The Hybridization of an Indigenous peacebuilding practices: An exploratory study of the Borana traditional peace method in the intergroup conflict in Marsabit County, Kenya

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Date
2025-01-18
Authors
Mohamed, Adey
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract

This study explores the Gada model, which has been used by the Borana people in Kenya for many years for resolving intra and inter-ethnic conflicts, but which was over time compromised by colonial and post-colonial regimes. Nevertheless, the Gada model has historically played a significant role in East African peacebuilding. It embraces peaceful peacebuilding values and approaches useful to maintaining durable, lasting, and sustainable peace in society. Africans in general are suffering from multiple conflicts and lack of peace. Modern peacebuilding has not been able to bring lasting solutions to these challenges. As a result, much more weight has been given to modern peace-building apparatuses over indigenous peace-building approaches. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the Gada model in African peace building, to evaluate its application to current and future regional conflicts. In other words, using semi-structured interviews and historical analysis methods, the study investigates the dynamics and resilience of the Gada model and its implications for conflict transformation in modern times. Guided by the goals of Indigenous and emancipatory peacebuilding theories, the study examines how the Borana people advance their own peacebuilding approaches and practices. The research studies the restorative functions and values of the Gada peacebuilding model from the perspective of the Borana people and raises questions about how these values can be incorporated into contemporary peacebuilding models in Kenya. The overarching goal of the study is to produce a hybrid model of traditional and modern approaches for transforming conflict into peace.

Description
Keywords
sustainable peacebuilding, Ethnically divided societies, Indigenous and modernist models
Citation