African Media and Conflict
By Abiodun Onadipe and David Lord
Part Four - In Their Own Words
Conflicts in Africa: Causes, Consequences And Solutions - By Sébastien Dossa
Conflicts are multiple and multiform. To analyse the concept of conflict, we must agree that conflict is as old as mankind. Experience has shown that conflicts are usually the result of incompatible interests. We also know that human beings are in one form of relationship or another. It is in these relationships that conflicts generally occur.
Conflicts may break out between two persons or between groups. Individuals or groups having divergent viewpoints or interests may also have conflicting relationships. If we examine conflicting situations, it will be seen that wherever they exist, and whatever their causes, there have always been attempts to resolve them. Finding solutions requires the involvement of other people, who strive to negotiate acceptable terms and conditions between the conflicting parties. We thus cannot deal with conflicts without talking about negotiation. This analysis will focus on conflicts in general, their causes, and the need to find solutions by negotiation, for instance. All these aspects will be addressed, using relevant examples from my own country, Benin, as well as from cases around the world.
Conflicts occur at every level of human relations, from the family to the state. Within the family the conflict may be about the sharing of a cake, the use of a toy etc. There is a saying here in Benin, "a child never allows anybody to grudge him what he considers his property." If it is so with children, we should understand that adults also cling to whatever they think to be their property.
In many African countries, including Benin, and around the world, the usual causes of conflicts generally revolve around land, women, money and power, though there may be many other reasons for misunderstandings between people. In Benin, for instance, land is of crucial importance to people and is one major cause of conflict. In the Mono department (one of the six territorial divisions of the country), conflicts over land result in violence and even death where lethal weapons are indiscriminately used.
So it is with women-centred disputes. Women also cause conflicts among men, and scores of fights whereby men end up killing one another are on the increase. These cases are not specific to the Mono region, since these kinds of conflicts are evident in other regions of Benin and in the world in general.
Other kinds of conflicts exist. Conflicts have always affected men and women equally. Even church members are involved in conflicts. In Benin, for instance, discussions are being held in Parliament about the Family Code, which is creating division between two points of views: women advocate that at home husbands and wives should have the same rights, while men believe that a woman should not expect to have the same rights as her husband. The debates have now gone gone beyond political discourse. Many feminists are being organised into associations to struggle for their rights -- to have the same conditions as men, as far as representation is concerned. They claim that there must be parity in the number of men and women in Parliament and government, for a start. This has created intense debate in Benin.
Meanwhile, churches are fighting one another, be they of the same faith or not. The Protestant Methodist church, for instance, is being rocked by leadership conflict brought on by the modification of its constitution. The same thing is happening at the Renaissance church, which is a new congregation, because some of its faithful have been denounced for practices which are said to be against the church’s.
Another source of conflict is that between the Benin police and the media, both private and state-owned. During events marking the national independence day, a journalist from a private radio station was beaten and detained for over three hours for unspecified offences. The following days were particularly tough as journalists and their supporters demonstrated against police brutality. Presently, organisations and individuals are trying to reconcile both sides.
As we can see, the causes of conflicts are multiple and multiform. However, there is one form of conflict which is dangerous and probably the most destructive. This is political conflict, which generally has an ethnic content, particularly in Africa.
Political conflicts have existed for generations and will continue since sectional interests that are their root causes endure between states or ethnic groups. If we scrutinise some former wars in the world, we will see that their causes are the same as those of present conflicts -- self-interest, either at the individual or group level.
The pity is that generally, no side really profits from conflict and its impact is negative for all involved and affected. For instance, no German citizen can state today that World War II did not have grave consequences for that country. Americans, British or French will not doubt this fact as well; every country suffered from the war. The Vietnam War has not been without repercussions on the United States of America, a war it was unable to win despite the awesome firepower at its disposal. France won her war against Algeria, but today still she continues to suffer the consequences, with Islamists treating their former coloniser as part and parcel of the religious crisis prevailing in their country.
The situation is the same in the cases of Angola, Sudan, Somalia, South Africa, Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire), Liberia, Congo Republic, Sierra Leone, and more recently Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia and Eritrea. These conflicts have resulted in the massive destruction of national wealth and infrastructure, and nobody can say with certainty that he has not lost at least a parent, a relative or friend, during those conflicts.
Let us remember what recently happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where hundreds of thousands of people were dying of hunger and thirst, while their president, Mobutu, was said to have stolen billions of dollars from the country’s coffers. Let us remember those thousands of bodies littering the ground, and those children who saw their fathers and mothers dying in front of them, falling under the horrible blows of machetes in Rwanda.
What about those child-soldiers who have been trained to kill, and who are traumatised today because they cannot live with the horrible scenes they have been forced to witness or participate in. What about those depressing television reports in which little children and old people have no more flesh on their bones -- just skeletons? Can we forget the upsetting scenes of the late President Samuel Doe of Liberia, where he was killed like a vulgar thief? No part of the world today, especially Africa, is spared by conflicts, whether political or ethnic.
