ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to contribute to the debate around the efficacy of security and justice provision by actors other than state institutions or their agents, particularly traditional authorities. It argues that collaborative mechanisms between state institutions and other bodies that do not place traditional authorities at the centre of the discussion will have limited chance of success. Taking Ghana as a case, the chapter draws on fieldwork narratives from two cities and two rural communities, to explore how potentially symbiotic, cooperative relationships between traditional and modern state institutions epitomise the changing, transformational dynamics of power and legitimacy and of peace formation in Ghana.
