Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in West Africa

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, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University
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, George Mason University