THE GONJA-NAWURI CONFLICT IN RETROSPECT: ACHIEVING PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE IN A TROUBLED LAND OF NORTHERN GHANA

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.