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- Description:
- Conflicts have always been part of human society and mechanisms to resolve them have often tended to reflect the level of political organisation in a particular society. The traditional African society is rife with varied approaches to conflict management. Uganda, for example, is a heterogeneous society which prior to colonial rule was organised around chiefdoms among some tribes and clan elders among others. In the Kingdom areas such as Buganda, Ankore, Bunyoro, Toro and to some extent in Busoga the king ruled through institutions such as the hierarchy of chiefs and laws. In segmentary societies such as Kigezi, Bugisu, Bamba, Bakonjo and the Iteso, the political and social organisation was clan based, regulated by customs and values. In pre-colonial Uganda each society had set conventions, customs and traditions which regulated social behaviour, harmony and stability. These unwritten laws provided a set of acceptable behaviour and controlled deviants in society. Despite the differences in political organisation, it is generally agreed that each of these societies had elaborate systems of governance, rule of law, justice and administrative organs. Each member of society was supposed to know his rights and sanctions were imposed on those individuals who did not comply with the norms. This article will address the issue of conflict, how it was dealt with in traditional African culture, the methods of communication both in traditional and modern Uganda and the question of rights and responsibilities in promoting cross-cultural amity.
- Date Issued:
- 1997-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review
- Description:
- This two-pronged study is composed of a content analysis of the Daily Nation and the Kenya Times as well as a survey of 21 journalists who work for those two newspapers. The content analysis was conducted for the November 1, 1992 to January 31, 1993 editions of both papers, excluding Sunday editions. The sampling period included the final two months of the 1992 Kenyan general elections campaign, and the month that followed it. National news, opinion, and letter pages of both papers were analyzed. The survey featured some open-ended questions and some statements to which the respondents were asked to respond on a five-point scale ranging from "disagreeing strongly" through "neither agree nor disagree" to "agree strongly". The content analysis of the papers suggests that journalists are willing to report ethnic conflicts, especially if they result in violence. They believe ethnic tensions are influential, dangerous, and often politically motivated. Neither Daily Nation nor the Kenya Times de-emphasizes articles or opinions referring to ethnicity to an extent that would suggest that ethnic concerns do not exist, or are unimportant in Kenya. Both dailies avoided treating ethnic phenomena with silence. The survey suggests that the issue of ethnicity is not ignored; however it is not treated by journalists as the essential key to understanding the country. Kenyan journalists appear to be optimistic about the resolution of ethnic conflicts, and their role in that resolution.
- Date Issued:
- 1994-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Africa Media Review