Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in West Africa: Beyond Right and Wrong

by Brandon D. Lundy (Editor), Jesse J. Benjamin (Editor), Joseph Kingsley Adjei (Editor), Akanmu G. Adebayo Kennesaw State University (Contribution by), Mustapha Abdallah (Contribution by)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739192597
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	11/19/2014
Series:	Conflict and Security in the Developing World
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	392
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Akanmu G. Adebayo is professor of history and director of the Center for Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University.

Joseph Kingsley Adjei is a PhD candidate in International Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University.

Jesse J. Benjamin is associate professor in the Departments of Sociology and Criminal Justice, and Interdisciplinary Studies, at Kennesaw State University.

Brandon D. Lundy is associate professor of anthropology and associate director of the PhD program in International Conflict Management at Kennesaw State University.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Introduction: Reconciliation and Conflict Management in West Africa through Cultural Traditions
Brandon D. Lundy and Joseph Kingsley Adjei

General and Conceptual Frameworks

Chapter Two: Conflicts in Africa: Negotiating Space for Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in the Contemporary Age
Olutayo C. Adesina

Chapter Three: Exploring Indigenous Mechanisms for Peacemaking in West Africa
Serwaa Brewoo and Mustapha Abdallah

Chapter Four: Border Disputes in Africa and Traditional Approaches to Resolving Them
Joan Mbagwu

Chapter Five: “. . . in the Name of the Son”: the ‘Son’ as Scapegoat in African Literature.
Kolawole Olaiya

Ghana

Chapter Six: The Role of the Chieftaincy Institution in Ensuring Peace in Ghana from Precolonial Times to the Present
Joseph Kingsley Adjei

Chapter Seven: Colonial Justice and Conflict Management: The Case of Chief Seniagya and the Ashanti Golden Stool
Joseph Kingsley Adjei and Akanmu G. Adebayo

Chapter Eight: Homegrown Crises, Homegrown Solutions? The Efficacy of Indigenous Conflict Resolution/Management Approaches in Ghana
Sarah Okaebea Danso and Joana Ama Osei-Tutu

Nigeria

Chapter Nine: Women’s Involvement in Indigenous Conflict Management: An Analysis of the Role of Umuada in Conflict Management in Traditional Igbo Society of Southeastern Nigeria
Felix Chinwe Asogwa

Chapter Ten: The Role of the Umunna and Age Grades in Traditional Conflict Management in Igboland
Luke Amadi and James E. Agena

Chapter Eleven: Communication and Conflict Management in Traditional Igbo Society
Emmanuel J. C. Duru, Silk Ugwu Ogbu, and Ifeanyi F. Didiugwu

Chapter Twelve: Ilepa Among the Yoruba of Western Nigeria: What Do the Dead Have to Do With Peace and Conflict?
Olutayo C. Adesina

Chapter Thirteen: Indigenous Methods in Conflict Resolution: The Example of Yorùbá Society
Lérè Adéyẹmí

Chapter Fourteen: Sparks of Resistance, Flames of Change: Orature in Reconciliation and Conflict Management among the Yorùbá
Olusola George Ajibade

Chapter Fifteen: The Challenges of Conflict Transformation: Amnesty in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria in Retrospect
Willie Eselebor

Chapter Sixteen: From Militancy to Amnesty: An Exploration of Nigeria’s Indigenous Conflict Management Strategy in the Niger Delta Region
Severus Ifeanyi Odoziobodo and Ifeanyi F. Dididugwu

Chapter Seventeen: Alternative Dispute Resolution Strategies, Undergraduate Student Union Leaders, and Conflict Management in Selected Tertiary Institutions in Ibadan
Clement O. O. Kolawole and Toluwalope Olajumoke Kolawole

Cameroon

Chapter Eighteen: Beitonghekeh: Peoples’ Power and Conflict Resolution in Cameroon
Henry Kam Kah

Chapter Nineteen: Indigenous Peacemaking among the Banso People of Cameroon: Bonyang as a Conflict Resolution System
Solomon Losha and Stephen Ojong Agbor

Chapter Twenty: Bekem in Peacemaking in Nweh Society
Achankeng Fonkem

Chapter Twenty One: Conclusion: Implications of Epistemic Diversity for Conflict Management in West Africa and the World
Jesse J. Benjamin and Akanmu G. Adebayo

Editorial Reviews

Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in West Africa:Beyond Right and Wrong offers a wonderfully far-ranging, yet in-depth, discussion of conflict resolution and prevention in West Africa, with a particular focus on Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon. With careful attention to the cultural and institutional contexts in which conflict takes place, the chapters demonstrate the need to take indigienous norms seriously in an age when international actors promote 'best practices' without always taking these norms into account. The resulting combination of critical commentary with descriptions of indigenous conflict management strategies will be useful to scholars and practitioners alike. Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in West Africa:Beyond Right and Wrong is an extremely important and very welcome addition to the literature on conflict resolution in West Africa.

Niklas Hultin

Beginning with its title, Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in West Africa:Beyond Right and Wrong captures the rich spirit of indigenous conflict management attitudes and strategies in West Africa and beyond. It digs deep into the layers of understanding rolled up in traditional practices and examines their relation—often but not necessarily conflictual—with modern practice. This solid volume is built on conceptual developments and many cases that provide the basis for insight into traditional society and introspection into modern ways.

I. William Zartman