Familial and economic impacts of the Dagbon Chieftaincy conflict: a case study of married women in Kanvilli, Tamale, Ghana

Abstract

The institution of chieftaincy, as a traditional leadership system among ethnic groups in Ghana, is one of the revered customary legacies that survived and retained the essential elements of authority and respect among the people of Ghana. Its role is to provide traditional leadership, judicial adjudication, social cohesion and economic promotion of the people. However, it is bedeviled with disputes which tend to retard development and in many cases, claim human lives. Generally, chieftaincy conflicts erupt when there are two or more rival claimants to a vacant skin, the symbol of kingship or chieftaincy in the Northern traditional states or a vacant stool in Southern Ghana respectively. The rival claimants to such traditional authority may either belong to different lineages of the founding family or the same lineage. These are exacerbated by direct as well as discreet political interference in chieftaincy affairs. This study examines the familial and economic impacts of the Dagbon chieftaincy conflict on married women in Kanvilli who are engaged in rice and groundnut processing as well as petty trading. To ensure a comprehensive analysis of data, a qualitative method was used. Specifically, a case study approach was used for it is capable of examining simple or complex phenomenon, with units of analysis varying from individuals to large societies. The choice of women as informants was based on the circumstances surrounding their marriages as well as social and economic conditions after the conflict, which were largely ignored. The study reveals that the breakdown of relationships between the Andani and Abudu gates after the conflict has devastating effects on the social and economic lives of those women. As such marriages between individuals from the feuding gates were broken and families disintegrated. Consequently, there is widespread divorce, single parenthood and declining parental responsibility. The study also found breakdown of business ties leading to the emergence of new terms and patterns of economic behaviour and relationships. The relevance of the study lies in its contribution to the advancement of knowledge on the impacts of conflict on women’s family and economic life.