SOCIO-POLITICAL ROOTS OF CONFLICTS IN AFRICA: THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH IN A PLURALISTIC SOCIETY

Abstract

Conflict is a major issue in any given human society, and often it is inevitable, but violence is avoidable. In Africa, conflict is very often the result of the interaction of political, economic and social instability frequently stemming from bad governance, dictatorial governance or dictatorship, failed economic policies, fundamental human rights abuse and inappropriate development programmes stemming also from exacerbated ethnic and religious differences in society. The paper therefore examines the importance of land ownership in a pluralistic society like Africa. The researcher adopted observational and qualitative method with the use of theories, such as relational theory, primordialism religious theory, instrumentalism religious and political theory, fundamentalism religious theory, structural conflict theory, human needs theory, grieve and grievances theory and (protracted) social conflict theories as methods in eliciting relevant data required to do justice to this research. The fundamental issues discovered in conflict are the religious beliefs and practices, land ownership and resource competition, political patronage and competition, the nature and character of the African nations’ politics, ethnicity, boundary disputes, poverty, marginalization/discrimination, unemployment and underdevelopment. The paper shows that the Church and her leaders have the potential to manage and resolve conflicts in Africa through their religious resources or values and frameworks involving love, forgiveness, contentment, justice, peace, respect and tolerance. The paper concluded with some possible avenues of achieving this, which is through dialogue, interfaith dialogue, religious peace-building, seminars and workshops, as the church’s media of evangelizing and restoring hope in the country with their gospel of peace.