Is There a Common Bantu Conflict Resolution Culture?: a Comparative Analysis of Traditional Conflict Resolution Elements

In recent years a lot of research has been conducted on the topic of traditional conflict resolution methods. These methods are in many cases very different from the modern or western methods of resolving conflict. This is true of conflicts between individuals or family members, as it is of conflicts that can only be summarized as outright war. While the rise in interest for traditional conflict resolution methods can be described as a quest to improve the modern methods, comparisons have so far only been made on a case by case basis. In order for traditonal conflict resolution methods to be compared to modern methods, the question must first be answered whether traditional conflict resolution methods the world over present enough similarities so that they might lend themselves to the generalization that would be necessary to compare them to modern methods. This paper represents a first attempt at trying to answer the question whether traditional conflict resolution methods can be compared and summarized.