De-internationalizing Hybrid Peace: State-Traditional Authority Collaboration and Conflict Resolution in Northern Ghana

ABSTRACT

Debates on hybrid peace largely concentrate on ‘local-international’ interactions compared to domestic hybrid orders. Besides, the literature on Ghana dichotomises state and non-state peacemaking, obscuring knowledge on important ‘home-grown’ hybrid peace. Drawing on the work of the ‘Committee of Eminent Chiefs’, a body set up to resolve the Dagbon conflict in the Northern region of Ghana, we illustrate how state-traditional authority interactions shape the efficacy of traditional African peace practice(s), and argue that intractable communal conflicts are likely to resolve if states create enabling environments for indigenous peacemaking. Consequently, we suggest further empirical investigations on localised hybridities in peace governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Dagbon
• liberal peace
• ‘homegrown’ hybridity
• chieftaincy conflict
• peacemaking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 While hybridity describes the condition of intersections or mixed cultures, norms and practices, hybridisation refers to dynamic and complex processes in which prior-hybridised entities coalesce, conflict, and re-coalesce with other prior-hybridised entities to produce a context of constant mixing and interchange, involving individuals, communities, businesses, and states (Mac Ginty 2011, 50).

2 The traditional title for the King of Dagbon Kingdom.

3 Deskinment in the Northern part of Ghana means the removal of a King/chief from the traditional office. Unlike the southern part of Ghana, where chiefs are enstooled into office and sit on stools, chiefs in Northern Ghana are enskinned into office and sit on skins of animals.

4 The supreme father of both Abudu and Andani royal gates possessed with great wisdom and respected by all. It is believed that he is always right, and his decisions are respected by his grandchildren (Abudus and Andanis).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sebastian Angzoorokuu Paalo

Sebastian Angzoorokuu Paalo is a doctoral candidate in the School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland (Australia). He doubles as a Research Fellow in the Department of History and Political Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. Paalo holds two separate Master of Science degrees from Oxford University (UK) and University of Antwerp (Belgium). His publications and research interest centre on conflict resolution and peacebuilding, governance politics of development, and African politics.

Abdul Karim Issifu

Abdul Karim Issifu is a Rotary Peace Scholar in the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University (Sweden). His publications and areas of research concentration include women, peace and security; conflict resolution; and post conflict peacebuilding.