ABSTRACT
This paper explores the use of communal ritual systems among selected African communities for conflict transformation. It examines the spiritual–mythic functions of rituals in the maintenance of social cohesion and order. So far, human existence has appreciably conferred (un)predictable ordeals in the bid by dominant cultures to establish hegemony over other. Yet, autochthonous knowledge – the same that aided and sustained human survival, and success in unlocking the secrets of ancient civilizations – has also been the bane of human conflicts over time, and thus, the underdevelopment of society. While this chapter acknowledges, like any other culture, limitations within African traditional system, it demonstrates the unexplored potentials within the African traditional systems, that can forge conflict transformation processes. Consequently, this paper prescribes some African communal attributes as a tool for understanding conflict in the continent towards an effective African-specific conflict transformation.
