ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the underlying purposes for which people bring their disputes to the vernacular forums. It centralises the substantive needs of the communities as they relate to the forums' means, and systematically demonstrates the incapacity of the forums to satisfy the bulk of those needs, as well as the reasons for this incapacity. Violence is rife in Msinga and is partly motivated by the plausibility of violence as a conflict management strategy and wide availability of firearms and alcohol. A wide range of objectives motivating people to bring their cases – or bring other external intervention into their long-standing disputes – emerges from such an assessment of Msinga. When the vernacular forums are deemed unable to deliver the desired relief – or not even given a chance – and matters turn violent, it is the fragility of life in Msinga that makes 'violence as conflict management' plausible.