The Institution of Chieftaincy / Traditional Rulership
Ghana's constitution emphatically states that the institution of Chieftaincy, together with its traditional council as established by customary law and usage is hereby guaranteed. It defines a chief as a person who hailing from the appropriate family or lineage has been validly nominated, elected or selected and enstooled, enskinned or installed as a chief or queen mother in accordance with the relevant customary law and usage.
The constitution mandates the establishment of a House of Chiefs in each region and it sets up a National House of Chiefs. Each regional house of chiefs elects five Paramount Chiefs to represent the region in the National House of Chiefs. According to the constitution, the National House of Chiefs will do the following
- Advice on Chieftaincy issues
- Study, interpret and codify customary law into a unified system and compile times of succession applicable to each stool/skin
- Undertake evaluation of traditional customs, and usages with a view to eliminating those that are outmoded and socially harmful.
- Perform such other function consistent with their normal functions conferred by Parliament
- The Ghanaian constitution expressly prohibits chiefs from taking part in "active party politics"
- It requires any chief who wishes to engage in active party politics or who wishes to contest election to Parliament, to "abdicate his stool or skin"
Notwithstanding the negative roles played by this institution during the post colonial era – Indirect Rule system and in recent times where some corrupt chiefs are amassing wealth out of the sale of lands which they should be custodians only. Chiefs continue to be respected and the institution revered in most African countries/in the African Continent for its amazing resilience.
The following are a few reasons for this
- It seem as a enduring heritage of the African (custodian of culture and tradition)
- Chiefs are closely linked to the people at the grassroots and understand their problem
- Preserve peace, order and stability in our society and adjudicate disputes.
- Settle disputes among the people (low level conflict resolution)
- Spear head development projects in their respective communities (a recent turn / development)
- They adjudicate numerous disputes (low-level conflict resolution)
- Spearhead development projects in their respective communities (a recent turn/ development)
- Mouthpiece of the people, linking them with government (can arouse community solidarity). As the Asantehene once stated in BBC News interview and I quote “Governments will come and go but we are always here. We live with people, 70% are in rural areas- and they are with us”.
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This institution is practiced in a lot of African countries including Nigeria, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa etc but how the institution is engaged in national politics differ from one country to another. More information can be sought from
Northern Ghana Conflict
Though Ghana continues to be a relatively peaceful country in the African Continent, it has not been free from internal ethnic conflicts or isolated cases of human rights violations. The post independence era has witnessed a number of violent conflicts in many parts of Ghana occasioned by land and Chieftaincy disputes, religious disagreements between and within sects. Also the northern region has witnessed a number of ethnic conflicts mostly between the Kokomba minority group and the Dagombas, Gonjas and Nanumbas on the other hand. Interestingly, these minority groups who are believed to be settlers from neighboring Togo have in most cases defeated the majority groups in conflicts/wars with the use of sophisticated AK47 assault guns and communication equipment. It is worth noting that the Kokombas are very hardworking, producing the bulk of yams from northern Ghana and thus are wealthy. Thus the conflicts between the Dagombas and the Kokombas which spanned over 1914’s to 1995 have been over the issue of land ownership and a sense of superiority of the minority Kokombas due to wealth. .
These conflicts though were to some extent effectively managed, one cannot close discussion of them without mentioning the violence that erupted during those times. There were very cruel killing of children, women mostly pregnant women, old men and burning down of houses and sometimes entire villages.
Dagbon Conflict
The conflict that this paper seeks to discuss is one among people of only one particular ethnic group, the Dagombas. This is the Dagbon conflict currently between two (2) gates of the same ethnic background. It has to do with succession to the Ya Na throne or what is called the Namship of Yendi. The Dagombas have their traditional seat in Yendi, a town in northern Ghana. Please refer to the Ghana map. Though Dagombas are scattered in towns like Tamale, Chereponi, Saboba etc the conflict started in Yendi after the murder of the late Ya-Na Andani II on March 27, 2002 over a disagreement on the celebration of the Bugum (Fire) Festival between the 2 gates. Though this latter disagreement has been perceived by the greater majority of Ghanaians as the cause of the conflict, there are remote causes to this conflict. This has to do with internal disagreements between the 2 gates and even other royal clans about succession rules. This dates as far back as 1958, when the then Ya Na, Mionlana Andani, the father of the murdered chief appealed to the CPP government to intervene in the Yendi skin affairs. Since then, the Dagbon Chieftaincy divide assumed a political dimension even at the national. Thus the governments that came to power would align itself to one side of the divide which did not auger well for the institution as a whole.
The burial of the chief has been postponed indefinitely as each of the two factions claims the right to have a regent installed from their family immediately after the burial.
