Women and Peace Initiative in Igbo Traditional Society: A Viable Option for Peace Building in Modern Africa

Abstract

Peace, the pristine aspiration of humanity seems to have evaded the contemporary age. Therefore, bloody conflicts have ravaged human race from dateless past to the present. However, humanity has attempted to put in place certain socio-political mechanism to grapple with this insidious phenomenon. In spite of the various mechanisms, war has continued to persist with greater intensity. Experts attributed its persistence to human greed, personal enterprise and violation of certain social capitals. Africa which had track record of peaceful estate in her traditional history is now synonymous with conflict in modern history. Thus, she is described as one of the most volatile part of the world. Consequently, world communities have become concerned on how to stop or at least reduce it to the barest. Therefore; many have come up with propositions as to the cause of conflict in this region and consequently suggested steps to stopping it. However, this work has taken historical, socio-political and cultural approach to the study of conflict in this region. It found that the recent upsurge of conflict in Africa is predicated on the fact that certain social values and norms have been violated. The basic institution sustaining the social structure have been neglected and abandoned. This paper also discovered that one major cause of the upsurge of conflict in Africa is the dislodging of the women from the public sphere and her abandonment of her divine role.. We therefore underscore that if peace must return to Africa, women must return to their legitimate social role. We used the Igbo example to justify our assumption.