Abstract:
This study examined the roles of indigenous actors and the complementary
efforts made by Government and Civil Society Organizations to resolve the
deadlock between the Gonja and Nawuri ethnic groups in the Kpandai district
of Ghana. Classical conflict theories such as primordial, constructionist and
instrumentalist were employed to underpin the causes of the conflict. In-depth
interviews and focus group discussions were employed to obtain data from the
respondents, while purposive sampling technique was used to select 96
respondents who had in-depth knowledge of the conflict. The analysis revealed
that the government of Ghana employed multiple strategies such as deployment
of security personnel, setting up of committees – the Justice Ampiah
Committee, and the Permanent Peace Negotiation Team to manage and resolve
the conflict but to no avail. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) such as the
Nairobi Peace Initiative only succeeded in opening communication between
the conflict parties in Kumasi but could not also resolve the conflict. The study
also revealed that interveners sidelined indigenous conflict resolution
mechanisms and local authorities such as the chiefs, religious leaders, the
gerontocratic approach and Tengdana- all embedded in the local culture of
resolving conflict. The study further discovered that endogenisation of conflict
resolution, where both indigenous knowledge and interveners‟ roles are
combined is best fit to resolve inter-ethnic conflicts. It is recommended, among
others, that the government, CSOs, and local actors should complement the
roles of each other to find a lasting solution to the conflict.
