The Yendi Chieftaincy crisis in Northern Ghana: The voice of the woman matters in the conflict resolution process.

This study explores the participation of women in conflict and conflict resolution of a protracted Chieftaincy crisis in a male-dominated cultural setting of Dagbon in Northern Ghana. In understanding the major challenges women encounter in the conflict resolution process, it explores first, what the women have or have not done in the conflict and the resolution of the crisis to bring to light the conditions under which the women engage in the peace process. Second, it looks at how the idea of femininity (and sometimes masculinity) impact on women’s possibilities to engage in the peace process. The study reveals issues of gender imbalances in the official peace process as it is limited to only men. The patriarchal notions of motherhood and domestic femininity hinders women’s participation in crucial issues including the peace process. However, women struggled to engage in the peace process by invoking ideas of strength, as well as vulnerability and victimhood through the images of motherhood to subvert these patriarchal barriers in the peace processes of the chieftaincy crisis and create space for their involvement. The study concludes that believing in the power of motherhood does not mean agreeing with all patriarchal norms that perpetuate structural violence against women and bar them from participating in public matters. The women called on men to tone down their chauvinistic tendencies to make changes in the traditional set-ups. This will create, they believed, other avenues to be explored and provide for fresh ideas to be utilized in the on-going peace process of the conflict, and in Ghana in general, for a sustainable peace and development.