No Youth, No Conflict: The Youth Factor in the Nawuri-Gonja Conflict in Northern Ghana

No Youth, No Conflict: The Youth Factor in the Nawuri-Gonja Conflict in Northern Ghana

Cletus Kwaku Mbowura

In the 1970s, ethnic youth associations sprang up in Northern Region of Ghanaborne out of the local concerns and desires to stimulate community development through self-help progammes. This led to the crystallization of ethnic youth associations, including the Gonja Youth Association, Konkomba Youth Association, Dagomba Youth Association, Chamba Youth Association, Nawuri Youth Association, Nanumba Youth Association. These associations dominated the local socio-political space in the region, and spearheaded the politics of self-help and ethnic identity. Few years after their formation, ethnic youth associations had become powerful organizations in Northern Ghana to the extent that their activities began to push ethnic groups to the brink of conflicts. Using a historical approach that blended data from documentary and non-documentary sources, this study examined the socio-political activism of Nawuri and Gonja youths and youth groups as well as the participation of the youth in the Nawuri-Gonja conflict of 1991/1992. It also examines the role of Nawuri youth groups in peacebuilding after the conflict. The paper argues that Nawuri and Gonja youth groups were catalytical to the Nawuri-Gonja conflict and post-conflict peacebuilding.

2022

https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=FihyGVkAAAAJ&citation_for_view=FihyGVkAAAAJ:4DMP91E08xMC

English