Thus three years after the death of the chief, peace has still not been found and the burial has also not taken place. Various initiatives have been taken by government, NGOs/ Peacebuilding Organizations and Civil Society, yet peace seems to be a distant dream. Governments since independence have set up one Committee or the other to investigate the crisis and make recommendations which have been implemented by those governments. The tendency has been for newly elected governments to throw overboard the ruling and recommendations implemented. This over the years have aggravated the problem and hence the current crises.
What Government has done
- Government declared a state of emergency in the area and deployed forces to maintain law & order (this indeed has cost the country so much)
- Set up Justice Wuako Commission to investigate circumstances leading to the murder
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Set up 3-man Mediation Committee of Eminent Chiefs made up of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II (the Asantehene), Yebon-Wura Doshie Bawa Abudu (Gonja Paramount Chief) and Na Gamni Mahamadu (Mamprugu Paramount Chief) to reconcile the 2 gates.
- Meeting was organized by the government which brought together key government functionaries, civil society organizations and key individuals from the two gates to smoke the peace pipe yet these meetings among others were not successful.
Role played by the UN, NGOs & Civil Society
- The UN Committee on conflict resolution visited the traditional areas to help reconcile the 2 gates
- GHANEP, an NGO with financial support from the Konrad Adeneur Foundation and WANEP have organized series of consultative meetings aimed at designing a comprehensive peacebuilding framework for resolving the conflict in Dagbon.
- Another key organization working in this area of peacebuilding is Act!onaid Ghana. They have been very instrumental in involving civil society at the grassroots to bring peace to Dagbon (activities include drama by school children on the effects of conflicts, jingles on the airwaves, sensitization workshops etc)
- The Christian Council of Ghana has also been involved in the peace process
- The National Commission on Civic Education has also played its role with a series of diplomatic shuttling between the two families
- Some prominent and respected individuals have taken their own initiatives to bring the people of Dagbon together for peace (e.g. Dr. David Abudulai), but this was stalled along the line.
CONCLUSION
One fact still remains that though various roles could be played by Governments, NGOs and Civil Society Organizations; peace in Dagbon can only be possible if the people of Dagbon commit themselves to the process (2 parties should be prepared to dialogue with an aim to resolving their differences and achieving peace).
Secondly, the activities of these varied bodies need to be co-coordinated effectively to inform each other and hence achieve efficiency and desired ends.
There should be a conscious effort to address the remote causes of this conflict, once and for all.
There should be adequate and free information flow to bring an end to rumor mongering which has become a common phenomenon in the area and which is producing great fear and perceived insecurity among civil society.
The media should also assist by refraining from publishing information that has negative impact on the peace process and in like manner publish those that have positive impact. This is but some of the ideas towards peace in Dagbon.
However with the current entrenched positions of the 2 gates to the conflict (i.e. Abudu gate and Andani gate), it is difficult for them to dialogue and bring peace to the area.
The northern region though endowed with so many resources such as clinker, limestone, Kaolin, barite, gold, and iron-ore, still remains underdeveloped area with the majority of the populace in abject poverty. Most of their youth move down south in search of menial jobs. The question is “how can an area become developed when resources are channeled into wars and conflicts”? “How can there be sustainable development in a region where there is one conflict or another with deaths and destruction of property”?
It is the fervent wish of every peace loving Ghanaian that “peace” returns to Dagbon traditional area soon, however, this desired end still seems far from achieving due to the realities on the ground. The good thing is that, Ghanaians have not given up on this and working hard to bring peace to the area.
KEY TERMS/ ABBREVIATIONS
NPP - New Patriotic Party
NDC - National Democratic Congress
PNDC - Peoples National Defense Council
CPP - Convention Peoples Party
GHANEP - Ghana Network for Peace Building
WANEP - West Africa Network for Peace Building
NCCE - National Commission on Civic Education
NGO - Non Governmental Organization
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barash, David P. and Webel Charles P. Peace and Conflict Studies. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2002
Thomas Paine. Web Definition of Conflict.
Definition of Violence & Reconciliation.
Ghana Physical. . Accessed 17/10/2005
West Africa Review. Chiefs, Constitutions and Policies in Nigeria. Issue 6 (2004)
. Accessed 17/10/2005
Asantehene of Ghana. BBC Africa News Interview. . Accessed 17/10/2005
Abayie Boaten. Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflicts in Africa- Ghana’s Example. Ethno-Net Publication.
Ziblim Iddi, Atlanta USA. Dagbon Reconciliation. Feature Article of 9th July 2005. . Accessed 17/10/2005
Act!onaid Ghana June 2005 Report on Peace Initiatives in Dagbon
GHANEP December 2004 Report on Consultative Meetings towards Building a Comprehensive Framework for Peace in Dagbon