Abstract: Esanland (Otoesan) constitutes the land and people located in the Edo Central Senatorial District, in Edo State, in the Southwestern Nigeria. In the process of their evolution, they experienced different categories of conflicts internally and externally, covering socio-political, economic, and religious aspects of society. The reality of conflicts and the imperative of peace thus compelled the people to devise various social conflict resolution mechanisms in order to foster cooperation in the land. This paper examines the context of internal conflict resolution in Esan during pre-colonial era. Traditionally, conflict resolution refers to measures attempting to resolve the underlying incompatibilities of a conflict, including the attempt to get the parties to mutually accept each other’s’ existence. This study underscores these practices of Esan people before the advent of colonial masters. The paper deemphasized the notion of ‘fatalism theory’, which opined that the best is always outside the shore of Africa. Instead, emphasis is placed on the level of sophistication and effectiveness of the conflict resolution mechanism in Esan land within the limited knowledge at the time, before the intrusion of Western powers. The study employed the historical method of collection and interpretation of data in its analysis. Part of the argument of this paper is that, Esan traditional method of conflict resolution is rich in potentials from which we can draw to build modern societies.
Keywords: Conflict, Conflict resolution, pre-colonial and Esan.
Title: CONFLICT RESOLUTION IN PRE-COLONIAL ESAN LAND
Author: Akahomen, SebastineAgah
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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