A Story from Ghana

I Call You Father Because I Do Not Wish to Disrespect You

“This is a story that never reached the newspapers or cameras of CNN, for what public interest is there, really, in reporting about a war that never happened?”

During the 1990s, Northern Ghana faced the rising escalation of ethnic conflict mixed with the ever-present tense undertones of Muslim-Christian relationships. In the broader West African region, Liberia had collapsed into chaotic violent internal warfare spilling refugees into neighboring countries. The chaos seemed simultaneously endemic and contagious. Within a short period of time Sierra Leone descended into cycles of bloodletting and cruelty that were unprecedented for the sub-region. Nigeria, the largest and most powerful regional country walked a fine line that barely seemed to avoid the wildfires of full-blown civil war. In such a context, the rise of intercommunal violence, and even sporadic massacres had all the signs of parallel disaster in the Northern communities of Ghana.

These were not isolated historic cycles of violence. The conflicts between several of the groups, particularly the Konkombas and Dagombas, easily traced their roots back into the era of slavery…

Adapted from Lederach, John Paul. The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005.