Faculty of Humanities, and Social Science and Education FIGHTING FOR PEACE: ASSESSING THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE GUINEA FOWL WAR OF 1994 Larry Ibrahim Mohammed Master’s in Peace and Conflict Transformation … May 2018 DEDICATION To my parents: Who with little formal education ensured that I got the basics to climb the academic ladder To my precious wife: Your support all the years we have met is priceless. You are one in a million. To my beautiful diamond daughters: Who I got in the period of my masters education, I assure you of my love and care To all lovers of peace: Do not give up in fighting for peace, peace is an expensive commodity whose prize is priceless. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Randi Balsvik Rønning for her guidance and wonderful care throughout this project. Her invaluable and meticulous advice from helping shape my rough ideas to a completed thesis is worthy of emulation for any supervisor. Any errors in judgment and presentation are entirely mine. She deserves all the good credit. Professor Randi Balsvik Rønning also ensured that I did not have a boring life as an international student. Her occasional tickets to expensive concerts beyond the budget of an ordinary student made me felt part of the society. Secondly, I am grateful to the entire staff of the Center for Peace Studies(CPS) at the University of Tromso for the excellent work they put in getting us a solid curricular. Their friendly and welcoming nature made every problem a potential breakthrough. I should mention the wonderful trips CPS made possible for us. The weekend at Finnkrokken, our field work presentations in Alta, the week-long conference in Petrozavodsk, Russia and for covering the cost of half of my Youth Assembly conference at the United Nations in New York. Most importantly, CPS made this research a reality as they provided financial support to cover the major cost of my field work in Ghana. I also wish to thank the Center for Sami Studies for supplementing the budget of field work. The extra assistance I got ensured that I went the extra mile in getting the relevant data for this research. Finally, I thank members of my family, my senior brothers :brothers Prince Yahuza Mohammed, Mansur Larry Mohammed for their support in helping me pursue my studies as a self-financing student. I would like to also extend my sincere thanks to my trusted friend, Nafiu Mpoah Goerge who has shown me much brotherly love ever than I could possible mention. George! You are one of a good soul. ii ABSTRACT This thesis is a historical work on the relationship between ethnic groups in the Northern Part of Ghana. There have been several ethnic conflicts in Ghana since Ghana attained independence in 1957. My thesis focuses on the 1994 ethnic conflict between the Konkomba and the Nanumba which eventually attracted allies to both sides of the warring factions. The Konkombas have had a history of violent conflict with different ethnic groups since colonial times. Before the 1994 GFW, there was the 1981 Pito war between the Konkomba and the Nanumba which had claimed several hundreds of lives. A repeat of another war between same adversaries a little over a decade raises serious concerns about governments role in preventing and finding lasting solutions to these ethnic armed conflicts. Drawing on multiple sources of data such as newspaper reports, archival material, official documents from the Northern Region House of Chiefs and personal interviews, this thesis attempt to trace the causes of the 1994 GFW as perceived by both sides of the warring factions. These causes of the ethnic conflict which I discuss borders on chieftaincy, land ownership rights and access to a quasi-government institution. My thesis also examines the actions, inactions and peace initiative of government before, during and after the war and how the government’s decisions have either contributed to the realization of peace or saw to the continuation of violence. This thesis analyses government’s response in terms of the provision of security and their efforts at constituting a commission of enquiry to find lasting solutions to the root causes of the Guinea Fowl. iii Master’s Thesis, Title: FIGHTING FOR PEACE: ASSESSING THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE GUINEA FOWL WAR OF 1992 Larry Ibrahim Mohammed iv Table of Contents DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................ i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................................ ii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. iii Master’s Thesis, Title: ................................................................................................................ iv FIGHTING FOR PEACE: ASSESSING THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE GUINEA FOWL WAR OF 1992 ............................................................................................................................ iv Larry Ibrahim Mohammed ........................................................................................................ iv FIGURES ..................................................................................................................................... iii 1. MAP of GHANA ................................................................................................................. iii 2. MAP OF GHANA SHOWING TOWNS AFFECTED BY THE VIOLENCE OF THE GUINEA FOWL WAR .......................................................................................................................................... iii CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1.2 Background .......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Intra and Inter-ethnic conflicts in northern Ghana ........................................................................ 3 1.2.1 An Introduction to the Guinea Fowl War of 1994 .................................................................................. 4 1.3 Problem statement ....................................................................................................................... 6 1.4.1 Research questions .................................................................................................................... 7 1.4.2 Research objectives .............................................................................................................................. 7 1.5 Chapter outlay .............................................................................................................................. 8 1.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .................................... 9 2.2 Towards an Explanation of The Guinea Fowl War in Ghana .......................................................... 9 2.2.1 The Colonialism Project School of Thought............................................................................................ 9 2.2.2 The ethnicity and social school of thought .......................................................................................... 11 iv 2.2.3 The State-Centric Approach school of thought .................................................................................... 13 PART B: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................ 15 2.3. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 15 2.3.1 History and the use of social theory .................................................................................................... 15 2.4 TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF ETHNICITY .......................................................................... 16 2.4.1 Assumptions of ethnicity and the construct of ‘us and them’ .............................................................. 17 2.4.2 Ethnicity as Ascriptive ......................................................................................................................... 17 2.4.3 Ethnicity as Cultural Differences ......................................................................................................... 18 2.5 ETHNIC VIOLENCE VS COMMUNAL VIOLENCE AND CIVIL WAR ................................................... 19 2.6 THEORIES ON ETHNIC CONFLICTS AND WARS ............................................................................. 22 2.6.1 Minority Mobilization and Conflict ...................................................................................................... 22 2.6.2 Governments and Post War Peace ...................................................................................................... 24 2.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER THREE : METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................................