African traditional dispute management

Conflict is an inevitable aspect of human existence and every culture over time evolves its own dispute management mechanisms to help bring order to society and promote productivity. African cultures have also evolved both binding and non-binding dispute management mechanisms. This book discusses customary arbitration as a binding African traditional dispute resolution mechanism. It analyses the scholarly and judicial arguments for and against the existence of binding, non-judicial dispute management indigenous to Africa. This is done through the presentation of the findings of field studies conducted among the Yoruba of western Nigeria. These findings are comparatively analysed within the context of Western and Islamic concepts of arbitration.