknowledges responsibility for his action or deed.
He shows repentance.
He asks for forgiveness.
He pays compensation and
He is reconciled with the victim’s family through sharing or drinking together the symbolic bitter drinks of Mato Oput herb that shows or depicts full reconciliation.
African Universal Brotherhood Concepts or Togetherness Known as Parapo (Yoruba), Ubuntu (Zulu) and Ujamaa (Kiswahili)
The concept of African Universal Brotherhood or togetherness could be likened to the ‘warp and weft’ interweaving process involving two basic threads (the warp and weft) to produce clothes with complex designs, it is for this reason that every African regards a fellow African as brother or sister. This spirit of togetherness in Yoruba language is known as Parapo, in Zulu language it is known as Ubuntu, and in Kiswahili it is known as Ujamaa. This feeling of togetherness as a family, village members, community, state or country, promotes co-operation and forms the basis for conflict transformation when there is misunderstanding
Islamic Conflict Intervention and Resolution Approach in Africa
According to Amr Abadalla, the three basic principles that guide Islamic conflict intervention and resolution are:
Restoring to Islam and its messages if justice, freedom and equality.
Engaging the community in the intervention and resolution process
Adjusting intervention techniques according to the conflict situation and stages.
Restoring to Islam and its Message of Justice, Freedom and Equality
Islam has a wide territorial spread across the globe with people of different races, cultures and traditions. With the passage of time, cultural mix occurs between pure Islamic culture and traditional religions. Persisting cultural and traditional institutions and structures have consistently diluted Islam of its messages of equality, social justice and freedom. It is, therefore, the duty of Muslim conflict-interveners to help restore the over-clouded Islamic principles under traditional setting by clarifying the conflicting parties the causes of the negative practices that use adversely influenced their lives for so long.
For example, It should seek to restore the dignity of women and minors who have been abused and disempowered over the ages and centuries, John Esposito states that,
“some Islamic practices must go through a process of reinterpretation of the source, revealing and understanding the sources and reviving the spirit of equality and justice.”
Engaging the Community in the Intervention and Resolution Process
Islamic theory places high emphasis on the culture of relatedness as opposed to the Western culture of individualism or separateness. A Turkish social psychologist explains that this cultural pattern refers to family culture and interpersonal patterns characterized by dependent and interdependent relations with over-lapping personal boundaries.
Several Islamic Hadiths and verses advocate active involvement of the community in resolving disputes. This strong sense of relatedness and community could be utilized for conflict intervention under Islamic settings. For example, in the Burundi-Rwanda conflict the Muslim Hutu and Tutsi population of the two counties refrained from participating in the war because of their religious relatedness as Muslim brothers and sisters. Secondly, Abadalla confirms that in the Burundi-Rwanda war, Muslims did not fight one another despite their ethnic differences but also refused to fight others too. Instead they strongly intervened to restore peace.
According to him the Muslim sections of Kigali and Bujumbura were safe havens for mixed refugees of both parties during the war.
Adjusting the Intervention Technique According to the Conflict Situation and its Stages
I’m Islamic theory, intervention technique should best correspond to the state of the conflict. The purpose of this is to restore justice by adhering to Islamic principles and values. The Holy Qur’an clearly states the need of adjusting third party intervention according to the level or stage of the conflict.
it also states that the principal objective of third party intervention is to effect reconciliation of the parties in conflict. For example, in two marital disputes, involving minor disagreement (known as Sheqaq) and out right deviance (known as Neshouz) by one spouse, the Qur’an recommends an adjustment in the handling techniques, (see the two examples below).
Minor Marital Disagreement Case (Sheqaq)
Marital Deviance Case (Neshouz)
Minor Marital Disagreement Case (Sheqaq)
Third party intervention should be comprised of two people representing each spouse.
Marital Deviance Case (Neshouz)
In the case of marital deviance, which is more serious, the Qur’an mandates a contingency process to be followed by the husband and a different one by the wife. The objective of the contingency process is to help each party make a decision to restore or normalize relationship. But if such efforts fail to yield positive result, they are free to pursue divorce proceedings. Nevertheless, if the case of injustice is found, the third party must try to eliminate first and then proceed to reconcile the two parties. Where all these fail, divorce procedure is the next step. This shows that Islam has adjustable intervention techniques to conflict situation.
