One Conflict, Three Resolution Mechanisms: The Dilemma of Resolving the Inter-Ethnic Conflict between the Nawuri and the Gonja of Northern Ghana

Abstract

In the 1990s, Northern Ghana grappled with ethnic conflicts of different magnitude. Many of these conflicts were ‘colonial conflicts' as their causes are rooted in colonial policies, but few others had no reference to colonialism; they were occasioned by local exigencies. The Nawuri-Gonja conflict was one of the ‘colonial conflicts', which ravaged the Kpandai area in 1991 and 1992. During and after the armed encounters between the Nawuri and the Gonja, various attempts were made to resolve the conflict. Traditional authorities, the Government, local and international NGOs jumped into the ‘conflict resolution wagon' and took turns in three successive attempts to resolve the conflict. The conflict seemed intractable and an albatross as attempts to resolve it did not yield the results desired. This paper delineates the attempts made to resolve the Nawuri-Gonja conflict between 1991 and 1996, and argues that resolving the conflict was a dilemma and unsuccessful.