Conflict Management through African Indigenous Institutions: A Study of the Anyuaa Community

Abstract

Traditional African societies are closely attached with deep-rooted cultural facts and elders play a major roles to solve problems, create strategies and shape local visions based on skills and wisdoms. To do this, they use their past experience and knowledge which transmit from generation to generation. That accumulated knowledge of elders are indigenous knowledge which cultivated from the local community. Therefore, elders apply their indigenous knowledge for development planning as well as solving social problems. To obtain the purpose of this paper, the author selected the Anyuaa society from East Africa who are living in Ethiopia and South Sudan along the border via Gambella. They have traditional institutions known as Nyieye and Kwaaro to implement indigenous knowledge in order to handling social problems including conflicts. Thus, in the body the paper, the concepts of indigenous knowledge, conflict resolution, roles of indigenous knowledge in conflict resolution, Anyuaa's traditional institutions such as the Noblship (Nyieya) and the headman (Kwaaro) including their conflict resolution process, compensation and purification are briefly discussed. The discussion supported by pictures that help us easily to understand the relevant linkage of indigenous knowledge to conflict resolution. Finally, conclusion is forwarded to accentuate how the African traditional institutions play their role to manage conflicts through their indigenous knowledge.