Other cases -- in Togo, Nigeria, Niger, the Republic of Central Africa -- illustrate the fact that political and ethnic conflicts are permanent features on the continent. Togo is facing the threat of a new socio-political conflagration, after the recent presidential election said to have been won by Gilchrist Olympio, in which the incumbent, President Gnassingbe Eyadema, also claims victory. (The European Union election monitors have refused to certify the elections as free and fair.) Togolese citizens are already fleeing into Benin and Ghana as they did in 1993 when President Eyadema created a situation which provoked political and ethnic conflict. Back then, many Togolese sought refuge in Benin; some have even refused to return home since, believing that they would be murdered because of their political opinions. In Togo, the Kabie, President Eyadema’s ethnic group, are opposed to the Ewe and during the 1993 conflict, hundreds of opposition people were killed. Presently, Olympio says the only government he recognises will be his own; while President Eyadema and his supporters are not thinking of relinquishing power. This stalemate means that sooner or later, the events we witnessed in 1993 could be repeated in Togo.
Meanwhile, Nigeria is trying to resolve the political conflict which has been plaguing the country for years. The arrival of General Abdulsalam Abubakar to power is changing things positively. Nevertheless, the simmering conflict between the main ethnic groups -- the Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa -- is a potential threat to the stability of the country and the region. Also, the Ogoni, a southern ethnic minority group in Nigeria, are agitating for recognition of their contribution to the Nigerian economy. The death of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his other compatriots, who were hanged by the late General Abacha, is another festering conflict issue in Nigeria. Many Ogonis have fled into Benin as refugees. The confrontation in Guinea-Bissau, is also symptomatic of the political rivalries and interests which lead to conflict in West Africa.
Taking into account the fact that conflicts actually do not often produce anything good, the only reasonable suggestion to address violent conflict is, in my own opinion, prevention, or at least, negotiation.
Almost all the current conflicts in the world today may not have broken out, if conscious efforts had been made to prevent them. For instance, the efforts of Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, to prevent the occurrence of another shooting war between America and Iraq are very important and encouraging. But the conflict could erupt at any time if America thinks that its claims and requirements are not taken seriously by Iraq. And this is not isolated case. If the Angolan war continues, it is because Jonas Savimbi does not want to say "farewell to arms".
In every conflict, each party thinks that it can win the war, which is why the conflict persists. It is only when it is obvious that they cannot achieve their objective through the use of force that they agree to negotiate. Faced with this reality, negotiations for resolving conflict is something that must be pursued.
Mediators or negotiators should have a special quality -- infinite patience -- without which many negotiation processes would fail, knowing how difficult it is to mediate between people in conflict because each of the protagonists believe that their cause is right. In Africa especially, attempts to bring peace to conflict-ridden countries are numerous. As Alpha Barry of the French multimedia agency MFI has written, "The OAU has studied many mechanisms of conflict prevention and resolution since its summit of 1992. The Conference of the heads of states of France and Africa is studying the same mechanisms. The ECOWAS extraordinary summit held on December 12, 1997, is thinking of the ways to solve the conflicts prevailing on the continent. As for Lansana Kouyaté the Secretary-General of ECOWAS, if an appropriate solution is not found to the conflicts existing now, others will certainly break out."
In looking at conflict resolution in Africa, we cannot forget ECOMOG, the regional peacekeeping force consisting mainly of Nigerian and Guinean forces, even if ECOWAS member-states do not all agree with its role. I think that ECOMOG’s military actions in Liberia and Sierra Leone have contributed to peace in those countries, even though some resistance is still evident in the Sierra Leone case.
Negotiation to resolve conflicts takes different forms. Conflicting parties may be invited by the mediator to a neutral place, in order to avoid external pressures. Accepting external or third-party mediation by the protagonists is often difficult. It involves many pre-negotiation discussions to convince the parties that mediation is necessary. It is only after they are convinced, that negotiation can become a reality. It takes some time for the negotiation process to conclude and resolve the conflict. Sometimes one or the other party may not want to give up on some of their core claims.
There is another kind of mediation, which is not conducted by professionally trained people but by those who, in the daily practice of their job, play an important part in conflict resolution. This is one of the roles played by the media. Journalists largely contribute to bringing peace during conflicts by publishing news and providing the forum for conflicting parties to air their views. In this role, the media (especially television), have to be very careful, in order to avoid being partial or partisan in reporting the news. Not taking sides means that journalists must present both parties’ views and report facts as neutrally as possible.
On the whole, human beings continue to use conflict as a way to solve problems between themselves. The conflicts prevailing in the world today are proof that sectional interests are the basis of these conflicts. Prevention is not often used. Negotiation should not only be used wherever conflict occurs, it should also be used to prevent conflict. Communication plays an important role in this process. Consequently, journalists have an important part to play not only in conflict prevention but also in the process of conflict resolution, because they have the task of providing and facilitating information, communication and even education.
Sébastien Dossa is Assistant Editor on the Political and Economic Desk of Les Echo du Jour newspaper, based in Cotonou, Republic of Benin
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