Indigenous Conflict Resolution Mechanism as Reconciliatory and Therapeutic

Abstract

This chapter explores the role of traditional methods of social control that deploy the power of the deities as a missing dimension of justice delivery. The authors present the rituals associated with deploying the traditional mechanism of control as both reconciliatory and therapeutic. Drawing on both historical and contemporaneous instances from Ghana and the Caribbean, the chapter contends that the continuous reliance on African spirit-based justice delivery method betrays not only the insufficiencies in the Western superimposed adversarial legal system but also a tacit and open rejection of this imported system. The chapter interrogates the prospects and pitfalls of indigenous Africa and its diasporan conflict resolution mechanism.